Culinary Dropout — Restaurant in Austin

I had been wanting to come here for some time, unfortunately we were a bit disappointed.

We were there on a Friday night so the place was packed. As soon as you walk in you feel like it is a fun atmosphere and the staff was super friendly. They have a huge patio area, we sat inside with a good view of the kitchen.

So they have a good selection of drinks and cocktails, the cocktails where a bit pricey but not far from the average price everyone else has. We had a few cocktails and a couple beers while we enjoyed the live band which was great.

All the food took a while to come up but it was really busy and when the food did get there they were apologetic, but it was not a big deal and like I said they were busy.

We got two starters, the fondue pretzels and the popcorn shrimp. The pretzels were great and you get a ton of them, I can see why they are popular. The popcorn shrimp was good but nothing special about them which is fine.

For our main courses we ordered the 36 hour ribs and the fried chicken both labeled as fan favorite and online lots of people rave about them. I felt like the ribs were WAY better than the fried chicken. With that said we were not huge fans of the ribs, we probably could have picked up on it on the description but the BBQ sauce was way too sweet. I know several people who would have loved the ribs because they liked a sweater sauce so just keep that in mind if you like sweet BBQ sauce you will likely think they are amazing, they were super tender. The fried chicken I would not suggest it to anyone, mine was a bit over cooked but even if it was not over cooked I didn't feel like it had a good taste. The best thing on my plate was the coal slaw, the potatoes were good but I was surprised at how small the serving was, just a little bigger than a spoonful. The biscuit was not bad but also nothing special - all and all I was disappointed in the fried chicken. I should have tried the Korean cap steak instead.

Both my wife and I left disappointed in the food, I felt like it was more of a 2 star experience but I gave 3 stars because honestly the ribs could have gone either way if you like sweet BBQ sauce.

Prob not a place that we would come back to.

The overall cost was about $70 per person which was not bad for date night and we had a few drinks and...

Recently dined at Culinary Depot for a late dinner on a Friday night around 9 PM, and while the food and service were fantastic, the experience at the hostess stand left much to be desired.

Let’s start with the positives—our server Christina was wonderful, offering great recommendations that made our meal even more enjoyable. The cocktails were refreshing—I ordered the Paloma Spritz, which was light, citrusy, and perfectly balanced.

Our table ordered a variety of dishes, all of which exceeded expectations. The fried chicken was a huge portion, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The chicken cacio e pepe was creamy and packed with flavor, a rich and comforting dish. The Peking duck with fried rice was also a generous serving, with big pieces of duck and just the right amount of spice, as noted on the menu. The fried rice itself was fantastic, and they certainly didn’t skimp on the shrimp.

However, our initial experience at the hostess stand was frustrating. There were four team members when our group of three arrived, and while we expected a wait due to the busy evening, we were told it would be an hour and that we could try to find a tall table at the bar (which was already packed). What was disappointing was that no one offered to take down our information or offer to put us on a waitlist.

After waiting about five minutes, we decided to check online and via OpenTable we were able to make a reservation for 9:30 PM. Surprisingly, we were seated by 9:15—at a table between the bar and kitchen—well before our “hour-long wait” would have ended.

Overall, the food, drinks, and service were excellent, but the lack of organization at the hostess stand took away from the experience. Had it not been for that, this would have been an easy...

I was excited to go here but very disappointed with my experience. Had reservations and arrived about 10 minutes early. They said they were cleaning off a table outside and it would be a few minutes. While we were waiting, several other groups walked in off the street and were seated immediately. I was getting ready to talk to someone when they said again that they were cleaning off our table. After about a 20 minute wait we were finally seated! To top it off, they sat us at a “table” that had been empty for at least 20 minutes. SMH. On to the FOOD: I had ribs, and at first they were excellent! They were cut into 3 parts of about 4 ribs each. The first one was oh so good. Nice and tender and moist. The meat fell off the bone. I picked up the next group and they were super tough and chewy like rubber. I had trouble pulling them apart. If I had cooked these I would have thrown them in the trash. I was about to complain but didn’t want to be a Karen so I picked up my final bunch of ribs and they were as good as the first ones. Most of our other food was OK. The pretzels with fondue cheese was great once we removed the cooled skin on top of the cheese and lit the candle to warm it up. ATMOSPHERE: Well, it was pretty busy and very loud. We were hit by the ping pong ball 12 times, screaming kids by the foosball table, watched one of the kids hitting and kicking all the other kids until my teacher wife gave him the teacher look and said play nice ( he started playing nice but was clearly unsupervised). I think a lot of the kids were coming from the playground next door which could be fixed with a better gate. Overall (finally) I don’t recommend Culinary Dropout. Oh yeah, the beer is good! My second beer was...