Milo — Restaurant in Waco

I’ve been involved in the restaurant industry off and on for over 10 years now, the majority of which was spent working in some ultra-trendy foodie hotspots in Hollywood and Santa Barbara. My experience left me deeply suspicious of restaurants that use trendy grains and meat cuts, that include ingredients like lavender and truffle oil and foie gras and daikon radish, that use words like “artesian” and “deconstructed”...you get the picture. So I was not really going in here with any preconceived ideas I’d be impressed, I was just unable to bring myself to go to Applebee’s again and choke back the uncontrollable sobbing with fistfuls of dehydrated mashed potatoes.

So as far as ambiance and all that, the restaurant is great. Lots of windows looking out on a roomy patio, plenty of spaces to kick it on sofas and loveseats both inside and outside, nice sized bar, and part of the kitchen is open to the restaurant which is a great set up if you like to stare intensely into the kitchen making unflinchingly direct eye contact while menacingly clenching your knife until you see your food coming. If you don’t, you’ll probably still enjoy seeing how tidy and well put together the space is...you don’t want to know about the deep, dark, secrets going down in some Waco kitchens at this very moment. It’s definitely trendy but it’s not overdone-it finds a nice medium ground.

The menu was refreshing in that it had a reasonable variety to the options but there weren’t an army of dishes available. I have never found restaurants that try to offer everything to have the time to really focus on a dish. And also, the more options on the menu, the more likely parts of your dish have been precooked and thrown in a ninepan on the line where they slowly turn into compost over the course of a night. They had a massive wine list but I don’t drink, sadly, so I didn’t try any of it. They have a full liquor license though, so you aren’t stuck with beer and wine and you can go straight for the jaeger bombs if you prefer that route. Their cocktail list looked great, lots of trendy drinks that come out looking spectacular. This would be a great place to bring a date and then make her fall wildly and uncontrollably in lust with you as you self confidently charge into your lavender infused Moscow Mule, pinky hoisted high.

But yea, the food. I was impressed. It is fantastic food. I don’t think anywhere else in Waco besides Diamondbacks gets close to their level. Subtly complex and unassuming natural flavors come together for a truly rewarding experience. Fresh ingredients spiced and sauced just enough to compliment but not overpower bring various textures and tastes in sync with the resulting dishes far greater than the sum of their individual components. I was happy, and so was my girlfriend, and we will be back next time we can afford it (it is a little pricey by Waco standards but more than reasonable by any other standards).

They are not super kid friendly so think twice before bringing very young kids-or bring them with their own entertainment. And don’t be the *ssholes who bring their kids and then let them cry and wail and tantrum their way thru everyone else’s attempts to enjoy their meal. I don’t believe they had a kids menu but I could...

Went twice in 1 day. We came for a day trip only - the Waco Mammoth park and a tour/tasting at Balcones Distillery. We stopped here prior to the tour for a light bite. We had the Elotes Corn Nibs & the Pimento cheese & crackers. Highly recommend both! I do wish the Pimento cheese combo had some spice/heat - not a lot, but some. I hated Pimento cheese as a kid, so this says a lot that I am complimenting it! My son loved it! The house made crackers were great in terms of texture & taste (bit of spice or heat would have been a welcome addition here too, though). I know the elotes corn nibs said they had a bit of the cob, but I somehow overlooked that as I went for a bite! The spiced aoli was amazing & I wanted more! Both appetizers were tasty and would highly recommend. I had their mule, which included Fever Tree ginger beer (best ever!!), but unfortunately, I couldn't taste the cranberry or the cardamom.

We went back for dinner. My son had the Mad burger and I had the short ribs au poivre. He loved his, though he admitted it was missing something for overall flavor. Mine looked amazing! However, my potatoes were 100% room temp at best and flavorless. The pan sauce was flavorless. The short ribs were a massive square of meat that was great tasting, but only warm. So very disappointing. I brought it to the attention of my waiter, who immediately went to his manager. The manager was at our table within a minute, apologizing and offering a new plate, plus comping my plate! My new plate was indeed fresh and hot! He suggested I take my first order home, instead of him trashing it. The amount was so huge on 1 plate (muchless both) , that I ended up taking most of both plates home with me!

However, the potatoes on both plates were heavily over whipped and it was painfully obvious in terms of taste & texture. The pan sauce looked & tasted like a packet gravy. Honestly, just salt & pepper would have helped a lot. Neither was already added, nor available on the table. The fries accompanying my sons burger looked like frozen fries offered everywhere.

I cannot say enough about how great management & the wait staff were! Absolutely fantastic and the kind of people we all want to work for & with! If you get Aaron as your waiter, he's awesome!

I absolutely 100% recommend eating here! I loved everything about this place and inspite of the dinner issues, will absolutely eat here again!

Again, I cannot compliment the evening manager or staff, enough! I would love to work for a manager like that! He was talking to people at tables and consistently checking on things! Both of our waiters were amazing!

The only thing I really disliked were the chairs inside (cut into the back of your legs) and the damned potted plants close to the bathrooms- you have to push into the plant to not step on the people waiting at the little tables at the long bench seat. Either move the plants or get an...

Milos was our go to place when we would visit Waco. However this time around we had terrible service (Kaleb was our server's name - BEWARE). First, one of our cocktails tasted like vinegar so we sent it back, the server initially wasn’t happy about it and the drink was his recommendation. He ended up trying it after we returned it and said he did taste that it was off, so he apologized. Later, after getting a few of our dishes, we asked for mayonnaise as a condiment, the server then says they don’t have mayonnaise. We had deviled eggs as one of our appetizers?? Deviled eggs are normally made with mayonnaise are they not? We've also ordered truffle fries before which comes with aioli. Later they brought out all our food and said our grits would be out in 2 minutes, so we continued on to eat our food while two minutes later they said its coming soon. After we’re nearly done eating the rest of our dishes, they brought it out, and it was undercooked, but we opt to just let it go. Then we asked for hot water with lemon after our meal, the server then says they don’t have hot water and that the machine that boils hot water was turned off. Could they not just heat up hot water in the microwave or just turn the machine back on? It was not even close to closing time. So, we asked for the check and told him we needed to split it 4 ways. He then tells us he couldn’t split the check because he would have to split each item by 4. We thought ok couldn’t he do that for us as the other times they were always able to split it for us? But by now we were fed up with how we were treated so we just paid our bill with one credit card. Once our bill was paid, he immediately took off his apron, so we thought oh he was just ready to leave his shift but nope he just sat around after we paid our tab. We still had food left on our table too and opted to ask a different server for a to go box. I don’t think we will be returning on our next...