Sazo’s Latin Grill

Ate Thanksgiving dinner here. Buffet style. The food was terrible. No pecan pie for dessert on Thanksgiving? The atmosphere, staff was bland and uninspiring. This quite frankly didn’t even resemble the restaurant I remember when I dined here years ago. The hotel itself seemed the same. Tired and outdated. Not sure what happened but my guess is the nearby Grand Hyatt has taken a lot of the Marriot’s business. Hate to write such a bad review on a day to be thankful and greatful for a blessed life but I call them as I see them. I won’t be back.

Food is terrible here. Ordered the rib eye and the thinnest piece of steak I have ever eaten was served here. The meat was absolutely terrible … No flavor at all. Wife ordered the snapper and waitress brought us a salmon … when told about it, she apologized and bought out the correct order later and compensated with a side salad. A small percentage discount was also taken off our final bill.
What a major disappointment … Not coming back here anytime soon!

Just grabbed a quick lunch here during a conference but it was good! I had the Corn Bread Salad with nothing added to it except the Zesty Vinaigrette dressing and it was tasty, fresh and satisfying. My lunch buddy had the club sandwich which he said was excellent. Service was very brisk. Décor very nice. I don’t feel that just having a salad is a great judge of the place but from what I saw and tasted, I would say it was well above average for hotel food.

I’m rating this purely for the breakfast buffet. I stayed at the hotel, on business trip, and ate their breakfast buffet a couple days. Loved the pancakes! So sweet and delicious. I ate every single bite before I could tackle the rest of my meal lol.
The buffet was priced regularly for hotel food, $ 20. What I liked about this one was that they had the usual continental, breakfast buffet, scrambled eggs, breakfast meats and biscuits and gravy but they also cooked to order pancakes on top of any style egg you want. Not all hotels offer amazing tasting pancakes as part of the buffet but they do lol.
Service is really fast and the coffee and OJ are amazing! I even took coffee to go because it was that good!
I will definitely drop by here again if in the area :)

Wanted an order to-​go and was promised only a 10 minute wait, which I still thought was too long for a quesadilla. Waited over 20 minutes for said quesadilla, which cost $ 10. The chicken was seasoned nicely and sides of guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo and salsa were included. It’s pretty large and was shared with several others.
Not really worth the price, but the closest other options are Denny’s (ick) or Fogo de Chao (even more expensive). When ordering to-​go, I’d recommend ordering from the room and picking up later.

My wife and I ate a dessert after a night on the riverwalk for our anniversary a few years ago. It was on the way up to our room.
Service was good and the quality of the dessert was amazing.
The El Diablo was split between the two of us.
It was an awesome experience for being a spontaneous after thought.

Just so you know, this place doesn’t really come close to resembling any kind of Latin Grill, but after a couple days of gross convention food, my tortilla salad felt gourmet and «Latin» by comparison. I actually came in hoping they have tacos, which some Unilocalers wrote about, but that may have been for dinner b/​c there were no tacos on the lunch menu.
I had about 15 minutes to grab lunch, and my options was this place, or food from the convention heating tables. I chose this place, figuring that no matter how bad, it couldn’t be worse than the convention food. The «salad» had a few strands of shredded lettuce, and had an abundance of cheese, refrained beans, along with a sprinkling of corn and onions (which I would have asked for without… it may not have been listed on the ingredients list). Guacamole and dressing came with the salad on the side. The taco shell the salad was served in was fresh and tasty with the guacamole… I just wish it dodn’t have so much retried beans with it. Service was a bit aloof, and the bill came way before I was finished.

Spectacular food with a waitress and chef making us feel welcome, we enjoyed the phenominal food and great service, thanks to our waitress Tina and Chef Isabel for serving and preparing a great meal. My wife had the special which was a shrimp enchilada and I had another special which included a soup/​salad and an entrée and a desert for 25 dollars, and we each had a cup of the best tortilla soup we’ve ever had… anywhere. I went with the tortilla soup, enchiladas verde, and the cinnamon roll bread pudding… alll of it was 5 star. We’ll definitely return, even if we’re staying at another hotel on the Riverwalk!
There are 2 Marriott’s side by side, Sazo’s is located on the 2^nd floor of the Marriott Rivercenter at 101 Bowie Street, yum yum!

We had our Thanksgiving dinner here. It was okay. The turkey and prime rib was dry and overcooked. They had most of the fixings like stuffing, mash potatoes, green beans with fried onion strings, & mushroom sauce (my favorite). You could order shrimp scampi – which was good. The pasta was el dente – so no bueno for me.
The desserts were okay. I think the bread pudding was the best. The pumpkin pie had too much cinnamon, the pecan pie had bits of chocolate and raspberry sauce drizzled on it. But I like my thanksgiving desserts the traditional way. Anyway it was way too pricey for what they had.

Beautiful venue. Nice spot for a romantic interlude. Ask to be seated in one of the booths. This restaurant needs to be on the riverwalk. Breakfast buffet offeres make to order omelets, pancakes and waffles. For dinner, try the chicken enchiladas, beans and rice or Sazo’s salad. For dessert, you have to get the bread pudding; it is delicious!

The absolute worst service we have ever experienced. the waitress said maybe three words to us. The food was ok at best. When it’s all said and done, it’s still a hotel restaurant. I would avoid this place because there are many more options close by.

I loved this place. As a vegetarian visiting Texas I wondered where I might find some good options and Sazo’s had two great ones so I ate there twice (in part because I was staying at the Marriott Rivercenter and it was convenient).
The ambiance is really nice. I was seated in a big comfy booth both visits and service was provided at a nice pace with regular, appropriately timed intervals.
The two veg dishes were a vegetable paella and a roasted poblano pepper — both delicious. The first was a bit salty but overall delicious and the second was outstanding especially if you like the spicy hot like I do. It wasn’t so spicy as to blow me away as a regular eater of such foods. I mention it as those not accustomed to spicy food may find it too much. Chips and salsa are included and yummy. I ordered lemonade each time and it is really good there — kinda sprizzly but not like it was carbonated. I can’t find the words to explain it but if you like lemonade you will like Sazo’s.

Sazo’s was a pretty cool looking restaurant. Normally in hotel’s (even with very nice/​up-​scale hotel eateries) you still feel like you’re in a hotel. This one felt like a contemporary restaurant in Mexico. It had great atmosphere and was very different than the rest of the hotel. I had a birthday dinner held here and although it was decorated beautifully once you walked in it was a little difficult to find (because there are two Marriott hotel’s right across the street from one another) «Why?» you ask… well it makes it easier to… it’s better for… well…I have no idea! Seems stupid if you ask me!
They reserved a beautiful «room» (sections are seperated by swags of fabric hanging from the ceiling — very elegant!) that was perfectly lit with candles. I loved it until I started interacting with the staff. There was nobody else in the restaurant except for my group of 20 people — ages 20 – 35 — and once they realized it was a younger crowd the service went downhill. They were fine when I first walked in so why the change in attitude? We were all sitting around and talking and having drinks until the majority of our party showed up (about 45 – 1 hour later) which I didn’t aniticipate being a problem seeing as we were the only ones there! Our food took FOREVER to come out and our checks took even longer. They ended up closing and we were waiting almost 45 minutes for checks after we were already finished and the bussers kept looking at us like we wanted to sit there after closing! Atmosphere only makes up for so much of the whole dining experience. How you treat your guests (no matter how old they are) is way more important than a nice dining room with a few candles…
The prices were a little steep and the food wasn’t that great either. We all paid about 40 per plate once everything was said and done. Nothing about it was really exceptional… especially for the price we paid…

I ate lunch at Sazo’s two days in a row. I was staying in the Marriott Riverwalk hotel across the street. Sazo’s is located in the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel — which sits next to it’s sister hotel.
They offer a full menu of lunch and dinner items. But instead I opted for the Taco Buffet.
So you head up to this station and tell the chefs what kind of tacos you want — flour or corn — and what sort of protein: pork, fish, chicken, steak, Chorizo/​Bacon, etc. They heat up your tortillas and dish out some protein, hand you a plate and you then make your way to the buffet section where you dress up your tacos with a wide variety of stuff: more types of salsa than I have ever heard of, shredded cheese, diced onions, pico de gallo, sliced Serrano chiles, Guacamole, corn salsa, Tortilla soup, and a whole bunch of other sides and add ons.
First day I had one fish taco and one pork taco — both on flour tortillas. The second day — the same, but added a Chorizo/​Bacon taco to the mix. I added a variety of salsas to the side of one plate so that I could taste them all. They came in a wide array of gorgeous colors: yellows, greens, reds, browns, and mixtures of colors in between. The salsas were all served in rock mortars — which enhanced the experience — very cool looking! They all had interesting and unique flavors — some were hot, some were crisp and acidic, others more savory.
I also added some of the Serrano chiles to my tacos both days — I love hot food and man were these some hot chiles. I definitely got my burn on!
The bean soup and the tortilla soup were also very tasty. The Guacamole was decent — better than most restaurants.
They also offer a range of desserts with the Taco Bar — including some cheesecake offerings. I had no dessert either day though, I was to full.
It took a little while to get my bill rung out the second day, but other than that, a very enjoyable lunch experience! Wish we had something similar around here!

This restauant looks like it might be good;however my wife and I were seated in a booth and no waiter came after 10 minutes. We left without ordering.

I’m really not much of a fan of hotel restaurants. My view is that restaurants in hotels are the bailiwick of tourists and convention attendees too lazy, tired, or time-​constrained to leave the hotel in search of better food.
So, I’m happy to say that Sazo’s Latin Grill, on the 3^rd floor of the Marriott Rivercenter, is really a pretty good place to eat, which is a good thing, because (for reasons too boring to explain) I ate four meals there this past weekend while staying at the hotel, which is probably some sort of record for me and hotel restaurants.
The interior of the restaurant is actually quite swank — dark woods, cool Latin-​style light fixtures, burnt orange and teal accents, tables spread far apart, and in particular, a very cool glass wall filled with flickering candlelights.
There is only one menu for both lunch and dinner. Chips are served warm, and the fresh salsa is addictive. (The salsa wasn’t hot enough for one member of our party, so the chef whipped up another batch with chipotle peppers included — very nice). The tortilla soup (which they tout highly) is delicious — comes in a piping hot ceramic bowl, and is full of rich chicken stock, tomatoes, onions and peppers. Guacamole is prepared a la Cantina Laredo style — made by the server from fresh ingredients off a rolling cart. The fajitas are very good as well — served on a standard sizzling platter — it can be easily shared by two. Another standout was the fish veracruz — a light, flaky piece of fish with a slightly spicy, flavorful sauce.
In the mornings, there is a standard breakfast buffet — totally fine for hotel guests who get breakfast included in their room rate (good made-​to-​order omelets, lox and related fixins’, etc.) but I wouldn’t seek it out otherwise.
Service was really exceptional. The waiters were responsive, helpful, and all seemed genuinely happy to be working there. They are all trained to respond to «thank you» with «my pleasure,» which sounds a bit weird at first but kind of nice too.
The restaurant is very kid-​friendly (it looks too fancy for kid-​friendliness, but it really is) — they have crayons, activity sheets, and a kids menu that features carrot sticks, salad, fruit, or mixed steamed veggies as the sides. Your kids might not like it, but the parents will. And, in a first I’ve never seen anywhere else, the activity sheets have stickers that come with! Woo hoo! Actually, now that I think about it, I’m kind of depressed that the fact a restaurant has stickers for children is relevant to me, but oh well. Oh, and if you have completely psycho kids like I do, you can ask for one of the booths — they are completely padded throughout and appear to be sound-​insulated. Very helpful.
If you are staying at the Marriott Rivercenter, or if you have been walking around the Riverwalk for hours and are starving but can’t bring yourself to eat at any of the plethora of boring, overpriced, chain restaurants with a 2 hour wait (e.g. Rainforest Café, Landry’s, Joe’s Crab Shack, etc.), try Sazo’s.