Azul Italian Kitchen

We came on a Thursday at 5:30 for my Mom's birthday. The manager/owner told us one side was closed due to not enough servers. OK, really didn't ask. There was an unpleasant smell, not sure what it was but it was bad. Things kept getting worse...I asked about Happy Hour drinks and the waitress had no idea when it was. The manager was right there and told her as did I because I saw the menu and knew it was until 6:00. HH is good, $3 house wines. He asked me if I wanted a job. Kinda rude saying that right in front of her, poor thing was new and trying her best.
We ordered the cheese sticks and they were good. Bread was never brought out so I guess they don't have complimentary bread?? We all placed our orders and she read it back to us. It was good so we waited. She brought out salads, mine was missing. The house salad was good, came with cranberries and a yummy house dressing. Entrees came...my husband didn't get one. She got out her notebook and said "that's why I asked if it was correct". She finally realized she had messed up and not put in two of the same thing. We were all finishing our meals and he finally got his chicken parmesan. My chicken dish was really good but it was given to my Mom first and she was so confused on who got what. She offered us a free dessert since she messed up and since it was my Mom's birthday we took her up on it. While we were waiting, we asked for two to-go boxes. The bus boy was clearing the dishes, my Mom was paying attention to my one year-old daughter and before you knew it, her half eaten meal was taken away. We tried getting his attention but it was too late. He never asked if she was done and if he could take her plate. He apologized and offered to buy her another one out of his own pocket. We told him no, it was ok.
My frustration with the whole experience was that management never came over or followed up with us. The waitress was new and if she had been properly trained or shadowing someone these mistakes would not have been made. The food was good, but the experience was terrible. I will not be back. 2 Stars for food quality and the nice but clueless waitress.

We tried this place and were very disappointed.
All the food was so salty that we could not eat it, even the dish from the kids menu was beyond the normal amount.

I'm giving them 2 stars because the bus boy noticed that all the plates were uneaten and told the manager that gave us a discount.

The service was good but unfortunately the food was disappointing!

Edit: added a star because returned to phenomenal service, friendly bartender making delicious dirty martinis, and had amazing calamari with 2 sauces - robust marinara and a thin tasty garlic one.
1st visit: We came for happy hour bites and drinks, ordering $3 jumbo margaritas and the $5 Cubano sandwich special with some nachos. The margarita is pretty standard to any Cypress house margarita but the Cubano sandwich pork tasted old--sort of the flavor food gets when it's uncovered in the fridge. The nachos were superior to many Cypress spots (see photo) with a dominating tomato salsa and 2 types of cheese. The service was 5 stars with the same lady working the bar plus tables and checking with us after each item delivered.

So there was a gray little Italian restaurant here a few months ago. They apparently closed up shop and opened this place.

BE FOREWARNED THIS IS A TAPAS RESTAURANT.

okay that being said they have some huge issues there. They have zero direction. Zero.

They have Italian, Spanish, American, sandwiches, tire center...okay no tires. But I'm surprised they didn't do tires. So I was going to go for their "Tex mex" fajitas and was informed that it was tapas style and not as large portion as I would be used to. But it was still 22 bucks. The carbonara was a whopping 4 oz of pasta. Just no thanks. Before we ordered we just politely said no thanks and walked out.

If I'm going to spend 60 bucks on dinner with no drinks, I'll go to a steakhouse and enjoy the plethora of food there.

Maybe small expensive mini meals is your thing, if so then this is the place for you. If not, well you know the drill.

Great place! Staff is always super nice and the food is delicious. Lots of good wine to select from.
Try the crab cakes - soooo tasty

I used to love this place and went there many times and sat at the bar and read during the day. I hadn't been there in a long time, but got food delivered through Door Dash a week or so ago. I seriously wish I hadn't. This is a picture of the caprese salad from there. I have had it MANY times there, so I know they know better. Yes, believe it or not that is not fresh mozzarella cheese. That would be regular mozzarella cheese cut from a block. I had been craving that caprese salad and was so disappointed. What a shame. I will certainly miss their chicken Piccata. It was the best around here. I won't be going back.

I will rate based on my meal and my service. I loved my rigatoni pasta... the garlic flavor was just right, the steak was marinated and was so flavorful, I loved the broccoli and spinach in there as well. Very tasty dish. My friend ordered the fettuccine and it would have been perfect if there was more garlic and sauce but the noodles themselves were cooked well (al dente)... nothing worse than overcooked pasta so no need to worry about that here.

My server was amazing! It was a busy night but that didn't stop Giovanni from being attentive and working quickly. He was charismatic and really took the time to explain the dishes and listen to us. It was impressive how he could manage to find and create a moment of stillness amidst the commotion. Thanks for a great night, Giovanni!

*update* I went back a few months later hoping for a better experience and unfortunately the food has gotten as bad as their service. My fettuccine wasn't even made with fettuccine noodles and the sauce was a different recipe than before and is not appealing. We won't be back.

Great service and good food. Had stuffed mushrooms as appetizer and they're delicious. I had Linguine Genovese - linguine with scallops and shrimp (picture below). It's good, but I don't really care much for the capers. It makes the sauce too salty for me. My husband had the eggplant Parmesan. He liked it except the sauce is too creamy and not the regular marinara sauce. All in all, we will be back and try different dishes.

I want to give this place more than 3 stars... But I just can't.

The good:
-Our server was excellent and super attentive
-The portion sizes were just right. I could eat all of my food and was perfectly full. Any more would have been too much and any less and I would have been sad. And it was a great price for the amount of food
-The food came out quickly and the time between entres was perfect
-Free hot bread and dipping oil
-Lots of vegetarian options!!
-Bruschetta was excellent! Highly recommend!

The not-so-good:
-Fettuccini was low on salt/seasoning in general
-The wine sauce on my pasta was pretty watery/thin and slid right off the pasta. I had to make an effort to dip my pasta in the sauce (pasta isn't made for dipping!) and then had a lot of sauce just left over at the bottom of the plate
-The tiramisu was missing a lot of something. The flavors were just not right and it didn't taste enough like coffee and had an almost alcoholy taste (maybe Kahlua?) and the chocolate sauce definitely tasted like just Hershey's chocolate syrup. Super super disappointed because I'm generally a huge fan of tiramisu but this one just wasn't good.