Lucky Robot Restaurant — Restaurant in Austin

First time visitors - We arrived around 6:30 on a Wednesday night and left on Thursday. Just kidding, but that's what it felt like. We were seated quickly and it was hardly busy when we arrived. We were greeted warmly by the host (manager?) and seated on the patio by the street. The host and our server took their time showing us through their menu and specials, the sake menu, sustainable fish, etc. For our first course, we ordered the King Cebiche and crisped brussel sprouts along with the hot drunken whale sake.

This is where the train started to derail.

The brussel sprouts came out first, they were delicious. Followed by the King Cebiche. We finished that as well, also delicious, but both courses would have been better with the sake we ordered when we first arrived, which finally arrived after multiple reminders and about 45 minutes after we first arrived. While waiting for our first carafe of sake we almost finished the carafe of water provided to us (more on that later). By this time the restaurant had gotten significantly busier, and it appeared our waiter, Emelio, was deep in the weeds. It took awhile for us to order our next courses, the spider roll and the atomic roll. This is where things got tricky. We had run out of sake, and by this time, were down to our last glass of water. Luckily, I was able to flag down a host and order more sake through him (we went ahead and ordered two this time since the first carafe took forevvvver). That sake came out .. Somewhat promptly, comparatively speaking... For our last course, which wasn't necessarily by choice, more of a "time commitment" thing, with the robo tuna roll and r2d2, it eventually arrived, but not before our waiter asked us if we wanted dessert. Note, 30 minutes previously we had already asked for our check and asked to cancel the last order.

At the end of the night, we spent almost 2.5 hours for 3 ordered courses, 3 carafes of sake, and one carafe of water.

It is of my humble opinion, that at any established restaurant, the guests should always be served water. For all the hoopla and presentation of the menu, sake sommelier, and sustainable fish, it is unfortunate to see the service flop. We will be back, maybe next time we will try sitting at the sushi bar or inside and see if the service changes.

Authors Note: this may seem like a long review, and it probably is, I had a lot of time to...

This was the best dining out experience I’ve had in Austin since moving here 13 months ago. They have heating lamps over each outdoor table that you can ask the server to turn on or off based on your comfort level. Mary Anne was a great server. I’m in the industry myself so I know she excels. For example, every restaurant makes you give a generic spiel after introducing yourself about the restaurant. Mary Anne made the spiel seem super natural, off the cuff, and welcoming. That is very hard to do. It’s much easier to sound like a robot giving the spiel. Mary Anne did a great job in making it welcoming and not awkward. She also gave great recommendations based on me being vegan and my friend not being vegan, while still being able to be brief. I had the plum julep. My friend had chomane fizz. She really liked her drink but I didn’t try it. I loved the plum julep. I’m a bartender with a lot of craft cocktail experience and the plum julep was very well balanced. I would definitely order again. I had the Veggiepilar and “good catch spicy tuna” rolls. Both were great. Much better than Blue Sushi. Only problem is I’ll be craving them in the future so my wallet might hurt a bit. The spicy edamame was great and a nice thoughtful touch was they put the spicy powder on the side so you can choose your spice level. I’m a spice fiend so I dumped it all on and they were phenomenal. The absolute highlight was the vegan banana dessert. I only ordered it because Mary Anne had mentioned there was an amazing vegan dessert, that’s her fav, at the beginning when I said I was vegan and she was telling me about the vegan options. I never even think about dessert at restaurants that aren’t 100% vegan bc it’s rare there’s an option. But Mary Anne planted that seed prior to ordering, which I can say from experience is best practice but it’s actually difficult to remember to do so. Because of that, I had been thinking about that dessert the whole meal and by the end it was a must have. Let me tell you, it was the best vegan dessert I have ever had at a restaurant. It beats out 100% vegan restaurants desserts. I can’t believe how good it was and I’m so thankful Mary Anne mentioned it bc it was absolutely amazing. Mary Anne is an absolute pro in the sense that she makes the steps of service very fluid and not forced. That is hard to do. Make her lead server if she isn’t already bc damn does...

Lucky Robot is FANTASTIC! The weather was cold so my daughter and I had the Robot Ramen to warm up and this hit the spot. The noodles are fresh, the combo of pickled ginger, bean sprouts, ajitama egg, pork and pork broth delicious and flavorful and so well balanced. We also ordered edamame and the Robo Tuna Maki Rolls with the spicy mayo which I really enjoyed! The tuna was fresh and delicate combined with the panko togarashi was a nice soft and crunchy combo. I thought I was full until our hostess told us about the Yuzu Pie and Texas Tokyo Banana for dessert. We ordered the Yuzu Pie and had it not been for my daughter and social courtesy I would have shoved my face in this to experience it on another level. First of all the presentation was beautiful! The colors of the sauce and flower petals on the Yuzu Pie were beautiful like a Monet flower painting. Then came the flavors… OMG it touches your tongue and palette and it was an explosion of flavors that left me speechless! My daughter and I looked at each other and stopped to enjoy it and take in. The epic combo balance of sweet and tart, the delicacy of the pie and then crunch of the toasted pecans with blueberry and toasted meringue then the graham cracker and blueberry sauce! I couldn’t believe the layers of flavor. Each bite was sweet musical beauty. I’m glad our hostess took the plate when we finished or I would have waited for the right moment that nobody would be watching so I could lick the plate it was that good. We had eaten here before just before the pandemic hit and finally made the hour drive to come back to Lucky Robot and it was so worth the wait. Chef and our hostess are so friendly, wonderful and welcoming, everyone is so nice and knowledgeable of the menu. The ambience is colorful, fun and relaxing. The pink flowers hanging from the ceiling, artwork, lighting, table settings are so appealing. It’s definitely worth the hour long drive for us. I’m a single working dad so I try and do fun things for my daughter when we get the chance which isn’t often and this will always be our go to place for GREAT food GREAT staff and GREAT atmosphere. THANK YOU ALL AT...