Austin Grill

Chips and salsa were fantastic. Margaritas were delicious. I ordered the carne asada and the steak was great, but the pan and veggies were too greasy for my liking. My husband ordered a burrito and loved it. Our waitress was sweet and helpful as well. A little less grease and it would be a 5 star rating!

The worst service ever. They trick you into buying something we thought was a complimentary. If you go for just drinks make sure you ask the waiter/​waitress if you’re being charged for anything else. The guacamole had visible hair and a roach inside. When the manager approached me and my Queen, he had an attitude like we didn’t want to pay. Mind you, this is January 1^st. He’s already starting 2016 miserable.

Ate here with my wife and daughter on New Years eve for first Friday. Took a while to be seated. Good authentic Tex Mex. Service was second to none. Military friendly and the manager, «Frank» personally greeted us. He was incredibly professional and engaging. This place exceeded my expectations. I will make it a point to come back again midweek and check out their happy hour specials.

I have not been here in a few months. Everything is the same except the service=garbage! The food is slightly above average than bar food but DAMN this bartender is junk!

Worst experience ever! We arrived and we were told we’d be seated within 10 – 15 min. Sat in the bar area waiting 20 minutes before complaining to hostess staff that we had not been served.
We attempted to order drinks from the bartender who never made eye contact or acknowledged us standing there. We asked the hostess staff to help and they did nothing. The female server who was sent over asked for our ID’s when we clearly over 21 (30 years). She took our drink orders and another 15 minutes went by without drinks. Total wait time was 30 minutes with not even a glass of water. It wasn’t terribly crowded either…
When we made our last complaint on our way out… They responded «if you don’t like it, you can leave.»
Worst experience ever… we’ll never go back despite being customers for 25+ years and living a block away.
Since the renovation, this place is a poorly managed establishment no longer worthy of our business.

The managers here seriously need to whip their servers into shape-there’s no reason this place shouldn’t be packed on a Friday night.
Our waitress started out strong but after dropping off our food we didn’t hear from her for thirty minutes… I finally had to track down another server to try to get our bill. There was hardly anyone in there, so being overwhelmed by customers wasn’t the cause.
The food is decent, nothing spectacular– so the service will be the downfall of this place if they don’t do something. There are plenty of other places you can spend $ 100 and have a much better experience.

Pretty decent TexMex at a pretty decent price. I had a great burrito that was stuffed full of beef, beans and rice. It was just a bit bland, but not bad. The big surprise was the dessert. The server sold me on the Quattro Leche cake and I was not disappointed! I highly recommend trying that one.

Worst service ever!
My mom was in town visiting from Chicago and took her out for a nice evening in Old Town. Went to Austin Grill and sat in the bar section on the main floor when you first walk in. Had the WORST service I have ever experienced in my life. We had a server that we only saw once and we said out loud at the table Where is our server? The other female server heard us and she said She’s throwing up in the bathroom so if you could please be a little patient. We were in the middle of eating so it was definitely unappealing and in addition to that, she didn’t ask if we needed anything, knowing that we were looking for our server. Finally, I had to get up and ask the bartender for assistance. He was helpful but we still never had a server come by to check on us. So we stopped the female server who informed us that her friend was throwing up in the bathroom and she gave us major attitude. She yelled at her colleague who was cashing out to Take care of table 22, like we were an inconvenience. Then she came back and said that our original server was leaving and asked what we needed. I said Just the check and she left, came back, and all but threw the tab on the table and walked away. After being ignored all night and receiving attitude like we were a huge inconvenience to the other female server, our check that we asked in the beginning to be split between us four people at the table was all on one check. So I had to go to the bartender and ask for a manager and he said he was the bar manager so I told him about how terrible experience and he said he would help split the check. While I was working with him on that the female server who had given attitude to us all night came by and starting grabbing all the plates from the table, not asking if we were finished or how everything was. Just icy cold.
It’s a shame because the food was good, but not after being ignored all night and being treated like we were an inconvenience and a problem when we just wanted service. I will never go back to this establishment. There wasn’t even a compensation for our inconvenience, which would have made us feel a little bit better knowing that they felt bad for the situation.

We are on vacation and we’re looking for a place to eat dinner. Since we had been on King St before we thought we would give it a shot. Well they didn’t disappoint.
On a Friday night we thought there would be a wait, no so. Got in and got a table. Our server was a good dude. The food was fantastic and atmosphere was alive.

By far the best food and service I have seen in a while. The special of the day Serracha shrimp tacos were sooooo good and the tequila flight can’t b beat it is the best!!!
Roxy is the bomb and the best by far!!!
Oh and try the various margaritas you won’t be disappointed.

Wasn’t impressed. Everything is way over priced, I could have made better food and drinks at home.
Our waitress was super rude and unprofessional too.

Late night just doesn’t seem to hit the spot.
Everything was out except for a few things. We decided to try it out regardless because I was hoping to satisfy my late night hunger. I wish I could take back the night because it was so disappointing to eat greasy fries and a stale burger. Maybe the only thing good was the beer but by the looks of the place I wonder if they clean the tap line often…

Very tex-​mex but in terms of Mexican food in the DC area this place isn’t terrible. They have a solid happy hour (see my picture) of weekdays 3 – 7 pm. Margaritas are a serious weakness for me. And they were decently strong! Also had blended mojitos and other options.
Free chips and salsa. Our large party ordered queso and Quac as well. The Quac was good, could’ve used a little more kick but the waiters make it to order! Queso was delicious! I am a huge spicy person and the salsa was so not spicy I didn’t go back for a second dip. I asked for a spicier option and was offered hot sauce but the waitress never brought it. Also, the chips weren’t very crispy/​fresh. They were a little overly oilly.
Others in my party ordered the taquitos, chicken quesadilla, Austin wings, and tacos. I stuck with the margaritas but the food looked very mediocre. Nothing compared to some real Mexican, but I cannot complain either.
Restaurant has cute Texan décor! More seating upstairs. Apparently on Wednesdays they have a clown come and do face paint and balloon animals. We sat downstairs and didn’t see him but all the servers had cute paintings or balloon hats. The air conditioner had been acting up as well, we complained to the manager (humid DC summer day) and she called and had a technician come. They handled this situation surprisingly well!
Margarita happy hour normally never disappoints.

Waitress was a little off her game this day. Food was good though. I had a grilled chicken sandwich. Tea was good. No real issues.

Context:
I’m usually the type of user who gets on Unilocal to look at everyone else’s reviews, however, this place was so good that I was compelled to leave my very first review *snaps for me*.
Review:
I must say, this place fires on all cylinders-​from the outgoing personalities of the staff and management, to the atmosphere, to the speedy service, to the food. My coworker and I came into this place off a suggestion from a friend, and we’ll definitely be back. Riley, our server, and the rest of the Austin Grill team made us feel genuinely welcome and simply took care of us. This kind of service is rare. Definitely check this place out!

We had previously been to the Penn Quarter location in DC, and were underwhelmed. Despite this, one night when it was late and we were hungry, my wife (pregnant at the time) called with the intention of placing a pickup order. The hostess who answered the phone was borderline hostile. My wife asked if the cheese in a particular dish was pasteurized (dairy products from raw milk are a big no-​no when pregnant). The hostess replied that she didn’t know. My wife explained that she was pregnant, and asked the hostess if she could find out. The hostess replied that they were busy, telling her to «just order something else».
We ordered something else alright. From somewhere else.

My coworker was looking at the menu on the outside window and the server basically dragged us in the restaurant… so we were pretty much forced to eat here haha
Food: Ordered the carnitas tacos, which was just OK. The meat could’ve used more flavor. They gave a large side of beans and rice though.
Service: Weird vibes coming from the servers. It just seemed like they were TOO excited for us to be there (we were like… their only customers). This just led us to think that the place was kinda creepy… but I mean, they always refilled our chips&salsa and our water so that’s good.
Wouldn’t come back again.
Note: I checked in and received a $ 5 off $ 20 coupon :)

The first mess up was the restaurant did not have chips. What kind of tex-​mex place doesn’t have chips and salsa? To make matters worse, when we left the restaurant we saw many tables had chips and salsa, so I don’t know if we were lied to or if it was fixed in the middle of our meal and they just assumed we didn’t want the chips anymore?
Next, our waiter was very rarely around our table asking if we needed anything, we only got one drink refill that we had to ask for. By the end of the night every glass was empty and nobody was even offered a refill. We also all had alcoholic beverages and nobody was offered another one, which I feel like is the easiest way for the waiter to make tips. Keep the customers boozin and they will be happy.
Then my burrito order was messed up and had to wait another fifteen minutes for them to replace my order.
I’ve been coming to Austin grill quite a bit cause it’s usually very reliable but I don’t know if I’ll be coming back after this.

From the service, to the food, a horrible experience. The worst TexMex I’ve ever had.
We came in for lunch on Sunday. Not many people there. Should have been a clue. Service was glacially slow. Not just for us. The person at the next table complained as well. It took over 20 minutes to get sweet and low for his tea.
As for our experience, ugh. We got a basket of chips, that was essentially crumbs. They would have been easier to eat with a spoon. We asked for another basket. 45 minutes later (after our meal arrived) we got more chips.
My wife and daughter split combo fajitas. They came out dry and flavorless. The container of tortillas contained a grand total of 3 tortillas. We asked for more. They brought a container of 3 more.
I ordered carne asada. Also dry and flavorless.
And then the bill. What do we see? An extra $ 2 for the non-​crumbled basket of chips. An extra $ 2 for the 3 extra tortillas.
Stay away.

We walked by and saw the sign «NFL Package” — something along the lines of come in to watch your game and enjoy specials on sundays and mondays. We walked in looking for the seahawks game. The host said he didn’t think they were showing the game, but asked the manager if they might be able to change one of the tvs for us. NOPE. Sorry! Manager said they were only showing the redskins game. What’s the point of having the NFL package if you won’t show all the games? So we asked the manager if he knew anywhere nearby that might be showing the seahawks. He said he just moved here about 4 months ago, no idea. Wow, how helpful!
Too bad we won’t be back. We could’ve been Sunday football regulars — we live a block away!