Hawthorn Restaurant

The food is to die for!!! Great menu… wonderful wine choices… chic ambiance (love the paintings).

Food is really really fresh and delicious. But service was really bad. My experience at least. I have been there once and it was a special occasion for my wife and I. The waitress forgets our orders. brought 4 pieces of bread and butter. bread was only for children. very small portion and butter was frozen almost and with no taste at all. I asked for salt. He came by twice without bringing the salt even I reminded him. 20 min later he brought the salt. SALT AND PEPPER must be on table all the time. He brought a salt only on a small plat with little spoon. ridiculousness. I ordered steak. He brings the knife and forget the fork. No fork on table. Again, I ask for a fork. He remembers and bring one from table next door. Desert menu had a desert that takes about 20 minutes to prepare. He never mentioned this till we asked for the desert menu. In a fine dining, you tell customers ahead of time. We had to run to the movies after dinner. We ordered coffee. He brings coffee and cream and sugar. 5 min later he comes up to us and ask to borrow the sugar to give to another customer at a table next to us. Service was extremely terrible and embarrassing. But again, Food is excellent. very delicious. woow. If I go there again, I will talk to the manager about my previous experince.
Thank you for reading

After going to a Macallan tasting with a friend we wanted to keep it classy for dinner. It was close to closing but we called to see if they would still take us, also asking for directions because this place is really hidden.
When we got there it’s a dark romantic setting. The space is small, but it’s what keeps it intimate. We ordered the Risotto, it was great and a good way to start off our meal.
For entrees we had the Roasted Veal Sweetbreads with roasted cipollini onion, chanterelles, cabernet reduction, creamy polenta and Pork Rib Chop with braised red cabbage. Both dishes were delicious. I really enjoyed the sweetbreads, didn’t think I would but was highly recommended by our waiter. The waiter was very understanding to us coming right before closing, but even chatting it up with him, I think we left way before the people who were already inside.

We visited and enjoyed Hawthorne for the first time last night. We were originally going to meet for sushi, but my boyfriend noticed Hawthorne as he was parking the car. It’s tucked away at the back of what looks like an old office building with a Café Express in the front. So anyway, we’ve been interested in coming so when he found it, we decided it was serendipity and went here instead.
That was an excellent decision! We were there pretty early and so it was not very busy at all.
Upon entering, I loved the intimate feel of the interior. It feels like a supper club/​jazz club from the 1940s with a live pianist that provided the perfect level of background music. We decided to have a drink at the bar while thinking if we wanted to stay for dinner, or go for sushi like originally planned. Our bartender that night was wonderful and made a mean martini! It was excellent! We then chose to stay at the bar for dinner and the food was amazing.
We started off with the steamed Mediterranean mussels. I love mussels and always thought that PEI mussels were the best, but these outshone them by a mile. Every one of these mussels were open, plumb and juicy… perfection! I’ve never seen mussels like these before, but they are now my new favorites. I then went on to have the risotto, while my boyfriend had the ravioli with chestnuts. The risotto that night was prepared with wild mushrooms, Parmesan and truffle oil and was prepared perfectly!!! It was creamy with the rice cooked to perfection and the mushrooms providing the right amount of soft chewiness to the dish. Outstanding. The ravioli that my boyfriend ordered was also delicious, with the chestnuts adding an interesting sweetness to the dish. He was amazed!
We will definitely be back and are so happy that we have found this gem of a restaurant!

I think this is definitely a Unilocal 4 star experience for the risotto alone.
I visited Hawthorn a few nights ago. I’m solo dining at places my friends don’t seem keen to go, but I want to visit. (I think it’s fine for solo dining; either at the bar or a two-​top.) The aesthetic is kind of old school/​Rat Pack. Adding to that is the music; jazz standards and the like. I found it to be a comforting ambience.
The food. .. I started with the octopus. Simple and delicious. With tomatoes, capers, garlic, mint, etc. For my main I ordered the venison; I am a sucker for venison if it’s on the menu. I guess it was a roulade; prosciutto wrapped around venison wrapped around a sage stuffing. I liked the flavors, but I found the venison to be a little dry. And the polenta and spinach sides were not edible for me; the polenta was glue-​y, which is not how I like it, and the spinach was oily. So I asked the waiter if I could get a side of the risotto of the day, which was with gorgonzola, leeks and asparagus. Not only did they bring it out in a reasonable time considering they made it when I ordered it, but they comped it because I didn’t like the polenta. I cleaned my plate of that risotto. It was perfect. For dessert I had the apple crostada. They make that once ordered as well, and it’s worth the wait; the crostada was rich and flaky.
Another bonus was they have a great wine list. I was by the glass, which means my selection was limited, but they make good suggestions about what wine will pair well with what dish. I took them up on the Girard Cab with the venison, and it was a spot on suggestion. The only nit-​pick is that they don’t have dessert wines. I note, however, that the waiter said they were on order.

Hawthorn’s been highly touted as one of the best new restaurants in Houston, and alas I made room in my schedule — and my tummy — for a fantastic feast.
We started with a bottle of Stags Leap Artemis ordered from their fancy schmancy iPad menu, along with an order of the beef tartare and gnocchi. I’m not much of a raw tenderloin kind-​of-​girl, but paired with a quail egg, flaky sea salt, cracked pepper, finely diced red onion, capers and cornichon — this is a must.
For entrees, the fall weather certainly had me in the mood for anything pumpkin, and since Hawthorn prides itself on incorporating seasonal and local foods, I couldn’t resist the sea scallops over roasted pumpkin purée. These are by far the best sea scallops I’ve ever tasted — plump, perfectly seared and with an ultra clean taste, I wasn’t sure why it took me so long to give Hawthorn a try. Now for dessert? There was hardly any room for it, but again, «pumpkin freak here,» so the pumpkin ricotta cheesecake was the only choice for me.
After this dining experience, I’m up for many more visits at Hawthorn. Chef Riccardo Palazzo-​Giorgio has a wonderful menu made up of some of my favorite items, like steak, grouper, duck, risotto, Texas quail, pappardelle … I just can’t go wrong with any of those selections. There’s a nice bar that extends the length of the restaurant, which would make for a more informal/​casual meal; there are also private curtained «nooks» perfect for celebratory dinners. And since it’s in the Upper Kirby area, a night of dinner at Hawthorn followed by drinking and dancing at a nearby lounge sounds like a well played date night. Fellas, get to planning.

Dry fish, boring Caesar salad (named otherwise), mediocre and rude service, and apathetic management who openly laugh and discuss customer concerns when they think the clients have left (loud enough for me to hear about our table’s issues while waiting in line for the one, single toilet)…too bad it just doesn’t measure up to Houston’s standards of fine dining, since the art and ambiance are respectable.

Enjoyed Hawthorne for the first time last night. I had the House Salad, Crab Cakes, Prosciutto & Melon, and the Duck. All dishes were excellent and the duck was easily the best that I’ve had in Houston. My wife had the Lobster Lasagna and she was blown away by it. We will absolutely be back.
Bonus: It’s one of the best dining interiors in the city.

I spied Hawthorn on the list of restaurants participating in HRW and they had one of the more interesting menus so I decided to give it a whirl. I was a little hesitant given a previous meal at another restaurant where the Hawthorn chef had been in residence but am pleased to report that the food was generally excellent at Hawthorn.
I started my meal with the potato gnocchi which was expertly prepared and nicely bathed in a savory gorgonzola cream sauce that could have used a tad more salt but to each their own. The star of the meal, however, was the filet of beef served with gruyère potatoes. The meat was tender, perfectly cooked medium rare as requested and simply outstanding. For dessert, I ordered the panna cotta which was pleasant but nothing compared to my husband’s chocolate kahlua gelato which was fantastically rich and rang all the bells of this chocolate lover’s taste buds.
The reason for 4 stars rather than 5 is the service. Our waiter started out strong at the beginning but after the main course was served, he went AWOL. Our desserts (which had to be ordered at the beginning of the meal due to the HRW menu) were hastily brought out and then it was impossible to catch him again. We ordered another bottle of wine during our entrée so we wanted to enjoy that during the remainder of our meal but he was oblivious to this. Given his scarcity, I resorted to scooting my chair back to the ice bucket area in order to serve wine to my dining companions. I had to do this several times — it was really unacceptable.
However, to end this review on a positive note, in addition to the food I loved the décor at Hawthorn. It was dark and chic, with a stylish speakeasy/​supper club vibe. The hostess was extremely accommodating and gave us the kind of table we had requested.
Hawthorn has enormous promise and I’m definitely going to give it another shot.

Cozy and quaint, it was a nice choice for business. The scallops were delicious the other choices at the table looked fabulous as well. My coffee was not hot but the good far outweighed the coffee.

Ate here for HRW and ate from HRW menu. Our reservations, made 2 weeks ahead of time, were for 6:45 on a Tuesday — (no availability for our preferred times or dates), but we figured they were so popular it would be worth it. Not so much, it turns out.
— waited 10ish minutes for the first interaction with wait staff — to decide on the type of water. another 5 – 10 to get a drink menu, let alone a drink order.
Everyone raves about the cool iPad app for wine. OK, it was cool but they could have brought it sooner.
— first course: seasonal salad for hubby; ceviche for me — the first impression was OMG really BURNT TOAST. I mean there is «toast» and there is stinky burnt toast, and this was the latter. Hubby’s salad was mostly burnt toast along with too large chunks of tomatoes, peppers, etc. My ceviche was kinda burnt toast along with a very uninteresting dish of fish. Not up to Houston’s ceviche standards. ‘
— second course: hubby had the trout which he said was fine. I had the chicken, which, if I didn’t really hate black pepper probably would have been OK but since i do really hate black pepper, was pretty awful. Nowhere in the description was there a clue that I should tell someone «umm, go easy on the black pepper». I mean when you order chicken breast sauteed with capers, lemon and leeks, does it occur to you that the chicken will be coated from head to toe with black pepper? To me, it does not. So, I hated my entrée.
— third course: hubby had panna cotta with rhubarb; i had espresso chocolate gelato. Both of us were happy.
The place was never more than about 60% full, so not sure why the long wait for service or the burnt toast for appetizers. They say they are about sophisticated tastes, but we were not so convinced.
So, overall, just so so. Not sure there was anything on the regular menu that will have us coming back another time.

Went here for restaurant weeks. AWESOME!
Items tried:
heirloom tomato salad with homemade croutons
Filet of Beef
pan roasted filet of beef served over a gruyère potato stack, with a woodland mushroom natural jus
Panna Cotta with rosemary syrup.
Everything was fantastic. The meat was so tender you could cut it with a butter knife. It’s definitely a place to celebrate something… anything really. The fact that you like food would be reason enough :)
RECOMMEND!

My husband and I were delighted last Thursday evening, August 9, when we were pleasantly greeted by the valet and very well received by a beautiful hostess. Moreover, Ricardo served us well. He is very good at what he does. My husband and I and our friends were very satisfied with our service and with our delicious meals.
On behalf of all of us, thank you, Mr. Graff, for coming by our table to check up on us.
I must add that upon leaving Hawthorn, the valet was very sweet and apologized to me for what transpired between us the first time we were there. I graciously accepted his apology and thanked him.
Hawthorn – Mr. Graff and all your staff, keep up the good work. We shall return.
Sincerely, magda …

What a let down. Eyed Hawthorn before it was on the HRW list but figured I might as well try it for HRW. It’s for a good cause, right?
What I got:
Potato Gnocchi Lombardia — I had high hopes for this dish. Ehhh. The gnocchi was too soft & mushy. The cream sauce had the kick from the gorgonzola but still lacked flavor. My friend & I had to add salt & pepper to our dish. My friend got the Chef’s Ceviche which was good & refreshing. The toasted bread it came with tasted burnt, though.
Filet of Beef — The potato stack the filet was served over was good. The filet was good… nothing spectacular but not bad, either. Overall, just okay. No «wow» factor. What’s nice of the waiter was that he did NOT give us a steak knife [insert sarcasm]. It was a joy cutting my steak with a regular knife. couldn’t even ask the waiter if we could get a steak knife because he never stopped by during our meal.
Ricotta Cheesecake with Berries: Can someone tell me why my cheesecake arrived at my table melting? Oh. maybe because they warmed up the berries and put my cheesecake on top. Not a very good presentation. [side note: my friend got their cherry port gelato. her gelato was melting as well. half of it was soup by the time she got it. She also said it just tasted like vanilla gelato with cherries in it.]
Now, on to the service. Very disappointing. I get that we look young, we’re ordering off the HRW menu, and maybe you were thrown off by one of a party members wearing jeans (although we saw other couples in shorts) so you thought you wouldn’t be making money off of us. We saw our waiter being very attentive to another table. refilling their wine glasses when they were getting low. He barely came by our table. refilled our glasses once. failed to give us steak knives (I thought maybe they didn’t have steak knives but we saw the table next to us were given some).didn’t come by to check on us. He just neglected us.
Let’s just say we will not be returning. We were left underwhelmed.

I tried out this restaurant with a group. I liked it. Small — very steakhouse type feel. Parking was readily available everywhere. Rare not to be forced to valet at a «higher end» restaurant. Finally — some freedom!
So HRW was an option but none of us took it because we’re not really dessert people. Didn’t want to waste food. So the men had salads and I shared risotto to start. The risotto was on point. It was a special that night with some kind of mushrooms I’ve never heard of. They were spectacular. Kept the risotto earthy yet perfectly creamy.
One complaint I had is for my entrée; I had the duck. Duck has fatty skin. You have to render it properly to serve it. The temperature was correct but man was that skin rubbery! I had to take all of the skin off. Isn’t that usually the best part of poultry?! Blah. But the cherry demi sauce was lovely.
Otherwise, the rib chop my husband had was juicy and well cooked. I tasted crab cake, very good, but needed a kick. Something to make it stand out from other good crab cakes.
I forget some of the other plates I tasted but all in all was a tasty meal with great company. Side note: it gets kind of loud in there. So expect to raise your voice somewhat :)

3.5 … rounded up because iono… just seems like the entire restaurant was trying reallly hard. hopefully the quality of service will remain the same.
went for HRW. don’t forget to mention HRW in your reservation. that’s how the food bank accounts for their donations… and you don’t want a restaurant to serve the menu anyway, but pocket the 5 dollars for themselves!
well i forgot to mention hrw with my reservation… but our waiter brent was nice enough to speak with the chef to allow us to dine with that menu anyway.
ceviche (³⁄₅)
filet (⁴⁄₅) — cooked perfectly. in addition to the cheese potatoes, my steak came with sauteed julienned carrots and zucchini… which was surprisingly delicious.
lobster lasagna (³⁄₅) E was kind of disappointed because she was anticipating a traditional lasagna. our fault for not reading the description… this deconstructed version included lobster, black pasta, leeks, and a butter sauce that was kind of reminiscent of cheese… for her consolation.
pana cotta (⁴⁄₅) — yum. HUGE portion.
overall the place is nice. kind of stuffy… dark. their pianist/​singer ROCKED it… i hope they pay her well. solid restaurant, simple ingredients, and albeit being pretty overpriced i still want to come back to try some things.

Hawthorn is a hidden gem on the backside of a strip facing Kirby. Dining inside you wouldn’t think you were in a strip mall or just a block from one of Houston’s busiest streets. This restaurant is quiet, upscale, comfortable and friendly. We had great service throughout the evening, from the bartender to our server. Our host was gracious and enjoyed talking with us about our wine selections. No pretentiousness for a classy joint. Bonus points for changing the music at my request… sorry guys, I just hate the band Chicago.
The chef’s menu, including potato gnocchi and a phenomenally prepared filet, is out of this world. I hear they change the menu up quite a bit so I’ll be venturing back to see what else is in store.
This should be on everyone’s radar as a destination for an exceptional meal.

Amazing place. Every dish has flavor. I am an avid tuna eater, and tried the red snapper tartare and I was blown away. The filet of beef was cooked to perfection and delicious. The atmosphere itself makes you feel transported, elegantly decorated in a sexy & masculine manner, stylishly new york without being over the top fancy. The lighting is perfect, just dark enough to feel relaxed and transported somewhere else, but light enough to see the décor. There is a baby grand piano that plays, makes you feel like you are in an upscale setting in another time and place.
The service is knowledgable and friendly, wine list comes on an iPad with descriptions of each wine, very user friendly compared to the usual bible of wines you’ve never heard of and don’t have time to sift through. All in all a perfect evening.

This is a good, solid restaurant, with excellent food, for the most part, a VERY comfortable atmosphere in which conversation is possible, and it’s made a good start for a restaurant that’s only been open about a month.
Our biggest problem was trying to find the place, especially coming from the Southwest Freeway and Kirby. Once I had passed all the wrong turn-in’s off Kirby, I went past, and found it by turning right at Café Express. (It was definitely worth the hunt!)
The space is partially carpeted, has drapes/​upholstery on the walls, acoustic ceilings, and even with a pianist playing, the noise level is low enough to be able to carry on a conversation with no problem.
Our table had starters of the Char-​grilled Baby Octopus (outstanding), Potato Gnocchi Lombardia (very good, although my wife was disappointed, as she thought the sauce was to be more of a cream sauce, and it was a tomato-​based sauce), Risotto del giorno, which was a saffron risotto with shrimp, (very good) and a house salad.
Entrees included a huge portion of the wild salmon (good, but nothing exciting), Austrian Veal Chop (excellent, and again, a very large portion), Jumbo Lump Crab Cake (very good, and as jumbo as described), and steamed mussels, which were plump, juicy and in an excellent broth.
Only one dessert was tried – the gelato. The vanilla bean gelato was outstanding in its lightness and airiness, but the second one (can’t recall the flavor), was heavy, thick and gummy – not what a gelato should be at all.
All in all, a very pleasant dining experience, and we’ll be back. They even have a semi-​private room that seats ten people and another that seats up to 30.

Hawthorn is hidden in the Upper Kirby area behind the Café Express (the old Dorsia space, if anyone remembers that). You can save yourself the valet if there is space along Café Express, after their reserved hours. The space is dark, reminding me of old school cigar clubs. There’s a front dining room and one in the back, along with a fairly large bar. The seats at the bar seemed a tad too short (or the bartop taller than usual) so it didn’t seem like it would be comfortable to dine there. Nice wine selection along with a full bar, presented on an ipad. Onward!
*Apparently I need to specify that the list below was shared between 4 people!
Beef Carpaccio — tenderloin of beef, extra virgin olive oil, Parmigiano Reggiano, citron salt, arugula greens: perfect circle of presentation, salty beefiness, highlighted by citrus from the salt and lemon
Potato Gnocchi Lombardia — house prepared potato gnocchi in a smooth, young gorgonzola and light cream — THANK YOU for a properly made gnocchi! Beautifully soft and creamy
Char Grilled Baby Octopus — petite Dutch potatoes, cucumber, shaved red onion, chilies, Sicilian extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon: tender, tender octopus!
Sweetbreads — pan fried veal sweetbreads with a house prepared marmalade of fresh strawberries, honey, chipotle, sun dried strawberries and Banyul vinegar: very nice texture on the sweetbreads, not gamey
New York Strip — grilled New York strip steak, maître d’hôtel butter and grilled asparagus: great steak, delicious compound butter
Veal Chop — pounded thin, pan fried on the bone, simply with grilled lemon and arugula: excellently simple
Jumbo Lump Crab Cake — pan roasted and finished with grilled lemon and smoky roasted tomato butter emulsion: good amount of crab, nice crust
Filet of Beef — pan roasted filet of beef with Gruyère potato stack, roasted woodland mushrooms and natural jus: great texture, savory mushrooms
The dessert menu isn’t online and I can’t remember exactly what everything was. They were all very good, the cheesecake was especially light and airy —
Ricotta Cheesecake, Chocolate hazelnut torte? Apple crostada? Panna cotta
Recently it’s been listed in a number of local food press pages — one of which said it was one of the most underrated restaurants in the city, and I’d have to agree. Now that I know where it is, I’m sure I’ll be back. It did take a little while to get noticed while waiting at the bar, but otherwise the service was polite and professional. At times it seems like the kind of place where pretty women in their 20’s like to look for rich older men, but that won’t deter me! I’m there to eat, not look around ;)