Ski Shores Cafe — Restaurant in Austin

This place has reopened under new management from what it sounds like. It is my first time here so I can't tell you what it was like before. They utilize QR codes to order and pay with your phone which I don't mind as long as I'm not pressured to pay 20% tip. It matters because you will definitely pay a premium for the lake side views as the food is overpriced by atleast 40%, I kid you not. With that said, the quality of the fish and shrimp were really good, the drinks were strong and all the wait staff bringing the food were really nice. Only thing that was iffy was the water actually, we joked if they just dip the glass straight into the lake and serve it.

Menu wise, I wish there were classier seafood options along with oysters.

There's also a small area for kids to play which is a really nice touch. It would be better if there were more shade though.

Overall I enjoyed my time with my family and I'll probably be back when I'm wanting water views but there were certain things I must call out which is why I rounded down to 3 stars, and it's not the pricing. These are: When we walked in, we immediately felt unwelcomed by the hostess who would not even make eye contact.

The guy that was with her said the wait time was going to be 50 mins to an hr. We got on the list and wait time turned out to be 10 mins. Odd but okay fine.

Seating us outside, they took us to the furthest table that is out of sight, back towards the parking lot. It was 1 of 2 tables in the entire place that did not have water mist or fans blowing on it. Even the other table without the fans/mist had an umbrella top atleast, this had nothing so you can imagine how hot it was.

Now any of those 3 on its own is not too big of a deal, but for all 3 to happen to a brown family in an establishment serving predominantly white / right-wingy boating subculture does invite some super obvious questions. I don't like to play the racism card but let me tell you, my gut feelings are usually right.

Whether real or coincidence, it was a negative part of our experience. Nevertheless, I wouldn't hold everyone at the restaurant responsible and besides the hostess, all the waiters were incredibly nice so I'll...

Updated: 7/2023...

I have to lower my rating on this place. Before I gave it an overall rating of three stars because I wasn't paying for the meal and having not been paying thought it was overall 'average'. Now, since I did pay for our meal on this second visit, I noticed some things that really ticked me off. The biggest complaint I have is the fact I am required to order my meal over an app without any greeting by anyone at the restaurant, and to top it off, after I get done ordering on the app, I am expected to decide on how much I want to tip them BEFORE I'm ever served anything. My choices are 18%, 20% and 22%. They say you can select your own amount and put in 0% but then you're left wondering are they going to spit in my food before delivering it? What happened to getting the service first and then tipping based on how good the service was? Given the fact no one actually takes your order the quality of service is already diminished, but I do believe that some service is provided in that they deliver your food to your table and clean up after you leave. That part does deserve some tip, but to ask for it up front is offensive. I won't be returning.

My old review read.....

Overall this place is OK, but it's because of the location that makes it so. The parking is terrible. The fact that you have to order your food on an app, and can not make any substitutions (e.g. changing out Swiss cheese for American cheese on your Club sandwich) makes this place very difficult to really enjoy from a services perspective. Sure, the fact you're on the water is great, and the views are fantastic, but the rest of the place is very mediocre to down-right poor. I'm still giving it a rating of "OK" because the experience of being down on the water is really enjoyable. Do it once, but then after that don't return. The rest of it...

First of all. I really wanted to like this place and honestly is not a bad place. The good, great atmosphere and views. You’re literally sitting by the water and it’s beautiful there. Dog friendly and they even bring a water bowl out for your dog. I had the Polar bear burger and it was delicious. The bad is really in the service. They bring you out a paper menu but you must scan a QR Code to place your order. So you basic wait yourself. The problem is that the menus don’t really match so you’re stuck waiting for staff to come back to your table to ask questions. Well, they don’t really come back so now you have to get up and find someone to ask questions. Okay cool. Well, we had to repeat this process at least 3 times. The staff is friendly but indifferent even though they could notice how annoyed we all were at this point. This has to be the dumbest system. Have a waiter or don’t. Have one menu or just the QR. The margaritas are horrible. I’m a bartender and this was absolutely the worst margarita I’ve ever tasted, and it was $14 bucks for this tiny nasty thing. My daughter could not drink hers either and when I brought it up to the manager he continued as if I said nothing. Needles to say, we paid and left no tip. After all we did half of the work ourselves waiting. Again. It is a beautiful place. The food is tasty. The margaritas are terrible. The Irish coffee was near perfect. So polarizing that it makes you wonder. Please get a good waiting system and Google a Margarita recipe. It’s literally the easiest...