Ninfa’s Mexican Cafe

Save your hard earned money and go to your local taqueria or Mexican food restaurant folks as it is far better than this money trap. The cheese enchiladas I was served were not real Mexican food. They were lukewarm with little green peppers dotting the the cheese and the rice and beans tasted like they came from a can as did the salsa, which I am sure they did. No Tip. Avoid this place folks and utilize the hundreds of wonderful and authentic Mexican food restaurants all over Houston.

Fajita wasn’t good at all… My server charged me 60.40 when my bill was actually 34.64 and I told him and he told me he voided it. I didn’t take my receipt I signed it. A week later I checked my bank statement and they charged me BOTH OF THOSE. Called there and asked to speak to the manager and she said she can not help me bc the server is off for the weekend. She asked if I still had my receipt which I don’t and she said she can’t help me. So basically I was charged 3x my actually amount and she can’t fix it and the food and service was not
Great what so ever… GREAT.

Never tried this before. Was very impressed with the variety and the tortillas were the best that I liked. Will go back to location again.

Absolutely disgusting. Fajitas for one and queso 50 dollars. Service was awful. Do not go here.

I come here during my lunch break. I had their tortilla soup which was really good. I think it’s interesting how they have a plate of toppings, so that you can add what you want in the soup. Makes sense, soup won’t get soggy. Their service is attentive, but at times when you are ready to leave and pay, takes awhile to get their attention.

Wrong order came out. $ 15.99 for fajitas for one and not worth it. Wanted spicier salsa and was told it would be extra $ 3.49. TV was blaring with staff watching THEIR shows. I asked them to turn it down as it was overwhelming and got a bad look. They have forgotten customer service. Manager was in sweatshirt and jeans — watching TV. There is huge management and personnel issue here. Ninjas used to be one of my favorites but now I just don’t think they care. If all of this was occurring in front of me, I can’t imagine what was happening in the kitchen where I couldn’t see… Sadly, I will not every enjoy the old Ninfas again. I won’t be back to this or any Ninfas location.

Dirty restaurant. Floors slippery with grease. Paper shreds and trash debris in customer view behind counter area near bathrooms. Food was average. We asked the waitress for hot water for tea and she brings a 24 oz large plastic water glass filled with scalding hot water. No lid. We have small children and this was definitely dangerous. Not sure what she was thinking. Then we clarified that we needed a coffee cup with hot water. She brings back an empty cup and expects us to pour the hot water from the big plastic cup into the other one. The owners need to start caring more about cleanliness and teaching staff how to care for customers.

Horrible service! The guy who sat us was rude and extremely sweaty. The waitress didn’t place our order correctly. One meal was never served. The manager seemed to not care when I tried talking to him. Very disappointed with the food as well. The beef fajita meet was flavorless and very dry ! Not eating here again

You cannot go wrong with Ninfa’s! We sat in front of the ice skating rink and it was lovely. We were seated right away where we requested and our server was quick to take our orders. I had the El Dannie and it was great. My husband had the burrito and loved it. They have complimentary chips and salsa. It was around $ 30 for the 2 of us, not bad at all. We were stuffed. We will be back!

Great mango margaritas! The food is well seasoned with great flavors. I really like the red sauce with nacho chips; it was delicious!!!

Staff was rude when I asked for extra jalepenos and was full of attitude. Constant bad service at the Ninfa’s near Nordstrom. The food isn’t that good either for the price.

I’ve been a patron of the Houston Galleria shopping center for over two-​decades. Ninfa’s was a staple sit-​down restaurant near the center court ice-​rink. This is a satellite of the original Ninfa’s concept. (Visit Houston and you’ll get lots of recommendations for «the original Ninfa’s on Navigation».) The name is where the similarity ends. I’ve dined at this location on and off over the years, but felt compelled to write this review because the quality has just gone done to disappointment. My most recent visit was a Saturday evening. I was dining alone and was sat at a sort of an odd table inside the restaurant, not the ‘patio’ overlooking the ice rink. That was fine. However, I almost got my head taken off by sizzling platters of fajitas coming by a couple of times. The service was polite and attentive, but too fast. Way too fast. I think I spent 25 – 30 minutes in the restaurant total. I was immediately presented the traditional basket of crispy tortilla chips with red salsa and Ninfa’s green sauce. I ordered a half-​order of Queso and the El George platter (cheese enchilada & chicken flauta platter).
The Queso had barely been delivered when my entrée was dropped.
The Queso was a huge disappointment. I was reminded of the french-​restaurant scene from ‘National Lampoon’s European Vacation’. It looked like the cook opened a can of cheese sauce from Costco, put a glob in a plate, and microwaved it. No peppers, no chiles, no tomatoes. Just plastic, orange cheese, that quickly congealed back to it’s Flubber-​like original form. It was presented with some additional thick, tasteless, flour tortilla ‘chips’.
My entrée was OK. The re-​fried beans and rice were pretty unremarkable. But I do love a traditional tex-​mex cheese enchilada with the ‘gravy’.
Next time, I’ll probably go to Chili’s on the other end of the ice rink, or even Taco Bell a couple of storefronts down. In total, this location just wasn’t worth the money and didn’t represent Mama Ninfa’s old reputation.

When we order our food we told the waitress we wanted vegetables instead
of chicken. She said she could do it but manager of Ninfa’s in galleria food court was stubborn and told us dish comes with chicken only and we accepted it. The food was very bland and tasteless. We requested vegetables to be brought out to us and they were old and stale. We questioned why there was a $ 1.00 charge on the check and we told it was of the vegetables. The manager would not take it off.
My recommendation is Los Cucos Mexican Café.
We will never eat there again.

I’ve had well over my share of Mexican food, and this one is A B S O L U T E L Y the WORST!!!
Quality is just horrible! Taco Bell should be considered a 5 star restaurant compared to this place. I’ve had trouble keeping my food down all afternoon.
Also, don’t bother asking for hot sauce. They charge $ 3.50 or offer tabasco.
Service wasn’t quite up to par either. The waitress was nowhere to be seen after the food came out.
In short: Don’t go there!

We have been here before expecting decent Mexican food plus it is nice to eat while watching the ice skaters go by. However this time was it not so good. It started with bad service and a trip to a filthy restroom the size of an outhouse. I ordered beef fajitas and it was average. The meat was tasty but the rest was below par. It may have explained why only a handful of people were eating here. We paid our bill and left. Overall good choices of eating at the Galleria has declined over the past few years.

I was pretty excited when I seen there was a mexican restaurant inside the galleria, Not because I was hungry but because my wife was spending all my money shopping so i wanted to get drunk!
Little to my surprise the chips and salsa was just ok and the $ 12 «top shelf» margarita was all sour mix. I was going to order off of the menu but based on the quality i received in the first 15 mins of being here I decided to go to Chili’s instead.
I would have loved to leave this place more than 2 stars but it was just missing something.

Ok– not a big complainer– see other reviews. Ninfas… only the original location seems to be good. With that being said. I stand waiting to be seated for 5 minutes literally– and it is not busy.
I sit waiting for anyone to come by, 10 minutes and the busboy brings chips and salsa. «Amigo, where’s a waitress?» I can see count em, 7 people standing around the cashier station. Finally someone comes I get my margarita, but no water– maybe it’s coming. Another guy brings my food, Hey can I get another margarita and a water– sure. Never comes. Girl brings my ticket by. I guess they don’t want to sell me anything? Just strange. Is it because it is a mall location?

After paroosing the food court, we decided on this Mexican place.
We were seated immediately as it was a slow Monday evening at the Galleria.
As we were looking at the menu, it was very weird when on the menu the enchiladas were described as covered with beef gravy. What happened to enchilada sauce? It just sounded disgusting.
There were some major highs at here and some major lows. The chips and salsa were awesome! Probably some of the best chips and salsa I have had in a long time. The chips were thin and came out hot, like they had just been made. The salsa was so good I could have drank it through a straw.
We ordered the Tacos El Carbon. Our waitress dumbed it down for us and asked beef or chicken. We ordered beef, thinking it was going to be either ground or shredded beef. To my surprise it was the most amazing chargrilled skirt steak! The skirt steak was very good! The tortilla that it was wrapped in was too heavy and greasy. We ended up taking the steak out of the tortilla and eating the steak on its own.
It came with rice and beans. They were not good at all. Both lacked flavor.
The prices were very high for a Mexican restaurant. They felt very highly of their food and the prices reflected that.
If I ever came back here I would just eat chips and salsa, and order a pile of the skirt steak.

A-​OK Tex-​Mex. Not the best but not the worst. I work in the Galleria and it’s nice to go somewhere for lunch for some quick and reasonably priced fajitas. The service is extremely fast and attentive.
The steak fajitas are surprisingly tender and flavorful. The chips and salsa are also good, but you don’t have a lot of time to get too full from them.

Ok, so when you go to a restaurant for a meal, you have to have the right expectations. This is a Ninfa’s but it’s in the Galleria and faces the ice skating rink. So, should this be the most amazing Mexican-​Texas Mex you’ve ever had? Probably not. Take it for what it is — an easy place to get lunch that isn’t a burger.
My husband’s office is in an attached office building to the Galleria, so the easiest place for us to meet for a quick lunch is IN the Galleria. I do not want to eat Chick-​fil-​A or McDonald’s, so this is one of the few places in Galleria I that is an option for a sit down meal.
There are two options for seating. You can either side on the «patio» which is basically people watching central by the ice skating rink, where everyone can watch you eat. Or you can sit inside where the music is a little too loud.
For lunch, they have a bunch of lunch specials, almost all of which include two items (enchilada & taco or flauta & puffy queso) with rice and beans. There are also some items like a chimicanga or a small ¼ pound of fajitas. The lunch options weren’t very pricey, but they were also not very filling.
Our service was very good. Our server was quick, polite, and constantly refilled our drinks. I’d go back because it’s an actual restaurant and it’s in Galleria I and there aren’t many of those.