Double Horn Brewing Company — Restaurant in Marble Falls

We had a large party that drove out to Marble Falls for Father's day thinking that this would be a great destination for good food and beer. There were around 32 of us. Half arrived at 11:10am and the other half arrived at 11:30. The restaurant had set up all of the tables in a straight line so we were all able to sit together. When we ordered everyone was specific on who was together on which tab thinking that would help with settling the bill when we were done. Here is how our experience actually went.

I ordered the bone in pork chop. They were out. I asked for Shrimp and Grits and they were out of that too. I started looking for other alternatives and the waitress said "we have ribeyes" and they're the best! So I took her word for it ordered the steak with fried okra and mac & cheese. While waiting for our food the entire table ran out of drinks. One of our wives got up and went to the waitress station, grabbed the pitchers of tea & water and refilled people's drinks. Finally food started coming out in waves. Eventually I received my steak. The temperature was warm and the steak had grill marks but it seemed like they took an almost frozen piece of meat, threw it on the grill to get char marks and then put in on the plate. I have a better steak experience with the T-Bone steak at Denny's. The mac and cheese for all of the people on my end of the table was cold. The only really good thing was the fried okra, it was amazing. I polled others and was told that the burgers were great but other food was just okay. My wife ordered the fish and chips which should come with seasoned fries but they were just regular plain fries. You would think that the bad experience ends there but there is more. We asked for our tab.... multiple times. We ended up waiting over an hour for them to separate our bill. We talked to the manager multiple times about waiting for our tab and she did nothing to attempt to resolve the issues. She said "well you guys took us by surprise this morning" and "we didn't know you were separating checks" when we clearly told the server who was together on each tab.

In retrospect, after talking to everyone that attended I discovered that whenever they were out of a menu item the ribeye (which happened to be the most expensive item on the menu @ $26) was suggested to them. I fail to understand how a restaurant with such poor customer service is still...

TL;DR disappointing.

I have left a LOT of reviews of places I've visited over the years, and I depend heavily on reading reviews for places I want to try. So I take these reviews pretty seriously.

If I try a restaurant and one of the menu items isn't up to par but the rest are good, I'll chalk it up to a bad night in the kitchen. However, when it's bad across the board, that makes it a bad restaurant.

Unfortunately, based upon my one (and likely only) visit, Double Horn Brewing Company falls into the latter category.

First of all, the good: Our server, Lydia, was excellent. She was prompt, courteous, made recommendations and checked in on us regularly. The basket of homemade potato chips was good, as were the onion rings

As for the not-so-good: First off, a caveat about all of the items we tried. In making a good menu item (be it food or drink), you first need to nail the basics, then you can get creative. On all of the menu items we tried, it seemed like they were so intent on creating unique flavors that they failed to build the foundation first. For example: I ordered the jalapeno popper burger. It came out looking nice, but one bite revealed that it was overcooked, like a hockey puck on a bun. They tried to cover that up with some overcooked bacon and a lot of sauce. After three bites, I dissected the burger looking for anything edible, but just left it on the plate. The fries weren't much better, as they were bland and cold. My companion ordered the Smoked Reuben. It looked like a bologna sandwich with canned sourkraut on some marbled rye. She said that's about how it tasted. The beer was devoid of body, which is unusual for a brew pub. We tried three beers and drank less than half of all three. It seemed like they were so intent on making unique flavors that they forgot to make beer as a foundation before messing with flavors.

All of this is to say that we were incredibly disappointed. We left about half of the food and drink on the table, and until they learn to implement the basics of cooking and brewing well, I can't...

First, I do have to admit, this place wasn't the first on my list to have my dad's 70th birthday party. I know, I know. My dad favors another 'grill' by the River (ahem I won't name it) because he knows the owners but when I tried to get a reservation for a party of 30...I was completely shut down because they were already booked. I guess they can only do one party at a time. I was a little perturbed but remembered the great time we had the last time we went to Double Horn. I was a little worried because I do not live in the area and my budget was a little tight. I emailed the establishment and received a positive response immediately from Dusty Knight. I then received a follow up call from the chef himself, Jason Harrelson, who commanded a menu that fit my budget. I have had to cater a lot of events in a prior life in the DFW area, and the service and attention I received setting up this small party was phenomenal. Jason was BEYOND accommodating. We had a BBQ plate that was loaded with sausage, brisket and ribs. LOADED. We also had sides of beans, cole slaw, and potato salad. Now, about 5 people that night kept commenting on how great the food was. My aunt, who is the ultimate potato salad connoisseur, couldn't get enough of the potato salad. The cole slaw was a nice change from the normal cole slaw. It was another hit. There was nothing bad about the food. Now, the service. Jason stayed through our dinner service and constantly checked on us to make sure we were okay. Our server for the night, Ryan M. made sure no one went without anything and kept our table in check. No one wanted for anything. The next day my dad was still talking about how great the food was and how happy he was with the place. That in itself...