Picnik Burnet Road — Restaurant in Austin

I’m a long term customer of this restaurant & for a while I have resisted leaving a bad review because I don’t usually believe in basing a review on a singular experience. This restaurant has a unique food concept but has long struggled with customer service/inconsistent food particularly at their south location that unsurprisingly closed. But what happened today is such an egregious violation of basic decency. It’s also been difficult for me to go anywhere the past few months because I was in a serious car wreck w/ a spinal injury on top of an existing disability. As a part of my physical therapy I stretched myself today to try to come eat out at a sit down restaurant after several months of being being mostly home bound. Prior to the car wreck I have probably frequented Picnik dozens of times if not more because it has a unique menu for people w/ more limited diets. But what happened today is a customer service failure of epic proportions. When I arrived with my dog a waiter had told that I could have one side of shared table once the individuals left. After waiting for that table I approached the table w/ my dog and the people at the end of the table had a small yappy dog that went ballistic snarling and flailing around. No one should bring a dog like that to a restaurant, & no restaurant should allow a customer with out of control dog to dictate seating. Shockingly the restaurant not only did that but doubled down on it. The customer actually yelled out “you can’t sit them next to us or my dog will go nuts,” as I’m trying to sit with my well behaved dog at the table i had patiently waited for and been promised. At this point the waiter says they will try to find me another table. I go back to sit on plastic fold up chairs that are extremely difficult for me to sit on with my injury and ask to speak with someone who then tells me they should be able to find me somewhere to sit up front . What follows though is multiple staff coming out to tell me completely contradictory things - each time having Me wait longer while letting me believe they can seat me shortly, never once apologizing and never being able to rationally explain why they are prioritizing a customer with “misbehaving dog”-manager’s own word. At some point another customer feels badly for me and offers me her table. But when staff comes out they tell me I can’t have that table & have to be on a waiting list again. At this point I ask for a manager who comes out hostile & never apologizes and never asks me what happened and never offers to try to expedite finding me a table. And so I asked for her managers contact. She told me she will go and get it and then leaves me sitting outside without ever returning. When I realized this after waiting a long time again, I was forced to go to door and ask someone else to bring it. There is a mean spiritedness in the manager doing something that petty knowing l am injured with disability, knowing all the time I’ve waited without being seated or eating to then leave me waiting w/ no intention of returning. At this point I finally did lose my temper while also weathering shooting pain/numbness down my legs. I don’t like losing my temper and eventually called back to try to get main managers contact hoping to have a reasonable conversation But Manager on duty picked up and refused to give me managers expected return date and ultimately hung up on me. This is not a humane person.She did not care I have been a long time customer. She didn’t care I have disability and the physical impact it had on me. And she ultimately hung up on me for simply recounting what happened that she never gave me an opportunity to account before. I’ve also never heard of a restaurant that allows a customer with an out of control dog to dictate where customers with well behaved dogs waiting patiently can sit or who blame their customers for their own poor mismanagement. If I was the problem why did another customer offer me their table? What does that say when the customers offer better...

I don’t recommend this restaurant if you are wanting to celebrate a friend’s birthday and/or catch up with girlfriends you haven’t seen in a while on a Sunday afternoon. You will be asked to leave once your “time” is up. No one tells you that you only have 90 minutes to eat and the food was slow to come as well (this time limit should be disclosed on the Resy confirmation or upon check in). There is nothing on the reservation that says you have a 90 minute time limit. Also they were out of multiple items on the menu but that is not the reason for the 1 star review. We tipped our waiter well and ordered additional drinks we were still finishing when we were asked to leave because they needed the table. The hostesses that asked us to leave were not nice and could have been more professional instead of beating around the bush to get us to leave like “are you waiting on something?” Or “do you need your check?” If you need the table you can say “hi ladies, how was your meal? I’m so sorry to interrupt your conversation as it looks like you are having a great time, but we really need your table in the next 5-10 minutes for our next reservation. Could I get your drinks to go?” To make it clear- we were still enjoying our tea that we ordered before the check came! I asked her after we got up if there is a certain etiquette we were supposed to know about for how long to keep the table as we’re catching up on my friends birthday and she curtly said “most people stay 90 minutes and you have been here 2 hours.” I told her it would have been nice to know that. We really liked our server, he was very kind but I won’t come here again- so many other restaurants we can choose to celebrate my dear friend’s birthday brunch that won’t leave you with an awkward feeling like you broke their rules. I can understand needing to turn the table, it was the delivery of the two hostesses that made us feel so awkward like we did something wrong. I want to make it clear that we were not sitting at an empty table, we were still enjoying our drinks (the waiter shouldn’t have let us order more drinks if they needed to turn the table)…extremely poor service with the hosting team there…This had a very LA/NY vibe and not the Austin I was born...

i came in with a backpack i had my laptop and stuff i thought this was a cafe setting since they have variety of drink menus like coffee asked the worker ( seemed like a manager) if they have any spot with electric hook up , she said no which is fine .

but when i sat in the corner table and decided to wait for my girlfriend ( which i let the hostess know already ) , the manager came and asked me if i need to get seated somewhere else since that table im sitting had a reservation . i said sure . but the hostess came and brought menu and asked if i would like anything , and i asked “ i thought this table had a reservation and i needed to move ? “ which she replied “ no there’s no reservations “ then i realized the manager lady just made that up just so she could either kick me out or made me order food right away bc she may have assumed im a homeless person just bc i brought in my backpack .

this really disgusted me , i am a clean cut casually dressed ( t shitt and pants ) , shower taking ( every day ) normal person with great hygiene . At the time i didnt really think of it and my girlfriend came almost right after so we ordered food and ate and left ( the server girl and hostess girl were both super super nice ) . but i am leaving this review just because i felt very uncomfortable about the fact that she lied about the reservation thing . that is messed up disrespectful , and i suggest the owner to train the employees better so they dont give off this snobbish vibe . ( the restaurant is really nice , upscale , clean , which i like , but your employees can easilly come off rude or arrogant vibe if youre not careful ) i will not visit this place again even tho food was decent as i do have other options like citizens eatery or honest mary’s literally 3 min drive away from them . i highly doubt they would ask me to move bc my table has...