Texas Chili Parlor — Restaurant in Austin

You know how sometimes you want to try something new so you start browsing and reading and trying to pick a place everyone will enjoy? Well when that works out well you're a bit like the hero of the moment. This was a bad call on my part; not the hero. There's no air conditioning, or none perceived, and we knew that from the start, but we had just walked around a little. Asked for waters when we ordered our drinks. The drinks took about 5 minutes but the waters took 20. The food took over 30 and these were bowls of chili and a burger. The kicker was that it took until we got the food to be told one of the main items wasn't available tonight. Service was almost unbearable but thankfully another server, not ours, pitched in to get things moving when she could. Slow waters, slow food, slow bill. The food was ok, but the house chili wasn't actually so great. The black bean and sausage chili was better. The decor was dive-y but a good vibe overall. Had the service not been aggravating the food probably would have been at a better temperature and probably would have held up enough to call the experience pretty good. But...

Visiting from out of state, my family and I stopped here late one evening since it was right next to our hotel (didn't feel like driving). At first, I thought it was a traditional bar scene whenever we walked in to which we'd have to do a one-eighty and go find another place. As we looked around, we saw tables and chairs so I realized this place was also a restaurant. We were greeted and seated immediately.

The service here was ok...I'm a huge water drinker so I had to always flag the server down for constant refills. I enjoy it when servers are constantly refilling the water without having to ask for it.

We ended up ordering the nachos (I think it was called Killer Nachos?). Also, because of the name of the restaurant, I had to try the chili so I ordered a small bowl of the medium-spice (XX) chili - it was hearty and good. We also ended up ordering the chicken fajitas (decent), cheeseburger (great), classic burger (good), and chili dog (awesome). Overall, the food served here is good. I don't have anything negative to say about the quality of food and do recommend this place to others looking for a bite...

I've lived in Austin for 40 years but never eaten at this iconic institution. This Sunday was the perfect opportunity to finally check it off my bucket list. Parking anywhere in downtown Austin during the week is usually an expensive, time consuming and generally a big hassle. But not so on Sunday. We found plenty of empty, shady spaces to park on 14th Street at Lavaca that were completely free. Once inside we almost had the entire restaurant to ourselves, save for the staff and about two or three other small parties. I started with a Sunday special drink, a double bloody Mary for only $6. For eats we had the Chili potato and Frito chili pie. Both were loaded with delicious, spicy 🔥 chunky chili meat, diced onions and jalapeno slices. The potato came with a large side salad as well. We were both pleasantly stuffed afterwards. The decor is straight out of the 70s along with the background music, which all adds to the ambiance. You gotta visit this place if you want true exposure to Texas, both from a cultural perspective and from your tastebuds. What a...