Fresa's - South First — Restaurant in Austin

Went last night with 3 girlfriends after I suggested this place. I had a pleasant experience here once before so I figured this would be a good spot we could all enjoy for girl’s night. I made a reservation for 9p. We got there at 8:30p, checked in with the hostess outside. She checked the dining room and there was a table available for us. She sat us down in the main dining room in between a 4-top and a larger party of about 10. She gave us empty water glasses and told us our server would be with us soon. We sat there for about 20 minutes with a server waiting on all the tables around us besides us. I finally got up when a table in front of us hot water and a server to come to their table before we did even though they were seated after we arrived. It made me upset that I had suggested this place as being great when we weren’t even acknowledged by the wait staff. I went to the nearest server I could find and told them that we still didn’t have water and that we had been sitting there for over 20 minutes and no one had been by our table. He apologized and said he would find our server. He came back to our table with water and said someone would be with us soon. Another few minutes passed with a manager on duty came by our table and told us that our server had gotten busy with other tables but that she could get us started with apps and drinks. We ordered regular queso and guacamole for the table and we all ordered a drink. I had a mocktail and it was good but my friends were not impressed with the size or quality of their cocktails. My friends margarita looked like watered down lime juice and it came out in the smallest glass. The server who ended up waiting on us finally came to the table with the drinks and apps we ordered. He said he would be taking care of us. He re-filled our water and asked us if we were okay with our apps for now. We told him that was fine. We were just thankful we actually had something on the table to eat and drink at that point. He came back later and took our order. I ordered a shrimp taco with rice and beans and my friend ordered a chicken taco with rice and beans. My other friend ordered the 1/4 chicken with rice and beans as well. When our order came out they put the tacos we ordered on the same plate. Not a big deal I guess but the server should have noticed and asked for it to be replanted the way it was ordered. We finished our meals and it took him a minute to come back to see how we were doing. He didn’t even ask us how our drinks or food tasted. I had to ask him to bring the check. Another thing I hate doing when at a restaurant. At this point the restaurant was closing and staff had started cleaning. Huge turn off when finishing a meal. Nonetheless he came back with it. My friend asked if we could split the check and he said no. We had to pay in full or split the cost 3 ways. The way he said it though he had an attitude about it. We ended up splitting the bill 3 ways. It wasn’t until the meal was over did he try to have small talk with the table. He asked us if we had plans after this and we told him no. Especially after the experience we had we just wanted to go home at that point.

In all the food was average, the service was horrible and that’s a shame because the place really is beautiful. Especially the patio. Not sure if I will...

It’s unfortunate this restaurant has gone down hill so much - I’ve used them for holiday catering, work related events and visited so many times with my out of town guests.

On Sunday, my family and I were treated so unfairly by the manager and other staff. We brought our family dog, a Chocolate lab — the original server came over and our dog saw his shadow and barked. Yes, it was a loud bark but he was content under the picnic table hanging out. The manager came over and accused us of having.. her words, a “vicious dog”. We would not take a dangerous dog out to eat. Their new dog policy is awful, especially since other dogs barked while we were there. Her choice of words and accusing us in front of everyone else just trying to enjoy the outdoor was unacceptable. Words matter. We were told the dog had to go and luckily we live around the corner, so we took the dog home. If we didn’t plan our party of six — all coming from different areas of Austin — to meet at Fresa’s, we would have gone somewhere else. In hindsight, we should have.

They also have a huge fly problem, when asked if we could have another fly fan to keep them off our food - the server said only one per table, but 1/2 the outside was empty. I’m sure they could have provided us with another fan, but chose not to. We had a group of six, one fan didn’t cover everyone’s space.

If you like bones in your chicken, kids playing and running around in between picnic tables, rude managers and staff.. oh and dogs barking, as long as it’s not a ‘vicious’ Chocolate lab — this is the place to go!

Sadly, what used to be one of my favorite places in Austin is no longer the same. With all the growth on South First, Fresa’s is getting...

My friends and I really enjoyed the food here—everything we ordered was delicious and well-prepared (not the queso it was cold and chunky 😭) However, I did want to share a bit about our service experience.

When we were first seated, we asked to sit inside and the hosts were nice and found us a spot, but it seemed like there was a party going on and it was very loud, with people yelling over each other. We kindly asked to be moved outside, and this was before anything had been served—just our menus and water—so we relocated early in the experience. From that point on, our waitress seemed super irritated.

Once we sat outside, we were still looking at our menus when she stood over us and repeatedly asked, “What do you want to drink? What do you want? What do you want?” It felt a bit rushed, and we hadn’t had a chance to fully review the menu yet. She came back shortly after to take our order, again with a sense of urgency.

Later, while we were still eating, literally mid-bite—she asked if we would be paying together or separately. It was around 8:45 p.m., and the restaurant closes at 10, so we were surprised to feel rushed out. We ended up paying and didn’t get a chance to even look at the dessert menu or order any drinks, which we had planned to do.

We still tipped and were polite throughout because maybe she was just having an off day, but the service did leave us feeling like we weren’t welcome to linger. That’s really our only gripe, because again,the food was good (save for the cold queso…). If the service matched the quality of the kitchen, it would’ve been a perfect night. Just something to consider if you’re hoping to get the full...