Jessica S.'s Profile

When this opened down South, I was ecstatic because I loved the place at the Triangle where I used to live close to.

I am a sucker for their margherita pizza and all the pasta dishes have always been yummy. Only downside is they seem to always be out of bread and every time we have to flag someone down to get some. But it's worth it, their bread is amazing.

I eat here at least once a week and have yet to be disappointed. It is hard finding good reliable places for dinner southside.

I usually get the tikka masala with chicken or paneer and a order of garlic bread. Awesome comfort food. The portions are big, I always end up taking home leftover curry and naan.

I took my fiance here for dinner/sunset. The decor is very modern and fresh, and a lot classier than the ruckus going on at the Oasis next door.

The service was wonderful, but almost overly concerned about how we were doing. We were greeted by two waiters and a manager who kept stopping by...over and over.

The calamari and bread we had before our meal were great. But for dinner, I ordered the fettuccine, and I have a feeling this was culprit of my subsequent stomach issues the rest of the night. When I took the first bite, I could tell the seafood was not the freshest in the world. The lobster tasted almost canned and the shrimp were extremely salty. This lent a strange fishy flavor (I love seafood by the way) to the sauce. My fiance's carbonara fared better but there was far too much sauce and the noodles were overcooked. After breaking the egg, it turned into a soggy mess.

It is very disappointing that a restaurant with such amazing views and ambiance had such subpar food. That's pretty much the verdict with all the restaurants in this compound.

I came here with my fiance and another couple hoping to have a pleasant late dinner on the Riverwalk around 9pm. The first red flag should have been that while the rest of the restaurants were packed, this place had lots of empty tables.

You would think empty tables = faster seating right? There were 4-5 tables out on the patio that were empty when we arrived. 40 minutes later, they were still empty and we were seated at one of them. This was after 40 min spent at the bar upstairs with our seating beeper, starving, then finally eating the nastiest baked cheese (Queso Flameado) we had ever seen. This stuff was floating in unidentifiable grease (more grease than cheese) and had to be cut with a knife and fork because it was tough as leather.

I ordered the tortilla soup and house salad for dinner. The tortilla soup was like drinking a bowl of salt and the house salad was absolutely soaked with dressing that was far too sweet. It was like the chef spilled a bottle of sno cone syrup. To top it all off, a roach ran across my foot and across my purse. My friend wasn't feeling well and this situation and the food certainly did not help. The couple left to go lie down back at the hotel mid dinner.

This all made for a very frustrating night. The hostesses and servers were smiling and pleasant, but we felt very misled about the wait and the food let us down.

The wait [- 1 star]
Nasty cheese [- 1 star]
Dinner [- 1 star, should be more because the rest of my party thought their food was mediocre for the price but I can't give zero ratings here]
Roach [- 1 star]

I went with a group of friends to catch up and have some good food.  Unfortunately, we picked the wrong restaurant to do so.

After we were seated, it took 20 minutes for our drinks to arrive, and over an hour hour for the food to start slow trickling out.  We had finished all the bread and our server didn't even bother refilling our basket.  Waiting an hour and half for food is absolutely ridiculous.  If a restaurant cannot adequately handle that many patrons, they should stop seating people.

When my escolar and gnocchi came out, the fish was lukewarm with cold spots.  At that point, I was hungry and didn't want to send it back and risk waiting another hour for it to return.  Apparently that was a mistake because I became violently sick the next day.

I had high hopes and enjoyed the decor, but I'm afraid I will not be returning.  This would have been a one star rating, but those in the group who did receive hot food were happy with it.

I have brought my dog Lyla here a few times for daycare and a weekend stay.  The staff were extremely patient with my very shy and nervous dog.  Now when we pull into the driveway, she is super excited and hyper.  She has definitely really warmed up to this place which is amazing.

Glad I found a great place for my dog to be able to get out of the house and socialize.  I live in Austin, work near Bastrop, and Happy Mailman is in Oak Hill.  It's a 35 mile drive each way to pick and drop her off for daycare, but it is worth it to bring her here!  I have tried pet sitters and did evaluations with other kennels and nowhere else made me feel comfortable that she was happy, engaged, and safe.

What happened?  The first two times I came here I had a great experience, especially in the patio area with the lights and band playing.  Both times I remember the place being packed and having to wait for a table.

My last visit was on a Saturday evening, normally a busy time for restaurants.  The place wasn't even a quarter full, no one on the patio, and with no A/C...eating hot food was miserable.  Service was great, the food was ok but nothing to call home about, and I left kind of disappointed.  It just seemed a drastic shift from my previous experiences where I would've rated this place 5 stars.

This is my go-to pet supply store now that I have a dog.  The Pet Club discount is awesome and so worth it because I buy $45+ worth of food a month for the pooch+ 3 birds.

And for review below by Dale B., Petsmart is much cheaper because they carry the crappy brands that are bad for your animals.  Of course food with by-products and high fructose corn syrup as the first two ingredients are going to be inexpensive.

Edit: Just saw Tomlinson's reply to Dale, bad customer, great store!

Just an update...

I've been running into more bad experiences lately, which is a shame because we love this park.

1.  I've had to turn around and drive to Zilker park twice because of the lack of parking and some assholes who drove agressively in the lot and cut the line.

2.  My dog was cornered and harassed by several dogs owned by two women who were not paying attention/not caring at all because they were too involved in their gossiping.  These were 50lb dogs, my poor thing is only 20lbs.  This pack was relentless and these women watched my dog whimpering under the park bench yet did NOTHING.  Shame on people like them who refuse to be responsible.

I really wanted to like this place.  There is one up in Plano, TX that is awesome.  Everything there is super fresh, great selection, and tons of people shop there despite there being an Kroger/Albertsons/Walmart nearby.

So when they opened this one in Austin, I was thrilled.  Only problem is there isn't enough people shopping here for good turnover.  My produce always seems not as fresh as HEB and starts going bad a day after I bring it home.  I have learned not to buy anything that isn't a weekly special in the ad because more than likely it has been sitting there for a few days.

I was willing to let this slide, as other places like Sun Harvest have the same issue.

But this past week, I have gotten so frustrated I doubt I will be shopping there again.

1.  I bought a box of brownies to bring to work.  Several of them had pieces of RUBBER inside of them.  

2.  Instead of getting a frozen meal for lunch, I wanted to try one of their 'freshly' prepared options in the deli fridge.  I bought a pork chop with stuffing and vegetables.  I wish I hadn't been in a rush and looked it over first, because when lunch came around, I opened it up and fresh is definitely not a word I would use to describe it.  The pork chop looked like it was scraped off the bottom of a buffet tray, 2 days ago.  I was starving and tried to eat it anyways, but knew something was off, stopped, and  got a PopTart out of the vending machine instead.

Then my coworker pointed out the lid I had sitting on the table.  Lo and behold, someone had partially ripped off the sticker with the ingredients and sell by date and put another one on top of it.  How much do you want to bet the original sell by date was different?