The League Kitchen & Tavern — Restaurant in Lakeway

I was in the area and a friend recommended this place; they told me they have a great club sandwich and that was all I needed to hear. New to TX coming from SoCal and getting a great club sandwich in SoCal is pretty easy but I haven't had great success here in TX so I thought I would give this place a try.

I walked in and because it was early in the week and not quite lunch time, I had my choices of places to sit. Because I was dining alone, I figured the bar was going to be a good choice. The bar seems to be "sports" oriented with several flat screens playing some live sporting event. As a note to the management, one was an interview I'm guessing was with a sports figure. However, there was no closed captioning so unless you can read lips, it seemed pointless to have this on. And with all the games you could replay, just seems you could have shown something other than two people talking with no way of knowing what they are saying.

I ordered the club but noticed it was served with "aioli" and I was VERY specific with the server that I could not have aioli. Seems simple... but I guess not. I received my sandwich and the bread seemed fried instead of toasted. I could be wrong but I would have preferred toasted. Fried toast is just too greasy. It came with a white cheddar cheese which I debated leaving on. I had no idea it was melted (not stated in the menu) and had I known it was melted, I definitely would have opted to leave the cheese off. A traditional club does not come with any cheese and this is mostly supposed to be a cold sandwich and cheese is just too much when it's melted. It comes with shredded lettuce like you would find on a taco instead of a crisp piece of lettuce. Because the lettuce was shredded, the lettuce was really soggy. The tomato was minimal but not as minimal as the bacon. Instead of strips of bacon, this was more like bacon bits you would fine on a wedge salad. And to really add insult to everything else... it had aioli on it! Despite emphatically asking for NO aioli... not even on the side, and definitely not on the sandwich, there was an overwhelming garlic taste which ruined the entire sandwich and made it inedible. I tried eating one quarter of the sandwich but it was simply revolting. Worst of all, when I looked at the bread, you could see where the aioli had been spread on the sandwich, but someone apparently later realized it was supposed to be without, and removed it. But what that person doesn't seem to understand... it's too late. Once you have put that on the bread, as much as you might try, you are not going to remove that garlic taste. It was almost as if it was intentional because I ordered something special. How hard is it to start over? Toast new bread and start over? But no... they had to use the bread that aioli had been slathered on and then they tried to remove it. This just screams to me how little they care about the food they serve and how little they care about their customers.

I really don't know if this would have been a good sandwich if it didn't have the aioli because I really couldn't stomach another bite. And the pleasure of a club sandwich is all the crispness that comes with it. Crispy toasted bread, not greasy fried bread. Fresh crisp lettuce, not shredded wilted lettuce. If any cheese, it should be cold, not melted. And use some actual bacon, not little bacon bits. For a $20 sandwich, I was certainly expecting much more.

On the positive side, the french fries were quite good and my server, Dillon, was great. I assume Dillon took the correct order since even though there had been aioli applied to the bread, it was removed. I assume it's the kitchen where the problem exists. Again, I came during a very slow time; actually there was only one other customer so they weren't overwhelmed. I was dining alone and ordered a simple sandwich and just asked to hold the condiment and they couldn't get that right. Can't think of any reason to...

It pains me to write this review. On this day, we were coming in for Father's Day celebration - unfortunately the AC is apparently broken, but it wasn't really mentioned until I overheard our next table's server/waiter apologizing to the patrons for the place being warmer - we unfortunately wasn't extended such courtesy, and had just been wandering in the heat.

Anyways, the issue with the food, or drink is that the beer that I ordered is barely cold to begin with, and given the situation of a broken AC, it became quickly room temperature and warm - so it had become a rather unsatisfying experience unfortunately. Come on, at the very least, it could have been served into a chilled glass - sadly it just wasn't. On top of that, the waitress was not experienced or knowledgeable about the drinks - apparently she's not of drinking age yet, thus she had to relay every single question I had about the drinks to the bar tender and that become a rather cumbersome experience and I pretty much felt bad and just ordered something after a while. This experience might have been improved if she asked the bartender to come and answer a few questions I have, which I've seen happening to some other tables.

Now, the most preposterous part of the experience is in the restroom. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a dying cockroach on the floor of the restroom just beside the trash bin. Needless to say, that spoiled any appetite I have subsequently and made me doubt the cleanliness of this establishment.

The rest of the food was just okay, nothing like what I recall it used to be (2 years ago). It's not bad, but definitely not great, especially considering the price for them.

Overall, this is really a great let down, considering this occasion and our previous experience in this place, which was a very positive one.

Edit: I have reached out to you, Mr. Franklin via your email a few days ago, but have not heard back...

We visited the League in Lakeway last year(2023) for Mother's Day. Our experience was good and the food was great!

This year(2024), however, it was not good at all. Our waiter was good, but the service from the manager on shift and the food were terrible.

I ordered the steak and egg from the brunch menu, which I asked for medium-well on the steak(came out correct) and asked for the eggs to be over-hard(came out over-easy; wrong).

The manager stopped by after our waiter made him aware of the order that came out wrong. The manager, Jim, took almost 15 minutes to show up at our table. To which he did not ask how he could correct the error which the kitchen made. Instead, he told me that he would have the kitchen make me a new set of eggs. I asked again for over-hard.

To my surprise, he brought me new eggs that were AGAIN over- easy and not over-hard. He put the eggs on the table and left, a drop and go...

After another 10 minutes, he showed up again to check on the table. When he saw the eggs not eaten and not being what I asked for, he immediately started explaining to me: "Oh, we'll here in the States sunny-side-up..." I stopped him and asked to just remove the steak and egg order of the tab.

Oh, boy, what a manager... I have never left a bad review because I do understand life happens, and we can't be perfect every day. This is the first bad review I have left.

Jim, sunny-side-up, over-easy, and over-hard is a global standard for egg preparation...

I will not recommend eating at the League. TC4, you have some house...