Waterloo Ice House

Went for dinner on a Sunday night. We knew there was a playground, wanted somewhere our little guy could run around. Waited at the server station for five minutes without being noticed. We eventually sat ourselves. It went downhill from there.
No silverware or napkins given, they were out of cups, so we received our water in styrofoam, queso was luke warm, brought the wrong sandwiches out, French fries were unsalted, drinks never refilled etc.
I assume servers are all high school kids who are overwhelmed, so we cut em a break, paid, and tipped 20%.
If I was an a-​hole, I would have cried for a manager and expected our tasteless food that was on par with high school cafeteria slop to be comped.
If you have kids that want a playground, and have zero expectations for good food or service, give it a try!

PROS
Nice, family-​friendly ambiance
Great local beers on tap
Good food
CONS
Nonexistent service
FREE ADVICE FOR THE PROPRIETORS
It’s simple: lower your server-​to-​table ratio (1:4 max), teach them some basic waiting skills and you’ll see your ratings here soar.
You’ll also see your average revenue per head go up – enough to cover the cost of hiring more help. :-) Good luck!

They have all the basics covered, and then some.
The service is excellent, the food is reliable and good, the restrooms are clean, and they have a playground (!!!). This is our go-​to dinner destination.

Great place for kids on the back side. It opens up to a playground. Food is ok also. If you can not tolerate kids stay at the front of the restaurant is my only advise.

Can you do negative stars? The best thing about this place is the play scape and maybe the beer — you cant really mess that up.
The food is horrible.

I’m currently sitting here with no water, empty beer, and dirty plates.
I look around… no waiter. And everyone here looks to be in the same boat.
Service is crazy slow here.
As for food… we got queso which was like warm at best. But not horrible I guess.
Beers were nice and cold… But took over 15 minutes to come out. I thought maybe they had to change a keg for the first round… but the second one a manager had to bring to me.
I’ve been a server so I understand the hustle and bustle of being busy… but having roughly 15% of your restaurant full does not equal busy.

It isn’t on the «diet» but I can’t deny myself of a good burger and fries every now and then! This is one place that I can enjoy an old fashioned cheeseburger and homemade French fries!

Ordered two burgers to go, they did taste pretty good but they were put together carelessly and were very sloppy. The service at the bar when I picked up my order was subpar and the lady who brought my to go order basically just set my bag on the counter and walked off, customer service desperately needs a fine tuning and the prices for these are extremely high. I still tipped 4.00 on a 20 dollar TO GO order to which most people probably would tip at all. If you want your business to grow and if you want people to return, you must always practice excellent customer service. I am undecided if I will ever return and I live two seconds down the road from this place

We came here a couple of weeks ago for breakfast and ended up leaving after 10 minutes when no one came by our table to take our drink order. Given that they had decent service/​food in the past we decided to give them another try for lunch today. Well this place is going downhill fast.
Floor was dirty and table felt grimey. Was really afraid to order anything and ended up just getting onion rings so we could get out of there quickly. It is disappointing that this place has deteriorated so much over the last six months as my wife and I frequently had breakfast here on weekends. Will be looking for another venue and won’t be back.

We stumbled in as our plans changed due to storms. Nice place, nice service. Just nice, nothing over the top. No recommendations from server, I didn’t get the concept and felt they could have explained what they were all about and recommended some items. Later I heard a server recommending dishes to her table, must have just been our guy.
Food came out fast, real fast! Great because we had kids but we didn’t finish our appetizer so it was a little rushed. Food was good, hot and fresh. Nothing spectacular.
Great outdoor playscape so nice if you’ve got the kids with you. Good pricing for a family night and great ice cream next door!

To preface this review: it gets one extra star because my daughter and I can walk there, which is nice.
I ordered a chicken salad which means I got a box salad with a fried chicken breast on top that was sliced into pieces. My daughter got ye olden geenric chicken strips and fries. So we’re basically talking Chile’s quality food here.
The upshot is they have a nice playground out back, a good beer selection, and they have a decent line-​up of beer on tap. The prices are also reasonable ($ 20 for salad, kids food, milk for her and a Shiner for me).

Well, we stopped going here years ago, because it just was never quite right. I stopped by this evening and guess what? Still, just not quite right. The wing special is now 50 cents, but that doesn’t appear on the menu or the blackboard. The bartender was working her ass off (understaffed), but when she climbed on the bar/​draft drain to reach the top shelf bottles, I was a bit grossed out… envisioning the cootie migration from the bottom of her shoe, to the drain plate, to the bottom of a pint glass, to the surface of the bar, to my skin/​napkin/​utensil and ultimately into my mouth pretty much sealed the «not coming back again soon» deal, once again.
Come on, Waterloo, get your stuff together. You’re my just-​around-​the-​corner local spot… I WANT to like you.

Food is actually good now– chicken wings are great, Hippie Salad is great and big size.
Big however: Service Awful! Service last Tuesday night at 6:30pm was slow, borderline rude, completely shocked how bad… First we walk in, and half the tables are empty, but the host says 15 minute wait and hands us a buzzer. Half the inside tables were empty! We choose to sit at the bar. Bartender is busy with the other 8 people at the bar and takes ten minutes to say hello to us. Can’t look our way at all… Takes our drink order and runs away from the bar to deliver something. An employee that is off duty then sits at the bar, and when she returns, they start talking about her new house. No drinks. No smile, not even a ‘how you doing?” — this is Circle C, everyone is nice, but not her…
We ask for a menu after drinks come. Food takes 20 minutes. Appetizer comes with the meal instead of sooner. Detest that! She delivers it with no silverware. We ask for silverware and she runs away to deliver drinks somewhere, leaves us with the food and no forks or napkins. 3 minutes go by, so I lean over the bar to get my own utensils. She comes back and does not even notice that we are somehow set up.
When the meal is over and drinks are empty, we wait. No bill. We wait some more, listen to more stories about this girl’s new house and how her grandparents are paying for it. Bartender has three people at the bar but never even looks over at us. Finally my husband yells to ask for the bill. If we have to wait for a bill and ask for it, you are not getting a good tip.
Was very unimpressed with Waterloo service and won’t go back. They were slow three years ago and still slow now. What a waste. Don’t go!

Our kids love this place. We can sit out on the back patio and enjoy our appetizers and drinks while they play on the giant playground! My son says they have the best pancakes in Austin!

Best place to be on Monday nights. Staff is awesome the manager is friendly. The bar is team is very nice.

This place is awesome, their happy hour is untouchable, and the food was great!
I walked in, kindly greeted by all the staff, sat down (at the bar), and was told all the specials. I then continued to order had a frozen margarita, it was awesome, and $ 2.00. I then switched to shiner, which was very cold and also awesome, and also $ 2.50.
Ordered the triple stack chicken quesadillas which were once again, awesome. Rachel was working the bar with Haley, liana was running the floor bar section but they all came and talked to me, introduced theirselves, and asked if I was okay. These guys were super helpful and fast, my drink was never empty. They also talked to me, ask me what I did for a living, acted like they genuinely cared that I was there.
Rachel especially looked like she ran the bar. All the locals in here know her and she greeted each of them with a smiling face and their usual drink. Waterloo management is lucky to have her, if she wasn’t so dedicated Id steal her for my own bar.
Great neighborhood bar with a homey feel! Check it out, it’s worth it.
**10 years service industry, owned my own bar in Austin for 3.5 years.

Was given a gift card for my birthday so I came in this morning to check out their pancakes (typically I am strictly a Kerbey Lane pancake girl).
Was pleasantly surprised, pancakes were good sized, fluffy and pretty darn good.
I got 1 Banana Brown Sugar and 1 Cinnamon Pecan.
The banana was loaded with fruit in each bite but a bit lacking in brown sugar flavor
the cinnamon pecan was ok, could have used a bit more cinnamon and would have liked the pecans in the pancake rather than on top.
I also ordered a side of bacon — 3 decent slices, crispy
The only detraction to the meal was the syrup. I realize no one uses the real stuff anymore but if you are going fake please try and get the best fake you can. More maple flavor, less funk. It left an off aftertaste in my mouth
Cost = less than I have paid at other places
Service = very good, pleasant
Would definitely go back and try other breakfast options

Waterloo is one of the best family restaurants around. I cannot think of any place that does a better job of keeping the whole family happy.
My kids love the playscape outside the open patio. They love to play while we wait for our food to arrive. There are always a pack of happy kids enjoying themselves.
The menu centers on American comfort food with burgers and chicken sandwiches. If you’re looking to be a bit more healthy they have some of my favorite entrée salads. The Waterloo Salad is especially tasty with apple, pecan and dried cranberries. My kids love that they can get tatter tots in addition the regular fries.
The staff is always pleasant and easy going. During my last visit, my server earned extra points by offering to call in my kids from the playscape after delivering our food.

Suburban mediocrity is my best description for this place. The service was better than expected which is saying something as our guy had to dodge 3500, give or take a few, screaming snot nosed kids while bringing us our food and drinks. I just can’t get past the food though. It wasn’t good, our food was cold, greasy and below average even for bar food.
Having a playscape and TV’s doesn’t give you a pass for crapy food. Please work on it Waterloo.
My 2 pennies

This is one of my neighborhood watering spots, and while I admit I’m not here as often as I’d like to be, I still like that we have a Waterloo within walking distance. Personally, I LOVE this place. If you are there for breakfast, my recommendation is a toss up between the Waterloo Migas and the Huevos Rancheros. I don’t eat pork, so the added advantage of the Huevos Rancheros is I give my dog the sausage and bacon. Yeah, he’s spoiled.
For dinner, I can’t talk to the entrees because if I’m at an icehouse, it’s for burgers, beer and sports. My favorite would have to be the Mushroom Swiss Burger and the Texas Chili Burger. I may be weird, but I prefer my fries with mustard or salt and vinegar. And they oblige. The food is good, not great. But the customer service here makes up largely for that. If you’ve ever been to a high and stacked tight hoighty toighty place where the food is great but the establishment treats you like a meal ticket, it does take away from the experience. Not so with Waterloo, and you grow to appreciate this. Come here two or three times and you automatically become a regular and a name they remember.
The place has an awesome playground in the back for your little snowflakes to release all their sugar-​induced crazy levels of energy and there is a covered semi-​outside part to dine out when the weather is nice, but my doggie is not welcome. I’m allowed to tie him to a nearby tree where I can watch him from inside but OH the guilt because he walks the two miles with me to get here. So, that’s why I opt for the Huevos Rancheros so he can get a reward. And as I mentioned the staff is so courteous they will go out and give him water and the sausage and bacon from my breakfast meal. And you can’t beat that.