Busy Signal — Restaurant in Austin

Disorganized, Misleading, and Not Worth the Money

I booked a reservation for Busy Signal’s Valentine’s Day pop-up bar through OpenTable, as advertised on their social media. Upon arrival, we were met with a long line—despite having a reservation—and were then told we had to pay an additional $20 per person just to enter but somehow that came out to $43 for the both of us. Once inside, we spoke to the host, who admitted they had to cancel our reservation without notifying us because the restaurant was rented out and Open Table did not block off times "as they were supposed to". They could have easily sent a mass text to ALL people who booked after the correct time to inform them they had no reservation, but NO. So, after paying to get in, we had no table and nowhere to sit.

One of the biggest disappointments was the food—we were so excited to try it, but because of how unorganized everything was, we didn’t get to eat a single thing.

The pop-up bar itself was overcrowded, uncomfortable, and nothing like the photos and videos they promoted. It felt more like a packed nightclub than a fun, themed experience. The seating options were tiny picnic tables with flimsy wooden chairs, which were somehow being sold for $200–$300+—absolutely ridiculous.

The host did offer a complimentary drink, which was appreciated, but it didn’t make up for the poor organization, misleading advertising, and overall disappointing experience.

If Busy Signal plans to do another event like this, they seriously need to rethink their approach. Their website and marketing should be clear and upfront about additional charges, seating arrangements, and how reservations actually work. As it stands, this event was a frustrating waste of time and...

Hi, I think sometimes it's good to talk about what's good and bad for better future. I love and enjoy being at busy signal but at this point I got so disappointed.

On the night of 30th November coming to 1st December, me and 2other friends went to Busy signal that night. My friends got some drinks on the counter and later on we decided to get a hookah , since you can't buy hookah without a table we decided to join a group of guys next to us so we can put the hookah on their table only.

I immediately paid that hookah which I remember well was around 40$ + tax & tip went up to 50.4$. I was surprised after couple days (2-3days) to see a charge of 504.69$ from Busy Signal. I tried to call them no body responded . So last weekend I decided to go back there to get the answer. I meet the manager & he was friendly, but his explanations did not help. All he said the 504$ charge was for a bottle which was on the table . 1st of all I was never the one who ordered the bottle , 2ndly by the time we went next to them, the bottle was already served & 3rdly when I paid I signed the bill of 50$ which was just for the Hookah.

How did you guys ended up charging me that bottle? I was never the one who reserved the table, my card was never on hold for the drinks or other things. I blame myself for not following up about getting my receipt after paying because she never came back. anyways Something is wrong here . I apologize for bringing this up here but you guys should work on it.

Other than that Busy Signal still...

We had a formal event at this place a few weeks ago, booked out the entire downstairs venue. But it was set up horribly. When we got there 30 minutes into our time booked they were still cleaning the place up. No projector, or microphone was set up. To make matters worse we got food through them and not only was the taste of it not up to par but we ordered food for 66 people and only had 59 show up and they still ran out of mac n cheese balls and thought it was a good idea to get us plain mac n cheese. The manager Steve was no where to be found for the first hour and nothing went according to plan. I had asked Steve multiple times to close off the back door as we had a private bar. They were letting anyone walk through the back to get drinks at OUR PRIVATE BAR. We spent over 5k for this just for it to be one of the worst events our group has ever had. Also location in not in the upmost clean area. Would definitely do my research before even thinking about booking an event here. Not a single person of group was satisfied with the outcome of this venue or staff. Spent months planning this event out just to be unsatisfied. Would give this place 0 starts if I could. DO NOT BOOK HERE, horribly...