Milonga Room — Restaurant in Austin

I'm so sad with my experience here at the Milonga Room. To celebrate my roommate's birthday, her 2 sisters came into town all the way from Oregon & Massachusetts & we had booked a reservation for here WEEKS in advance. Upon arrival, we were ignored for 35 minutes as we waited in the cold outside. We then finally went in when someone else was leaving to be ignored for another 10 minutes by 2 of the hosts. They did not have our reservation in their system and said they could seat us in 20 more minutes. We decided to wait, and they finally found room to temporarily put us at while we waited (this was an hour past our reservation time). We were grateful they found room for us, but they continued to ignore us for another 30 minutes.. not taking our order or even provide us water as they served others around us. Finally after 1.5 hours, we moved to a table where the server approached us and said "Let's forget about this all and start over".... not even a sorry. He said he would offer us all shots! My roommate simply wanted a glass of water and a drink. I said "we wouldn't need shots, but taking some of our drinks off the bill would be nice for the service" - he nodded. After we finally got served an hour and 45 minutes after our reservation, we got the check and they wanted us to pay for every drink. I kindly approached the server and explained I'd like one drink off the menu and he began challenging me about this. I'm grateful they finally took one drink off the bill after being challenged for a few minutes, but was thoroughly disappointed with this visit. I get the system had it wrong but the customer service was so shockingly poor I was laughing to myself.

I strongly do NOT suggest this bar. There are such better speakeasies with SUPERB customer service. Spend your money at...

We were super disappointed and had an awful experience here last night. Despite being a slow night with only a few tables, the hostess/waitress ignored us. It was like pulling teeth to get service for a few empanadas and drinks. At one point I made eye contact with her, she yawned at the bar, then walked right past our table without checking in. Drinks were overpriced and the bartender refused to accommodate putting one drink over ice.

We were given 1 fork, zero napkins, and no water even though there were 2 of us. Worst of all, when we finally got the check (from the bartender as our waitress went MIA), they tacked on a mandatory 20% gratuity charge. I have never seem this except for large parties. We questioned the bartender about this and he got extremely rude and combative and told us they are sorry we’re disappointed and if they lose our future business oh well. Really?

He then showed us where it stated this on the menu, in tiny print on the bottom. Then he said they did that so people wouldn’t “stiff them” and also said he didn’t care if we contacted the owners to complain as “they are the ones who implemented this policy”. No wonder the service here is so bad- they don’t care as the know they are getting a 20% tip regardless. This practice is unethical and we will be contesting the charge with our credit card as service was not rendered. I will never come back to this place. Terrible vibe, rude/neglectful service, and overpriced. Too many other great places in Austin that don’t treat patrons with this...

A very poor attempt to hitch a ride on the speakeasy bandwagon in Austin. From ambience to food to drinks, this was a disappointing and overpriced experience. So many other places in Austin do this better. A single light shines dimly at one end of the room, with the rest of the basement “lounge” in severe darkness. Not even the tiny candle on our table could help us see the difference between the stuffing of the two empanadas we ordered. The dish of gnocchi for $15 was astounding- about $1 per small gnocchi (which was so sweet a dish it should have been dessert). If you show up looking forward to a few tapas from the menu they list online, imagine our surprise when we were told “we haven’t updated the web site in a long time” and half the items are not offered any more. The drinks were tasty and I can only assume presented in an attractive manner, but who could see them? Lastly, there is a mandatory 20% “gratuity” added to your bill. First, if it’s mandatory, it’s a “service charge” not a “gratuity”; and second, the staff clearly have zero incentive to actually pay attention to you (we were two of only 6 people in the entire place, us and a table of 4, and we received no attention and had to get up and get the server any time we needed something). If you’re here for a bachelorette party or want to be pretentious, make a reservation. If not, head to any of the other...