Jollyville Bar & Grill

Total dive, but in a good way. It has that old time feeling. I love the décor. They have decorated with lp’s and the jacket covers. Cool stuff. I asked the bartender if she had Harp and she asked me what that was! I came so close to saying «it’s an instrument fool» but I didn’t. She was nice. I ordered a cheeseburger all the way mustard only and onion rings. They bring it with mayo! This happens a lot with me. WHY!!! Got that corrected. I gotta tell you that without a doubt those were some of the best onion rings I’ve ever had!!! And the burger? Delicious and cooked perfect! They need to work on staffing. They have one person playing bartender and waitress! Poor thing was working her butt off and sweating like crazy. Speaking of sweating so was I. It was too warm in there. She told me that the AC was out and the owner is on vacation in HI and that the manager won’t contact him! If I were the owner I’d be pissssssed!

Austin Diner never had good service when they were on Burnet and they seem to be continuing that tradition.
We came to hear a band play and figured we would eat while there. It took forever to even get asked if we wanted water. I am assuming the patio was busy because no one was inside but they said they were swamped.
Over half of our orders were delivered wrong. I ordered a cobb salad, when it came it was yellow lettuce and corn. Not at all what the menu said it would be so when I asked the waitress what was up, she said, «Yeah I noticed it wasn’t right.» I guess she was hoping I wouldn’t notice so she wouldn’t have to deal with it. She took it back and all they did was throw a few sliced eggs and avacado on it and sent it back and still with the wrong dressing and still not the Cobb Salad! I think I found one green piece of lettuce, the rest was yellow or white. My friends soft tacos had amazing looking green leaf lettuce so I was surprised the salad was so sad looking.
The draft beer tasted like the tap had never been cleaned. Needless to say I wasn’t thrilled to spend $ 12 on a sad, tasteless salad and nasty beer. I was willing to give them another shot, but we don’t seem to mesh well together.

I had the pleasure of coming here today for lunch today. I will say I was a bit weary as we have come before to try it and it has been closed. Walking in, you feel like you have no business ordering anything but a pizza or chicken wings here, it is a bar, no doubt.
Debating on what to order, I asked our server if the chicken and dumplings were good, of course she said yes, it was the daily special. I ribbed a little saying come on, are they really good? To my surprise she offered to let us try them, brought out 3 samples for all of us eating. They were in fact delicious. Letting us try them gained huge points, and it didn’t hurt it was good.
I went with the special, Chicken and dumplings, with cornbread, side Cesar, and sweet potato fries. The Cesar was so so, but a very decent sized portion. Out comes the chicken and dumplings with a 5×5 chunk of cornbread and a full basket of sweet potato fries. The fries and cornbread were both very good as well. I was shocked at how much food this was, I mean a full basket of fries as well. All this for 7.99, how in the F do you beat that? The fries alone are 6 bucks at some places I go to.
The price, quality of food, and wonderful server will bring me back to this place. My fellow lunch mates had burgers and both said they were good as well. Glad we made the trip, found another go to spot for lunch.

The very best «meh» in Austin. They’re close. They’re doing a lot of things really well. They’re just trying to do maybe too many different things rather than focusing on a couple ideas. Is this a sports bar? Is it a diner to take the family after church? Is it a company happy hour meetup place? Is it plain and simply a dive? I can’t figure it out.
We came here a lot for football, being Vikings fans and looking for a place to watch the game. In that regard they held up quite well, but it’s not your typical TV setup as 90% of the screens are lined around the inside of the bar. If you’re sitting at a table there are limited views. But they happily changed the TVs to meet our needs.
The restaurant half of the establishment is a little quirky. They have gone for the 60’s Motown feel with a bunch of records taped to the wall. It just reminds me too much of a college apartment, not much creativity involved. Sure, there are old records surrounding me… what am I supposed to do with that? It’s really not putting me in any sort of nostalgic mood in its current arrangement. They once blared 60’s music over football on a Sunday afternoon which even the staff was annoyed by. Whose idea was that?!
There is one female bartender who is outstanding; one of the very best I’ve seen. She’s super attentive, friendly, and working very hard for her tips. The rest of the staff is pleasant as well, but I’m sure you’ll quickly find the standout team member here.
I really like that my dog is welcome on the patio. The waitress gave him a bowl of water the time I brought him. He was welcome to freely roam off-​leash, but the fence was several inches off the ground and he could have easily escaped onto Jollyville Road, so I kept him close by on-​leash.
Otherwise… breakfast menu outstanding. Bathrooms unusually nice! Parking ample. Beer selection decent. Happy hour specials worth checking out. Clientelle very varying.
In the end… In my opinion, if they tinted some of the windows, killed the good-​time tunes, added a couple really big TVs, and held karaōke more often, I could accept this as my day-​to-​day go-​to watering hole and I could overlook the silly records.

Now named Austin Diner at Jollyville Bar, I took out of town family there Saturday for brunch. Even though the place was packed, they were so accommodating in preparing a table for 8. The menu was extensive, and it appeared to be made for Paul Bunyon. The quality of the food and the quantity would appeal to the heartiest appetite. The food and the service were beyond reproach!
The wait staff were both friendly and extremely helpful, offering free mimosas with breakfast orders on weekends. Fabulous, plentiful food with great service at a reasonable price. What could be better? My new, favorite breakfast place!

Now called Austin Diner. Reasonably priced cheese burger ($ 8) tasted good and was nicely sized. I loved the sweet potato fries. Two of us at the table had the cheeseburger and both of us liked it. The third guy had the Pork chops and they looked real good, like something I wish I could make at home. The fourth at the table had the Bleu Cheese burger and liked it except when he took a bite of a part of the burger without the cheese, but who eats ground beef straight?
Burger and drink puts you over $ 10.
Menu was wide ranging: Tex Mex, burgers, and home cookin’.
Better than some, not as good as others. But a safe choice.

I’ve been here a few times. The food is okay. I’ve never been particularly impressed with anything on their menu. It’s good for what it is, I guess. Their staff is very cool, and very friendly. They didn’t used to have cider, and I LOVE that they do, now. Full bar, otherwise, too. I *do* wish they were open later, but ah well.
The last time I went, I unwittingly walked into karaōke night. Tuesday night is apparently karaōke night, for those that want to check it out, or for those that would prefer to dodge it (like myself).
As it’s just a few blocks from me, and their kitchen’s open late, I’m sure I’ll be back by there again. (Just not on a Tuesday, unless I’m with a group that’s looking for such things.) Not a bad option for my after-​work dinners.

I’m glad to have this place in the neighborhood, though the food is just good (not spectacular) and service can be slow.
We’ve been there several times — from just after they opened until recently. I like their burgers; they are a cut above a typical burger, having good char and tasty choices for toppings including green chiles, onion rings, pineapple, grilled onions, etc. Burgers come with fries or chips. The fries are clearly institutional frozen fries, but they are served hot at least! They have a ton of different appetizers (the fried jalapeño coins were yummy but really spicy). The menu also includes some Mexican fare, sandwiches, fish & chips, salads, etc.
While the food is decent, the service is lacking. We’ve always sat in the side room, not directly by the bar. I think that may have affected the rather slow service we’ve received. It seems that the servers focus mainly on the bar room, and neglect to refill drinks or promptly drop off the tab for people sitting in the side room.
Overall, this is not my favorite restaurant. But, it’s nice to have a place that’s open late (until midnight on weekdays), with TVs to watch sporting events, serving decent food, within walking distance of my house.
(But I do avoid this place on Tuesday nights due to karaōke… which is just not my thing!)

Went with a group of 10 for happy hour and we ordered about a half dozen of the appetizers to share. I wouldn’t say they were terrible but i also would never order any of them again. Can’t say much for the rest of the food, one person had a pulled pork sandwich that they said was good.
Patio is large and pretty nice but it’s about 10 ft from Jollyville so you get to listen to the cars fly by right behind you while hoping that somebody doesn’t run off the road while texting their boo.
Beer selection was decent and the pricing was decent. Not great and really not worth going out of your way for.
The servers we’re friendly and very efficient and probably the only reason for a third star.

So I decided to give this place one more try recently.
Pros: The food was decent– the hot sauce believe it or not was really good.
Cons: Slow service. The lighting and ambiance is pretty cheesy. Half the place is lit up with free beer promo lights and the other half (away from the sports bar) was SUPER BRIGHT florescent lighting– I’m talking need your sunglasses bright crappy lighting. Such a shame!

We were psyched to see another casual place come in up near us, so we went with our friends to check them out.
Food was fine, beer selection was poor but its a neighborhood joint, so no big.
What was a problem is that the manager (owner?) decided to tell us an incredibly offensive joke which caused me to immediately tell my wife we were leaving and never coming back.
And we left and are never going back.

I love this bar LONG TIME! My friend took me a while back b/​c we were looking for food at like 930pm or something and when you live at the Arboretum, it’s either go home and eat soup out of a can, or endure fast food orders that you know they’ll mess up. #7 w/​a diet coke you say? Here’s a # 4, hope you like orange soda. So we went to Jollyville.
I had the club sandwich w/​fries. Ever had food so good, you become the world’s greatest listener b/​c you’re too busy stuffing your fat face? The batter on the fries are awesome. Even when they start to cool down, they are still good b/​c of the batter they use. Very rarely will I go to a sports bar specifically to eat, but I’ve done so at Jollyville.
I’ve come in by myself before since I live very close and never felt out of place. The staff is the best bunch you’ll ever meet at a sports bar. They always appear to be enjoying themselves and b/​c I tend to be intuned to the mood of others around me it makes it much more enjoyable when the staff is also having fun instead of moping around like the last thing they wanna do is bring you a beer. This isn’t a one time thing where I’ve noticed how friendly they are, it’s consistently pleasant demeanor.
There is a jukebox so if you like to force others to your brand of music you can. I do it allll the time. There’s this golf game machine so if the ol’ Ball n’ Chain won’t let you play actual golf you can release some of that energy here. There’s a shooting wild game machine so if you dislike left-​wing extremists or PETA, this is your chance to really stick it to ‘em. There’s a trivia game machine at the bar but don’t play that, that’s mine.
The only thing is the signage could be better b/​c that’s what deterred me from coming in earlier. I couldn’t figure out what exactly was going on while driving past at 50mph. At night, maybe more neon would help b/​c the sign although lit, is just white with black lettering. Also, when you turn, you have to turn right before the sign or you’ll miss it, so it’s made for some frustrating attempts the first couple times I tried to go. But it’s a really neat place and I enjoy it a lot!

Hey-​o, not too bad. A solid 3. It’s still new.
The burger and fries were good, margarita wasn’t bad but it was pretty skimpy. It looks like this would be a great place to watch a big game. The U-​shaped bar and seating behind it have lots of TV viewing possibilities, and there’s a very very large outside seating area if you’re not interested in the game. Ambiance could be worked on, but again — it’s still new. Nothing looks cheap, really, but there’s not really a personality here. I guess that’s a good thing for people looking for a straightforward, no-​nonsense place to get a burger and beer.

I don’t know what the deal is, I bought about 10 bucks worth of groceries at Asia Market yesterday and the cashier rang me up for $ 30. — I paid it and then had to ask for an itemized receipt only to find out she charged me for a case of coconut milk instead of a few cans. — We fixed it…
Fast forward to Jollyville B&G, I drop in to check them out and order the Ahi tacos ($ 9)… — Get the bill and it’s $ 12 so I had to ask for another correction. It’s only a few dollars but still, 2 incidents like this in a day makes me wonder if I’ve been being overcharged regularly and just not noticing? — Hmmm?!
Anyway… I digress. — I don’t know what all the bad reviews for this place are about. — Staff was friendly, the regular crowd seemed to be having a great time and the Ahi tacos were a lot better than what you’ll get at Yummi right down the street.
I’ll be back and I’m awake now so I hope they don’t try to hike the bill up on me again! — Definitely looking forward to checking out the patio and maybe bringing my pups when it warms up.

Am I the only one that feels NW Austin is like the Sahara Desert? Miles and miles… yet no watering hole around. It’s no wonder that finally someone decided to open up a bar on Jollyville. There must be 50 apartment complexes in a 3 mile radius and not to mention dozens of large housing neighborhoods. Yet nobody has realized the potential of starting a pub or bar up here? Hmmm…
The crew at Jollyville Bar & Grill did a pretty good job of opening a nice sports pub in the heart of the NW Austin desert. They have plenty of TVs, the menu seems to be improving and there’s a full bar & beer. Why the bland review? Well, I just wonder if this bar would make it if it was placed anywhere else in this town. There’s not much to it! Where’s the pool table? Where’s the shuffleboard table? Where are the darts? Unless you’re in to sports, there’s no real reason to come here other than grabbing a beer. In other words, I just don’t see this nice little place being a «destination station» when the football season is over.

Sweet potato fries were yummy.
What up w/​the happy hour drink prices? 3.50 for a shiner isn’t even a discount. And Shiner is a domestic not a premium!
Really cool patio. Too bad they don’t have some privets up so the Jollyville traffic isn’t so loud. They also could have a few ceiling fans so the smoke doesn’t waft our way.
Not sure if I’ll go again. I think they are a tad bit pricey for happy hour. If I want to pay that much, BB Rovers is just a few blocks north and they have an extensive beer menu. And Shiner for 2 bucks.

It was late one night, and I was searching around for something to gnosh. This area of town doesn’t promise much for hunger after 10pm, and I’d just missed out on most places. As I’m riding around, I discover this little joint in a building I’ve never noticed before. Apparently, this place used to be Antonio’s. Who knew? Well, a lot of people did, but not me.
Walking in, there’s not much to see. It’s very open, and the entryway was kind of odd and half stacked up with stuff. Just keep moving past it, and you’ll find a friendly bar with cute and friendly bartendresses.
Thankfully, the kitchen was still open. The menu didn’t have too much on it that looked terribly interesting to someone who has a limited diet. I don’t eat burgers, the turkey sammich looked like I could make a more interesting version at home.
What’s this? Ahi Tuna Tacos? Yes please! I got an order of them to go, with a side of sweet potato fries. I sipped on a well-​made manhattan while they created what I was sure would be a flavor explosion. I also got a side of chipotle mayo for fry dippin.
Armed with deliciousness, I headed back to my friend’s place, about 2 minutes away.
Now, don’t get me wrong. These were some fine tacos. However, the fish was overcooked, in my opinion. Tuna should never be cooked over medium rare, and I figured I didn’t have to order it that way since it was «seared». However, this poisson was medium well f’sure. It tasted fine, but I’d have liked it better if it’d not been cooked so much. The slaw was decent. There was a promised sriracha-​based sauce that I was hoping would add a kick, but it turned out to be sweet rather than spicy.
The FRIES!!!
Man, these could keep my coming back on their own. Not terribly crisp, but certainly not too limp either. And they looked homemade. Plus! they were tossed in some garlicky goodness that really set off the flavors just right. They were good without my chipotle mayo for dippin.
The mayo itself was a little disappointing and fell into the usual trap of Not-​Enough-​Chipotle-​In-​My-​Chipotle-​Mayo-​Syndrome. Chipotle is not just a food coloring, people. Gimme a bit more spice, please!
I went back one other night with a work buddy and had a couple drinks while watching the Yankees/​Rangers game. We had a great time, despite (or because of?) the rowdy yelling of middle-​aged drunk white guys. It was actually kinda fun people watching.
Next time, I may check out the patio and see if I can get those tacos done a bit more rare. But the fries keep calling me…

Just moved to Austin and was out exploring and saw a sign on Jollyville Road that said COLD BEER. So my car turned in and found the beer cold at a place that had been opened less than a week.
Really friendly place, I knew all the staff in the first hour, meet a couple of other bar stoolies and had a good time. Have been back about 6 times for happy hour.
Layout is a little strange, but they are working on it and menu could use a couple of other items but they are working on that too.
Every time I go in I meet someone new and have never had to sit and just talk to my beer. The staff really hustles and makes sure everyone is happy.
Get one of the burgers and say «Hi» to the Italian looking guy at the bar, or better yet buy him a beer.

ROD SERLING: Picture a woman arriving at a new restaurant for lunch with a friend. The restaurant has been open for two weeks. The parking lot, upon her pulling in, is a ghost town, and the sign in the window says «Closed». Does the restaurant open later in the day? Is the parking lot a strange time portal that took the woman back to a time before the restaurant opened? Or has she entered the Twilight Zone?
I really didn’t know what to think when I drove up. Errol arrived, and wondered if we should go elsewhere. Turns out someone forgot to turn over the sign.
I really didn’t like how they renovated the interior. It’s very rustic looking, and completely open. I think it looked better when it was Antonio’s. Nine televisions, all playing sports. I wasn’t aware this was a sports bar when I chose to eat here today, but the TVs and the complete lack of women in the place quickly tipped me off. I was the only female patron in the place the entire hour-​and-​a-​half we were there.
Errol got some sort of burger with beer-​battered onion rings. The burger was huge, and the rings were pretty good. I ordered a club sammich with fries. The fries were better than average, but the club wasn’t clubby enough.
YOU: What do you mean «not clubby enough,» Catherine?
Mainly that the bread wasn’t toasted. The menu claimed it would be, but the bread was actually only grazed. Big disappointment. It wasn’t cut into fours, either, but I don’t care about that. This is apparently how they do things on Planet Jollyville. I ate the first half, but by the second half I was so over it that I put it down and gave up.
I might try a cheeboogie sometime. They looked good, but I can’t imagine they’ll conquer Hideout Pub’s burgers. I certainly will come back at night for a drink. Like I alluded to earlier, this place appears to be a man cave. Decent juke box. If I can get a drink bought for me, I’ll come here as often as possible. Hopefully I won’t need my sign that says, «Will flirt for beer.»

I’m generally wary of places that have «Bar and Grill» in their name; in my experience, they’re usually good at being one or the other, but rarely both. I feel the same way when I see other contrived and marketed oxymora, like «Low-​Fat Pop Tart» and «My Spouse & Best Friend.»
So judging from the food, this place must be one good bar. I thought my first taste of a beer-​battered onion ring was great, until I wasn’t able to bite through the onion, and it just kept coming out of my mouth like one of those weird handkerchief tricks. I discovered it was a long sliver of cooked onion skin, which can be difficult to chew. My «Beto Burger» wasn’t bad, just overcooked and over-​salted, and my lunch companion could only finish half her club sandwich before giving up on it. Incidentally, we’re going to stop here for a moment and do a little sidebar sequence:
Peter: «Nyah! Why doesn’t this guy ever say who he eats with?»
Lois: «Because he’ll only do that with an ROTDC or UYE, Peter!»
Brian: «You got anything on that remote lower than Mute?»
Back to our story: I’ll cut them some slack for the food, since they’ve only been open a few weeks and may still be tweaking the kitchen. As far as the bar part goes, it’s a huge place with a great patio, but neither of us were drinking at 11:30 in the morning, so I can’t tell you anything about the booze. I guess I could have asked some of the people in there who were drinking. And they do have nine TVs, but seven of them are clustered around the bar counter itself; if you’re going there to watch sports, I’d consider getting there early.
Right offhand, I’d give this place two stars, but I’ll make it three because our waitperson Audrey was sharp, personable, and genuinely nice. My instinct is this place will be slammed on weekends and game days, with hordes of manly men wearing their head attire backwards and consuming vast quantities of beer — if that’s your kind of thing, this might be a new great place for you.