The Broken Spoke Café

I’ve been here twice.
First time food was pretty good, except they mixed up my order, but they promptly corrected that and all was well.
the 2^nd time, I came here with a groupon. I came on the day the groupon was set to expire. I suggest you never ever go to a restaurant the day their groupon expires.
Absolutely horrendous. I’ve never seen a kitchen so in the weeds before. The place was completely slammed and nobody could keep up. The front of house, the back of house everybody was behind.
It’s not a big restaurant by any means, every table was full, people waiting for seats or to be seated were steadily encroaching into the dining area and crowding those that were seated and trying to eat. The situation would’ve been comical, if I had been an observer.
I got a seat relatively quickly but had to sit there for 10 minutes before anybody came with a menu or anything. And it was a full 45 minutes after seating before we got any food on the table. The food that came out was cold and was forgettable.
So moral of the story is, use your groupons before the expiration date and your dining experience should be at least mediocre and maybe even good instead of crappy here at the broken spoke.
Oh they do have a decent selection of Belgian beers but they didn’t seem to keep too much in stock.

Hard to find and slow to serve, but decently priced if you’re in Houston and not in the mood for Tex-​Mex, Italian or American.
I came here with three other girls and the original plan was for everyone to order something different so we could taste as many of their items as possible. In the end, two of us got the same thing, and three of the four got mussels. There goes our attempt at variety.
As far as the food, the mussles were good. I remember liking our appetizers more than the mussles, which is slightly disappointing considering the restaurant boasts of its mussles.
And as far as the desserts, I must say I was sorely disappointed in their profiteroles. They seemed a bit dry and the ice cream was average. What made the dessert experience even worse was that two of us convinced the other two that profiteroles were some of the best dessert in the world and our friends’ first experience eating profiteroles were these ones.

I have not tried much of the menu and in fact I love this place for one thing and one thing only… their mussels. The best in Houston. No grainy texture, eight flavors to choose from, comes with frites, and you can choose a half or full order. Its perfect in every way and their selection of belgium beers is good enough to get you by. Its true what other Unilocalers have stated; on busy nights… service can be lacking and even non-​existant, its not the cleanest of places, can get extremely packed with long waits, and horrible table bread. But I’ll just say this again… awesome mussels.

This is one of my favorite restaurants. They have the best mussels. I ordered the Mariniere flavor & garlic butter sauce falvor and it was good. The one with tomato sauce was a little too strong and heavy. Their tomato basil soup & cream of mushroom soup are off the hook! It’s made fresh and is not so creamy, which is how I like it.
Everything I tried here is AMAZING. You should definitely give it a try.

So what can I say.. . I brought a groupon to try this place since it got such high reviews, but it didn’t live up to their reviews. They did seem to know their draft beer though. The food was not memorable. I had the salmon and that was cooked beautifully, but the mash potatoes had a weird taste. I had a pear dessert and that was decent but nothing to brag about. The whole meal was meh! I didn’t enjoy the parking lot and the area seem shady. The restaurant was small and the seating was very tight. It did have some charm though, like its artwork. But unfortunately I don’t pick restaurant base on their artwork.

The Broken Spoke is definitely a must try. I have gone many times, always tried different things and not been disappointed in any of it. The one challenge they have is their service. Most weekends they seem disorganized but the food is worth it, just know what you are in for.
They have the best Belgian beer selection I have seen anywhere. They have Affligem and Grimbergen on tap, which I haven’t found anywhere else. They do flights of beers as well, which is a fun way to try several. The thing I love as well is they always serve in the right barware for the beer. I love the attention to detail in appreciating the beer.
As for the food, I completely understand why they won Best Frites. They are delicious and they have homemade mayonnaise. Amazing! The mussels are also very well done (would recommend the La Moule Marinière and La Moule à l’ Escargot). As for entrees, you must try the Cordon Blue or the Carbonade à la Gantoise (Flemish braised beef stew with veggies). I’ve also had the Salade Endive and Cobb which were very good too, but obviously something you can get in other places. I got the Chicken Curry sandwich for lunch once and it was very good as well.
All in all, it’s a great experience with a very European feel, but be sure to go before or after the peak hours because it’s small so the wait is a sure thing.

I came here on a Saturday at around 7:30 or 8pm (with reservations… but apparently that didn’t matter) and the line was ridiculous. There was no where for people to sit so everyone was packed into a small corridor that was like 5x5feet. There wasn’t even a proper list to put your name down. My date and I ended up leaving because there was no hope.
We came back the next Saturday at around 5:30−6pm (with reservations again) and no one was there. It was great. We were immediately seated.
IN SHORT, COME EARLY AND COME WITH RESERVATIONS. By the time we left it was packed.
Appetizer: They were out of the shrimp in garlic sauce so we ended up getting the Escargot de Bourgognet (snails in a butter garlic sauce served with bread). This looks really unappetizing, it comes in this hole-​y dish and it’s swimming in butter. Personally I hate things that are super chewy, which the snails were, but the garlicy goodness made it yummy.
Entrees: My date got the beer sampler with 18 mussel assortment and I got the wine sampler with 18 mussel assortment. THIS IS SO WORTH IT IN TERMS OF ALCOHOL. It’s 28 $ which is separated into14 $ for alcohol and 14 $ for mussels. A glass of wine was about 8 $ anyways so for 14 $ I basically got six glasses of wine. Definitely the mussels in the white wine sauce were the best. All of my other mussels were drenched in way too much sauce. The cream based sauces were especially overwhelming. Despite this, I would go back and order this over again just for the wine sampler part of it.
Also, as everyone has said — lots of fries.
Service: Our waitress was so sweet, she wrote down all of the names of each beer and wine upon our request and politely answered all of our extensive questions (my date and I wanted to be sure about what we order).
YAY MY FIRST Unilocal REVIEW: D

I was extremely dissapointed with this place. To begin with service is terrible, or, perhaps, authentically European, depending on how you look at it. You have to go to the bar to get your name put down on the wait list, and I had to be pretty pushy to get the bartender to even acknowledge my presence. It’s as if he was annoyed that there was a wait. It was admittedly busy when I went, but the servers didn’t pay us much attention either once we were sat. Every time they came over to the table it felt like they were itching to run off and do something else.
The food is even worse. I got the ribey. It looked pathetic and tasted worse. I still can’t believe it was 27 dollars; I am honestly baffled by this. It may have been 6 ounces and most of it was fat. The rest was so chewy I couldn’t cut it with my knife. The fries are delicious, though. Everything else, not so much. My sister’s dinner, some kind of chicken-​pot-​pie, was also pretty grose. Her husband’s meal was decent but nothing special, and certainly not worth the price. If I hadn’t been using a groupon I would have been extremely upset with the whole experience. I will most certainly not return to this place.

Had beef carbonade at The Broken Spoke Friday. I’d give it 5 points of 10. No depth of flavor. Wasn’t even heated thru.
Service– 2 points. They seems to have a convoluted «team» system. They tried to rush us into ordering (didn’t succumb to the pressure). Then once we ordered, the service disappeared. Drinks went empty, brought us our food, but it wasn’t our order. At least it seemed that way. Moments later, «our» order arrived. That was wrong — the wrong side dishes (potato choice) were on 2 plates (of 4).
Price/​Value — 1point. Overpriced.
Ambience — 2 points. It’s the faux hipster vibe.
Overall competency — 1 point. If there was a manager on the floor, I never saw one. Given it was Fri. nite, you’d think there would be a manager visable.

Came here on date night few weeks ago and I forgot to write a review on this place. Oops! Well, I really like this place. It’s a hole in the wall type place with really great food and desserts. We had mussels, some kind of dumplings and of course for dessert– you have to get the chocolate mouse. Yum! I’m hoping that I get to come here again. Great customer service with a A+ on great food.

Coming from Detroit, I always appreciate a restaurant with bars on the windows. The décor was cute, and there was French music on the radio. We had lunch — the vegetarian sandwich, poulet sandwich, moules escargot (with fries) were all enjoyed. The beer list is extensive — I had a Chimay white, which is on tap. Yum. Service was very friendly.

Friday the 13^th of May 2011
The Mr. and I wanted something to munch on after coffee and tea so we
rode our bikes up here on a beautiful, cool night and took a seat outside on the patio. But before that, I took a few steps inside to locate an employee to let them know of my existence. I made eye contact with 2 ppl, smiled, and told them I’ll be outside.
A good 10 mins passed before the very same waiter I acknowledged came out to bring us menus. … … …
Mussel Metinaire* – he said it sucked balls. Not even a hint of flavor. What a waste of $ 20
House pâté – …ehh…it was ok. Very jelly-​fied but I made myself eat it anyway. $ 7.99
The best thing was the bathroom. Clean, spacious, and I truly appreciated the design on the molding of the door.
Food is kinda expensive for normal entrees.
Bad service and food was nothing special. Won’t be back.
I had such high hopes too. Been wanting to go here for the longest time.
The owners (so it seems) did come out to smoke and said hello. Lady was wearing flip flops and a tank top with an apron.

Wide selection of Belgian beer. Food is just like the old Café Montrose — the grilled ribeye with mushroom sauce, mussel with cream sauce, and cream croquette are great.
I think I picked the wrong time to come here — Friday night — the place is jam packed. Have to wait for 1 hour until we finally get the main course on the table.

The food is Amazing!
Having been to Brussels Belgium on a number of occasions I have to say this is as close as you can get. Unless you wish to fly to Belgium.
I was presently surprised to find that the owners are from Brussels as well. Which adds to the homemade food.
For starters we tryed out the mussels and a I forget the name but a fried fondue as well. I’m not big on mussels but these were mouth watering and the marinade was delicious. And the fondue was eaten up quickly.
I orderd the filet mignon with peppercorn sauce. It literally took me back to Belgium. The steak was tender and moist and cooked to perfection, and the peppercorn sauce was Magnificent!!! I missed out on the frites and homemade mayo but the looks on my table guests faces spoke for themselves. Perfect!
I also orderd the Belgian mousse, each bite was mouth watering. I plan to try the chocolate crepes next time.
Do not let this place pass you by and don’t you pass it by.
You won’t regret eating here.

From outside, the restaurant is charming. You can see through the windows: of people enjoying their dinner and conversing. We went during dinner so the the place was lit with candles that gave it a warm feeling. There was elaborate décor of artwork on the ceiling and walls… interesting.
Beer: Tripel Karmeliet beer
** — — - GREAT BEER!!! I highly recommend. This Belgian Abbey Style Tripel ale has a robust smooth, fruity, excellent balance of sweetness and bitterness. For and 8% beer, alcohol is virtually non-​present in the taste, but leaves a warming feeling in the finish along with a dash of hoppiness.
Appetizer: Canapé de Champignons $ 7
Sautéed mushrooms in garlic butter on toast
** Bread was drenched in butter! Mushrooms were good though
Entrée: La Complet Belge $ 24
Marinière+Frites+Stella Artois (Mussels, Fries, and Stella Artois Beer)
** When they brought out the pot of mussels and opened the top. The smell of the steamed onions, white wine, celery combined with the mussels was WONDERFUL! It was so anxious to to eat one!!!
Dessert: Crêpe Suzette $ 10
Served with an orange reduction and vanilla ice cream.
** Not recommend, the orange peel flavor was very strong and overpowering. The ice cream was good however!
Service: being that it was a Saturday night, it was busy but I was in a good mood so I wasn’t expecting super great service. The owner was working hard and meeting expectations of almost every table. I have a lot of appreciation for that. However, it did look like they were maybe 1 or 2 people short of staff. Maybe that would help run things more efficiently? Nonetheless, service wasn’t bad.

I honestly didn’t expect such a bad service experience here. Our waitress was actually very friendly, and drinks were refilled and all that. However, my family and I sat down and the owner came over and immediately said «WE ARE OUT OF MUSSELS.» Of course we came for mussels and pomme fritte, but she went on about how the supplier is not reachable etc so we had to order something else.
We ordered avocado hummus for an appetizer. We even asked for it to come first. Well, it came after the meal 20+ minutes later. They gave us 4 pieces of pita bread for a huge bowl. My mom asked for more. The waitress ran to the back and came back and said, «We are out of pita. Sorry, the chef said. blah blah» so my mom interrupted and asked for bread of any sort, so she brought baguette. It was just mushed avocado mixed with hummus — nothing special.
Because I was not allowed to order mussels, I ordered an endive salad. I love endive and the menu just said «Belgian endive salad with Dijon vinaigrette» — but it was covered in bacon when I got it! Who doesn’t list meat on a salad menu description?! Every restaurant I have been to lists if there is meat. Well, I don’t eat pork (surprise from my previous reviews) so I asked for a new salad. What I got a few seconds later was the same salad with bits of bacon mixed under the lettuce and the rest removed from the top. So I was picking it out and lost my appetite.
A table that came in after us was seated just behind my family. A few minutes after I gave up on my salad and nibbled at the baguette, our waitress delivered 3 steaming hot bowls of MUSSELS and said, ‘Here are your mussels! Everyone ordered them didn’t they?” So of course we asked why they ordered them but we were told they were out! The waitress apologized over and over and said they only had enough for 5 people so they didn’t offer them to us but let the later table order them???
This place was a huge disappointment. Whoever wrote the article in the Houston Press must have had too many Stellas before walking in. Ugh.

This place closes at 2:30 but Mike Z got here right before that, said he had one more coming so they kept it open just for us. Great way to start this off this visit.
And since they were staying open for us, I didn’t bother browsing through the menu and just asked Mike what the Unilocalers liked. He said the mussels so I ended up getting the half order of mussels in escargot sauce and wow, just wow. I’ve never had mussels prepared like this before and I have to hand it to them, they’re damn good.
A different experience from a lot of the other reviews since we came so late but they gave us terrific service and there was free wi-​fi to accompany it, can’t go wrong with that.

I’m definitely coming back here. Heck, I’m still here doing some work along with William V. What I like about this place is that it’s not stuffy and it’s not grungy either. You take it as you like and the décor is collective of antiques, bikes, international influence and beer branding.
Just like everyone else has said, the mussels here are pretty damn awesome. They are meaty, tasty and not «fishy.» Get the es cargo butter to go along with it and you have yourself a meal. Their hummus is a nice bite also to go along with it. They have a bunch of business hours, as you can see posted above but we came in at 2:30 when they were closing and politely let us stay and work, so that was really nice. I’m not saying, come during their off hours as there is no one else here but they aren’t being intrusive either so I respect that.
They have a fairly french style menu so if you’re in the mood for a bistro type meal, come this way. I like that it’s off the beaten path of Washington but I can see the potential of the area around this café will be booming soon enough. Support the local restaurants. They are what keep the hope of an eccentric Houston style here instead of constant mainstream dining.

Food: 3.5÷5
Ambiance: ³⁄₅
Services: ³⁄₅
Prices: $$$ (avg 20/​person)
Arrived here on Friday nite around 8.15pm, it was very crowded with 2 big parties that are just winding down. We were ushered to the bar to have a drink & appetizer while we wait for the table. After 20mins, still no sign of a table available, then 35mins later we got a table next to the window, so, that was nice. First, my partner really like the interior and again it made us feel like we are NOT in Houston, somewhere in Europe! So well done Catherine… So far, there’s 2 restaurants that manage to give us «that» feeling, this and Bistro des Amis!
Now back to the review… Catherine was out and the staff was in full force cleaning and serving. Overall, our dining experience here took over 2 hours, heres why:
15mins for our Appetizer — Beignet de Poulet (aka chicken fingers), soft & tender, not bad but nothing special.
35mins to be seated
35mins for our entrée — i had the La Moule Roquefort. Very good, the melted Roquefort sauce was not too rich nor overpowering the mussels, could have give more greens to go with it. But enough golden & crispy fries to dip with the leftover sauce, i actually devoured all the fries by myself. My partner had the Cordon Blue with peppercorn sauce. Again, another winner, tender chicken breast with not too much stuffing over lightly prepared sauce, not too thick (the sauce and the chicken), just right!
We do not have a specific waiter, so we didnt get any water refill. I asked for the bill and after 20mins, I decided to get my lazy ass up to the bar and asked from the bar tender instead. Paid and left…
So, will i recommend people to come, YES, will I come back, YES and maybe for brunch instead or wait till the weather get cooler so we can sit outside and enjoy the La Moule Mariniere with the white wine sauce/​soup that cooked in it and pomme frites… now thats a piece of Belgium experience!

Friday night, I came with a group of 30 or so to the Broken Spoke Café for a wine sampling event. The Broken Spoke Café is one of few places in Houston that has no corkage fee.
We brought in wines from Chile. We had more than a dozen wines to choose from, for more than 3 hours, we sampled wine to our hearts content.
We had the most helpful attentive cheerful waiter ever, Ozzie. With a group of our size, that is a enormous feat for one person. I had the Philly cheese sandwhich. The meat was tender, well seasoned, and delicioso!
The restaurant owner, Roy, went above and beyond to ensure that we had a good wine sampling event. It was a pleasure working with him.
Many of the members thought it was a unique place. Several asked how I learned about the Brokenspoke Café, and I credited
for introducing me to this café. The café was new to them; it makes sense they’ve only been open for five months. ;o)
They are about to get their alcohol license. They might not be BYOB for much longer.