Hills Cafe - Austin Ranch — Restaurant in The Colony

It saddens me to write this review. This is an adorable cafe with delicious food. We use to go here all the time but over the last few months the service has gotten worse and worse. Recently I went here and when we came through the door the staff looked at us and continued their conversation. It looked as though they were hesitant to greet us. Usually we are welcomed with warm smiles. While eating we could hear the staff cursing and throwing The f* word around. There was only 1 other table but it was off-putting to listen to that language. The servers were into their own conversations more than serving. It just felt like we were not wanted there. When greeting us and taking our order it was very abrupt and I felt awkward asking questions. She basically walked up to our table and said what do you want or would stay silent and wait for me to start talking. It was an awkward interaction. When my food came out I was disappointed because I didn't realize there was bacon on it and she told me that it automatically came with bacon unless otherwise substituted but I've always been asked and I didn't realize that the bacon was automatic. It felt like it was an inconvenience and that I was wrong. Which I understand that I should have stated I wanted sausage and that I don't eat bacon but the whole experience was off putting. When we ask to speak to the manager she told us that there was no manager on staff today. I asked for a phone number and I got a fake number that's what really ticked me off. All the experiences that we had here this was the worst and it wasn't because of the service it was mostly because I lost my appetite listening to the language and when I wanted to talk to somebody about it I couldn't and I just felt like the whole thing was handled poorly. I didn't feel like she was interested in solving the problem nor was I feeling welcomed in the restaurant. This is sad because we've been going here for 2 years and over the last few months it's just been awful. The service seems unprofessional and it seems like an effort for them to want to serve...

The food was genuinely enjoyable. Eggs were cooked just right, the pancakes had a pleasant vanilla note, and the western skillet was flavorful and satisfying. Portions were reasonable, though the pricing felt a bit on the high side.

Unfortunately, the dining experience didn’t quite match the quality of the food. Our seating area hadn’t been cleaned properly—there were crumbs and bits of food left behind, which was hard to ignore. The ordering process was a bit frustrating: several items I requested were out of stock, and each time I had to pivot to something else. It felt like a guessing game with the menu.

We received our food fairly quickly, but oddly, no utensils were provided at first. It took nearly 10 minutes to get them, which meant sitting and waiting while our food cooled. Our server even said the utensils weren’t ready? Napkins were also delayed, and syrup took about 15 minutes to arrive after asking. None of us received drink refills during the meal, which was surprising given it was around 11 a.m. on a Saturday which is typically a busy but well stocked time for a breakfast spot.

On the bright side, our server was friendly and clearly doing his best under the circumstances. He seemed embarrassed about the shortages and delays, which helped soften the experience a bit. Also there was a bizarre bathroom smell in...

Came here with a few friends on a Saturday afternoon and was extremely underwhelmed by the service and the flavor of the food. My family ordered the Hills Skillet which was bland, I don't even think they added salt to the entire skillet, we also got a mix berries smoothie which had good flavor but I could tell there was a strong artificial flavoring in it, we also had the pancakes side with the kid's chicken tenders, the chicken tenders were average but only had ketchup and ranch as sauce for dipping, the pancakes were pretty good. Food aside, the waitress was good but we were kicked out of the restaurant by their cleaning lady at the end of our meal.

We didn't realize we were at closing time since this is 2:30 pm on a saturday and we're not used to anything closing that early and there was a huge table next to us that just got their food and started eating. As we're talking the cleaning lady comes over and starts taking our dishes away and then starts motioning us to leave and pointing at her watch (she didn't speak English). This is so rude and an awful customer service, the table next to ours was still taking their time eating and the cleaning lady didn't approach them. I would steer clear...