Crú Wine Bar

Had a couple wine flights. A couple of wines were definitely open past pour by date. They replaced those but I should not have to point out. How hard is it to taste wine before sending off if know bottle has been open for a few days. Food wise, the happy hour potstickers and calamari were great. Grilled cheese is amazing. Pizza amazing– doughy and fresh tasting. The braised short rib which I have had at the domain location was much bigger piece of meat. Also, this one was over done. They said You don’t need a steak knife since so tender but if you want one, I can get one. I said no and then wished I did. It was almost like chewing beef jerky on the crust to get to the slightly softer meat below. 4 forks and I was done including even amounts of polenta to meat. I had another 4 or 5 forks of polenta left over with nothing to go with it. I would have complained but had a show to go to. Oh well.

I had the salmon and caviar pizza which was absolutely fabulous! I don’t even LIKE caviar but I ended up inhaling the whole thing! The crust was perfect crisp on the bottom and chewy. Too bad I live elsewhere I would end up eating this divine thing on a weekly basis!

Do yourself a favor, just say NO. Read the other one star reviews and know that this will likely happen to you! We dinevout frequently and I have NEVER in my life hadbsuch SLOW service! Would not br so bad if the food was good, right. OMG, how does this place stay in business??? Are you kidding me? It is sooooo bad.
bruschetta-​dry, nasty, no flavor… took an hour to arrive after we ordered… no joke!
potstickers-​just like another reviewer wrote, frozen would be better. So nasty.
Brussels sprouts salad– oh, sooo bad, small, bitter, so gross.
Tomato soup– tasted exactly like marinara sauce!
Fondue– well after it arrives 40 minutes after we order, the chocolate fondue was greasy, broken, chunky, I honestly cannot believe that a restaurant would ever serve something so visually unappealing.
This place truly blew my mind and not in a good way. Also, it was so NOT busy for a Saturday night. Therefore no excuse for how long it took. I am a Unilocal junkie. I would never write a review that was not wholly honest. This place is bad. Maybe okay for a glass of wine, but probably best to just keep on down the road…
UGH, what a terrible night we had here.

The food and wine is great but the service is the worst service at any restaurant I have ever been to. We have been to the downtown location a hand full of times and every single time we have bad service. I finally convinced my husband to try it one more time and this is what happened.
We sat down and ordered our wine. About fifteen minutes later it shows up, which is ridiculous. Then we ordered a charcuterie board and ahi tuna. We never saw our server again. About thirty minutes later I see everyone around us getting their food. I finally mention something to the hostess that we have been waiting thirty minutes for our appetizers (a cheese board and some ahi tuna!!!) Nothing that even needs to be cooked. The hostess says she told her manager. About ten/​fifteen minutes later I say to the hostess «we just want our check.» I’m starving at this point. The manager FINALLY comes out and apologizes and says the cheese board is ready (doesn’t even mention the ahi tuna). We said no thank you and paid our bill and left. He gives us a free app for next time. By the end, we had sat at this restaurant for an hour and didn’t eat anything! Very very disappointing and will never come back.

I went here with a group of friends on a Wednesday night and really enjoyed it! We came around 9 pm so the restaurant was relatively empty but I imagine it was more crowded early on at happy hour. The happy hour menu seemed have tons of cheap eats and we all agreed that we would be back for it.
Cru has a large wine list that has options for just about every price point. If your not ready to settle on one type of wine, they do offer wine flights. One of my friends chose this option and the glasses had medium sized portions. They also have a decent sized menu with great options to pair with wine like cheese boards and pizzas. I shared the roasted chanterelle mushroom with a friend and I would highly recommend it, although it was a little greasier than other stone fired pizzas I’ve had.
Overall we had a great experience, and would highly recommend Cru to anyone looking for a good and decently priced meal (or glass of wine) in this area!

We live close by so we frequent CRU often. Food is really good I just wish that they had better happy hour as wine is pretty pricey for what they offer. Service is ridiculously slow. Walked out after 15 minutes.

Dined here a few week ago. Service was great!
We had calamari which was a bit salty. Mushroom pizza was good and the best was my capressi salad which was absolutely delish. Our friends had the lamb lollipops and it was so finger lickin good. We’re getting it next time.
Overall I’m always pleased with the food and wine here.

Come early, come often.
What’s not to like, it’s so easy.
Everyone in high times sucking down the grape juice with reckless abandon.
Come on join the party. The patio is pretty full but there is room for you and you.
Seriously all happy times when the weather is great like right now. Awesome service and broad wine selection… good times!

The wine flights are excellent but the service was not great. I sat at the bar for brunch and ordered the shrimp hash. It took over thirty minutes to get and was cold when it finally came out. My boyfriend didn’t order anything so it took that long for one dish. The restaurant was not packed. I would typically say something but I was starving and just wanted to leave and not wait for my food again. The bartender and wine were nice but didn’t make up for the long wait and cold food.

Great food, convenient location. Public parking located nearby, what else to ask for?

Pretty good wine selection. Sometimes it takes a bit to get the attention of the server but once you order everything goes smoothly! The food is pretty decent as well. I like their half priced bottles specials :)

One of the most disgusting restaurant experiences of my life. Got a bill of $ 93 for nasty dried out food made from low quality ingredients. The waiter scammed me into having a filet mignon butterflied because otherwise it would «take too long to make». They brought it out so fast along with appetizers that it must have been sent back by a less accepting customer than me. It totaled less than an inch thick stacked up and was like shoe leather. My friend ate the tuna tartar and was ill immediately afterwards. The appetizers were gross as well. Not a thing good to say. Can’t figure why they were in a rush since there were plenty of tables open. It looked so nice but the façade hides a rotten, vastly overpriced experience. Don’t fall for it like I did, this is a bust out joint that would have failed long ago if it wasn’t in a hot tourist spot.

Got a bottle of wine for ½ the price on Sunday evening and the pizza was delicious! They have Monday specials sometimes where the will pay for the pizza and you only have to pay for the bottle of wine!

Cozy place with a great wine selection, good brick house pizza. Staff very attentive. Wasn’t our first choice but definitely could’ve been. Will definitely come back.

Stopped by with my husband for an hour before our dinner reservations down the street. We sat at the bar and had a couple of glasses of wine and an appetizer. Loved the atmosphere! The lighting was dim and romantic yet fun because of the large loud groups that were seated at the tables. Good vibe for a date night. the décor is also so neat. The only downside was the service. Not so friendly bar tenders kind of dampered the mood. She seemed like she was just too busy to make suggestions and barely spoke to us. I see on other reviews this was a complaint too. We will be back because overall liked the place but they would so benefit from a friendly staff!

Came here for the thanksgiving wine tasting they were having. Great great deal! $ 20 for 10 wine tastings and appetizers included. We had a great time and were very well served by their staff.
Also they had a great deal: 50% off for the wine bottles we tasted, so we bought a amazing Rose for only $ 15.

My mom, girlfriend, and I went to Crú for Saturday brunch and were pleasantly surprised — I always think of Crú as a dinner spot, but our brunch was enjoyable and the food was good.
Floyd was our waiter and he was attentive, straightforward, and spot-​on with his suggestions; the cheese board was legit AF.
The manager of the place, Chris, stopped by our table before we left and thanked us for coming.
Great location, good food, acceptable prices

3 stars for the service and accommodation.
2 stars for the foods…
Lobster dumplings (²⁄₅) tasted decent like the frozen dumplings that you buy at the store. It was not worth the price.
Sea Seared Scallops (³⁄₅) was a little too salty and the risottos sauce was too sour…
Salsicca pizza (²⁄₅) it was decent
Overall, a little over priced for mediocre food. However, they have a great wine tasting 3 glass for $ 18 on certain ones.

Love the idea of wine flights and the quaint little patio at night time with the string lights. Came here with my boyfriend for our anniversary and had a wonderful time. Ordered the cheese fondu (favorite thing) lobster and shrimp potstickers, caprese salad and a pizza. Also tried the sexy red, backpacking through Italy (favorite) and the rosé flights. Although I was a bit disappointed with the Sexy Reds flight, I am willing to keep trying other options! Only thing is I wish we had a more personable experience with our waiter, we never even got his name or an overview of some good options, and we came around 9 so it was slightly dying down. Food was delicious for ordering a bunch of apps and drinking wine, but don’t prepare to be completely WOW’d by anything. Except maybe the fondu (:

Excellent wine selection… Loved the flights so we could try different wines.
All the food was fantastic!!!
Goat cheese beignets OMG so good!
Chef’s choice cheese board and classic cheese board were great! Ask for some honeycomb to compliment the cheese!
Caprese salad was delish!
Will definitely come back on our next trip back to Austin!

I don’t pretend to be a wine connoisseur. Even living 15 years just south of Napa Valley couldn’t instill wine love into me. But I know what tastes good, and I know what I like, and Cru Wine Bar on 2^nd Street has a good mix of both of those things.
I won’t go into the expanse of the wine list; and why would you want me to if you just read what I said? But it is pretty expansive, and my friends who are far more wine sophisticated than I am absolutely love it when I bring them in.
On the food side, it’s downright tasty. I love the cheese and charcuterie selection, the fondue (healthy living be damned), the pizzas (again, healthy living), the lobster and shrimp potstickers, the filet, and a smattering of other tasty things. I will say that if you order the Caprese salad, you need to state that you want it cold. Don’t get me started, but trust me, it’s delicious if you special order it… as it should be.
Service is quick, knowledgable, friendly, and even non-​locals feel like locals. The managers run a tight ship. Sure, some reviews indicate service complaints but show me a restaurant that doesn’t have an off night and I’ll show you a unicorn playing a banjo on a space station. I do love the ambiance and mostly enjoy sitting at the bar to overhear the chatter of others, but the table sections are awfully nice, too.
Outside patio is cool, unless it is summer, and then it is hot. See what I did there? I am constantly baffled by the people drinking rich red wines outside in the middle of 105-​degree heat, but maybe it’s a «hot wine» thing like «hot yoga.» I just don’t know. But they seem fine and no one melts. When it’s colder they bring out heaters (I felt the need to say this given all of my temperature judgment). I also don’t think people sitting outside in the cold drinking chilled white wine make sense. See, I can be fair.
A small faction of the clientele is, as my best friend might say, «feh.» You get some of the downtown party crowd, some who live around here and some who stumble in. Just hold onto your seats until they trickle off to dirty 6^th street and you’ll be just fine. And honestly, you’re fine anyway, just not what you’d expect in a wine bar. #keepaustinweird
All in all, Cru is a great place to relax, have some great wine (inside or outside, chilled or otherwise), good eats, and fun chatter.

Adam was our server. He was very knowledgable. If I had a question about a dish, he not only explained the contents but made other suggestions based on what I ordered.
The food was delicious. I had my fill of various small plates while enjoying good wine throughout the meal. I was surprised this place wasn’t more crowded. Everything was superb.
The only change I would make is the lighting. A little too bright for dinner.
The cheese plate was probably our favorite. So much variety for a very decent price. We will definitely be coming back soon.

What a beautiful location! I’m all about 2^nd street lights at night with a nice bottle of wine to go with. Not to mention some great food on the menu as well!
Cheese fondue: fried artichoke hearts dipped in cheese YUM. Perfect complement for the Chardonnay bottles– 3 of them…- that we ordered.
Pizzas: on Monday get a bottle of wine and a free pizza whoo! Margarita and Salsiccia were excellent picks, especially for a group that wants to share the simple pizzas.
Chocolate fondue: great end to our experience. Always have to end with dessert am I right?
Our waiter was accommodating, not perfect when it came to our demanding orders but dealt with us well. I recommend this place for those who are feeling a classy and relaxing night out.

GREAT wine bar in the Second Street District. Happy hour is M-​F 4:00 — 6:30 — and it’s $ 3 off flights and glasses of wine and special small plates that are discounted. As a vegetarian, I can recommend the goat cheese beignets, bruschetta, and margherita pizza. Just a reminder: the small plates are SMALL plates!
Their dinner menu has a lot of great food! I can’t wait until it’s winter again so I can order their grilled cheese and tomato basil soup! I’ve also had and loved their roasted golden beets! Other vegetarian options include: fig & gorgonzola bruschetta, cru house salad, crispy baby artichokes, caprese salad, cheese fondue, several pizzas, and cheese boards!
It’s a classy, chill place! Great place to sit and try some wines!

Great cheese boards, loved the ambience. The Flatbread are amazing as well. Great location with a trendy feel.

We came here to grab dinner before a show at the ACL Moody Theater. Cru is typically our stop as they don’t normally have a wait. We were seated and waited a bit before our waiter finally arrived. We ordered our food and drinks… then waited for a while before one app came and then more time passed with no waiter in sight to check on us or inform us that our food is delayed. My husband went to find the waiter to let him know we had a show. A few minutes later the waiter comes by to say it was taking a while (at this point we had waited about an hour) for our food because of the large party in the restaurant. FYI — the restaurant was half full so not sure how the kitchen was that slammed. A few minutes later, a manager (we believe), casually said «Not going to lie, there was a mixed up in the kitchen» We know you have a show so we comped your app and cancelled your food.”.
I think all of our mouths were left open after the remark. So they comped our fondue (that’s all the food we had) and cancelled our food without trying to make it right. We were starving and there was no apology or anything. It was like we were broken up with and left to find our way home. Very awkward and weird. I have worked in a restaurant and was a manager so the right thing to do was offer something that was fast (I mean we just order pizza) to fill us up vs. shoo us off starving. I’ll never return. That is just very poor and unacceptable.

I’ve been coming to this Cru for years. It’s definitely one of my neighborhood favorites, that’s why I keep coming back! They’ve got a great patio in the middle of downtown… all the little string lights make the atmosphere pretty charming, and on a night with a gentle breeze, this place is the best. I love coming in for a flight of wine and ordering a bunch of their apps. I do think some of their main entrees are a little over priced, but they are good.
Some of my favorites include:
Goat Cheese Beignets — these are seriously scrumptious
Grilled Cheese and Tomato Basil Soup — a comfort food fave
Lamb Lollipops — delish!
Charcuterie Board — lots to choose from, and all very good
Roasted Golden Beets — I’m definitely a beets girl
Pear & Gorgonzola Pizza — the flavors are fab!
Chicken Piccata — one of the best I’ve ever had
The Wine Flights all have great names that make you want to «judge the book by it’s cover.» But I typically go with the Sexy Reds or Pinot Noir Perfection.
Don’t miss out on their chocolate fondue for dessert… yum yum yum!

A brilliant little wine bar!
We came in here for drinks, and were pleased to see that they offer a happy hour!
The happy hour offers discounted champagne, bottles of wine, and some of their appetizers.
The décor is nice, paintings of giant wine labels adorn the walls.
They offer wine that has been chilled to the proper temperature depending on the wine type. They’ve got a variety of different coolers, chilling each to the perfect temperature. Many places just chill all whites to the same temp. Not these guys!
They offer beer, but with a very limited selection. I was happy that they had the proper glassware for the beers.
The wine bar was clean. The staff was kind and attentive.
This place is a great find! I’ll be back.

I just can’t get into this place.
I blame the positive reviews on the, «if it seems fancy and I spent a butt-​load of money on it, so I must love it» logic. Which means their branding works for most, just not me.
I’ve been here a few times and each time I loathe it more and more. The food is ok, just ok… And we’ve been through the menu from entrees to apps… Just nothing wowing. The staff aren’t all that great. In over half of our visits, they’ve seemed overwhelmed and thus not so attentive to tables. And the pricing although fair, just doesn’t work with that combo.
The location is ok, but I’d honestly rather save my money and get a meal at Jo’s which is nearby rather than toss it here.
When you’re in Austin and have options like Vino Vino or Wink or Olive & June or… you name it… the list goes on and on, this place’s flaws become increasingly more evident and it just doesn’t measure up. If we were in a town like Kansas City, this place would be a top 10 spot.

If you’re looking for wine and the most amazingly decadent food in Austin, you must come here! They were great catering to our group of 10 and sat us in a private room. We each sampled one another’s dishes and w/​each bite tasted one good thing after another.
Great ambience, very friendly waitress, and very open to substituting items if you like.
We’re going back tomorrow!