Yard Bar — Restaurant in Austin

Just go to the Watering Bowl instead or the Armadillo Den!

It was my 4th time coming here. My first few experiences here were wonderful over a year ago or so.

This time, I initially went to the side where you order. There was no staff present. Waited for maybe 5 minutes or so--still no one.

I took my dog off the leash at that point since I was not sure if there was anyone working. Once I finally met staff, they urged my dogs be leashed. Not much of a greeting--just a firm suggestion and reinforcement of the rules. I agreed to do so and also informed her I was unsure anyone was here since there weren't any staff on the opposite side of the establishment. I did not receive a response to my inquiry. Once I began to round my two dogs and leash them--another staff member appeared to reinforce that I leash my dogs... To which I had already was in the process of doing. Once I leashed my dogs, I then went to order finally. Did not see a staff member at the side of establishment where orders are placed. Returned to the initial section where I was informed the first time to leash my dogs at to then be told by the same initial staff member that my dogs need to be leashed and that there was indeed staff present on the "ordering" side. At this point--I had already been told 3 times to leash my dogs... Which I had done after the first warning.

So, if you would like consideration and a more pleasant greeting. Make sure to be extremely patient during slow-hours, have your dogs leashed initially, and be prepared to check with both sides of the establishment for present staff. Otherwise you will be reminded 4 or more times to leash your dog--even when you promptly go to leash them after the first warning :-)

Or just go anywhere...

A dog friendly area in Austin that sells food and drinks? What’s not to love! We decided to stop by Yard Bar looking for a nice chill spot to spend a Sunday afternoon with our dog and here’s what we found: parking is decent and the exterior of the place looks very nice and clean, the interior is very much the same. Like all other dog bars they do charge a fee to have your dog go into their dog park area but not for their general eating area. The fee is about $13 and you do have to fill out information there so be aware of that. We opted not to go into the dog park there as it was too hot and there weren’t many dogs inside. From the outside it also looked like there wasn’t too much shade for the dogs but again, hard to confirm as we didn’t actually go in.

They have water bowls available to grab your dog some water in the back which is a plus. When seated we ordered some food to get things started. We got a turkey dog, kids grilled cheese, and a chicken sandwich. You order up at the window and then they bring it out to you at your table which is nice. The food was a pretty big miss though, the kids grilled cheese was half a grilled cheese, which while we understand it’s a kids version, it’s just cheese and bread, give a full one. The turkey dog was a hit, at least with our dog cause he scarfed it down. The chicken sandwich on the other hand was awful. It came with about 7 pickles which made no sense, it was also a bit burnt and way too salty. If we hadn’t paid like $13 for it, we probably wouldn’t have finished it. To be honest with you, Yard Bar does not feel like a standout spot. If you’re going to pay the money for the experience you may as well go to Mutts, which in our opinion is a much...

I just sent this email to hello@yardbar, but I figured I’d share it here too:

Hi, I just made a trip to Yard Bar to exercise my dog for the last hour that y’all are supposed to be open according to your website. Arriving at about 8:55 pm to two attendants at the front counter with the window open, one attendant greeted me and reached for her laptop (to check us in, it seemed, as usual), but the other attendant jumped up and quickly informed me that the park would be closed at 9pm instead of 10pm. On Saturday I went there at the same time and stayed until about 10, as I have done several times before on weekdays and weekends with no problems, so I was very shocked to be turned away.

I asked how long the park would be closing early like this, and was told in a hemming-and-hawing manner “uh, at least until the 11th.”

It was a very strange interaction, and completely out of the norm from what I’ve come to expect and enjoy about Yard Bar. Given that I have already paid my monthly fee, I find it very unsettling that the hours would just suddenly change with no prior notice and without a concrete schedule for returning to normal. The way the one employee seemed almost to be improvising this change left me wondering what is actually going on.

I love my dog, and my dog loves going to Yard Bar. He gets very excited when we get in the car to go there. It was utterly disappointing to get him all worked up and ready to run around, only to be turned away at the window in such an awkward way. It’s not fair to him, and it’s certainly cast a pall on my own opinion of your establishment. I will definitely not be recommending this place as highly as I once did to my friends and colleagues...