Slow Rise on the Brazos — Restaurant in Waco

We tend to travel to Waco for a day/night out atleast every month. We have visited this place 5 times in total during lunch hours, mid-day hours and dinner hours. Each time has been a diifferent experience, but this time the mark was definitely missed. I understand there was a Baylor home game & by the attire of others, a formal event or two going on as well in Waco. It was busy but the biggest rush was leaving as we entered the building. There was only one person taking orders at the counter (you order, pay, are given a buzzer, then seat yourselves), so it takes a bit for each transaction. We chose to sit outside as we have done every time. There's plenty of tables, a choice of the patio directly off the building, covered dock-like area with a bar, and uncovered seating as well. Non-alcoholic drinks are self serve so the best advice I can give is, grab 2 cups of whatever you're drinking at a time since there are no actual servers to offer refills if you will be sitting outside to have to avoid going back and forth as much. (Not a complaint, just giving a visual for those who are looking into this place & if there are full time servers who do refill drinks, I haven't been there during the times in which there are. So down to the experience, we ordered our food (2 of us). He ordered 2 slices of pizza & a Cesar salad; I ordered loaded fries, 6 traditional wings & a house salad. Within 20-30 minutes, he received his pizza slices, few minutes later we received our salads. We started eating the food we had received thinking the fries and wings would be out shortly. We completed our salads, he ate his pizza, & we were still waiting on my fries and wings. Might I add, plates were being brought out left & right to the tables that filled up after we arrived. There was 9 empty tables outside at the time we sat down & filled up as we sat there. Tables got their food, visited while they ate & left as I still waited. Finally my wings & fries came out..the wings were cold, like refrigerated cold, and the fries were just as cold to where the queso-like topping didn't even slide off the fries. With no servers that stop by to follow up on the quality, its up to you to either flag down a food runner or take your food yourself back inside to get the situation corrected. So I stood by the kitchen door, waited patiently as food runners whizzed by to request a re-make since its already been nearly an hour since we ordered and he was already done with his meal. I passed it to a food runner, he let me know they wilI be remaking it so I let him know we were outside. I go back outside and wait & watch atleast another 10-20 plates come outside, but not my food. Possibly its my fault for expecting it to be expedited since this is a re-make & the other person in my party is already finished eating. So I approach the bartender, request a manager. (Yes I know, typical Karen move but already 2 cold plates and waiting for a remake while watching other plates come out left & right.) A shift lead comes out, we explained the situation ^ he was pretty cool about it, apologized, refunded the two plates in which I was waiting on, & said they would still arrive. Well, it was then another 10 minutes plus, so close to an hour after ordering the remakes, they finally got delivered & they were great!! A few things that seem pretty chaotic that could just use a little sprucing up. If a a beverage station can be put outside under the covered area so those who choose to sit outside have easy access instead of having to fight the crowd coming out or going back in just to get a refill. When placing our orders, there should be a way to signify whether we will be inside or outside and be able to add it to the kitchen ticket so customers plates don't have to travel all around inside before traveling all the way around outside (Not only for sanitary reasons, but also for quality reasons and would cut wait time and having to keep staff from walking around so lost trying to find the rightful owner of the food) and the whole parties meal should be...

When we first entered we were surprised by the different dining areas. Soda and Beer. We were with my girlfriends parents and went to the soda side since they don’t drink. The menu was impressive with wings, salads, and a variety of unique pizzas. We ordered a 14pc boneless wings, half spicy bourbon and half garlic parmesan. We also ordered The Butcher pizza, and I ordered the slice of the day- which was the buffalo chicken. We also ordered extra ranch and bleu cheese.

First let’s talk about the ambiance and drink station. The soda was borderline flat and the cups are tiny so you don’t get very much soda. This requires you to get yourself refills on a regular basis. When a lot of people are having the same issue you get a lot of people in line for the single soda machine. At one point there were 12 people in line for a refill. The dining area was huge and spacious. Which was nice. It was also fairly clean. The seat we chose for some reason had a lot of flies but that could be the location inside and the outside patio door.

Now the food. We first received the wings. You can tell by the photo that the 14pc wings were very small. They tasted pretty good but it was tiny. The spicy bourbon wasn’t spicy at all. Not really even tangy. Just tasted like a sweet bbq sauce. Also, we only received one ranch and one fork. No extra ranch or bleu cheese or utensils. After that we got the pizza. The pizza was bigger than we imagined but the size to topping ratio seemed light. Also the pizza was extremely greasy and the middle was all soggy from the grease. The crust lacked in my opinion. It seemed like a crust I could probably make at home.

After about 10 minutes we noticed we didn’t receive the slice of the day, the buffalo chicken pizza. We asked about it and they said they forgot, put in another order, took our table number and put it in the oven. We waited about 20 minutes and it never showed up. We talked to the cashier about it and they told us they could offer us a refund for that slice. We took the refund but disappointed I couldn’t try to slice since it was the one I was saving room for and looking forward...

The food is decent but the customer service is terrible.

There is usually only one person at the register, having to handle the line of customers that wraps around the hallway, pickup orders, and phone orders all by themselves.

Then there’s the gaggle of random teenagers that works the back of the restaurant, not wearing uniforms or hats or hairnets (today a girl walked out of the kitchen in a sports bra with her hair down..?).

Nearly every time I’ve gone here, there has been some problem with my order. Today, I ordered boneless wings to go. I wanted half BBQ and half Parmesan garlic. When I came to pick up my order, they handed me a box of plain, un-sauced wings with one cup of BBQ sauce and one cup of Parmesan garlic sauce. When I finally was able to get the attention of someone at the register and explained that this is not what I ordered (unsauced wings in a box), she explained that it was their policy not to sauce to-go wings. First of all, that is a ridiculous policy (there are a number of wing restaurants across this country that do just fine saucing their to-go wings). For another thing, this absurd policy was never mentioned during my transaction. I said that didn’t make sense and asked them to toss my wings in sauce like I’d ordered. Several minutes went by and the young woman returned saying “just so you know, my manager says it’s so the wings don’t get soggy.” I pointed out that, just so they know, no one had ever mentioned this policy to me.

Bottom line, the food is fine, but save yourself a headache and get your pizza somewhere else. The service was good when it first opened but, apparently, they’re now under the management of an individual who doesn’t understand basic food prep or customer...