Kerbey Lane Cafe - Mueller — Restaurant in Austin

The food here is amazing. Plenty of vegan options and good portions. However, the service is hilariously bad. We have been here twice and both times there were a number of eye exchanges between the table silently asking "is it really this bad right now?" The first time I came I ordered the vegan tacos off the menu and the waitress was confused, saying they could make something like that. I read off what came on it and she said she had to check with the kitchen. I explained it was on the menu and she nodded and still asked what was supposed to come on it. Not a huge deal but the food just took such a long time also. I could handle waiting for the food because it was busy and the kitchen was working away. However, whenever we asked for something with the food, we got tired of hearing our voices asking again and again. If you needed something with your meal, forget it unless you bring it with you.

The second time was even more hilarious. I ordered hot sauce to have with my food and my boyfriend's plate was supposed to come with tortillas. The food is dropped off by someone else (not our server) without asking if there was anything else we needed. It was fine, she was busy and I assumed eventually we would see our server. I was right, we did see him, several times walking passed with a pleased look in his eyes while I tried to meet his with the pleading look in mine. We saw him plenty of times, just not at our table. And then he was gone. He did not return for 15 minutes at the least to check in on us. I had called his name as he walked by and he did not even look at us. I ended up using hot sauce I had in the car so my food didn't get cold.

When he finally came over by the time I had finished, my boyfriend asked for his tortillas. Instead of apologizing or running to get them, he demanded "who failed you? Who dropped this off, what did they look like?" It took all I had not to say "you failed us!" When the ship has an issue, the captain doesn't ask who manufacturered the ship, he tries to fix the problem. We did not remember what she looked like because it had been 15 minutes so we just said we were unsure and it was a woman. He replied he was the only man who worked there and there was a lot of woman. Okay, cool, we do not care whatsoever. We do care about tortillas. Of course, he came out another 5-10 minutes later with them after stopping and chatting with two tables on the way.

The best part, if you made it this far, is what he said to our friends when they came in. They asked for vegan options and he said "don't worry I got you". They asked what he had or what that meant and he replied "oh don't worry, it is a surprise." Surprises are great sometimes but not always when it comes to your $16 breakfast. They asked what it was and he looked at them and said "you don't trust me?" This awkward back and forth continued for a few minutes before he finally revealed the big breakfast secret. Tacos.

Overall, will I come back here? Probably yes. The food was good. Will I come back if I have anything important to do that day? Probably not. Will I bring my own hot sauce?...

There ought to be the option to give zero stars. The restaurant was less than half full when we arrived, but it still took the hostess almost 15 minutes to seat us even though no one was waiting. After waiting at our table for 20 minutes with no one approaching our table to even take a drink order, I finally got up and spoke to the hostess about getting a server. The manager then approached our table and offered free appetizers and dessert. We accepted some queso/chips which took another 15 minutes to arrive. Finally a server came and took our drink order. We also gave her our food order since we had already had about 45 minutes to study the menu. The server took my husband's order and my children's orders then started to walk away from the table. I stopped her and ordered migas for myself. The server asked me how I wanted my eggs prepared. (cue eye roll) We should have left, but at this point it would have taken too long to go somewhere else. The two tables near us shared they were having a similar experience. Finally, my meal arrived. Just my meal. Apparently, the server had entered my order separate from my family's and it was ready first. 15 minutes later, we finally stopped the server and asked when the rest of the family was getting their food. Turns out, she had canceled our order because she said she got us confused with another family. Did I mention the server never stopped at our table again after taking our original order. So, ... the manager goes into the kitchen and begins to prepare the food for my family. Close to an hour and a half after entering Kerby Lane, we finally all had food. The restaurant was always less than half full. When the food finally arrived, we discovered the server had gotten my husband's completely wrong. Not like forgetting to leave off onions but completely wrong as in a different dish entirely. The poor manager went back in the kitchen and made the correct dish which we asked them to box it to go. Of course it came to the table 30 minutes later plated. When they finally brought us his food boxed to go, they asked if we wanted our free dessert. We may be slow learners, but this time we said no. Of course, our meal was comped for all the trouble. I have never had such an enoumous fiasco or such bad service at a Kerby Lane. I've been going to Kerby Lane since it opened in the 80's. This is about the worst I've seen at any of...

Kerbey is usually now my default if other places are closed and I need to find something filling. As sad as that is, it’s a fact. It can be hit or miss mostly. The pancakes are usually pretty good. They could be way better. It depends on the cooks and manager. I took my friend before she had to drive back to her hometown. There’s many options and fun during holidays since they change it up and add special pancakes then. Sadly, this was embarrassing. We waited a while for someone to come to the front as they all walked around like sleepy zombies. They saw us and kept walking. Finally, a girl shows up, asks how many will be dining and walks off with her tablet not saying a word. Do we follow her? No? We didn’t know what was happening. She finally comes back, grabs menus and says nothing. I guess she wanted us to follow. We sit and a waitress comes by immediately. Nothing special. She wasn’t rude either. She just didn’t care like the other girl. We ordered and she walked off. She went back to the bar where she began stuffing her face while looking at her phone. She’d get back up to walk past the two other tables in our area and then come back and ask if we needed anything. We got our food but it was getting close to cold. The enchilada sauce had been sitting out long enough to look dried up. My friend’s burger was nearly cold. Fries too. We had asked for teas and then my friend asked to change hers to a soda. She was double charged for that even though both are unlimited refills. That’s never happened to me at Kerbey. I had also ordered a single blueberry pancake. Extremely dry. Looked that way and tasted old. What happened? They used to be fluffy and now they’re more like a graham cracker. The waitress went back to eating again. She gave us the check and disappeared. We needed to split the check but the QR code site doesn’t allow you to separate or split. You have to ask the waitress to help you but good luck if they are done with you. I’m definitely not taking anyone to this location if at all any location. Parking is also a pain if it’s busy so good luck. There’s better places. At least it was clean until someone brought their dog in who looked to be ready to take a dump inside after he peed...