Italian Garden Cafe (Canyon Lake) — Restaurant in Wimberley

9/27/21 Please don’t bother with this place. Here is a factual account of our experience. I was taking my family out to our son’s 36th birthday. We had a party of seven. It took ten minutes to seat us. We didn’t have reservations, so that was no problem. We were seated, ordered drinks and dinner. Drinks came out, bread came out. No issue. Sun was still high in the sky. As time passed, I noticed a couple to my left just finished their dinner and left. Another couple was seated in the same area. They ordered, food came, they ate and were about to leave. I gave the waitress a head nod to say, “what’s the holdup?” she was gracious, we had a large party, and said it will only be about ten minutes. Well, after our third helping of bread! Yes, the third! …and being an hour and forty-five minutes into the seating. The sun has gone down. The waitress reappears and apologized that they had a “computer glitch.” At this point, knowing something about computers, if there was a glitch, more customers would have been upset. So, I feel I’m being lied too. I stood up walked around the restaurant to find an extremely verbose crowd in the adjacent dining room and at least fifty percent of the restaurant staff sitting around doing nothing. Yes, doing nothing, no supervision what-so-ever. That crowd was dining, and we were here long before them. Well, another ten minutes passes, this time half the party at our table received their meals. I asked to see the manager, only to wait for another five minutes for a, what appeared to be a nineteen-year-old kid to tell me that there is no manager on duty, that he was the shift-lead. Offering to give us free dessert. Well, how stupid is that; we fill up on bread, no longer desiring the entre’ only to be offered free dessert! So, I finally received my plate, but I didn’t want to start because my wife’s meal has not arrived. By the time her meal arrives, mine is “stone cold.” At this point, the entire situation was so upsetting I went to the bar to get someone to settle our tab. They were gracious enough to give me fifty percent off the tab, of which I would have spent at least $150.00, however I still think $70 is too much for bread and beer. Parts of the meal were boxed up, but again, this is way too much for take out and a total waste of my time. I never tasted my meal so I can’t comment on that. On my way out of the restaurant, there is an exit sign clearly marked. I try the door only to find that it is locked. I’m not an expert on civil engineering nor real estate law; but isn’t it a fire hazard to have locked exits at a restaurant!?! Informing a different waitress of this, she just gave me that “whatever” look. Please don’t bother...

My husband and I have been wanting to try this place for months. We decided to stop by on our way to the grocery store. We went sure if it was open, but soon saw the parking lot (West side of the building) was about half full.

We got seated pretty fast. It took maybe 10+ mins to get someone to come and take our drink order. There was not any mention of what drinks they had available except their wine last. We both got an unsweet tea that was meh at best. The first red flag when he brought out the traditional bread and "olive" oil. I can tell you one thing, it was WAY to light and flavorless to be "olive oil". We ordered the fried ravioli that was ok. I ordered the grilled salmon margarita dish and my husband ordered a eggplant rolliteni (however you spell it). We waited maybe 25min for the food to come out. Sadly the water (who did not write our order down on paper) gave me the wrong dish. It was SO e gross sea roach (shrimp) dish that I can't eat because I AM ALLERGIC. I told him politely I didn't order this/can't eat this. 5 or so min later he comes to tell me that they are out of the salmon dish I ordered, and he (without asking) put in a different order for me. Could he not y'all me 30min ago that they were out of salmon? Why would one think that a (could kill me) sea roach is a goot substitute for a beautiful salmon? I declined his dish and opted to get the black forest cheese cake instead. Sadly, it looked and tasted just like a frozen cheese cake that you can put at ANY grocery store (at a better price!). $40 later, we were headed out when I kindly asked a rotund dark brown haired waitress "excuse me ma'am, where is the restroom", she rudely pointed to the restroom without so much as a word or a smile. I get that you are busy, but that is NO WAY to treat a customer!!! She is the main reason I am even writing this review! All in all, my husband and I will NOT be going back to this place! You can find better quality food and kinder more happy staff at ANY Olive Garden. They may be local, but y'all, that ain't worth it! Save your money and treat yourselves to a...

Not a quiet restaraunt. First off, the food and our server were great. They were collectively a redeeming quality. The only reason for the lackluster 3 star rating was our experience upon entering the place. There is no obvious hostess/host stand and there was not a single employee in sight. Just a sign that said "please wait to be seated." There was another large party waiting to be seated, my wife and I, and soon a second large party. Because of the chaos, the party that actually arrived after us was seated before us (not that I care too much but other people might). So, after waiting awkwardly for about 10 minutes, being passed by what turned out to be several employees (other servers I guess but not the hostesses), we were greeted and seated. To top it off, we were seated in a room with two other large parties of probably 10-15 people each. The room was so intensely loud that my wife and I couldn't even hear each other from a foot away at a normal speaking volume. This is not the fault of the staff but rather the result of trying to maximize seating capacity (probably a management decision but no way to know for sure). The room has an entryway that drops down from the ceiling by about two feet and creates this sort of sound chamber where everyone's voice just seems to bounce of the walls. It was strange because twenty feet away down the hall, you could carry a conversation pretty easily but once you enter that room it was like you felt as if you needs hearing protection. It was definitely louder than a lawn mower or even some live music venues at times. I would suggest limiting. The number of large parties in that section or installing some acoustical...