Knotty Deck & Bar — Restaurant in Austin

I stayed at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin with my parents for the weekend, a beautiful hotel. We were looking forward to the members club but were told it was closed for the weekend, and we were offered a breakfast voucher at Knotty Deck & Bar. This morning, we decided to take our opportunity to grab a bite, reaching around 10:15 am. It’s a seat yourself restaurant, so we decided on the high tops close to the bar. We ended up waiting around 10-15 minutes with no greeting, and all staff walking by us to serve others. I finally got up to ask if we were in the right place to be served to which then we got, “Do you guys want coffee?” We politely agreed, we didn’t make a fuss about the wait, and just continued sitting and talking. Another 15-20 minutes passes when we ask the same woman whether someone would be taking our orders as we see this server going to take orders of the people who arrived after us. My mom went to speak with someone to see if there was an issue. The woman whom I had asked about being served began to bring the server, Dylan, over to us to finally take our order after almost 40 minutes of sitting there with minimal service or acknowledgement of us there. He begins to make his way over making full eye contact, only to do a 180° and go help the white couple that has been sitting for no less than 5 minutes. I bring up white couple as we were the only Indian family sitting there, and were being actively ignored as Dylan continued to run around helping everyone else as well as people who arrived much later than us, all white guests. My mom talked to the manager who went to talk to him about his lack of service, to which he finally came over and made the excuse that the pillar we were sat next to was probably the reason he hasn’t seen us (he made eye contact with me multiple times). He complained he was the only server and has been doing this all alone with everyone flagging him down. While I understand how stressful being a server may be as I’ve worked in a restaurant myself, it shows the lack of strong management and training at this establishment. The clear racism we felt was awful because we not once were rude or making it a big deal that we were waiting, but a quick greeting explaining that he is extremely busy and just needed a moment to get to us would have made a world of difference for our experience. Although a great hotel, we definitely won’t be back...

I had read so many great things about the food and the service here, and since I am going to be moving on the side of town for both work and personal, I thought why not check it out.

And besides, I do love breakfast and brunch and all things food. Especially eggs. I went here this weekend and had the eggs Benedict and it was cooked absolutely perfectly, the hollandaise sauce was perfectly seasoned and thickened and the eggs were cooked to perfection.

... The service, however was not so great, it was disappointing. I was barely acknowledged, my drink was empty most of the time and the only time which I was spoken to was when asking about my order, an attempt at upselling my order a few times (which I would have taken the suggestions if I were being taken care of properly) and if I wanted the food bill to be charged to my room or not. It was a pretty short, impersonal and cold transactional interaction.

There was no "hi how are you today, miss?" Or... "how was your food?" "How is your day?" How are you enjoying this beautiful Sunday morning? No none of that.

But besides all that, The atmosphere was really very nice and you could look below and see the travelers walk down the stairs and there was a big screen coffee area in the lobby and it was a nice ambiance about the place and the way it was set up.

I really enjoyed the food, and overall it was decent, I just wished the service would have been a bit better, I'm a pretty easy going and easy to please customer too.

And if they would have been busy then, I would not have taken a star off at all, but there was only three tables in the whole restaurant.

I will give it another chance but for now it'll be a while before I visit because, let's face that you can have eggs benedict anywhere and you really go there for the experience in the service, right?

Overall the experience was pretty good, although it could be better.

I will definitely give it another try since it is in a great location and I like the atmosphere and the food especially was worth a second shot, maybe next time I will come when they are really...

So...the bad news first (there is a little good news). Here was our order...fried egg plant appetizer...cold, dry, inedible. We each took one bite and left it. Potato soup. Hmmm, not sure you can call it soup when it sticks to your spoon...more like mashed potatoes..tasty enough, but not warm and terrible texture. Next...waited an hour for main course...not exaggerating. The chairs were hard, the table metal, the atmosphere cold...super uncomfortable. Finally, my tacos come out, very dry, and cold and partners porkchop comes out, super dry and about 1/2inch fat. Really unpleasant food. Server comes out right before we are getting ready to leave and apologizes to us, says she will talk to the manager, that they're down to 2 cooks and in the weeds and so sorry. Manager never (like, never) comes by, server says manager is going to comp the meal. That's the good news by the way. Here's the rub, normally that would be awesome, but the service and meal was so horrible, I would rather have paid 2x the value of that meal somewhere else and enjoyed Friday night date night. Here's the part that really roils me....I booked the reservation through open table because it was a 1000point table. Was far from my first choice, but we had had brunch there before and it was pretty good so I figured it was worth the night for the points. AND THEY DIDNT REGISTER THE POINTS. I called and left message, still no points. Frankly, I would rather have paid for the horrible meal and got the points. Will not be going back. Do not recommend you try it. Way too many great places to waste money, time or points on Knotty. I am not only dissatisfied, I'm angry. No wonder they atmre 1000 point tables, I dont know who else would go there unless some incentive. But buyer beware..they reneged. I should say the peach desert was pretty good. Nothing to crave, but at least edible. Everything...