The bowl that they're making is absolutely fantastic. Great variety. All of their hot sauces are excellent and the portion size is generous too. I'm a visiting student at the Baylor college and I've been getting a bowl now every day for about four weeks. Can recommend. I'm getting another one later today. And the staff is very nice too. Keep it up guys!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Sherri Thomas
Thought it was going to be an authentic Mexican restaurant by the way it was described once it was googled but not even close.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 5
Maria S.
Sometimes I work in the area and the hospital's food is not my cup of tea. So I walked over to the Commons to explore other options. There is not much for pescatarians. Plus during lunch, lines for the popular restaurants such as the Thai one and Chick-fil-A can be long. So one day I opted to get in a short line at the barbecue place. I had a loaded baked potato with no meat. I've had better at other places. Another day I went to the Commons again and decided to have side items at the barbecue place. The potato salad was swimming in dressing and the cole slaw was just ok. I ate what I could to fulfill my hunger and threw the leftovers away. I have yet to find something I like. I see many folks getting Starbucks too. They have plenty of seating indoors. On beautiful days, you can sit outside and play with the giant chess game and relax by the water wall.
Ana Mesquita
The food tasted ok but made my belly hurt, probably the spicy chorizo.
jason hart
tacos 10/10
F F
Great food but not enough food for the price. They recently made the box too smaller.
The_Loup_Garou
Not Easy to Find, But Worth the Effort In February, we were in Houston for my wife to attend several meetings at the Texas Medical Center. We were staying at the Marriott, and decided to walk to dinner at Third Coast. Luckily, we started out early, as our walking software, kept taking us into parking garages, dead ends and then an Emergency entrance at Children’s Hospital. Finally, we found 6550 Bertner Ave, and the John P McGovern Texas Medical Center Commons, but the search was not over yet. We saw Third Coast signs outside the building, and at each entrance. Once inside, however, no signs, that we could find. We ended up in a closed food court off of the lobby, and called. We were given instructions to turn around, enter a small hallway, and there we would find an elevator. That we did, and exited the elevator to the Third Coast signs, and entrance. Whew, we were on-time, and rather hungry from our walk. We were promptly seated, in a dining area, to the right of the bar. There were only a few groups of people in this very large restaurant, and it looked like they were having either very late business lunches, or very early business dinners. Third Coast is an interesting venue: it is comprised of about three large dining areas, which are only visually separated from each other, in that there are not walls, but the décor is different enough, that they do appear to be somewhat separate. Off of those large areas, there do appear to be private, or semi-private dining areas, as well. Then, there is a bar, with more seating + booths and a dozen TV sets hanging from the ceiling, and finally an outdoor dining area, but this patio was not open in February, and especially with the poor weather. It appeared to be very nice, and would be ideal for the Spring, or Autumn - though not this rainy Winter night. The interior is very attractive, but was a little less “formal,” than I had expected for a fine-dining restaurant. Well, Third Coast seems to be a bit of a chameleon, in that it serves different purposes: it is a breakfast and lunch restaurant for the entire Texas Medical Complex, and especially the John P McGovern Texas Medical Center building. It is an after work bar, and also a place for meetings, and then becomes a fine-dining restaurant in the evening. I saw mention of it being available for large groups, and can see how much of the open dining area could be reconfigured for those. looking around, I did see several 8-tops, plus one of the groups dining/meeting, looked to be a party of about 12. There is also a grand piano in one area, near a lovely, contemporary fireplace. The décor and interior architecture are beautiful, as is the lighting. An attractive and interesting place. I had the wine list in hand, along with the menus, and began doing my reading. We were at a large, comfortable 4-top, and as we were walking, my first order was the wines - besides, in looking around, I saw several wine storage displays in the walls. Yes, time for wine! I ordered the Ceritas “Peter Martin Ray Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay ‘14 to start. However, our server returned and apologized - they were out. OK, off to Plan B - the Failla Keefer Ranch Russian River Chardonnay ‘14. He had brought our some rather small-bowl glasses, when he was looking for the Ceritas, and I asked for larger bowls, for the big Chard. He had those on the table very quickly. The stemware was very nice. We did an eclectic blend of shared dishes for dinner: Jumbo Lump Crab w/ avocado, Fiji apple, tomato and ginger orange vinaigrette - Quite good, with succulent crab meat, and some interesting flavors and textures. Rice Flour-crusted Calamari w/ chili lime aioli - Excellent, and the calamari were both flavorful and tender. Crab Cake w/ jumbo lump crab, corn, spinach, shiitake mushrooms and lemon butter - OK, we were getting our USDA Daily Minimum Allowance of crab, but we now live in Arizona, having moved from the Gulf Coast, so we can be excused. Besides, we were sharing, remember. Redfish, which was pan-seared, and rubbed with guajillo w/ coconut & cilantro ric
Jeremy B.
Best place for breakfast and lunch in the med center. Chick fil a has breakfast now, it's much better than the ones on the streets. Hot fresh fluffy biscuits, breakfast bowls with hashbrowns and salsa Yummm. The subway is always busy at lunch so you know it's super fresh. The line moves fast and the workers are friendly. I don't agree with their politics but the chick fil a has great salads (Southwest with spicy grilled chicken and creamy salsa ranch is epic) here as a healthy option for lunch. The waffle fries are always hot and crispy. The spicy chicken is the bomb. Time for Thai may have the best pad thai and penang curry ever. The Starbucks has improved a ton since some of these reviews were written. They're super clean, friendly, fast and the drinks are excellent.
Jeremy T.
This review is for the waterwall only, since I don't work in the area and never get out of my car when visiting......except to take a photo maybe. I think it's so much better than the official waterwall in the galleria that all the tourists visit and everyone knows about. I take all my out of town friends here to see this lesser known wonder. The whole parking garage has an art deco design even though it's a modern structure.
Ernest L.
Do not order any lattes here. I guess it's my own fault for trying it three times, but having a cup of coffee with over a third of it being foam is ridiculous.
The BBQ place is still the best for what it is. There are no words to describe my sorrow after the Thai place got rid of the soups. It was one of my most favorite things in the entire area! Their food is still good but now the portions are a little smaller and the containers are now cheap styrofoam. There's Chick Fil-A which results in an automatic deduction. Now they have a TCBY machine for your fro-yo cravings. To date I have not tried the Subway there because first Jared and then the rat. Probably will have to re-review it once I have tried Trevisio.
Tellas Woods
The lounge area is so nice!
Patricia G.
Starbucks boycott Today I quit buying coffee at Starbucks or anything for that matter because they wanted to charge 54 cents for tap water shame on them
Andrew E.
I think the TMC website quotes that there are ~160,000 employees, students, patients, etc in the TMC at any given point in time. Unfortunately for such a densely populated area, the food options in this part of Houston are horrendous! The TMC commons is a slight improvement over the food choices in the TMC area. There's a Burger place (waterside/waterstreet?), Chick Fil A, Starbucks, Kim Son, and Subway. They taste just like any other franchise for these restaurants would. Seating can get kind of tough inside of the building during lunch time and eating outside will probably mean water from the waterfall will get blown into your food/face not to mention the humidity in Houston. It's a decently close if you're at Methodist, BCM, or UT Houston. Any other hospital and you might be in for a long walk.
John D.
On weekdays, it is open only for lunch, except for Starbucks, which is open from morning to about 5pm. On weekends, it is closed altogether. It got worse with the refurbishment as several eateries closed. There are now only five eateries in the same food court: Waterside Cafe: Salads made-to-order are great, I get one almost everyday for lunch. They have paper forms with checkboxes to choose ingredients: greens, meat, vegetables, dressing. Chicken parmesan panini is delicious too. This is the only place worth eating at in JPC commons. Kim Son: Chinese food. Lot of rice and some oily main dishes. Pricey, given the super low quality. They do not use "fresh" chicken in their main courses and it tastes really bad. If they used fresh chicken, it would be OK. Starbucks: The employees are very lazy, slow, mistake orders, fight and bicker with one another in front of customers. Coffee is bad and cashiers are unfriendly. In general, I love Starbucks, yet this particular one in JPC commons is the worst ever. Subway: I have not tried it yet, opened in May 2013. Chick-fil-A: Franchise of a rabidly anti-gay company, good fit for Texas and TMC. As someone who cares about equality, non-discrimination and LGBT rights, I will never ever patronize rabidly anti-gay Chik-fil-A. However, presence of Chick-fil-A sends a very intolerant message to employees, patients and visitors alike at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The bowl that they're making is absolutely fantastic. Great variety. All of their hot sauces are excellent and the portion size is generous too. I'm a visiting student at the Baylor college and I've been getting a bowl now every day for about four weeks. Can recommend. I'm getting another one later today. And the staff is very nice too. Keep it up guys!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Thought it was going to be an authentic Mexican restaurant by the way it was described once it was googled but not even close.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 5
Sometimes I work in the area and the hospital's food is not my cup of tea. So I walked over to the Commons to explore other options. There is not much for pescatarians. Plus during lunch, lines for the popular restaurants such as the Thai one and Chick-fil-A can be long. So one day I opted to get in a short line at the barbecue place. I had a loaded baked potato with no meat. I've had better at other places. Another day I went to the Commons again and decided to have side items at the barbecue place. The potato salad was swimming in dressing and the cole slaw was just ok. I ate what I could to fulfill my hunger and threw the leftovers away. I have yet to find something I like. I see many folks getting Starbucks too. They have plenty of seating indoors. On beautiful days, you can sit outside and play with the giant chess game and relax by the water wall.
The food tasted ok but made my belly hurt, probably the spicy chorizo.
tacos 10/10
Great food but not enough food for the price. They recently made the box too smaller.
Not Easy to Find, But Worth the Effort In February, we were in Houston for my wife to attend several meetings at the Texas Medical Center. We were staying at the Marriott, and decided to walk to dinner at Third Coast. Luckily, we started out early, as our walking software, kept taking us into parking garages, dead ends and then an Emergency entrance at Children’s Hospital. Finally, we found 6550 Bertner Ave, and the John P McGovern Texas Medical Center Commons, but the search was not over yet. We saw Third Coast signs outside the building, and at each entrance. Once inside, however, no signs, that we could find. We ended up in a closed food court off of the lobby, and called. We were given instructions to turn around, enter a small hallway, and there we would find an elevator. That we did, and exited the elevator to the Third Coast signs, and entrance. Whew, we were on-time, and rather hungry from our walk. We were promptly seated, in a dining area, to the right of the bar. There were only a few groups of people in this very large restaurant, and it looked like they were having either very late business lunches, or very early business dinners. Third Coast is an interesting venue: it is comprised of about three large dining areas, which are only visually separated from each other, in that there are not walls, but the décor is different enough, that they do appear to be somewhat separate. Off of those large areas, there do appear to be private, or semi-private dining areas, as well. Then, there is a bar, with more seating + booths and a dozen TV sets hanging from the ceiling, and finally an outdoor dining area, but this patio was not open in February, and especially with the poor weather. It appeared to be very nice, and would be ideal for the Spring, or Autumn - though not this rainy Winter night. The interior is very attractive, but was a little less “formal,” than I had expected for a fine-dining restaurant. Well, Third Coast seems to be a bit of a chameleon, in that it serves different purposes: it is a breakfast and lunch restaurant for the entire Texas Medical Complex, and especially the John P McGovern Texas Medical Center building. It is an after work bar, and also a place for meetings, and then becomes a fine-dining restaurant in the evening. I saw mention of it being available for large groups, and can see how much of the open dining area could be reconfigured for those. looking around, I did see several 8-tops, plus one of the groups dining/meeting, looked to be a party of about 12. There is also a grand piano in one area, near a lovely, contemporary fireplace. The décor and interior architecture are beautiful, as is the lighting. An attractive and interesting place. I had the wine list in hand, along with the menus, and began doing my reading. We were at a large, comfortable 4-top, and as we were walking, my first order was the wines - besides, in looking around, I saw several wine storage displays in the walls. Yes, time for wine! I ordered the Ceritas “Peter Martin Ray Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay ‘14 to start. However, our server returned and apologized - they were out. OK, off to Plan B - the Failla Keefer Ranch Russian River Chardonnay ‘14. He had brought our some rather small-bowl glasses, when he was looking for the Ceritas, and I asked for larger bowls, for the big Chard. He had those on the table very quickly. The stemware was very nice. We did an eclectic blend of shared dishes for dinner: Jumbo Lump Crab w/ avocado, Fiji apple, tomato and ginger orange vinaigrette - Quite good, with succulent crab meat, and some interesting flavors and textures. Rice Flour-crusted Calamari w/ chili lime aioli - Excellent, and the calamari were both flavorful and tender. Crab Cake w/ jumbo lump crab, corn, spinach, shiitake mushrooms and lemon butter - OK, we were getting our USDA Daily Minimum Allowance of crab, but we now live in Arizona, having moved from the Gulf Coast, so we can be excused. Besides, we were sharing, remember. Redfish, which was pan-seared, and rubbed with guajillo w/ coconut & cilantro ric
Best place for breakfast and lunch in the med center. Chick fil a has breakfast now, it's much better than the ones on the streets. Hot fresh fluffy biscuits, breakfast bowls with hashbrowns and salsa Yummm. The subway is always busy at lunch so you know it's super fresh. The line moves fast and the workers are friendly. I don't agree with their politics but the chick fil a has great salads (Southwest with spicy grilled chicken and creamy salsa ranch is epic) here as a healthy option for lunch. The waffle fries are always hot and crispy. The spicy chicken is the bomb. Time for Thai may have the best pad thai and penang curry ever. The Starbucks has improved a ton since some of these reviews were written. They're super clean, friendly, fast and the drinks are excellent.
This review is for the waterwall only, since I don't work in the area and never get out of my car when visiting......except to take a photo maybe. I think it's so much better than the official waterwall in the galleria that all the tourists visit and everyone knows about. I take all my out of town friends here to see this lesser known wonder. The whole parking garage has an art deco design even though it's a modern structure.
Do not order any lattes here. I guess it's my own fault for trying it three times, but having a cup of coffee with over a third of it being foam is ridiculous.
Restaurantji Recommends
The BBQ place is still the best for what it is. There are no words to describe my sorrow after the Thai place got rid of the soups. It was one of my most favorite things in the entire area! Their food is still good but now the portions are a little smaller and the containers are now cheap styrofoam. There's Chick Fil-A which results in an automatic deduction. Now they have a TCBY machine for your fro-yo cravings. To date I have not tried the Subway there because first Jared and then the rat. Probably will have to re-review it once I have tried Trevisio.
The lounge area is so nice!
Starbucks boycott Today I quit buying coffee at Starbucks or anything for that matter because they wanted to charge 54 cents for tap water shame on them
I think the TMC website quotes that there are ~160,000 employees, students, patients, etc in the TMC at any given point in time. Unfortunately for such a densely populated area, the food options in this part of Houston are horrendous! The TMC commons is a slight improvement over the food choices in the TMC area. There's a Burger place (waterside/waterstreet?), Chick Fil A, Starbucks, Kim Son, and Subway. They taste just like any other franchise for these restaurants would. Seating can get kind of tough inside of the building during lunch time and eating outside will probably mean water from the waterfall will get blown into your food/face not to mention the humidity in Houston. It's a decently close if you're at Methodist, BCM, or UT Houston. Any other hospital and you might be in for a long walk.
On weekdays, it is open only for lunch, except for Starbucks, which is open from morning to about 5pm. On weekends, it is closed altogether. It got worse with the refurbishment as several eateries closed. There are now only five eateries in the same food court: Waterside Cafe: Salads made-to-order are great, I get one almost everyday for lunch. They have paper forms with checkboxes to choose ingredients: greens, meat, vegetables, dressing. Chicken parmesan panini is delicious too. This is the only place worth eating at in JPC commons. Kim Son: Chinese food. Lot of rice and some oily main dishes. Pricey, given the super low quality. They do not use "fresh" chicken in their main courses and it tastes really bad. If they used fresh chicken, it would be OK. Starbucks: The employees are very lazy, slow, mistake orders, fight and bicker with one another in front of customers. Coffee is bad and cashiers are unfriendly. In general, I love Starbucks, yet this particular one in JPC commons is the worst ever. Subway: I have not tried it yet, opened in May 2013. Chick-fil-A: Franchise of a rabidly anti-gay company, good fit for Texas and TMC. As someone who cares about equality, non-discrimination and LGBT rights, I will never ever patronize rabidly anti-gay Chik-fil-A. However, presence of Chick-fil-A sends a very intolerant message to employees, patients and visitors alike at MD Anderson Cancer Center.