Riva's Italian - Houston

Very unique place. Cool to visit one time. We went during the holidays so decorated adorable. Not pricey at all just surprised at the reversed way the meal came. I'm Italian and cook all the time. Was craving chicken franchise. Very surprised at what I got. I wanted classic style and in the pic is what I got. Tasted ok. Not bad but different. Sauce on the side as well. 3 stars. Nothing to rave about.

Italian food for diners who don’t know what good Italian food really tastes like. If Riva’s charged 20% less for their dinner menu items, I’d be fine with it. It would be mediocre food for a fair price. But since Americans are so easily duped into paying a premium for “Italian” food… well… Riva’s capitalizes on this without actually serving authentic, delicious Italian food. Save your money and go somewhere else. Houston is a cornucopia of wonderful restaurants. Riva’s just isn’t one of those unfortunately.

Now, this place was good. I can say this food had good flavor. It tastes like it was all homemade. I had lamb. Now they only had 3 I wish I could have had more. It was worth it. Check them out

My mother really liked the place when we came the first time for her birthday 2 years ago and she wanted to come again. We waited for about an hour a half to be seated despite many others getting there after us, it seemed like they wanted to get the smaller tables in and out quick. The manager was super courteous to my grandmother helping her around the restaurant but our server (older white guy) was lack luster, he started off good but clearly since we were sat super late he wanted to go home. Towards the end one of my sisters became offended when the server loudly said her card declined (it was debt fraud prevention) but when she tried telling him to wait and see why the card was not working he became impatient then after we gave him a new card I heard him turn the corner and say “****” then came back and aggressively gave us the check card back. When leaving he (server) at least gently pushed by us to rush off. Also no bartender? I definitely will try to have my mother reconsider where she has her birthday next year.

Beautiful place, loved the holiday display they had. Food was amazing!