Ovenbird | Austin — Restaurant in Austin

Tried for the first time today. The space is nice, has a casual vibe but the food here definitely is not just average casual breakfast/brunch fare. We came on a Sunday and so their brunch menu was also available. Ordered two cocktails, two coffee drinks, the Hoppel Poppel, a Reuben sandwich, and a shakshuka breakfast taco.

The cocktails were both really good (a strawberry marg and a watermelon cocktail, I forget the name) and were a surprisingly great price at only $10 each.

The Medovic latte was also delicious, the burnt honey and caramel flavor really comes through.

Food was all really top tier. The Hoppel Poppel is a really hearty and satisfying hash of home fries, steak, peppers, onions and an egg on top. I love that their potatoes are properly crispy and not underdone like a lot of breakfast places.

The Reuben had really juicy and tender corned beef and the kraut and dressing balanced out the rich beef really well. On par with similar sandwiches I've had in town (ie: Pieous and Mum foods, although I know their thing is pastrami).

The Shakshuka breakfast taco was super unique. I love Shakshuka but never had have it in breakfast taco form. The eggs are cooked really well, a nice soft scramble mixed in with spicy tomato sauce served on a super unique marble rye tortilla, which I've never seen anywhere else. I added sausage, which honestly wasn't even necessary.

The only caveat I have for this place (which is a minor thing and doesn't deserve taking off a star or anything) is that the service model can be confusing for a first timer like I was. When you walk in there's a walk up counter to order like any coffee shop, but also signs that say "seat yourself and order via QR code". We sat and ordered everything using the code, however we didn't realize (and there's no signage or anything) that indicates that while they will deliver your food to the table, you still have to pick up your drinks and coffees from the bar. Also, coffee and alcoholic drinks come from separate places. So both our coffees and our cocktails were sitting on different counters waiting for awhile before we realized we had to get them ourselves. Not a big deal, but I feel that process could be better communicated.

Overall a really excellent spot that I am happy to have finally tried. Even happier that it's in South Austin which can be a little more challenging to find good spots to eat. Very much...

Wife and I are staying in Austin, Texas for Memorial Day weekend 2021. Our lodging is in South Congress, so we were fortunate enough to have Ovenbird nearby.

You must come check OvenBird out!! 😍😋 .

We pulled up at around 8:45 am on a Sunday morning. Parking was pretty easy. I noticed plenty of seating availability inside and outside. Notably, I didn’t see any signs requiring customers to wear masks. Staff were wearing masks though.

Placing an order was challenging because the menus they have printed out by the register are incomplete. For example, it didn’t have the weekend special Babka French Toast (that I ended up getting). Also, they have their drink menus advertised in two different places (chalkboard on the wall, and a wooden menu by the register). Highly recommend they do something about this.

Once we placed our orders, our drinks came out pretty quickly. The food came out not long after the drinks.

The food was amazing!!! My wife ordered a special menu item with hash, corned beef, onions and pepper called ‘Hoppel Poppo’ (couldn’t find it written anywhere). The corned beef was very tender and juicy. I got the breakfast sandwich version with the bacon cheddar Shak-Mayo. The bacon was juicy and salty, and the cheese was perfectly gooey. We also got the Babka French Toast to share. The raspberry and dark chocolate flavors were really come out nicely, and I really appreciate it not coming out too sweet.

Drinks were on point too! I got a lemonade, and it had great natural flavors. My wife got an iced latte with oat milk which was nice. She also then got one of their non-alcoholic signature drink called the ‘Phil Collins’. It’s very cool bittersweet drink.

Highly recommend people check this place out!

*update: Owner in response made me aware that they do have a little blue sign asking...

I was really looking forward to eating here as I had heard great things, however that changed very quickly.

As soon as we walked in through the doors, the place was incomplete disarray with trash and food all over the floors, table and chairs where strewn all over the place and the whole restaurant just looked filthy. What was odd is that the restaurant didn’t look busy yet the staff were running up and down and looked clearly flustered and annoyed.

We initially decided to sit inside, but the chaotic atmosphere made us move outside. Once the food came out, the plates looked great, but actually eating our breakfast sandwiches was a hurdle as they put so much of their sauce that as soon as you took a bite, everything slipped out of the sandwich so we ended up eating it with fork and knife. Their lemonade was clearly from an instant packet as the taste was clearly chemical and not natural and was SO SWEET but we were forced to drink it as our coffee took forever to be delivered.

Our experience was so disappointing and left such a bad taste in our mouth as we spent so much money on two sandwiches and two drinks and we ended up leaving, equally as hungry as we came in. Unfortunately I cannot say we will return.

We highly suggest the owner revisit their mode of operations. Everything from how you order food, the upkeep of the restaurant, the friendliness and delivery of food, and overall the....