Dave & Buster's Austin — Restaurant in Austin

My Frustrating Experience at Dave & Buster’s (April 25, 2025)

On April 25, 2025, I went to Dave & Buster’s with my son, who was visiting from Raleigh, North Carolina. We planned to watch the NFL Draft and later be joined by my nephew. We sat at the bar, and when our server asked if we wanted to order food, we told her we would wait for my nephew but agreed to order drinks. We ordered two Jameson Long Island Iced Teas, which were very good.

As my nephew was running later than expected, we ordered two more drinks and then decided to place our food order. We both wanted the Cajun Shrimp Pasta but asked to substitute the shrimp with chicken. I asked the server, “Can we swap out the shrimp for chicken?” and she said, “Yes, but that would be an extra charge.” I immediately said, “So you charge more money for chicken?” She paused and replied, “Let me go check.”

When she came back, she told us there would be no extra charge. But then she asked, “So you both want shrimp and chicken?” I responded, “No, and that would make sense for the extra charge, but we just want chicken.” She laughed lightly and said, “You’re right, that would be extra.”

When the food came out, one plate was made correctly, but the other had both shrimp and chicken. Both plates came with toast. Before we could send the incorrect plate back, my nephew, who had arrived by then, said he would take that one because he liked both chicken and shrimp. We let the server know about the mistake and made it clear that we did not want to be charged extra for it.

At this point, my son and nephew began eating and both commented on how good the toast was. I was still waiting for my meal. A new server named Montrell came over, and he seemed polite at first. He made another round of drinks for us, which looked noticeably different from the first ones, but I let that go.

When my plate finally arrived, I noticed right away that it did not come with toast, even though the other two plates did. So I asked Montrell, “Where’s my toast?” His immediate response was, “That’s going to cost you extra money.” I asked him directly, “So are you telling me that we paid for toast on the other two meals?” He said, “Yes, because it doesn’t come with toast — that’s $1.99 extra.”

At this point, I asked him to go get the lady who originally took our order because she never mentioned anything about toast costing extra. I watched as he spoke with her, and when he came back, he said, “No worries, we will take care of everything!” He then went to the back and, after about five minutes, returned to say, “I took care of their toast, and you will need to pay for yours.”

At that point, I was irritated. I said to him, “How the hell do you tell me in one breath that you’ll be taking care of it, and then come back and say you’re taking care of theirs and I have to pay for mine?” Montrell repeated, “It’s because the toast doesn’t come with the meal.”

I told him I didn’t want him serving me anymore and asked him to get the manager.

When the manager came over, I tried to explain the situation, but he interrupted me multiple times. He told me, “We didn’t charge you extra for taking the shrimp off and replacing it with chicken because I approved that decision.” He then said, “I’m the guy who said you have to pay for the toast.” He also told me, “Don’t hold anything against Montrell, because he was just following my instructions.” The rest of this review is on Yelp as they don't want my full review posted here as they have capped off my characters.

I told him, “I don’t want Montrell serving me because he doesn’t know how to talk to people, and he doesn’t understand what service is about.” The manager again said, “It was my decision...

Worst Dave & Buster's ever. After reaching Legend status (ie spending a lot of money here), I was one card shy of a complete Star Trek set. The card I needed literally fell after my last coin push. HOWEVER, because the computer "sensed" that the card fell AFTER my last coin push (and because computers are always right), the card that I needed fell into the unretrievable receptacle. After bringing this to the attention of management (ie arguing with entitled blonde haired, earring wearing manager "Chris"), he decided not to do the right thing, not assume positive intent, and not hand me that last card. Are you kidding?

And that's not all - "Chris" (and the technician) had the nerves to call me a "cheater" (not once, but twice). A manager at a nationwide corporate establishment called ME, a weekly paying customer, a cheater(?!). Because the card fell into the "cheater's bin" (what they actually call it). "Chris" then offered to pull up the video to prove my cheating ways. When my friends and I said, "then pull up the video, "Chris" (with his two manager friends who sat on the sidelines watching this unfold, probably enjoying watching their junior manager sticking it to us)! Did we get to see the video evidence? NOPE. They chickened out.

Again, I reached Level 9 at this location, accumulated over 150k in tickets, and "Chris" wouldn't do me that solid. I hope this moment of terrible customer service sits in this location's collective memory of every single manager forever.

This Dave & Buster's is dead to me. Not coming here ever again. Thanks for ruining what was a fun night.

PS. Dear Business Manager, If you've nothing better than suggest to me to reach out to D&B's guest services, don't bother - already did.

AND, "Chris" had the audacity to sarcastically say to my friends and me "Have a nice night!" as we were walking out! Really, "Chris"?? Feedback: Your customer service and leadership skills need some serious work. SENSE THE MOMENT, BE RESPECTFUL, and...

SUCH A BAD EXPERIENCE ! We moved from San Antonio recently and wanted to check out the Austin location(31st August around 4:45 pm) We already had the Dave and busters card which had around 1200 points/tickets which were saved from last time, my son wanted to play few more times collect some more and then wanted to get something with it and when we wanted to add more money to that card the person at the counter moved the points from the old card to the new card and added money to it. I checked with him before leaving the counter if i needed the old card he said i do not need it as he transferred the points to the new card. I did not re-check again as he gave me an assurance. We finished playing and when we went to get a gift with it, to our surprise it had only 408 points which we got for that day. We were shocked and my son wanted his points back, we went to the counter and the person who did our billing wasn’t there i checked with the person at the counter and she wasn’t sure what was going on and called the manager. The manager came and wanted to check the history on this card, she came out and said there were no points on the old card which was opened in 2022. We never went to Dave and busters before 2024, the manager absolutely got the wrong history and when i said it was wrong she said she told us that is what she could pull. I asked for the name of the person who did my billing she asked for a description i said tall mid old person, she checked the schedules and said only students worked at that time and nobody with the description worked. I insisted and she checked with some other person and the other person said it might be MATT. The manager did not know who worked at the front desk. She should’ve did something to ease us but she was not ready to help or to do anything with the situation. Very disappointing we are never COMING BACK to dave and busters even though my son loves it. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY! I would give a zero if i can...