Sunday brunch at Hugo's. Not so much.

Hugos restaurant was one of my favorite restaurants to eat at in Houston until this past Sunday. Their food is excellent, including their Sunday brunch.

We have been eating at Hugos for 7 years regularly. Over time, the service has gone from good, to O.K. to medicore to pathetic.

We visit Hugos about 6-8 times a year. Usually always for Mothers Day brunch and dinner other times. The food and service is usually always decent. However, the last 2 years, they have tried to seat us at the table NEXT TO the buffet line, which is loud and interruptive to enjoy brunch. This is even with reservations.

I made reservations with Hugos on Tuesday for Sunday brunch to celebrate a 70th Birthday. We arrived at for our10:30 reservation, and the lobby had a bunch of people there, but nobody was being seated. After waiting in line to talk to the Maitre'd, I had my turn, gave him my name and he said "We'll seat you next."

The next thing, the hostess comes back and seats 2 other parties. I bit my tongue. Finally, we get seated by someone, who was either a bus boy or new, and spoke very little english. He takes us right back to the table that backs up next to the brunch line. We've been put here before, and its always a hassle to get another table. When the guy showed us the table, I immediately cringed. I asked for another table. The host looked at me like he was trying to figure out what I was saying, and said that there was no other tables available (tons of tables around were empty).

I asked to speak to the manager. The host told me that there was nothing we could do. So I walked to the front to talk to the main guy at the maitre'd station. I told him calmly that we, for some reason, always get seated there, and the host that seated us said that there's nothing that can be done. I told him that I didn't like how we continue to be placed there over and over again.

The Maitre'd looked at me like, sarcastically apologized, and then with a angry look on his face asked me to "calm down" and there was "no reason" to "act like that". To which I was surprised, since I had maintained my temper without getting angry. I wasn't happy with the way we were being treated, so we left.

Service like this is not going to fly, no matter how good the food is.

To the owners of Hugos, you need to get your staff under control and start treating customers like they're customers again.

We ended our jaunt at Kenny and Ziggy's where the service and food was excellent.