Perla's — Restaurant in Austin

The food and atmosphere was phenomenal! That’s the only good thing I can say about this experience. First, it took the waiter sooooo long to even come to my table. I had to ask someone when will the waiter arrive. The waiter finally came. He greeted me with a smile and that’s as far as it goes! Secondly, my food came and I had no silverware or napkins so I asked one of the guys walking past could I have a fork, napkin and straw! It took soooo long for the waiter to come by and ask did I need anything the entire evening. However, he passed by me several times as if I was invisible! I was seated on the patio and it began to rain. I did notice he went and made another table comfortable for another group of ladies (of another race) because they stated it started raining and they didn’t want to be in the rain, the waiter immediately made sure those ladies were moved to a table with an umbrella to get them out the rain! Well, I made the same comment and he told me “I think it’ll stop soon!” I even said I actually wanted to stay outside just didn’t want it raining on me and he literally did nothing! He didn’t run and make me a table comfortable like he did those ladies. Also, a manger (I’m assuming) asked the other workers to turn off the heated lamps by the tables in my area…he never asked me was I cold but instructed him to turn off the lamp…I then told the worker, it’s pretty cold and would you mind turning my lamp back on and he did! Sadly, he (the manger) asked the worker to turn off the lamp by me (right in my face, even made eye contact with me) disregarded the fact that I am a human and he failed to take consideration for me as a customer as well to even ask was it ok to turn off the lamp by my table! I ordered my appetizers and wanted an entree but once I realized that the waiter and staff ignored me pretty much the entire time I was there and gave mediocre service, I decided to eat the appetizers, pay and go! I did not want to spend another dime there! I ironically left the waiter the appropriate tip even though he deserved nothing more than $2 simply because I have a heart and try not to treat people the way they treat me. I also want to mention at the time I was the only Black person sitting on the patio at the time…my feelings are that I was ignored and not treated like the rest of the customers because of my race because what other reason would it be, I’ve never been there before, I was only in Austin on vacation! Not here to convince anyone as I know what racism feels like just stating it in a way to clear logic here. Smh! Sad it had to be that way! I will...

This is my new favorite restaurant in Austin. I came here Saturday for lunch. I made a reservation earlier that morning, though arrived about 2 hours early. There was no wait for me to eat at the high top tables. The decor in the restaurant is pretty, light, seaside vibes, and classy. I parked in the parking garage behind the restaurant, and Perla's validates it up to two hours! Awesome!! I usually don't even like going to restaurants in downtown because parking can be a pain, so it was really nice to have essentially free, self-park in a covered garage.

Annie was my server, and she was awesome! She gave my hush puppies as complimentary app. while I browsed the menu. These are the best hush puppies I've ever had. I ate them so fast I couldn't take a photo, lol. She gave me good raw oyster suggestions! I got 4 raw oysters, calamari, and baked oysters. Annie's raw oyster recommendations were a hit, extremely good, fresh, and served perfectly. The calamari was delicious, huge generous portions that Annie nicely boxed for me, even boxed the sauces. The baked oysters were outstanding, my new favorite non-bbq dish of any restaurant I've visited in Austin.

I'm from TX, though I've lived and worked abroad, have had many exceptional culinary experiences, and am a fantastic home cook, and I was very impressed by Perla's!!! Everything from the parking, atmosphere, food, and service is top notch. It reminds me of going out to nice restaurants 20 years ago where they really studied hospitality and put in genuine effort without being too stuffy and stingy.

Something unique happened while I was there that really captures the professionalism and hospitality of this restaurant. Someone had a medical emergency at a nearby table, and I watched every person help not only the patron in need but everyone, even EMS, to professionally manage the situation with empathy, grace, and efficiency. They did so many little things that really wow'd me while handling that emergency that it's too much to type. Yay! I'm always really happy to find a well-managed restaurant like this. What a gem. I'll be...

I made reservations months ago for Father’s Day and requested a half-booth. Our party of 4 were looking forward to a nice dinner at Perla’s since we hadn’t been there since the pandemic. So, so disappointing. The hostess seated us near the bathrooms. She looked surprised that we did not want to sit near the bathrooms with so many available seats in the restaurant. We had walked past an open half-booth that would have been suitable for our party and we asked the hostess for another table. She seated us at a small table, still ignoring the open table that would have been ideal for our group. Finally the hostess seated us in the open table. Not sure what was going on but she finally got permission to seat us there. That’s just for starters. The waiter was slow in taking our drink order and assumed that there was only one person in our party that mattered. She was waited on; the rest of us were not. We ordered 2 large bottles of sparkling water but only one was brought and that was for the previously mentioned guest. The primary waiter was surprised that the other members of the group wanted sparkling water as well. We had another waiter get us the 2nd bottle. The waiter was slow in getting our appetizers ordered and delivered. Only the perviously mentioned guest was provided utensils. The other guests in the party needed to request forks for both the appetizer and entree. In both cases a second waiter needed to fulfill the request, since our waiter hadn’t returned to our table. When we ordered a side dish of Brussels sprouts with our entree, they were charred, hard and not chewable. As a side note, we gave the waiter a 20% tip for service that clearly was NOT deserved.

The service has clearly changed for the worse. We’re done. That will be our last...