Absolutely one of the best restaurants in Houston! Came by for my husbands birthday and ate at the bar/kitchen with a chefs menu. We were both blown away with the service as it was equally impressive in the back and front of house. Could not recommend this establishment enough!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Daniel Adell
Had an incredible experience at Theodore Rex the other night. We sat at the counter which was great, getting to watch them make your food and work together is magical. The service was amazing. We asked if they could create a menu for us and what they served blew us away. Our waiter also paired our wine choices with it. Overall it was one of my favorite restaurant experiences I’ve had in Houston. Highly recommend and try and get a reservation at the counter if you can.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
David Sebba
Leaving a one star because this "phenomenal restaurant" is incapable of returning a phone call or email so I can buy my sister a gift card.I've now tried several times. The local McDonald's would be more responsive.
Service: 1
Carley J
One of my absolute favorite restaurants anywhere. Servers are always warm and welcoming, patient with questions. The food is incredible season to season as the menu changes. I love the intimate dining atmosphere. Theodore Rex pulls off the nearly impossible, being delicate & elegant and yet aloof & cozy, and serving up five star cuisine. A must-try if you are looking for the best Houston has to offer.
Great view from our table. Small and cute restaurant serving up some tasty and unique dishes. The service was excellent. The hiramasa was an unexpected favorite of mine. We got the boiled dumplings super flavorful. The tomato toast was super filling and would have loved to have a half order option! Can’t wait to go back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tomato Toast, Beef Dumplings, Tagliolini Warmed in Cultured Butter Seasoned with Gulf Oyster Liquor Mignonette
Cynthia Contreras
The food was outstanding, particularly the Beef cap and the tagliatelle noodles cooked perfectly al dente. I was very impressed by the service staff, which made the whole experience of dining TRex is top notch.
Theodore Rex is well deserving of all the accolades it's received. This is my second time dining here. The first time I went with a group of 4 and we ordered a selection of 8 dishes - and it was absolutely amazing. Each dish was expertly crafted and the service was on point. Standouts from the meal were definitely the tomato toast, the dumplings, tagliolini, roast chicken leg, and the strawberry buttercake.For this venture, my second visit, I again was amazed by the friendliness and knowledge of the staff (they are really exceptional with their recommendations and answering food questions and being attentive with their service).We ordered similarly to the last time. The tomato toast was again stellar, dumplings and tagliolini were all really wonderful. We tried a new cold dish with the Japanese turnip and it was a pleasant surprise of well-placed flavors. The hiramasa was also absolutely amazing, the small hint of eggplant comes through beautifully and melds beautifully with the fish.Unfortunately, there was one part of the dinner that was a pretty big let down - It was the new tile-fish addition to the menu. It was prepared two ways - one over the grill and another prepared as a "Summer treasures" (taking from Cantonese food stylings). The flavors were just a complete miss. I don't know if the fish just lends itself to poor tasting, but it the flavor was just off. The summer treasures was my least favorite by far - the preparation of the fish and topping it off with pernod just turned my off of the dish completely.Despite the tile fish, I still rate Theodore Rex at a 5 because the service is amazing, the wine selection is wonderful, and the rest of the dishes were consistently on point.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tomato Toast, Boiled Dumplings Stuffed with Grass-Fed Wagyu Beef, Tagliolini Warmed in Cultured Butter Seasoned with Gulf Oyster Liquor Mignonette
Do not waste your money here. The food is trash, service are pretentious people and the atmosphere is not worth it. You will leave hungry and wallet
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 2
andy griffin
My wife and I came here a couple of years ago, and I meant to leave feedback, but ended up deciding it wasn’t worth the trouble at the time. However, we recently had a nice experience elsewhere that really highlighted just how bad this one was.My wife’s birthday is on Valentine’s Day, so it always takes some extra planning to get reservations where we want. It’s a busy night for most places, so we understand that it’s not always going to be the fastest service or most intimate experience. Whatever. We try to find nicer places that do well enough that they don’t need to squeeze as much profit out of a handful of holidays a year by compromising on quality. That’s what we thought we’d get with Theadore Rex.We booked as far in advance as we could, and got reservations at the “kitchen counter”. We did not realize that this option would put us literally IN the kitchen. When we arrived, they sat us at the very end of the bar, which was very distinctively a work station. The rest of the restaurant had soft, romantic lighting, and we were both directly under fluorescent kitchen lights.And by the way, this is not a “watch them cook” spot, this is a “watch the dishwasher slam a tub of silverware down next to you and then have servers huddle next to you polishing silverware for their tables” spot. Without leaving my seat, I could literally grab dishes that the dishwasher just unloaded, I could tap in an order on the POS system behind me, and could see directly into the bottom of the nearest trash can. We could FEEL the steam of the freshly washed silverware, condensating on our skin.This spot had no business whatsoever being a seat for customers, and I can only assume that it was made to be a seat to squeeze in as many reservations as possible on Valentine’s Day. I could be wrong, I’ve never been here during normal service.To make it worse, they had taken my credit card number for the reservation, and were already charging a minimum whether we stayed or not, essentially trapping us there. I don’t remember exactly, but something in the $50-$100 range. Plus, it was already like 8:00 on Valentine’s Day, so it’s not like we could just walk-in somewhere else.Even so, the atmosphere was so awful that we decided it was better to just down some champagne and an appetizer to meet the minimum, and get the hell out of there. We ended up picking up some steaks and having a wonderful time cooking at home, but are still just incredibly disappointed that we had expected so much of this place only to be shoved into the kitchen as a holiday money-grab.Anyway, this year we dined at another top Houston restaurant with exceptional service and atmosphere, and never once felt like we were rushed, or squeezed in. It just further highlighted that restaurants don’t HAVE to do things like that on holidays, Theadore Rex just CHOSE to.Edit to address business feedback: I’m not trying to argue with anybody, I’m sure plenty of people have had great experiences. This was ours. I don’t know where you got the impression that our discomfort was never communicated, but even if it wasn’t, it’s hard to imagine that even the best intentioned staff would be able to immediately find a a better table on such a busy night - particularly in a restaurant who’s quirky size only allows for a handful of seats to begin with. I’m sorry if my story offended you, but I don’t think it’s the correct approach to make assumptions about our experience, or to imply that if we had been better customers and complained more, that the issue would have magically been resolved despite the obvious constraints of having a full dining room.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Becca Burrow
Best restaurant in Houston without a doubt. I've been here a handful of times and it's consistently perfect.
Marina Darien
A small charming restaurant with hugely delicious food. The coconut glazed chicken with anchovy sauce, beef dumplings, and the tomato toast were standouts. The strawberry butter cake with cardamom cream was DIVINE.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tomato Toast, Beef Dumplings
Gunnar
Incredible restaurant. The eggplant sashimi dish that one of my best friends and I had, was one of those life changing kind of dishes. Stacy was amazing as well. Really hope to come back soon with Wifey.
My husband and I enjoyed all the good food and wine can't wait to go backDietary restrictions: Shellfish
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tomato Toast, Boiled Dumplings Stuffed with Grass-Fed Wagyu Beef
Absolutely one of the best restaurants in Houston! Came by for my husbands birthday and ate at the bar/kitchen with a chefs menu. We were both blown away with the service as it was equally impressive in the back and front of house. Could not recommend this establishment enough!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Had an incredible experience at Theodore Rex the other night. We sat at the counter which was great, getting to watch them make your food and work together is magical. The service was amazing. We asked if they could create a menu for us and what they served blew us away. Our waiter also paired our wine choices with it. Overall it was one of my favorite restaurant experiences I’ve had in Houston. Highly recommend and try and get a reservation at the counter if you can.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Leaving a one star because this "phenomenal restaurant" is incapable of returning a phone call or email so I can buy my sister a gift card.I've now tried several times. The local McDonald's would be more responsive.
Service: 1
One of my absolute favorite restaurants anywhere. Servers are always warm and welcoming, patient with questions. The food is incredible season to season as the menu changes. I love the intimate dining atmosphere. Theodore Rex pulls off the nearly impossible, being delicate & elegant and yet aloof & cozy, and serving up five star cuisine. A must-try if you are looking for the best Houston has to offer.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tomato Toast, Roasted Texas Wagyu, Sashimi
Great view from our table. Small and cute restaurant serving up some tasty and unique dishes. The service was excellent. The hiramasa was an unexpected favorite of mine. We got the boiled dumplings super flavorful. The tomato toast was super filling and would have loved to have a half order option! Can’t wait to go back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tomato Toast, Beef Dumplings, Tagliolini Warmed in Cultured Butter Seasoned with Gulf Oyster Liquor Mignonette
The food was outstanding, particularly the Beef cap and the tagliatelle noodles cooked perfectly al dente. I was very impressed by the service staff, which made the whole experience of dining TRex is top notch.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tomato Toast, Roasted Texas Wagyu, Blueberry Butter Cake, Sweet Tomatoes, Tagliolini Warmed in Cultured Butter Seasoned with Gulf Oyster Liquor Mignonette
It was incredible ?!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
an experience
Theodore Rex is well deserving of all the accolades it's received. This is my second time dining here. The first time I went with a group of 4 and we ordered a selection of 8 dishes - and it was absolutely amazing. Each dish was expertly crafted and the service was on point. Standouts from the meal were definitely the tomato toast, the dumplings, tagliolini, roast chicken leg, and the strawberry buttercake.For this venture, my second visit, I again was amazed by the friendliness and knowledge of the staff (they are really exceptional with their recommendations and answering food questions and being attentive with their service).We ordered similarly to the last time. The tomato toast was again stellar, dumplings and tagliolini were all really wonderful. We tried a new cold dish with the Japanese turnip and it was a pleasant surprise of well-placed flavors. The hiramasa was also absolutely amazing, the small hint of eggplant comes through beautifully and melds beautifully with the fish.Unfortunately, there was one part of the dinner that was a pretty big let down - It was the new tile-fish addition to the menu. It was prepared two ways - one over the grill and another prepared as a "Summer treasures" (taking from Cantonese food stylings). The flavors were just a complete miss. I don't know if the fish just lends itself to poor tasting, but it the flavor was just off. The summer treasures was my least favorite by far - the preparation of the fish and topping it off with pernod just turned my off of the dish completely.Despite the tile fish, I still rate Theodore Rex at a 5 because the service is amazing, the wine selection is wonderful, and the rest of the dishes were consistently on point.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tomato Toast, Boiled Dumplings Stuffed with Grass-Fed Wagyu Beef, Tagliolini Warmed in Cultured Butter Seasoned with Gulf Oyster Liquor Mignonette
Restaurantji Recommends
Do not waste your money here. The food is trash, service are pretentious people and the atmosphere is not worth it. You will leave hungry and wallet
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 2
My wife and I came here a couple of years ago, and I meant to leave feedback, but ended up deciding it wasn’t worth the trouble at the time. However, we recently had a nice experience elsewhere that really highlighted just how bad this one was.My wife’s birthday is on Valentine’s Day, so it always takes some extra planning to get reservations where we want. It’s a busy night for most places, so we understand that it’s not always going to be the fastest service or most intimate experience. Whatever. We try to find nicer places that do well enough that they don’t need to squeeze as much profit out of a handful of holidays a year by compromising on quality. That’s what we thought we’d get with Theadore Rex.We booked as far in advance as we could, and got reservations at the “kitchen counter”. We did not realize that this option would put us literally IN the kitchen. When we arrived, they sat us at the very end of the bar, which was very distinctively a work station. The rest of the restaurant had soft, romantic lighting, and we were both directly under fluorescent kitchen lights.And by the way, this is not a “watch them cook” spot, this is a “watch the dishwasher slam a tub of silverware down next to you and then have servers huddle next to you polishing silverware for their tables” spot. Without leaving my seat, I could literally grab dishes that the dishwasher just unloaded, I could tap in an order on the POS system behind me, and could see directly into the bottom of the nearest trash can. We could FEEL the steam of the freshly washed silverware, condensating on our skin.This spot had no business whatsoever being a seat for customers, and I can only assume that it was made to be a seat to squeeze in as many reservations as possible on Valentine’s Day. I could be wrong, I’ve never been here during normal service.To make it worse, they had taken my credit card number for the reservation, and were already charging a minimum whether we stayed or not, essentially trapping us there. I don’t remember exactly, but something in the $50-$100 range. Plus, it was already like 8:00 on Valentine’s Day, so it’s not like we could just walk-in somewhere else.Even so, the atmosphere was so awful that we decided it was better to just down some champagne and an appetizer to meet the minimum, and get the hell out of there. We ended up picking up some steaks and having a wonderful time cooking at home, but are still just incredibly disappointed that we had expected so much of this place only to be shoved into the kitchen as a holiday money-grab.Anyway, this year we dined at another top Houston restaurant with exceptional service and atmosphere, and never once felt like we were rushed, or squeezed in. It just further highlighted that restaurants don’t HAVE to do things like that on holidays, Theadore Rex just CHOSE to.Edit to address business feedback: I’m not trying to argue with anybody, I’m sure plenty of people have had great experiences. This was ours. I don’t know where you got the impression that our discomfort was never communicated, but even if it wasn’t, it’s hard to imagine that even the best intentioned staff would be able to immediately find a a better table on such a busy night - particularly in a restaurant who’s quirky size only allows for a handful of seats to begin with. I’m sorry if my story offended you, but I don’t think it’s the correct approach to make assumptions about our experience, or to imply that if we had been better customers and complained more, that the issue would have magically been resolved despite the obvious constraints of having a full dining room.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Best restaurant in Houston without a doubt. I've been here a handful of times and it's consistently perfect.
A small charming restaurant with hugely delicious food. The coconut glazed chicken with anchovy sauce, beef dumplings, and the tomato toast were standouts. The strawberry butter cake with cardamom cream was DIVINE.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tomato Toast, Beef Dumplings
Incredible restaurant. The eggplant sashimi dish that one of my best friends and I had, was one of those life changing kind of dishes. Stacy was amazing as well. Really hope to come back soon with Wifey.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tomato Toast, Sashimi