Spare Birdie — Restaurant in Cedar Park

UPDATE TO OWNER RESPONSE: Your response is just as unprofessional as the way your management treated the waiter that served our table. What part of rude and disrespectful do you not understand. Yes, your management addressed our table, but in the most disrespectful and disgusting way. You need to learn review etiquette and a simple apology, and please try us again. Instead, you "the owner" defended the terrible service your staff gave. I could have tried again and updated my review, and this could have gone differently. You're just as bad as your staff!

We went to this restaurant last night for the first time. I thought this place looked really nice inside and out. They have an interesting menu, really expensive but interesting. I believed it was more of a smaller pub and gameroom for adults, but it is absolutely not. Many parents bring their really small children from babies to about 8 or 9, and their parents let them run all over the inside and outside of the restaurant.

We were seated at a table outside, waiting for our friends to get there. Our waiter came by and introduced himself, and we asked to wait on ordering anything until our friends got in. It would just be the 4 of us. After our friends were sitting at the table, the service became awful.

They didn't bring an extra set of napkins or silverware, and the waiter just kept passing our table. Finally he stopped and we placed our order. We all got something different, as our orders came to the table both of our friends' orders were wrong. My girlfriend ordered some chicken platter with mashed potatoes and vegies with the green sauce on the side, her husband ordered a steak medium rare with his sides on the side, he didn't want them on his plate. The waiter brought my girlfriend a chicken club sandwich and never brought out her husband's side.

Now my husband has walked into the restaurant and complained twice by now. We watched through the glass doors the manager reprimanding the waiter. This is unprofessional and disrespectful.

The manager brings my girlfriends plate out, we didn't know she was the manager, and she put the plate down and I told her, my friend ordered her green sauce on the side, the manager looked at me in disgust. She told my friend, "You know it will take a little longer to correct, right?" Well myself, my husband, and her husband had already gotten our food, well her husband got half his food, and 45 minutes had passed as we waited to eat until my girlfriend got her food, what's a few more minutes right? Our food was already cold and soggy.

When the manager got back to our table, she put my girlfriends plate down in front of her and only spoke to her. She stated that she was sorry only to my girlfriend for the terrible service. She stated that she trains her waiters to listen to their customers, and due to this, she was going to comp her meal. The manager refused to look at anyone else at the table.

This made me quit angry, for one the waiter was the entire tables waiter, he was terrible to all of us, ALL of our food got cold and soggy waiting for them to fix the mess up, they still never brought out my girlfriends husband's sides, and I WAS PAYING FOR THE MEAL so the manager should have been talking to me.

The manager was unprofessional and disrespectful and treated her staff like trash. Our poor waiter felt bad, we could tell. It's okay to mess up as long as it's corrected. A bad manager helped continue the bad service we received. ALL of our meals should have been comped, and the manager should have apologized to our entire table.

With that being said, I wouldn't recommend this restaurant, having to deal with all the small children, bad service, and terrible management. Honestly, Dave and Busters or Main Event would have been more enjoyable.

As for that manager we were so lucky to deal with, you ma'am are a terrible person and we will be taking our business elsewhere, you should be embarrassed at the way you treated your/our waiter and us, I think you need to be retrained in customer service skills because...

A mid-week stay-cay found us looking for a good happy hour and we decided to try the newly opened Spare Birdie. We had noticed it being built and really weren’t sure what they offered, but I’m glad we stopped in.

The atmosphere in the sprawling, tastefully decorated space is upscale, catering to adults with plenty of room for larger group gatherings. Following a concept that reminded me somewhat of Dave and Busters, it’s a restaurant and bar that also offers areas for games. Unlike D&B’s though, there were no game machines, flashing lights, annoying tickets to count to redeem for cheap prizes, or cranky kids running everywhere. It’s more of a place for meeting friends after work to unwind, or have the office gather for an afternoon of team building fun, or for a group of guys or girls to cut loose or a nice place for date night, to nosh on delicious food, sip adult beverages and explore the multiple areas specifically designated for playing classic, human powered games.

The far right side of the building has multiple lanes (maybe 10?) for bowling, and beyond that real cork dart boards along the back wall. The length of the building out back has a large outdoor area with a space for lawn games like bocce, shaded patio areas with tables and a I think they have live music some nights out there too.

The very well stocked bar place across from the entrance in the middle of the building grabbed our attention immediately and we chose to sit there for the afternoon. The leather seats were quite comfortable with hooks for hanging personal items (much appreciated!) and we enjoyed several happy hour priced appetizers (only slightly discounted) while quenching our thirst with expertly made craft cocktails recommended by the pleasant young woman (I forget her name!) behind the bar. The house margarita (no frozen options) was on the happy hour menu and delicious, as well as the Mexican martini (served without the traditional shaker) she made us. The whiskey selection had me contemplating an old fashioned, or even a shot served neat, but I stuck with tequila.

We ordered the happy hour priced loaded fries, ceviche and the charcuterie board. The servings were quite substantial and came out quickly. The orange infused olives on the charcuterie board were amazing paired with goat cheese, fig jam, prosciutto topped on the multi grain crisp. I want more of those olives! The fries could satisfy a crowd and were perfectly seasoned, not too salty. I’d order those again. The ceviche was the least stellar of our food trio, which I found lacking in fresh citrus flavor and just slightly fishy tasting but we still managed to gobble it all down.

Across from the bar area (behind us) are plenty of chairs and tables with space for larger groups. The area was bright with lots of natural light, the overhead rock music playing was low enough for conversation, and the place as a whole was well attended to and clean.

To the left of the entrance a darkened, low light area filled with club chairs positioned around small tables with giant TV screens on the walls looked cozy and perfect for those more into watching sports, or possibly playing video poker or the like. We did not venture over there to really investigate, however.

I’d definitely return, if only to try a few other menu options that sounded really tasty like the appetizer lamb meatballs or the tomahawk steak entree, and I’ll bring my darts...

The good:

Everyone's food looked great.

There are large screens everywhere.

Our server knew there was not a dedicated fryer for GF fries.

The bad:

When we walked in, it smelled like a broken sewer pipe.

They sat a nine top with five children right next to the bar.

They seem to have been understaffed as several bays were open but they told us they had no space for us to play any games. The restaurant was only half full but there was a large party on one side that meant we couldn't do anything on that side. So, we were stuck in the middle with nothing with which to reasonably entertain the youngest child.

Our server was inattentive at best. We had to ask for refills and in some cases never got them.

I have Celiac's disease. I was encouraged by the menu that had clearly marked allergens and asked what the difference would be if I ordered the lettuce wraps gluten free. He didn't know. When the food came out, I again asked what the difference was. He still didn't know. I asked if he could find out so I could feel confident eating the food. He said he would.

One person was missing an entire meal. We had to bring this to our server's attention by going to the host stand and asking for assistance since he disappeared after dumping the food (my husband's soup and sliders arrived simultaneously - more of an annoyance but still worth mentioning) and failed to follow up to see if we had everything we needed. He checked his electronic and paper order records like we must be mistaken. You know, because one person always decides not to have dinner.

Everyone that made a modification, e.g. no tomatoes, did not receive that modification.

When he brought the sandwich, I again asked about the difference between the meals. We're now at about thirty minutes of me staring at my food. He said something like, "I think it is a different sauce." When he returned with ketchup, my husband was very clear that we needed to know, not surmise or guess. He finally checked (I think?) and came back to say it was canola oil as opposed to soy. Umm... I'm not allergic to soy.

I worked in restaurants for a decade so I was pretty surprised that a manager didn't come by at this point. I can only imagine the server decided none of this was worthy of alerting them.

Personally, I have a two year old (that had no games or child comfy environment) to chase around, he needed to go home, and I didn't feel like begging additional people to please care about my physical well-being; so, I left without tracking down a manager. The other family we were with did for their own reasons and received a $50 gift card. The server didn't even attempt to comp anything initially - not even their missing meal.

I won't be back and the only reason I'm leaving a review is to hopefully help someone else with food allergies cross this off the list. I suppose people that don't want to spend two hours trying to get through a meal while not being able to enjoy the amenities or families with young children that don't want to continually tell them they can't play any of the games might benefit as well.

It might seem dumb, but it was really sad to watch my son wanting to play just anything