High Country Market and Diner — Restaurant in Round Rock

UPDATE Mar. 20

Dear High Country Market GastroPub and Diner,

Your response to my review did a better job of articulating how I felt during my visit than I ever could have, and since it is in your own words, it carries a level of honesty and candidness that I could never hope to duplicate. I found your view on all potential "suspects" (err, I mean customers) especially meaningful and something everyone who considers coming to your store should read.

PLEASE DON"T TAKE IT DOWN.

My only feedback would be around your last paragraph. I didn't have any arguments with your staff. I found them to be quite friendly and apologetic while explaining the various "rules" for patronizing your store. Maybe that was a different customer who didn't like the way they were treated?

But, other than that one correction, well done!!!

Original Review

Such a strange experience. The first thing I noticed were several "Smile, you're on camera" signs as I walked in. This is a nice neighborhood, so that was surprising, but not a deal breaker. However, when I went to browse their selection of bottled beer, a lady approached me and said that I couldn't go into that part of the store with my backpack. I was taken aback at the implication that I might steal something, but my wife and I had traveled across town just to try the place so I went along and had my wife hold my backpack while I looked in the coolers for a beer we could share.

Once I made a selection, it got even stranger. The clerk said they would have to charge me 2 dollars if I wanted them to open the bottle. However, they said that if I selected a beer from a cooler behind the bar instead, I wouldn't have to pay an additional charge. Seeing as this was all one store that didn't make any sense, so I decided to cut my losses and quit trying to give this place my business.

At the end of the day, I didn't appreciate being treated like a criminal when I first walked in and then, trying to charge me 2 dollars to open a bottle of beer from one cooler, but not another was arbitrary and poor customer service.

No, I...

My personal experience was just mediocre enough to not warrant more stars than 3. But our food took entirely too long, which disappointed me enough to bring down the rating to 2. It is VERY apparent, from the responses to other reviewers, that management has a problem with criticism, and have a very unapologetic, self righteous attitude. Business 101 - of you ever say "take your business somewhere else" to a customer, YOU'RE in the wrong, and need to reassess your priorities in your establishment and the way you handle it.

That aside, the food was good enough for me to like it for what it was. However, it took a whopping 49 minutes to get to our table, from time of ordering to time of eating. That is unacceptable by any standard, and any other time, it would have prompted me to speak to the manager about a refund, and would have left. But I decided to stay and give it a chance. After the first 30 minutes, I could tell the team in the kitchen was not very cohesive, and didn't have the best communication.

The interior of the place is messy and unattractive. It looks like a warehouse in which they inserted a mini restaurant. This establishment suffers from what is called an "identity crisis", where it doesn't know or can't decide on what to be : a bar, a restaurant, or a gas station, and in the process, it fails at all 3. I'm sure the locals see this establishment as a "town gem", and I can tell that they have "regulars". The problem with these 2 factors is that a business like this has to almost entirely rely on those factors exclusively to turn in a profit. But then again, if this business is doing well, then more power to you! Congrats on making the best out of a very unappealing, unwelcoming, confusing, mediocre experience.

For outsiders, don't take this establishment as an example and takeaway of what Round Rock has to offer. I promise you there are other, better, much more accurate representations of the Round Rock experience when it comes to Restaurants /Bar/pubs.

Adjust your expectations, expect the worst, hope...

Was it a bandaid or onion in my burger???

This place had the makings of something great. Sadly our visit was an absolute fail. Let me compliment the ketchup. I never would have thought rosemary ketchup would taste that great but it did. Really good. The place was clean. And my compliments unfortunately have to end there! We wanted hamburgers but not typical fast food and this place showed up and had decent reviews.

We had burgers and patty melts. Fries and drinks are sold separately. Which is fine except that you get about 4.3 fries for a few dollars. So it’s about .75 cents per fry. That was the case on all four baskets.

The two burgers were totally messed up. One was prepared differently than we asked. And one, mine, had something funky in it. I say plastic, they claimed onion. Personally I’ve never seen an onion with green and white polka dots. I have seen bandaids like that though! And the bottom bread was soggy like water. So the boss, who is a very nice person, said he was going to remake the “burgers on the house.” I’d hope so since I’d already paid and it was their issue to fix. Eventually one burger came out. It was correct. And on the house. I eventually went to ask about the other one and he told me he only made the one correction. He did bring back the plastic onion and refer to that burger being remade on the house. Whatever he ended up giving me back 11 dollars for the plastic onion burger. Problem here is that nobody liked it. The burgers and the patty melts were bland. And we didn’t even get to eat together. And one of us didn’t get to eat at all! I told him I wanted the whole ticket refunded. He offered burgers and pizza or next time we came back a free burger. I told him never mind.

Recap Soggy bunned burger with disputed material on board. Incorrect contents on another burger. Bland meat on all four orders. High dollar french fries.

Clearly not a place...