The Met Athletic Center

Starting with the parking, there’s enough parking at the club to find a great spot. We hold our Houston City Beat mixers here every month and are beyond five star happy with the service. Ivette Garcia, Restaurant manager, and Carla Galo are very attentive to make sure that every guest has a full glass. Thomas Westbrook, the general manager, has always been great to work with and is very supportive with our initiative of bringing a community of entrepreneurs together. It’s also important to note that Executive Chef Julio Cisneros does a great job in making sure dishes coming out of the kitchen are always top notch. I’ve also met several of their trainers like Paul Rosner and Samantha Hernandez who are on top of their fitness training game. It’s a great club with a strong sense of community - just the way I love it!

I have been a member of the Downtown Club for over 40 years. I have seen a lot of positive changes over the years. The staff is amazing and the group fitness classes offer a wide range of choices with amazing instructors. Plenty of cardio machines as well as weight machines and free weights. The food is amazing right down to the smoothies. Highly recommend you go by and take a tour of the facilities.

Good gym with a decent variety of equipment. Gets busy right after work but mornings are pretty open. Locker rooms could use an update.

I joined The Met a few months ago to try it out and overall it was an ok option for a downtown gym. I will say that for the price point, I didn’t find value in the amenities. Lockers are not included and require an additional charge. I haven’t been part of a gym before that required a fee for a day use locker. I joined strictly for the gym access. This review is not reflective of the tennis membership. Pros: they have some Rogue and techno gym equipment and I never needed to wait for a machine. I would lift after work on weekdays and never saw more than 10 people around. Cons: need to pay for a locker, locker room is carpet which I found kind of gross, also found several roaches in the locker room the one time I used the sauna in the woman’s locker room, cardio equipment is nothing special but they have a lot of it and it gets the job done. There is a recovery room which I was told when you book it, you’re the only person who has access to it. That wasn’t true either. One time I was in there with the front door locked and someone, assuming the massage therapist, came in and proceeded to leave the door unlocked. When it was time for me to leave my recovery session, the door was unlocked and anyone could’ve walked in. It left me feeling uneasy because from what I was told when I joined, you have complete privacy in that area. The recovery room is an additional charge and although it’s a good price compared to places like Sudor, you’re better off joining Lifetime Downtown since the cold plunge is included and their locker rooms are much nicer. After I joined I found it difficult to get in touch with people for cancellation/billing issues. I’m still trying to get my final month’s statement corrected. Everyone that works at The Met is very nice but it just takes a while to get answers/responses and I catch myself having to follow up many times. I could never get the parking garage system set up to allow for easy entry and had to get a ticket validated every time. They can either give you a 2 hour or 4 hour ticket validation. One time I was at the gym for more than 2 hours, was only given a 2 hour validation ticket and when I left, I was prompted to pay the difference. When you call for help on the intercom system, they won’t help you because the garage management is separate from the gym so I had to reverse, park again, and go up to the gym to get the 4 hour validation. Now that I finished writing this review I remembered how frustrating being a member here was. The parking situation was really a hassle.

Lots of equipment and amenities tend to break consistently and are only fixed with band-aids - the men’s steam room in particular is awesome and one of the gym’s main assets that keeps some OG members from leaving. However, like most other things, this thing breaks all the time and is shut down for extended periods. Management neglects it, of course, and tend to only give lazy answers about the issue. The same goes for the “cold room” in the men’s locker room. This amenity has been shut down for over 2 years now and still has an “out of order” sign on the door. Things like this occur as the membership rate continues to climb… They currently have staffing issues and the cafe shuts down nearly 2 hours before its intended closing time. Food is OK at best when it comes to their healthy options. I have been a member for about 5 years now and I can assure you that it has always been like this. I will say that there are lots of great staff that I’ve built bonds with here as well as some great friends that are members. I’m just not sure that management has the gyms best interest in mind. A Lifetime membership is a lot more enticing these days especially with BCBS insurance membership discount.