Luby’s

I stopped by for lunch. Ate the white fish, mash potatoes & and Cole slaw. It was good not scrumptious. I will be returning.

Although this is a cafeteria style restaurant selections are plentiful the food is great the services adequate the desserts pecan pie outstanding

Always good food and always family friendly.
Luby’s is what it is and has never changed. Healthy choices and cafeteria style food for all ages.
We don’t come here too often, but when we do, we always get the same great service and meal. Just as we did when we were little, and even now that we are much older, it’s cafeteria food with many healthy choices.

Sadly, since writing my last review of this particular Luby’s, the dining experience has gone significantly downhill. The reason: unbussed tables. The past several evenings we’ve come here, we’ve ordered our food, stepped out into the dining area, and found ZERO clean tables, in a restaurant that probably has at least a hundred tables. It’s pretty gross, really. Even after a «waiter» wipes a table down for you (while you’re standing over his shoulder, tray in hand), you then have the unfortunate experience of being surrounded by an ocean of remaining unbussed tables with leftover food that’s likely been sitting there all afternoon. No excuse for it, really. I might try paying a return visit many months down the road. If the situation is unchanged, I won’t be back.

The food is good. The waitress is good. The place is clean. But never been to the back.

My prior review was not good. However, we have returned several times since then and have determined that the problem was simply an off night. I do not know what happened that night, but the food at this Luby’s location is good again.
Old Review: Very mixed. Sadly this Lubys has real problems in terms of food quality. The rolls and mashed potatoes used to be so good, tonight stale rolls and watery mashed potatoes.

When the kids and I are craving cafeteria food this is the place to go to. Staff is friendly and sometimes they even give balloons to the kids. If you need help they will even carry the food to your table if you have your hands full with the kids.

Had baked chicken very salty. Stuffing was awful. As usual vegetable were soggy. Waitress asked me if I needed anything. I asked for a glass of water. Never saw her again. Worst Luby’s in Texas. Doubt I will be back.

This was an experience I would love to forget. When one pulls up to a restaurant and there are metaphoric tumbleweeds blowing across the parking lot, it should be a clear sign to steer clear. However, being hungry and short on time, my lunch companion and I decided to take a chance.
We rolled a crit fail on this particular luck check. The food was terrible. I would go so far as to actually deem it downright horrific. Two entrées and two drinks clocked in at over thirty dollars and wasn’t worth it at all. I ordered a tasteless but juicy chicken while my companion got an Angus chopped steak that was gritty, under salted, and drier than Death Valley at high noon. Both our bread choices left us in tears: garlic toast that was a tasteless, teeth gnashing brick, and dusty jalapeño corn bread that had no redeeming flavor.
The sweet tea was well made, the Mac and cheese tolerable, and our server skittishly attentive. And the management was politely receptive to our comments of expecting more.
However, twenty minutes later, even after stopping eating long before I was full, lunch is a weighty stone in my stomach. I pray the nausea passes soon.
Never again, Luby’s. Never again.

I love Luby’s and I always will! This particular location has remarkable management and staff…5 stars, easy…

This Luby’s serves All You Can Eat breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays. The price, including tax, is under $ 6. It has scramble eggs, hash brown, pancakes, waffles, some meat, and lots of sausages. It’s really a good deal if you can digest fat. The to-​go is the same price and you can pack as much as the box can hold. The box is definitely bigger than most people’s stomach. I bought a box to go so I could share with my 3 dogs. Guess what? They didn’t like the sausages. My dogs are typically not picky eaters, but if they don’t want to eat those sausages, I wonder if I should.

Lubys was so good when i was young! I used to love getting the roast beef and the soft rolls and the jello. Nowadays lubys has changed alot. The dishes aren’t as creative and the rolls aren’t as various as they used to be. The menu prices jumped up alot and my family figured we could get better food elsewhere. Lots and lots of old people eat at lubys so its definitely a different atmosphere compared to most cafeterias and restaurants in Austin.

You wanna eat tonnes of unhealthy food. This is the place. First the concept is very captivating and confusing. You have to get a salad a entrée. Then the meat options are mostly fried and floating in tonnes of calories sauces some are baked. All the baked stuff shined oil off them. No idea how long they have been sitting there and it’s embarrassing to ask. The seating here is like a typical dining space of a college. Tonnes of cupcakes options here. I am not a fan of that but if you’re then you will like this display here.

Maybe Sunday when all the church goes decide to eat at Luby’s is not the best time to go. Took about 20 minutes to get from the end of the line to ordering, but that is not why I am giving them two stars.
I ordered the beer battered fish special for 10.99 and it was three small pieces of fish, warm not hot. Fries and one hush puppy come with it. Special also said cole slaw came with it. No cole slaw received and when questioned, the server said they were out. You think he would have said we can give you a something else, but no that was it. So I asked another sever down the line if I could have something in place of the out of stock cole slaw and she said yes. I think it should have been offered when they knew they were out of cole slaw.
Anyway the staff is usually happy and pleasant when I have been in before, but no smiles today. Maybe Sunday is too stressful for some of them.

Great service and typical Lubys fare at this Lakeline Mall area location. The water/​tea servers are absolutely the nicest people I have ever meet at a restaurant. They have many deals here including all you can eat breakfast on the weekend. They run specials daily, so just call em to find out what they are for the week! You can upgrade the LuAnn platter (which is a half meat selection plus two veggies, and roll) for .69c for their made to order salad. Definitely worth it. The food at Lubys is a 3, the people at this Lubys are a 10! why the 4 stars.

It had been a long time since I had been to this Luby’s. It looked the same, but it had changed.
I went on a Wednesday evening at about 5:30. I expected them to be busy since it had always been busy in the past. It was not busy.
I only saw about 10 people in the serving line when we walked in and a couple people ahead of us in line waiting to be served. It seemed to take forever to get through the serving line. I am not sure what the hold up was.
The food was the same as I remembered it. The prices seemed fair.
In the dinning area they only had 2 wait staff. They did a good job considering their were not many customers.
It is was kind of sad to see them so slow. It was like the heart of the business was missing.

It was a beautiful spring day, the kind that poets write about when they are feeling most gay, when I noticed the marquee outside of Luby’s read, «$ 3 Chicken Fried Stake». I knew that meant it was time for me to get down on some of that stake, old person style, and teach a motherfucker how to spell.
I walked in, grabbed my green wrap of silver ware and school tray and asked the guy at the cole slaw tub if Luby was around.
«Huh?» he asked.
«Luby. Is Luby here? I need to talk to him… or her about the sign outside.»
It was then I realized that I didn’t know the gender of the name Luby. Even though I always wanted to meet Luby, even if for no other reason than to be able to say I met Luby, I suddenly felt a bit humiliated by this realization. With this I decided to let it go and move on with my life, down the chrome pipes, as they say, and into the wonderful experience that is «cafeteria style» dining.
I had $ 3 Chicken Fried Steak (CFS) w/​fried okra, macaroni and cheese, a wheat roll, a jalapeño, sweet tea and a slice of key lime pie.
The chicken fried steak was gigantic. I mean like as big a clown’s shoe. I mean as big as a full grown penguin. I mean as big as the head of a very skinny midget wearing a winter hat big. Then someone, I don’t know who because I was dizzy by now, poured about a rubber boots worth of cream gravy over it and I’m not sure if I ever saw the actual steak again. I could only sense it’s presence.
The okra, though first recorded by a Spanish Moor in 1216, was crispy and fresh. The seeds sprung around the pallet like a pop rock might and settled heavily into my stomach with honest gratuity. I imagined them growing quietly in some small field in Mexico, where a young princess walks by daily, kissing each finger of delicious okra and maybe she sprinkles a little marijuana dust on them to make you want to keep eating more and more okra. So I mean… the okra was pretty damn good.
My waitress came up to me and her name tag read «Margaret» and in barely audible words she stated that my macaroni and cheese had been flown in from Italy that day. Well, just the macaroni part as she herself had hand made the cheese early that morning after milking several cows. I told Margaret it tasted like it and complimented her on her cheese making ability.
It was now time for my key lime pie and just looking at it gave me shortness of breath, but I took a bite and I guess this was about the time when I passed out from so much fucking goodness. Anyhow, I woke up about 2 hours later and no one said anything. I looked around and noticed a few others were sleeping or had maybe passed out from the delicious shit on their own plates.
This is when an older lady approached me and informed me that my waitress, Margaret, had passed away. She said it was from natural causes and she was in heaven now. She also said she would be my waitress for the remainder of my dining experience. It was then that I noticed my new waitress smelled like ketchup and beans. I immediately knew that I would never marry a woman who smelled like ketchup and beans and poured some of my sweet tea on the floor, onto the Luby’s indoor /​ourdoor carpet in honor of my former waitress, and homie, Margaret.
Margaret had died honorably, in the break room of Luby’s, serving steak and making bank.
At this point I had to leave. I was overcome with sadness and fullness and promised everyone I saw on my way out that I would be back soon.
Real soon.

This is a breakfast buffet review!
You know it’s pretty sad when the wait staff agrees with your assessment. I will not the person so they may keep their job.
To Luby’s defense I have not been to the breakfast buffet in a year. I finally woke up early enough without a list of things to take care of in the house and decided to load up the car and have breakfast away from home.
A year ago the breakfast buffet was pay as you enter, serve yourself, omelette station, and an amazing variety of food. I distinctly remember the pinto beans that had a taste of bacon, the potatoes sauteed with peppers and onions, and the omelette man who amazed me with how perfectly he pulled it all together.
Today we walk in and no cash register, no tables of food visible. Ohhhhh crap goes through my head. They are set-​up like Furs was several years ago. You tell them what you want, they plate it, then you pay and sit. That was a bummer. I prefer to eat at my pace and sample small helpings of many things. Kind of hard to do when people cannot really dish out a tsbp of this or a ½ cup of that. Seemed really awkward to even try to explain.
And the biggest OMG — no more omelette station — gone forever — but they will prepare cook to order eggs just no omlettes :(
The sauage gravy was over salted, the refried beans came straight from a can, never saw the unbelievable potatoes that had my mouth watering.
The wait staff stopped by to see if we wanted a second round– uh no — then we were let in on a little secret. Headquarters made all the changes even though local management didn’t really agree. The wonderful man who was the omelette king was shifted to cooking meats. He was also the one that made the amazing refried beans and was no longer allowed to do them «his way».
It wasn’t a horrible breakfast by any stretch but my expectations were totally different walking into the door. Other items were great or good.

I am in between 3 & 4 stars for this review. I grew up with Luby’s (Pasadena, TX location). I used to come here with my grandparents! (who have been gone a long time…) I always got the fried fish (and fried chicken when I was a very little girl) with tartar sauce and iced tea. Macaroni and cheese… roll or garlic toast… fruit salad… and either pumpkin pie or a cinnamon roll.
The prices have gone waaaaaaaaaaaay up. I have found the best value to be on Mondays all you can eat, as I can get (most) of my favorites for a cheaper price than at regular times.
Also, the quality of the food has gone down. No more cinnamon rolls (OMG those cinnamon rolls! raisins, icing, soft cinnamony goodness!) or garlic toast. Soft rolls are not as flavorful as they used to be. Pumpkin pie is ok, but not near as good as it used to be. Mac and cheese is soooo not as cheesy as it should be, mostly butter. Luckily the fried fish, tartar sauce, and iced tea is still spot on.
Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy my Luby’s meal the couple times I visit here in a year. I just think for the jacked up prices, they could put a little more effort & quality in their food and be consistent with the recipes of the past and therefore the memories Luby’s brings to some of us. Then I might frequent this establishment a bit more.

Dear Pappas brothers,
It took you nine years, but you have finally made Luby’s a paltry shadow of its former self. No longer can I go there and get great food at a decent price like I could in the ‘80s and ‘90s before you guys took the reins.
I went for lunch today, got fried fish, two veggies, a slice of Chocolate Icebox Splenda pie, and an iced tea, and was shocked when my total came to $ 16.34. Lunch for one person at LUBY’S should not cost over $ 16. And iced tea ($ 2.19) should not be only 80-​cents cheaper than a slice of pie ($ 2.99). The price of the pie was perfectly fair, but iced tea shouldn’t cost almost the same. It simply doesn’t cost that much to make. And your food isn’t even that good anymore. For $ 16, I can get a better tasting lunch at Perry’s or Mirabelle.
I know economic times are tough for you, Pappas brothers, but they’re tough for all of us. Did you know that Bob Luby, during the Great Depression, would give poor folks leftover food from his cafeteria every day at closing? I’m not asking for free food, Pappas brothers, but I am asking for decent prices. Luby’s had decent prices before you guys took over. Each and every year you raise all your prices without making the food any better. In fact, you constantly cut corners on the food so it consistently tastes worse. You can’t keep customers that way, at least not this one. Lower your prices to cater to the economically downtrodden, and I’ll come back. I can’t afford to, otherwise.
And now you’re buying Fuddruckers? Congratulations in advance for ruining that restaurant chain. I can’t wait to pay $ 11 for a cardboard-​and-​cheese burger.
One point in your favor that I mentioned in my last update: I heard The Eurythmics again while I was eating today. I didn’t see Annie Lennox in the dining room this time, though. I guess Luby’s has gotten too expensive even for her.
It really hurts me to drag Luby’s down to two stars; it almost brings a tear to my eye. I don’t want to do it, but you forced me into this position, Pappas BOTHERS.
Over and out,
Catherine T.