Kerbey Lane Cafe — Restaurant in Austin

I have lived in South Austin for 6 years and been going to Kerbey Lane semi-frequently over that time. While I absolutely love the South Lamar location, my first in-person visit to this Southwest location has me questioning everything.

Firstly, my large party of seven with my visiting friends from college found ourselves with a poor waitress who was clearly having a rough time of it yet was not being supported by other staff or management at all. While it’s understandable that it’s extremely difficult to help coworkers in such trying times as a pandemic, the lack of help for this poor person was distressing. After ordering our drinks, the situation became very odd when the waitress spilled orange juice on my friend who had ordered it. The waitress brought her napkins to help her clean up but did not provide a new orange juice or check in again before we ordered other than to whisper an apology as the waitress was clearly shaken.

The situation then grew even more dire when she brought the drinks for the group across from us. Upon setting down the tray, a bottle of wine/ champagne fell off the back, crashing to the floor. While most of it was contained, a piece flew off and hit my orange juice drinking friend. The small shard was easily and quickly removed from her foot and a manager quickly checked in on her. The manager was helpful to a point and created an incident report, however, both the waitress and my friend were clearly very upset but trying to pass it off as nonchalantly as possible. The manager then left and our waitress was again scrambling.

After this, our food arrived. The meal was okay but not quite the usual Kerbey goodness as it had been sitting on the hot plate for awhile due to the previous incident. After consuming most of our food, we realized that no one had checked in on us for ten minutes and we were quite clearly starting to get apprehensive. I this was the end of a fun weekend together and most of us needed to be hitting the road relatively soon. We luckily spotted our waitress, flagged her down, and asked for the checks. These checks would then take another ten minutes to be retrieved, by which time, my friend who has been spilled on and pierced, needed to leave to pick up her dog from his daycare in time. She was lucky in that she would have been even more flummoxed when our checks arrived including hers with the full price of her items and not even a follow up from the manager.

At this point I am just disappointed with the service and disgusted that my visiting friends had to experience such inhospitable service. I am also so confused as to how anyone can work at such an establishment that essentially abandoned a member of the staff who was...

We went again for the first time in YEARS celebrating my birthday to eat the brownie sundae, and at the end of our meal they told us they don't have any left. Okay no big deal, things run out, we understand. We went again the following week, and again we were told that they once again ran out, which was strange because how do you run out of your most popular dessert on Saturdays, your busiest day of the week, at barely brunch time, two weeks in a row? But ok, no worries. We want to try again, but this time we CALLED AHEAD to make sure they have it in stock, especially since we don't wanna drive 40 minutes only to be disappointed for a THIRD time. Lady on the phone goes to check & says yes we have tons left, so off we go. We get there, eat our meal and order dessert, and whadda ya know 😭 Our waitress says they served the last portion of it right before us. This was only about 1:30 hrs after the lady on the phone said they had "tons left." 🥺 Bestie, if you have "tons left" y'all wouldn't be running out less than 2hrs later 😭 I worked food service for years, and I know what it's like to have a customer be mad at you for something you had no control over, so I try to be kind and explain everything to our server. I hate asking for freebies or discounts, but at this point it happened too many times that I was hoping she would talk to her manager so we'd get some sort of incentive to come back, because we were tired of driving this far & paying for a mid-tasting meal only to NOT get to eat the main reason why we came in the first place. But waitress did not seem to care, barely even acknowledged what I told her. Whatever manager is in charge of making sure to order enough quantity to last through the week needs to get serious lol, because if you're constantly running out of popular items by SATURDAY before NOON, you're costing your restaurant a lot. I want to come back 😭 That's my favorite dessert of all time. But I'm more willing to make the extra drive to the other location instead. Get it together y'all, this place used to be...

In the past 2 years we have had nothing but problems with the food and service. We go to South Lamar location sometimes and never have issues. I went in person this morning to place a to go order and stood waiting for 26 minutes. When I called I was informed that they were short-staffed & no one could take my phone order to go, I needed to go online & order. My husband & I are in our '60s. We never order anything online. We always call ahead to pick up or have delivered, at other restaurants. And as I stood there I noticed 2 lady waitresses on their cell phones, when no one was looking. One of them could not take my order on the phone??? When I walked in, the guy at front area was on his cell phone too! UR Supervisors need to pay attention to the server's. I should have taken a picture of them, but I didn't. Even after 2 tables came in, seated and received their food. While I stood & continued waiting!?! I talked to the manager Quinn & she explained to me that walk in "to go orders" are placed in a separate area & will be filled as the orders come in. This Makes no sense to me at all. My husband's blueberry pancakes were nasty and rubbery. He took a few bites and threw the rest away. I made him some blueberry pancakes myself and he ate those. What a waste of money and time!!!! And my black beans had a nasty coating of something even after I stirred them , They tasted like metal and I threw the black beans away. We are not rich but we treat ourselves from time to time to order food. Or go to a restaurant to eat. And enough is enough. We are done with this location!! We will NEVER go back to this location. Very Disappointed!!!...