Grata’s Pizzeria — Restaurant in Austin

When people recommend restaurants, you never know what you're going to get. Sometimes, they're spot on. Other times, you wonder what the heck were they thinking??? Note: Maybe you wonder about my recommendations sometimes.

I am here to definitively tell you, with absolutely certainty, that Grata's has the BEST Philly Cheesesteak in the city. With no disrespect to R&Bs and Hoody's - I really liked their sandwiches - but Grata's, they are the king!

My Philly boy and I visited Grata's for lunch today, and we were greeted outside by Phillies, Eagles, and Flyers flags and a sign that said: I ❤️ Philadelphia PA.

Inside was more Philly memorabilia in a bar setting. Grata's is definitely a bar that serves food, not a restaurant that has a bar.

We ordered three different sandwiches, including the Grata Original [cheeseteak] and the Philly Special [larger cheesesteak].

We also had to try their Italian sub because I was told it would rival the Homeslice Italian Sub that I have been touting as best in the city. And yes, Little Deli and Pizzeria has a good one too, but it's not quite as good.

I went with white American cheese on my Grata's Original. It was melted throughout the sandwich, so that each gooey bite was a perfect blend of steak, onions, peppers, and cheese. The cheesesteaks at Grata's are served on Liscio's rolls ordered directly from Philadelphia. Similar to Amoroso rolls, Liscio's provides that perfect crunch when you take each bite.

My buddy Mike's double meat, double cheese (Provolone and whiz) sandwhich was a beast. See the pictures for the differences between the two. They went big with a ton of ribeye meat on that bad boy. He said this is the new "go-to" place for his hometown-favorite sandwich.

Now for our other choice, we elected to go with Grata's The Big Dom over their Brandywine Gourmet Italian because it added a fourth meat, prosciutto, in addition to the Genoa Salami, prosciuttini ham and capicola, plus Provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, and oil with Italian spices.

The Big Dom is served cold, similar to Little Deli's. The difference is that the amount of meat and other fixings on the sub is even more generous. There was a little too much lettuce on it, but once I removed a bit, it was perfect. Normally, Mike and I will add mayo on our Itlalian subs, but we forgot, and despite this omission, the sub was still very moist, and the olive oil and spice blend really shone through.

Overall, it was an exceptional visit to Grata's. Service was perfect. If you're a Philly guy or gal, you will love the place. Go during football season and watch the Eagles defend their title. Not a sports fan, but you love those ribeye sandwiches, run as fast as you can there. They are...

I live in the neighborhood and my partner and I are always wanting to walk over but it just never works out. Last night we decided to take my sister there while she was in town instead of going to pinthouse just to try something different. When we got there it was a bit hectic but we understood and just chalked it up to it also being a bar.

I had, had the limoncello spritz before and I asked our waiter if they still had it. And he said yes very confidently that he could still make it. My partner ordered a margarita at that point and our waiter took our food order. Then he came back 5 mins later and said that they couldn’t make it after all. Which wasn’t a big deal but my partner was left to drink his drink alone because nothing else really appealed to me. Our salads came out pretty fast which was the only things to come out quickly. My partners Caesar was okay. But our Italian chopped salad was the worst one I’ve ever had. It was like the Romain mix from HEB dumped in a bowl with shredded, not chopped mozzarella with cubed meat which was correct and the sweetest pepper relish mix I’ve ever tasted. The vinaigrette was super sweet too which I’ve never had on a chopped salad before either. It was def the ugliest looking chopped salad I’ve ever seen and I realized why I couldn’t find any pictures of it online prior.

After about 30 mins of ordering, our salads were done but my partners drink still hadn’t come out. So he flagged our waiter and asked if it was coming. It was very obvious he forgot about it. Which again wasn’t a big deal. Then another 10 mins go by and the drink still didn’t come out. Our waiter kept passing our table over and over and we were hoping he pick up on the fact that we only still had water glasses on it. But my partner had to flag him down again to ask for the drink one more time.

At this point we had hit about 45 mins of being there without any update on our pizza and Philly cheesesteak. After 10 more minutes I was about to get up and tell our waiter that we are just going to close out and to forget about the rest of the food. But a whole hour after we ordered our food came out finally. The pizza and cheesesteak were good. So that sorta made up for things. But overall it was just a very weird/bad/confusing experience. Very disappointed because I wanted to enjoy something that I live so close to and to support a...

I love this place, despite the fact that they've never, ever gotten our order correct. My wife and I have eaten here at least a dozen times and the food/drink has never come out correctly. I'm starting to get nervous that they'll break their streak, but thankfully last time we went every part of the order was wrong. Forgotten salad? Check. Wrong pizza? Check. Forgotten drinks? Check. I think a big part of the problem is that they never write anything down. And maybe they think they're killing it because folks don't say anything. Sometimes they even say the order back correctly after we place it, and then... who knows what happens on the way to the machine to input the order. If/when the food starts coming we're usually too hungry to say anything. My suggestion would be to invest in some pens and paper. I don't think anyone would hold it against them. It can be chaotic in there watching two servers drown when a large party comes into the side room. I felt bad for the two guests at the table adjacent to us on our last visit. I could feel the stress level rising as they just kept looking around for someone to take mercy on them and take their order. I don't think anyone acknowledged them for a good twenty minutes. Looked like maybe a first date? Oof that's awkward. One server seemed completely overwhelmed and looked like she was trying to hide, hoping customers would give up and go away maybe. The other server seemed to be doing his best given a bad situation. Big props to him- he actually came over at some point to apologize to us and offer to take something off the bill. He wasn't even our server. (Maybe it was after he noticed I went to the bar to get my own drink after waiting like fifteen minutes for it, at which point it became obvious it was forgotten and I saw that the bartender was unoccupied.) We insisted on paying for the full meal because at the end of the day their hearts seem to be in the right place, the pizza is great, and even though they glued the 3D QR codes to the tables in offset places to drive you bonkers, and the table rocking might drive you nuts (the old school floors are cool), it's a pretty sweet place....