Aviator Pizza & Drafthouse — Restaurant in Austin

TL;DR: Poor service and poison ivy on the playground. Families should go to Home Slice instead.

I'd heard good things about Aviator and was looking forward to finally dining in. Turns out it's just another chain, like a Flying Saucer mixed with a Pizza Hut. That's not a bad thing, provided you keep your service expectations low. They're not interested in your experience at Aviator Pizza.

Based on recommendations from other families, we planned to host our child's birthday party on their patio by the playground. I called in and spoke to Araceli, the GM, and sent an email just letting them know when and how many people. We'd buy food, and the guests would get drinks and additional food as they liked. They responded via email and said they "will make sure we have 4 tables for your party."

When we arrive, I ask the staff at the counter which tables we should use, and they tell us it's just first-come-first-serve. I show them the email from their GM, and they just shrug and say they don't reserve tables and have no way to do it even if the GM said they would. It was only luck that we found a group leaving when we arrived. Perhaps it was just the mid-day crew on a weekend, but the younger staff working the counter was more interested in their own conversations than helping their customers. It's also very telling when the staff shrug off promises made by their manager.

Then we were told about the poison ivy.

A fenced-off section by a drainage pipe occupies a large corner of the patio. It being only about 10 feet from the tables, several kids were playing nearby and a staff member with vampire veneers (it's October, so that's fine) came out to tell us that we shouldn't touch it because it's all poison ivy. We were surprised that they would knowingly have poison ivy growing 20 feet from a playground. I understand some plants grow wild, but why not remove it or just put up a sign? I didn't get a chance to ask because that was the only time anyone from the staff spoke to us.

For a place that touts its local roots, the experience was very disappointing and felt more akin to the impersonal treatment one would get at a Gattis. I even tried to follow up with the GM twice and still have not heard back. It's a shame because their beer selection is decent and the pizza is very good. But for families, you will have a far better experience at Home Slice or Pinthouse where the staff are helpful and they don't keep dangerous plants on their...

This place reminds me of a cold warehouse with its atmosphere. The cashier was great. Very friendly. However, I found it very odd they do not accept cash. At all. She could not give me a reason as to why or when they started doing this. They were extremely expensive for one large pie, 1 glass of wine, one child’s milk and one soda it was $57. We sat outside next to there awesome children’s playground. Their one redeeming quality. As we sat there a man began caution taping off half the tables and started painting them. While customers were eating. Nothing like the smell of paint stain and pizza while you are eating. When the pie arrived it was medium warm with clumps of cheese thrown haphazardly not fully covering the very bland sauce. It desperately needed salt and reminded me or canned salt free tomato sauce. That sauce was very thin and the real tomatoes were limp but not cooked. The dough wasn’t cooked thoroughly. We left most of it on the tray. The wine was expired. Long expired. A house born that had obviously been opened too long and should have been thrown out. I could have asked for a replacement, but at that point so much was wrong with our experience I didn’t want to begin a complaint with management. It was best to just let the child play and then go on our way. 2 stars for the small playground. Will not eat there again. Would visit again if I could bring my own food. Might go and just drink the Austin and Texas only beer that is offered on their list which is extensive. This may be your spot if you would like to imbibe only. Afterwork or on a weekend perhaps. Kid and dog friendly. Dogs outside only. Long picnic like tables inside and out. Bathrooms are decent and clean. Loud music inside making it hard to hear with TVs inside. 2 TVs in the partial patio outside. The gentlemen performing the painting at 5pm on a Thursday afternoon and the food was what took the cake and tilted the scales for me. Do not recommend for food...

Started with Focaccia Classic Mozzarella. Very good, loved the dough used for the crust, would probably add garlic. Side of red sauce comes cold, not a fan of temp but good flavor.

Next had the Zilker salad, great flavor. If having before pizza it comfortably feeds 3 people. Wish we had a chosen a sweeter dressing option, we chose Italian vinaigrette and it really didn't go with the salad.

2 people at the table had Calzones. Both were good. Pepperoni & Sausage with added bacon and Sausage, Spinach and garlic. I would not have added bacon, to me it didn't add anything to the Pepperoni & Sausage. I felt like there was too little sauce not well distributed, I would stick with pizza. The Sausage, Spinach and garlic tasted great but again cheese and sauce felt unevenly distributed.

We had Major Tom and Buffalo Chicken pizza for the rest of the table. Again loved the flavor and texture of the crust. Major Tom was perfect as is, I am not a fan of mushrooms but I even liked them on this pizza. Buffalo chicken base was fine but it did not taste very much like buffalo chicken and I think they may have completely forgot the drizzle because other than 1 or 2 bites I had no sense of eating a buffalo pizza, more like a onion pizza with a white sauce base. There was plenty of chicken on it just didn't taste like buffalo.

We tried many of the natural soda (Stubborn) flavors. Root beer was a strong flavor. My favorite was black cherry. Overall good experience until the skies opened up and made eating outside less enjoyable. Not yet certain if we will return.

We loved the option to sit at the table and order via app and pay at the table. It was nice to be able to share the order link so everyone could order for themselves. Great for groups to be able to...