The Driskill Bar — Restaurant in Austin

On January 28th, 2017 we had the pleasure of having our wedding reception at The Driskill Victorian Room! Everything about it was magnificent...from the stay in the Yellow Rose Bridal Suite, to dancing the night away & the white-rose petal send off on the main floor of the hotel.

The staff & service was unmatched. I started to plan about 7 months ahead of time with the wedding coordinator on site named Hannah. The main room where most weddings and receptions happen at The Driskill is the 2nd floor Mezzanine. While that was beautiful and exquisite, it was a little too "grand" for my party of 120 people. Hannah worked out the budget in detail with me & met me at a place I felt comfortable, offering the fabulous two story Victorian Room.

After we chose the location, our next order of business to work out was the food. We are HUGE foodies and LOVE local, healthy, gluten-free (whenever possible) & DELICIOUS eats. We did not have it in our budget to serve a sit down dinner, but we did want stations of food with servers at each station. Some upstairs, some downstairs & all different types of seating arrangements. Some furniture & couches, some lounge areas, some bar & stand up tables & some traditional sit down tables. It provided a truly unique dining experience where people could freely move about the room to mingle & interact. After a couple tastings provided by The Driskill (when I say provided, I mean they literally treated us to a 5 star dining event!!!), everything they designed for us was Gluten-Free, by our request, & most of the food was locally sourced. This was HUGE reason we chose The Driskill... their food is really incredible! No matter how many questions or requests we had, the staff was able to answer every one of them in an incredibly timely manner.

Our final menu choices were: As guests entered and grabbed a cocktail (we did an open bar!) passed appetizers consisting of: -Prime Beef Tartare (a custom menu item they worked out just for us!) -Pumpkin Seed Crusted Quail -Lamb Lollypop

Dinner was stations of: -Shrimp & Grits Station -Texas Inspired Small Plates ---Oven Roasted Venison Loin ---Texmati Spanish Chorizo stuffed Banderea Quail ---Shiner Bock Braised Short Ribs (they also provided delicious kids meals for the little ones!)

The Bakery & Chef Tony Sansalone did a phenomenal job on our Gluten Free Strawberry Amaretto Cake. He even designed a surprise grooms cake (a request I decided on pretty last minute) which was REALLY special. They recreated their traditional 1886 Chocolate Cake into a gluten free version shaped like George Harrison's Les Paul Guitar, "Lucy". It turned out beautifully & none of the guests could believe it was gluten free.

The wedding day went off without a hitch, thanks to the attentive staff & positive attitudes all around! I stayed at the Yellow Rose Suite with my sister & the bridesmaids arrived the morning of the wedding to get ready together. We had hired two ladies to come and do the hair & makeup for all the bridesmaids/wedding party in our suite, which worked out perfectly. I HIGHLY recommend the Yellow Rose Suite because of the space it provided. The Driskill catered a delicious & beautiful buffet lunch.

As soon as we were ready Hannah came & got us to make sure we were on track for the schedule ( I can't thank her enough for her professionalism & how well she stayed on top of everything!). She made sure our first look went off without a hitch, got us to the church on time after photos, and was waiting for us when we got back from the ceremony. She guided us up to our room where we had dinner already waiting for us & our favorite cocktails. She gave us some private time & about 20 minutes later, she guided us down to our reception! It was the best service we have ever received. We felt like royalty.

I never had a "dream wedding" in mind. But I can't think of a single detail I would change! Thank you to The Driskill for treating my family and I to exceptional service and a night we will never forget!

ps: Tamara Jones, the...

After getting married we decided to spend our Honeymoon in Austin and stay here. I requested room 525 which is said to be the most haunted room next to 429. When we first got there our room wasn't quite ready so we went to the bar and I had the "Batini" It was delicious! Once our room was ready we headed up, messed the bed up, took a shower, and left for a bit. While we were out room service came by and gave us new towels, and remade the bed. They also placed a yellow rose on my side of the bed. (which I accidentally left...) I thought that was the sweetest thing!!! So, Room 525 right - Here's my ghost story: Before we left the room the first time, my new husband had put my wine in the bathroom sink and filled it with ice. We came back about an hour later (when we saw the rose) and the ice was still in the sink. After changing clothes we left to go see the bats on Congress bridge and when we came back (about 3 hrs) the ice was gone and the sink was dry. The sink thingy was pulled up and the drain was closed. My bottle of wine was still very cold. I poured a glass and yes, it was chilled. Now, the sink drain was closed, so if the ice had melted the water would have still been there. There was nothing. So, I thought maybe a slow leak right! I closed the drain and filled it with water before we went to sleep and when we woke up the next morning the water was still there. No slow leak.... Even if the little sink had a leak the ice wouldn't have melted that quick. Our room wasn't hot. So, was it the hotel people messing with us? We knew they had already been up for the evening and had left it alone before.... like they really had time to even come back and mess with that? OR maybe it was one of the suicide brides that thought I didn't deserve to have chilled wine? Well, joke's on her if so, because it was...

The most horrible experience in our life! My wife and I decided to have dinner here and due to a misunderstanding, we were double charged.

We decided to go up the the bar for dinner and drinks. They immediately asked for our credit card to start a tab, which I'm okay with, since some people may walk out. Anyway, when we finished I handed our server the full amount of the bill plus tip in cash, totaling $130.00 ($109 for the food and $20 for tip). I made the assumption that he would not charge our card. He took everything without saying a word.

After arriving home in Pittsburgh, a couple of days later, I saw the $109 charge on my credit. I then realized that the whole hotel is cashless. Not once did the staff inform me of this, nor did I noticed any signs posted in this establishment. I feel like I'm a victim of the circumstances here, not necessarily anyone's fault at all, just a BIG FAT MISUNDERSTANDING!

Now, to add insult to injury, my wife has reached out by phone and email and we're pretty much getting ignored. I would think a big corporation like the Hyatt could afford something towards goodwill here. Due to these circumstances, I will never patronize a Hyatt Hotel or recommend them ever again!

I also just noticed that these people also are not very good at responding to reviews, which a reputable business should definitely be responsive to reviews, especially bad ones. I guess that shouldn't be surprising after seeing what has happened in our...