Flower Child — Restaurant in Austin

I hate leaving negative reviews, but up to this point I've had a good experience at Flower Child. I hope the owners/higher ups read these so they can be aware of how some of their staff act.

I am a mall employee and place pick-up orders at this Flower Child from time to time throughout the week. As do my coworkers. The order I placed today was set to be picked up at 1:56PM. I left my job around 1:50 so I would be there on time. The To-Go pick-up shelf is to your immediate left upon walking into the restaurant and as I walked in, a man who I'm assuming was the manager (taller guy with reddish hair and glasses) kindly gave a customer his pick-up order who was waiting by the pick-up area. He obviously saw me but did not address me at all, which was fine because he seemed to be busy.

He went up to the area where they place the food once it's completed and ready to be served. There was a larger Hispanic woman who was also working at that area. From what I could tell, they were checking orders before running the food to the tables/to-go areas. I saw what ended up being my order pop up at the top of the food area and the manager check my food, and then send it back to the cooks. I'm not sure what the issue was, but I did order steak so I'm assuming it wasn't cooked thoroughly so he wanted them to complete it.

By this point, it was 2:05 (remember, I'm clocked out for my 30 minute lunch break). I was trying to make eye-contact with the man to see if I could get an update, but he made every effort to avoid me. Again, they were fairly busy (I've definitely received great service while they were busier from other management), so I patiently waited. For whatever reason, they didn't want to talk to me and that was fine. I just really wanted to get my food and leave.

A few moments after this, I see my food go up to the food area once again. The larger Hispanic woman who had been working/chit-chatting with the manager grabbed two other to-go orders, but left mine up there. She took the orders she grabbed behind the front counter and proceeded to talk and laugh with the other young ladies that were also behind the counter. The manager noticed my food was still up on top of the other food section and brought my box of food over to the larger Hispanic woman. She continued talking and laughing with the other girls and was not concerned in the least about getting these orders out to the customers waiting. At this point, there were two other people waiting for to-go orders behind me.

I walked up to where the larger Hispanic woman was and asked if I could get an ETA on when my order would be done. It was now 2:15PM (20 minutes after my order had been ready the first time). The woman looked at me and said "Um, yeah. What's your name?" I let her know my name and she said "Yeah. I'm bagging it right now." and pointed to my order. I guess she asked me if I wanted utensils at the same time I politely tried telling her I didn't need a bag and could just take it (making her job easier, since it seemed to be a time-consuming task to have her bag to-go orders), and she looked at me and said "That's not what I asked. I asked if you wanted utensils." I was kind of shocked at her aggressive, snappy response. After all, I had literally watched her talk and socialize with other staff there while people waiting for their orders were standing by. I apologized and said it was okay and grabbed my food and left.

By the time I got back to my store to eat, my food was cold.

I'm not sure what I did to warrant such horrible service and treatment by the staff working this afternoon. The young ladies working the register were very sweet, but the manager and his side-kick made this experience bad enough that I don't think I'll be returning anytime soon. We always have customers asking for food recommendations and I always say Flower Child because I genuinely like their food. But after today, I won't be...

I love this place so so much. Everything I’ve ever ordered has been 💯 and I’ve ordered most of the things on the menu! The iced tea and lemonade bar is always fun and amazing 🤤. The staff are great too! The ambiance is cozy and, when warm, the patio is superb! I could eat here everyday, and actually do a few times a week after work, as we work in the WeWork down the road!

Update: we had an incident with bringing in a service animal. We were regulars, coming in multiple times a week, with the dog, with no problems. But one night it became an issue, and not until after we’d ordered and sat ourselves waiting for our meals. The manager was quite rude and didn’t remember us, even tho a week prior she’d spoken to us, again quite coldly, but left after seeing the dogs documentation - without hit of emotion, almost like she was upset she couldn’t kick us out. Well, flash forward into the future and she says we have to leave bc of the dog even though he’s documented. I say, “I wish you’d said this before we had ordered bc we would have gone somewhere else and it’s too cold to eat outside.” (It was during that horrible cold front.) She was unapologetic and said we could stay “this one time.” Well, there goes our fav spot to eat after work! I was upset about this and sent an email to corporate as two other awkward occurrences happened at the same visit and was called promptly the next day saying lots of sorries and to come back and they’d “make it batter” and that there would be a meeting on the issues. I thanked him for the call but never went back. I just didn’t feel welcome anymore and the manager who wanted to throw us out was just soooooooo rude and cold I didn’t want to be in her presence again, bad juju.

P.S. the other two incidents I mentioned were: I asked for a glass cup instead of a single use plastic cup and you would have thought I asked for the sacrifice of a first born. The girl at the register got really dramatic and got a handfull of people involved in the ordeal taking loads of time and talking and pointing at me all the while the queue building and other patrons were talking looking at us being talked about and pointed at and it was both embarrassing and confusing - y’all handed my husband a glass cup for his can of beer just hand me one for my water! After ages she finally ended up giving me the same type of cup my husband was given with eye rolls and snarky commentary. The second thing: my meal came out incorrect and missing items. Instead of brining my missing items to me they took my whole plate, THREW IT AWAY, and make a whole new one with missing items added. How wasteful. I chose go to FC bc it’s “eco” but making big deals about reusable cups and throwing away whole plates of food!? Astonishing really and quite disgraceful.

It is these three things that sadly will not allow me to be a...

Very trendy spot with a nice casual-fast atmosphere. The first thing I noticed was the tasteful decor placed on the tables unavailable for seating due to covid restrictions. I loved it as it made the indoor seating feel more comfortable and easy to forget for a while that we are in the middle of a pandemic. 🌺

The menu is fabulous- so many terrific things to try, a large variety, but simple, thoughtful and concise enough to not be overwhelming- even though I still had a difficult time picking just one dish!

My Winter Grain & Brussels Sprouts salad was fabulous- I'm not even a person who eats many "lettuce" salads, but this one had me trying to eat the very last bite. The flavor profile was just amazing. I'd definitely eat this again and again!

My daughter ordered the steak kid's meal with the corn quinoa side and parmesan broccoli. The broccoli was perfectly cooked and seasoned. The corn quinoa was impressive! My kids love corn but we rarely eat it because of its lacking nutritional profile, but adding nutrient dense quinoa to the fold is genius! My daughter love it too. On a down note, the steak was way over salted. It was properly cooked, looked wonderful, but during the plating, it was doused with salt- so much so the bottom of the plate was a literal salt bed. We had to scrape and wash off the steak to make it edible again. I downgraded a star for this. It should be common knowledge to not over salt a dish, and truly not a kid's meal.

I downgraded another star for my friend's dish of a Mother Earth bowl. It actually tasted great and every bite was eaten, except for the avocado. It was bruised brown and well just absolutely unacceptable - especially from restaurant that serves so much avocado everyday. I will add the dish was sloppily plated and once it arrived at our table, we had to clean up the rims ourselves.

Lastly, once our plates were delivered no one came by to check on us, or even glance our way, so we were never able to request another avocado to replace the bum one we received.

Overall, I'd definitely go back. The food is great quality and the menu delightful- I'll just be a bit more specific when I order: "no extra salt and fresh...