Hillside Farmacy — Restaurant in Austin

We found this place on Yelp and it said it had great food. We got there and the place was slammed. 45 to 50 min wait. We asked if they allowed people to sit at the counter and the lady said yes, we found two seats next to two nice ladies from Seattle. It took about 7 min for anyone to come and give us water it warm and when I asked for ice she gave some to me but not my husband. We asked for ketchup and she told us to go get it off another table. (Who does that) the nice lady who served is got us a bottle. I would love to tell you our waitress name as she never said it and it was not on the receipt. She seemed miffed when we asked questions since it was our first time and did not know the process. She was a small blond lady in a dark dress. She was nice to people around us who were drinking but we dont drink and she didnt bother with recommendations. She pretty much ignored us the whole time. The food was pretty good. We didnt realize we only get one piece of bread cut in half (be prepared-they dont butter the toast) and I love getting barely toasted cold bread with frozen butter to try and spread on. I could not eat the jam as I am allergic to berries and when I tried to ask if there was another choice she walked away. We did not get the salad with our eggs so it would have been nice to get an extra piece but oh well. The atmosphere is really cool and kitchy. There was another man who was nice and got us silverware. I asked the ladies from Seattle if she was kind of nasty to them and they said she warmed up after they ordered drinks. Mind you this was 10:30am so drinking is not my idea in the morning. What surprised me was two young girls came in and looked young and she never carded them. That surprised me as I thought it was a thing to card someone that young. Maybe it was a bad day or.she was stressed but she seemed nice to everyone who drank so not sure why we got the bad treatment. Never asked us about refills and gave us our check and we paid and left. I have to say you need to check out the restrooms here. They are so cool. Take a chance the food was good. See if you have a better experience. I took a picture of...

I want to give this restaurant a better review, but I just can't.

I heard about Hillside Farmacy months ago when there was a bunch of buzz about the opening. I was stoked to try it. Weeks turned into months and I still hadn't been. I liked them on Facebook, and the photos of delicious-looking food and creative menu items had my attention.

So, I popped back online to check out the reviews about this trendy new little hipster spot since it's openings. And I got a little scared...

Finally, my wife and I decided to hit early bird hours and try to avoid the rush. Here's how things went:

Greeted by not one, but two mostly friendly employees.

Seated right away, outside, and our waitress stopped by soon after.

Ordered cocktails and oysters to start, beef carpaccio for my wife's entree and I went with the daily fish special, grouper with turnips and beets.

I should note at this point, I was thinking "what the hell were those reviewers thinking?!? This is awesome!" Then...

Drinks arrive, oysters shortly after

15 minutes goes by... no visit from the waitress

30 minutes goes by, she delivers food to the next table over that arrived AFTER us

45 mintes have gone by, she stops in to apologize and offers drinks for each of us on the house

60 minutes since we've ordered. The food finally arrives, but the drinks still haven't come.

Mind you, we ordered RAW BEEF AND FISH. Not dishes that require extensive cook time or elaborate preparation, as far as I know.

At this point, the sun has set, the air has started to cool, and the lovely outdoor seating isn't so lovely.

The food was decent, but not worth the hour long wait. The check, even with two free drinks, was still $100 with tip. The staff was nicer than I expected, but it didn't make up for the ridiculous wait for the food and the cost of the meal.

Might pop in for cocktails and appetizers again, but I won't be going...

My partner and I came here for brunch on our anniversary and were severely disappointed. There are no servers and you scan a QR code to order, which is fine and not uncommon as of late due to the pandemic, but I had to pay and tip before my order was confirmed and our food was brought out by someone who barely stuck around the make sure it was correct. A model we subscribe to at quick, cheap, to-go dining options, not a formal sit down meal.

In addition, we received our entrees before our appetizers, and didn’t even receive those until we asked for them at the end of our meal. We were not given utensils and nobody was around to refill our water pitchers without us asking. For not having a server, there was a lot of myself or my partner having to walk inside to ask for basic necessities to our meal.

Finally, my partner’s order was incorrect but at that point we didn’t even feel it was worth raising any additional complaints. And to be perfectly honest, my “Eggs in a Bowl” was not even that enjoyable to eat. The biscuit bottoms were bland, my poached eggs were overdone and there was so much arugula that there wasn’t much room for any other flavors or textures in any bite.

Walking away, the only positives I can give the place is that the gentleman acting as the host was very kind and apologetic and offered to refund us for our lost appetizers, the overall vibe of the place has a charming old-southern feel, and the house punch we ordered was actually rather good. I’m not sure if they just had a really off day (patrons around us outside also had issues they were vocalizing), or if that’s how this place has been limping through the pandemic, but I would never choose to...