Katy Trail Ice House — Restaurant in Dallas

I have been going to Katy Trail Ice House for almost 4 years now. I have always had an okay experience until tonight. The service has never been anything great, but I loved their margaritas and the atmosphere. Today was a very different story. My friends and I came by to get a table for 4. They had a 90-minute wait so we decided to go to a restaurant down the street while we waited for our table to open up. My friend and I ordered a margarita, my boyfriend ordered a beer and his friend (let’s call him Bob) ordered a cocktail. After about 40 minutes, we got a text from Ice House that our table was ready. My friend and I walked over to Ice House to secure our table while my boyfriend and Bob finished their dinner at the other restaurant. We sat down at a table in the back corner area near their “Stop ’n’ Go” section. We were greeted by our server asking what we wanted so I ordered a margarita and my friend ordered a summer beer. About 20 minutes later, my boyfriend and Bob showed up. My boyfriend is walking over to our table and I noticed Bob was stopped by one of the Ice House employees. Our server came up and asked for my boyfriends order and he then ordered a beer. About 2-3 minutes later, Bob walked up and told us that the Ice House employee asked if his friend (referring to my boyfriend) was okay because he seemed to have “stumbled over a step” and was “slurring his words”. My boyfriend was trying to get around a group of people and if you have ever been to Ice House, you know how many steps there are to get to different sections of the outdoor area. Apparently, he barely stumbled over a step while getting to the table. We proceed with our night after Bob explained his conversation with the employee laughing about how stupid it was because my boyfriend literally had 1 beer and was as sober as can be. Fast forward about 30 minutes I wanted to order food so I go to order and then my boyfriend wanted to order a burger but our server said she couldn’t serve him anymore because he was “cut off” after “stumbling into the bathroom”. Which never happened. He has had less than 2 beers in a time span of 2+ hours. I then asked our server why because he wasn’t even ordering another drink, it was literally food?? So my question here is why treat someone who you just assume is “too drunk” so rudely and not even approach him or talk to him to see what the situation is and not even serve him food? What if he was drunk and did need food? You wouldn’t serve him then? It was just very disrespectful and unprofessional. To just assume someone is in a certain state without even approaching or talking to them is beyond me. I will not be...

Having lived here for 3 years. We know of this lovely, pet friendly place off the trail with a massive patio, food, beer and tv. The patio space is nice and sporadically shaded. We frequent tequila social and various Harwood establishments so it was intended to be a little change up for the day. Food is decent— brisket tacos and loaded fries. Beer arrives in a schooner, held by a talented drink runner carrying multiple in one hand (impressive to say the least). I just wish they served a half order of the fries but it’s tolerable. Plenty TVs for multiple sport events. Pet friendly—NO, ONLY DOGS. HERE IS WHERE THE PROBLEM LIES… Upon arrival we were not approached. There was no one at the entrance. Note: Our two cats were in a stroller; sleepy and unbothered, welcomed by our two servers Mallorie and Jordan. Both wonderful btw. After enjoying the patio weather for approximately 2 hrs…food and drinks ordered, we closed our tab and headed toward the exit….only to be approached by an unknown employee—busser, maintenance or back of house person, randomly at the front entrance. He rudely whispered, “ cats are unwelcome here. We don’t allow cats. You snuck in and we didn’t say anything but we don’t allow cats.”

Alright…not a single employee…mind you, we spoke to 5 different employees said a single thing about this cat outlaw. Neither the website or the signs posted along the gates mention cats. And he also insinuated that we intentionally broke rules…. As a professional that had to be the most offensive assumption. Not only do we spend a decent amount of money when we venture out but we do not do so with ill intent. And apparently he some how noticed yet didn’t say anything until AFTER we paid our check. How convenient that we weren’t approached before. I have nothing to say other than WE HAVE BEEN HERE WITH OUR CAT BEFORE….and in fact met another couple with their MaineCoon CAT sitting I at an adjacent table….neither of us approached by said anti-cat rules. We will not be back and neither will my associates or perspective sponsors/clients. Or maybe we will…just to test this undeclared pet discrimination! Bc honestly compared to the behavior of some of the wild human children and noisy dog children in attendance…our cats were incomparable. I’ll be waiting for a response.

the picture is of the cats in their stroller, tight next to our table…unbothered....

I wanted so badly to like this place, but the service was unacceptable. It was a cool Saturday afternoon, so I thought it would be nice to visit Katy Trail Ice House and sit outside with the heaters and fire pits. At first, the place made a great impression, it was active, but there were plenty of tables and we were seated right away. That is where the positive experience ended... our server took our drink order then, just disappeared. Meanwhile, the tables around us (some that were seated after us) received their water and drinks. We were still waiting. Again, the place is nice, so we wanted to stay, in which case I thought: I'll just walk up to the bar and order some drinks whe we wait for our waitress to come back. Instead of getting service from the bar tender, I got an excuse that I couldn't order drinks at the bar if we were getting table service. To which I responded that our server hadn't checked on our table for over 15 minutes and we just wanted a couple of drinks while we waited. The bar tender said she would "try" to send our server over to our table. More waiting. Finally, our server showed up, without the water we asked for 25 minutes prior, and asked if "everything was okay." At that point we were done. We closed our check, paid for the drinks that never came, and left the place. I'm not one to hastily call the racist card, because it is frequently unwarranted. But I will say we didn't look like the rest of the people at that place and we were definitely being treated differently in the worst way. My note to management is: if you're going to offer table service, your servers must show up and step up; if a customer goes to the bar to order drinks, their concern should be getting the order serviced, and NOT questioning customers on why they are ordering at the bar. The whole world is a giant labor shortage - you must deal! Speaking from professional experience in the hospitality industry: customer service is customer service. There are ways to look after your guests so they at least know they're not forgotten, or in our case, don't feel purposely ignored because they don't fit your typical profile. I've traveled around the world to many interesting places and I get that bad experiences are often just isolated instances. So, I'm often willing to give a place another visit. Not here. I can only hope for other new patrons that management...