Halfway through the meal, the service completely forgot about us. We waited almost an hour for dessert. Even after I complained and asked for it to be cancelled, they brought it out to us and still charged us for it. The manager came afterwards and offered to take it off the bill, but we already had paid and were in a rush to leave, so we didn't want to wait any longer for a refund.The food was delicious, though.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 2
Scott ..
Luv the outdoor seating, food was crazy delicious & staff was very insightful on specials along w recommendations. Will be a repeat on my list.
Sharon Pearlnath
We thoroughly enjoyed the restaurant's ambiance and food, although it appears that the food has caused both myself and my partner to become violently ill over the past few days with food poisoning, which is why I have to give Ostia a low rating. So unfortunate!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 5
Stephanie O'Callaghan
Wanted to try it but was on a work trip and couldn’t make it to the restaurant so ordered it delivered. Was excited to try it after hearing the ties to barbuto in nyc which I’ve been to. The gnocchi lived up to expectations. Loved it! Great tomato sauce and seafood with it.The Caesar salad was good but a bit heavy on the dressing. Could’ve felt that way due to the delay in eating it with getting it delivered but wish it had less dressing or I should’ve asked for dressing on the side. Good potential with it tho.I also ordered the tiramisu which was good but a bit intense / heavy on the booze. Was hard to finish with the strong booze flavor. Also good potential on this dish.Would love to try it out in the restaurant sometime in the future.
Food: 4
Jessica Michan
No idea why they don't have pizza at night? The rest of the food was good but the gnocchi had a strange sweet flavor that was unexpected and didn't really go with the seafood in it. Burrata and beet salad was good and filling.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 4
Yemaina Baez
Amazing!!!!! My gnocchi were outstanding ? my husband's lemon chicken was delicious, my daughter's pizza was the best that we ever ate in Houston. Dessert was superb Gelato and tiramisu
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Blake Williams
Saw how high the ratings were and decided to come and try this place out. Upon arriving complementary valet was a very nice start to an impromptu date night. After going in it seemed slow even for a Sunday. This may have provided some foreshadowing. Our focaccia was cold and the Caesar was good but slightly sour. Halfway through the appetizers I was surrounded by 5-7 fruit flies. After batting them off and pulling one from my drink the food arrived. I am a fan of salt and typically like my food on the salty side but I have to agree with many of the other reviews. All the food is HEAVILY salted. Slightly resembling SpongeBob, “Waaaattterrr”, I also noticed a weird texture to the pasta. It’s a couple steps above al dente where, when you bend it, it breaks in pieces and is very chewy.The two absolute highlights. The water service is on point. Maybe it was just the slower crowd but my water was refilled almost by the sip. Never venturing below half full. And the drinks we ordered were made very well and tasted great.All in all. I would not choose to come back here because of the food quality vs. the price (2 people @ $100 + tip) and the fruit flies.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 2
RALPH ZEMA
Yesterday evening my friend and I were excited to dine at Ostia for the for time. Our reservation was for 7 PM. When we entered the dining area, we were both impressed by the restaurant’s ambiance and décor. The overall feel of Ostia is upscale without being pretentious. Although the two of us didn’t exactly match the general demographic of your clientele, we still anticipated a great meal.We both ordered our entrées and I ordered a salad. My salad was served in a timely fashion and it was wonderful. Then we waited, and waited, and waited for our main plates to arrive. The waitress never came by to explain the delay in our food. During this long time, we noticed how cold it was at our table (near the front entrance). We also couldn’t help but observe a young couple-who came in well after we did-being served their food.To his credit, the host tried to help by serving us some chips and olives. (I just have to suggest that you consider serving some “down-home” Italian bread and, at the table, grate some fresh Italian cheese on the pasta. Maybe this doesn’t go along with your overall strategy but, oddio, you’re supposed to be Italian!)Our food finally arrived and we ate it quickly and left the restaurant: it was still freezing at our table. Our overall experience was not at all pleasant. Maybe if we were younger, and trendier, it would have made a difference: who knows? In any event, Houston has such a vibrant, inclusive, exciting restaurant scene. I hope you really work on trying to insure that all customers enjoy their time at Ostia.Grazie,Ralph Zema
Super restaurant, great service and range of food and drink options. The atmosphere is classy, well thought out layout and decor.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Half Chicken with Lemon
Veronica Oliver
My meal was absolutely delicious! I got the calamari with orecchiette and colatura sauce. This was my first time experiencing a fish sauce with pasta and paired incredibly with the pockets in orecchiette. I tried my husband's gnocchi and it was flavorful but a little more chewy/toasted than pillowy than I'm used to.THAT CHOCOLATE CAKE though!! Decadent and rich.
We have come here many times since they first opened in our neighborhood. The ambiance of the restaurant is great but note that it does tend to be pretty loud inside. The food has almost always been top notch and I really enjoy how the menu items rotate seasonally so you can always try something new. The biggest sticking point here is the inconsistency of service. Sometimes we come and have phenomenal service and other times (like this past weekend) we come and have ridiculously slow service. Our servers are always friendly but perhaps they are understaffed on some nights. On our most recent visit we split the butternut squash salad, mushroom gnocchi, pork shank confit and cauliflower. All of the dishes were delicious and came out hot, they just also happened to come out at an incredibly leisurely pace. I still enjoy this restaurant enough that the lack of consistent service doesn’t stop me from coming back, I just go into the experience knowing it will be a toss up.
Best Italian food we've had in awhile. We'll be definitely coming back!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jarrod Milstead
I am being extremely generous with two stars. Both salads, Caesar and side are covered in some sort of citrus juice and the side salad has cilantro, for some reason. If there wasn’t so much citrus juice, the Caesar salad would probably be alright. The brussel sprouts are ok but nothing special. The Casio de Pepe has way too much pepper and the noodles are just bad. The gnocchi was good but not good enough to suffer through the rest of these dishes. Would not suggest for someone who knows Italian food.
Food: 2
Sarah W
The gnocchi was excellent! All of our food was top notch, will definitely visit again.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Roasted Chicken, Brussels
Tien H
Mediocre at best, the food was okay, nothing extraordinary. I would suggest warming up the focaccia bread. Do not get the potato wedges, they were too crispy, borderline burnt. The lemon chicken was cooked well but lacked flavor. Also I ordered my steak medium rare and I got rare. The server was great though - gave the rest of our steak and chicken to my dog.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Potato Wedges, Half Chicken with Lemon, Tuna Crudo
Halfway through the meal, the service completely forgot about us. We waited almost an hour for dessert. Even after I complained and asked for it to be cancelled, they brought it out to us and still charged us for it. The manager came afterwards and offered to take it off the bill, but we already had paid and were in a rush to leave, so we didn't want to wait any longer for a refund.The food was delicious, though.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 2
Luv the outdoor seating, food was crazy delicious & staff was very insightful on specials along w recommendations. Will be a repeat on my list.
We thoroughly enjoyed the restaurant's ambiance and food, although it appears that the food has caused both myself and my partner to become violently ill over the past few days with food poisoning, which is why I have to give Ostia a low rating. So unfortunate!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 5
Wanted to try it but was on a work trip and couldn’t make it to the restaurant so ordered it delivered. Was excited to try it after hearing the ties to barbuto in nyc which I’ve been to. The gnocchi lived up to expectations. Loved it! Great tomato sauce and seafood with it.The Caesar salad was good but a bit heavy on the dressing. Could’ve felt that way due to the delay in eating it with getting it delivered but wish it had less dressing or I should’ve asked for dressing on the side. Good potential with it tho.I also ordered the tiramisu which was good but a bit intense / heavy on the booze. Was hard to finish with the strong booze flavor. Also good potential on this dish.Would love to try it out in the restaurant sometime in the future.
Food: 4
No idea why they don't have pizza at night? The rest of the food was good but the gnocchi had a strange sweet flavor that was unexpected and didn't really go with the seafood in it. Burrata and beet salad was good and filling.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 4
Amazing!!!!! My gnocchi were outstanding ? my husband's lemon chicken was delicious, my daughter's pizza was the best that we ever ate in Houston. Dessert was superb Gelato and tiramisu
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Saw how high the ratings were and decided to come and try this place out. Upon arriving complementary valet was a very nice start to an impromptu date night. After going in it seemed slow even for a Sunday. This may have provided some foreshadowing. Our focaccia was cold and the Caesar was good but slightly sour. Halfway through the appetizers I was surrounded by 5-7 fruit flies. After batting them off and pulling one from my drink the food arrived. I am a fan of salt and typically like my food on the salty side but I have to agree with many of the other reviews. All the food is HEAVILY salted. Slightly resembling SpongeBob, “Waaaattterrr”, I also noticed a weird texture to the pasta. It’s a couple steps above al dente where, when you bend it, it breaks in pieces and is very chewy.The two absolute highlights. The water service is on point. Maybe it was just the slower crowd but my water was refilled almost by the sip. Never venturing below half full. And the drinks we ordered were made very well and tasted great.All in all. I would not choose to come back here because of the food quality vs. the price (2 people @ $100 + tip) and the fruit flies.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 2
Yesterday evening my friend and I were excited to dine at Ostia for the for time. Our reservation was for 7 PM. When we entered the dining area, we were both impressed by the restaurant’s ambiance and décor. The overall feel of Ostia is upscale without being pretentious. Although the two of us didn’t exactly match the general demographic of your clientele, we still anticipated a great meal.We both ordered our entrées and I ordered a salad. My salad was served in a timely fashion and it was wonderful. Then we waited, and waited, and waited for our main plates to arrive. The waitress never came by to explain the delay in our food. During this long time, we noticed how cold it was at our table (near the front entrance). We also couldn’t help but observe a young couple-who came in well after we did-being served their food.To his credit, the host tried to help by serving us some chips and olives. (I just have to suggest that you consider serving some “down-home” Italian bread and, at the table, grate some fresh Italian cheese on the pasta. Maybe this doesn’t go along with your overall strategy but, oddio, you’re supposed to be Italian!)Our food finally arrived and we ate it quickly and left the restaurant: it was still freezing at our table. Our overall experience was not at all pleasant. Maybe if we were younger, and trendier, it would have made a difference: who knows? In any event, Houston has such a vibrant, inclusive, exciting restaurant scene. I hope you really work on trying to insure that all customers enjoy their time at Ostia.Grazie,Ralph Zema
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Gnocchi Leek Anchovy Breadcrumb Pecorino, Burrata
Super restaurant, great service and range of food and drink options. The atmosphere is classy, well thought out layout and decor.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Half Chicken with Lemon
My meal was absolutely delicious! I got the calamari with orecchiette and colatura sauce. This was my first time experiencing a fish sauce with pasta and paired incredibly with the pockets in orecchiette. I tried my husband's gnocchi and it was flavorful but a little more chewy/toasted than pillowy than I'm used to.THAT CHOCOLATE CAKE though!! Decadent and rich.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
We have come here many times since they first opened in our neighborhood. The ambiance of the restaurant is great but note that it does tend to be pretty loud inside. The food has almost always been top notch and I really enjoy how the menu items rotate seasonally so you can always try something new. The biggest sticking point here is the inconsistency of service. Sometimes we come and have phenomenal service and other times (like this past weekend) we come and have ridiculously slow service. Our servers are always friendly but perhaps they are understaffed on some nights. On our most recent visit we split the butternut squash salad, mushroom gnocchi, pork shank confit and cauliflower. All of the dishes were delicious and came out hot, they just also happened to come out at an incredibly leisurely pace. I still enjoy this restaurant enough that the lack of consistent service doesn’t stop me from coming back, I just go into the experience knowing it will be a toss up.
Recommended dishes: Half Chicken with Lemon, Roasted Chicken, Chicken Lemon Salsa Verde
Best Italian food we've had in awhile. We'll be definitely coming back!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I am being extremely generous with two stars. Both salads, Caesar and side are covered in some sort of citrus juice and the side salad has cilantro, for some reason. If there wasn’t so much citrus juice, the Caesar salad would probably be alright. The brussel sprouts are ok but nothing special. The Casio de Pepe has way too much pepper and the noodles are just bad. The gnocchi was good but not good enough to suffer through the rest of these dishes. Would not suggest for someone who knows Italian food.
Food: 2
The gnocchi was excellent! All of our food was top notch, will definitely visit again.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Roasted Chicken, Brussels
Mediocre at best, the food was okay, nothing extraordinary. I would suggest warming up the focaccia bread. Do not get the potato wedges, they were too crispy, borderline burnt. The lemon chicken was cooked well but lacked flavor. Also I ordered my steak medium rare and I got rare. The server was great though - gave the rest of our steak and chicken to my dog.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Potato Wedges, Half Chicken with Lemon, Tuna Crudo