Anchor Bar — Restaurant in Round Rock

Short review: the food was sub-par for the price. My wings were almost all drums, under sauced, and dry. Burger came out rare. We got seated at the worst possible table for a couple when there were clearly many open booths that would have been much more comfortable.

Longer review: This place had pretty good reviews, I have heard of this place being the originator of buffalo wings. Sounded great.

It was fairly busy, but there were many open small booths suitable for a couple. The hostess walked us by many clean and open small booths and took us around the restaurant to a 4 seater table directly by the kitchen door. This was somewhat annoying.

The server we had was great. He was very attentive, quick, and made no mistakes. Service at this place; I have no issues with (besides the table we were seated at.)

We ordered Jalapeno Poppers (they were good, I can't lie), 10 piece bone in wings with fries, and a hamburger. I got two beers and the gf had two margaritas. Our total was over $110 including the tip. This seems very high. If the food was outstanding, I would be okay with this, but it wasn't. I've had multi-course upscale meals with drinks in downtown Austin for less than this.

My $17 wings; ($20 with fries) I got 8 drums and 2 flats. I know most places you can orders all flats for an extra charge, but I am usually okay with about half and half. But $20 for almost all drums? A little disappointing. The wings were barely sauced, over cooked, and dry. I had to ask for a cup of sauce to help with how dry they were. My girlfriend asked for her burger cooked medium. It came out rare. Completely pink and cold in the center. At one point I ordered a second beer, and a server, without asking, took an almost half full beer off the table and walked off to discard it before I finished it or had a chance to stop her. I don't fault her. She was being attentive and I know there are people that don't finish their entire beers, but I was still drinking it and felt like it was a waste of my money. We are not picky, we don't like to complain to servers, so we ate what we could, paid and left. We ended up regretting stopping here for our Saturday night dinner and wished we had gone somewhere else. The food was not inedible, but wasn't worth the price.

In conclusion: Service is good. Food wasn't great at all. For both of us to be disappointed with our entrees for over $110 feels bad. Hopefully we just had an unlucky experience here, as it seems like many people enjoy this establishment. For a place known for inventing the buffalo wing, they were by far the worst part of the experience. I will more than likely not stop by this...

Came for a second visit today for an early dinner and left disappointed with service from Ava. When we arrived, one of us asked if we could toss a cup in the garbage. They were met with, “Yeah, I don’t give a ** about this job”. I didn’t witness this because we were seated quickly and our friend was trailing behind, however, our friend shared that it was the person that ended up being our server.

From the start, Ava couldn’t keep our drink orders straight which made it seem like she didn’t care enough to pay attention. She checked on us very awkwardly a few times while we dined. Two of our guests asked for to-go boxes and she responded with “well what size? small or large?” as if either of them worked there and knew. Not rocket science, but we’re not her friends. We had three tickets at our table, and when she brought us the tickets she set them down stacked and said “i’m leaving this here and yall can figure it out”. Again, unprofessional and showed carelessness. I paid cash. Two other tickets were paid using the QR code. She came by again and coldly said “Ok which tickets do I need to take care of?” we told her none. She collected the cash payment, looked at our ticket, and didn’t say anything else. No “thank you”, “have a good day”, “thanks for coming in”, nothing.

One of the QR tickets wouldn’t go through after trying a few times. We were already by the door and asked if we could just pay at the to-go station with a card. Ava was there and she opened the tickets from our table and accused my husband and I of not paying. We had to remind her that we paid cash. Luckily, she recalled us paying cash but it seemed very weird and didn’t sit well with us afterward. I really hope she closed out our ticket with the payment. The food was great but she seemed careless. I think she forgot she was serving a table and not her friends. I’d still recommend you guys, but crap service is such a turn off. Fingers crossed for a better...

If you're looking for a classic wings place mixed with a sports bar -- minus the ridiculous crowds and silly game nights at another local chain, look no further. Anchor Bar is now absolutely, one hundred percent my favorite option for chicken in the Austin area.

We stopped in on Friday evening to a packed parking lot, yet managed to be seated instantly. Our server was friendly and knew the menu well.

Food? Excellent. We tried the pizza logs for an appetizer. Think pepperoni rolls but with wonton paper. Best combination of pizza and eggrolls around. My date had an order of wings which she mixed between lemon pepper and honey bourbon BBQ. She raved about the wings, which were the largest that either of us had seen. I had the chicken tenders mixed in spicy BBQ along with tater tots. The spicy BBQ is very heavy on the cayenne. I enjoyed mine, but the honey bourbon BBQ that I ordered with my tater tots is one of the best sauces I've had anywhere.

Growing pains as a new restaurant? Also present. At around six PM, they were already out of lemons for the tea. Speaking of the tea, there's no sweetener on the table and the server will bring it to you with each refill. I ordered the tater tots to be tossed in the honey bourbon BBQ sauce. Instead, I was brought a side of the sauce. I mentioned this to the server who brought our food out and was assured that something would be done to correct my order. Nothing was ever done and none of the servers ever mentioned it. Honestly, no harm, no foul. But the lapses did make the newness of the restaurant obvious. Our service experience would've been much better with the same server throughout the meal.

Regardless, I'll be back. The chicken and sauces are...