Ozona Grill & Bar

Was the greasiest food I’ve ever had and we will not be back. The gravy had grease in it the breading on the chicken fried steak was burnt the salad came out right before the food did which was not cool.

Went in for a couple drinks and to get some to go food. The drinks were the worst I’ve had in s long time. We got a standard screwdriver and the oj tasted like it came out of a mop bucket. Switched over to a rum and coke and it tasted like someone poured the spill mat into a cup with ice.
Ordered food and got the chicken sandwich, woke up in the middle of the night with food poisoning. This place is going downhill. Should have known something was up since the place was pretty much empty in a Friday night around ten.
It will take a lot of convincing to get me back here anytime soon.

Great atmosphere and food. The patio is huge. The Sunday Bloody Mary bar is great for brunch or lunch. Parking can be a bit difficult, but they have additional parking in a close, but separate lot. Very reasonable and the menu has a great variety good for lots of different tastes.

A recently returned son of the Republic, one of the things missed most was a proper chicken-​fried steak (or any chicken-​fried steak for that matter). And even though from North Texas, it’s a fact No. TX isn’t known for harboring the best in the state (there’s the hill country for that).
So onward along the Texas Monthly chicken-​fried steak trail I’ve gone, bringing me to supposedly the top CFS in the Metroplex — Ozona.
Primarily a bar and patio scene with screens a plenty, Ozona’s CFS passed all the fundamental tests, (meat fresh not frozen, properly tenderized, batter nice and crisp without the «loose sock» effect). Of course what dresses a CFS plat can be what determines the crown; this is where I felt Ozona’s fell short. While the main element of the plate was sound, the sides were lacking.
Overall, a good dining experience especially if a casual night out with friends, etc., and the holder of a decent spot on the Texas Monthly CFS list — just not the top.

I normally do not receive bad customer service, and in the event that I do, I rarely speak about it, unless the experience was just down right rotten, and today was one of those days.
I went to meet up with three of my girls to celebrate my upcoming graduation. We arrived and had to wait a few minutes for the host to return to the podium to seat us, no biggy. It was nice outside today, so we decided to sit outside on the patio. We ordered our soft drinks, but yet it took about a good ten minutes for the waitress to come back and take any order we had, again no biggy. So we order appetizers first, and about 15 minutes pass before a different waitress ask if we have ordered, and when we said we hadnt, she took our order as well as the table beside us order because she was not sure where our waitress was.
A few minutes later the appetizers arrive and one of them were wrong. They quickly corrected the wrong appetizers, but I am not sure if they had it sitting on a plate already and just picked up the wrong one, or if they had done like they did with the wrong appetizers at our place, and actually sat them down on the table letting other people breath all over them before realizing they were wrong.
Now the food itself was pretty darn good (we had the potato wheels, fried okra, spinach dip to share far as the appetizers). This was the only good part about this place.
I normally like to drink at least three drinks during my meal, and yet I had not had ONE REFILL the whole hour and some change that I had been there, neither had one of my other girls. When we were finishing up, it took a good 20 minutes to wait for them to bring the bill, in which one of my girls went in to find someone and I am guessing she spoke to the manager and she said the manager kind of just shrugged her off as if her complaint was not valid of having to wait 20+ minutes for the check. Nor did she even come to the table to apologize for the inconvenience and long wait times. Now if they were actually BUSY, I would have given them a pass, but I saw at least 6 different staff persons walking around. Then to add insult to injury my friend said that when she went inside, she saw much of the staff just sitting down playing on their phones, and the manager herself was on the phone (hopefully it was not a personal call), and that there was literally NO CUSTOMERS INSIDE the building either. Whereas outside, there were at least a few customers and they could not even handle that with all that waitstaff they had on hand.
When the bill finally did come, it was wrong, so they had to go in and fix it. The one friend who went inside to speak to the manager and whatnot, she asked the waiter for contact info for the head manager, and the owner, and we the name of the manager who was working at the time, and I am guessing that kind of «spooked» the manager, that she actually gave my friend her meal for free. Now that is all great and all, but the other three of us experienced the same lack of attention and customer service as the one who complained, so how do you comp one meal, but forget the rest of the party? Now I do not mind paying for my meal, as my intentions were NOT to go there and have this horrible experience, but that action there definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. And then from the waiter we actually found out that the manager who comped one meal at our table, and did not come out to apologize for her rude behavior, OR for the lack of service, was the GENERAL MANAGER. I hope the waiter got that wrong, because if the general manager has this kind of work ethic and lack of concern for customer satisfaction, then you can not expect your subordinates to be top shelf employees.
I was not asking for them to go ABOVE and BEYOND the call of duty. just simply do your job which is seating, taking my order, bringing me out my order and the check in a timely manner. I as a customer should not have to turn into a bounty hunter and comb the store just to get my bill. I should have just walked out on the bill since you all were not that concerned with being paid.

I’ve been here many times, mostly during my undergrad and grad years at SMU, but even now, I really enjoy this place!
Their margaritas (regular, flavored, on the rocks, and frozen) are excellent! The sweet potato fries are also one of my favorite things to eat when I visit. The outdoor patio is the best part about sitting here in nicer weather. I recommend coming here in the spring and fall afternoons to enjoy some sweet potato fries and a frozen strawberry margarita (or two).

Food is mediocre, but edible. Not anything better than what I could make at home. We come for the blood mary bar during brunch; out of towners especially seem to enjoy it. They were also able to easily accommodate our large group (11 people!) without a reservation. They don’t seem to be too upset to have kids running around, although we were placed in a back room with several other groups with little ones. Service is friendly and efficient.
If you’re not going to get a blood mary or don’t have a large group, there are way better places in Dallas for you to go for brunch!

So this just happened!
Walk up to hostess stand at Ozona on the greatest weather day this fall.
Host: How many in your party?
Me: There is 6 of us, can we sit outside?
Host: Wellllll, we are on a wait for the patio. (There are to huge sections with no one seated). Maybe 15 – 20 open tables.
Me: What difference does it make if you have an open 6 top that is 10 feet away from the empty section outside? Plus, who would want to sit inside today anyway?
Host: I don’t know, that section is closed.
Me: ok eff it, whatever. Give us what you are willing to give us.
So we get seated inside and as they are clearing out the line of people only being seated by one host. They sit the couple two parties behind us at a 6 top on the patio.
So I decide to seek some authority, aka manager.
I found someone that is pretending to be one, give him the DL and he says he will go talk to a «manager». I go back and sit down and we wait. The we wait a little more, then 6 – 7 minutes has gone by. I decided to go find the pretend manager.
When I find him:
Me: Hey, so what’s the status?
Him: Well, I intended to come tell you, it’s still about the same. The manager said blah blah blah blah…
The blah blah blah is blah blah blah because I was already walking away from the bs he was laying down and waving my party to the door for us to head somewhere that had a clue what service is and maybe a place that can recognize that it’s «patio weather».
Hind site is ²⁰⁄₂₀ as I finally realized while I was on my way out the door, I was using this place for their patio. I’ve only been buying their food and drinks because that’s what you do when you use someone their patio. It doesn’t mean I ever liked the food and to be honest, I didn’t. We ended up settling in down the street and had great food and drink, on a great patio. I’m sorry Ozona, it’s over and I won’t miss you.

Unfortunately this visit was horrible. I enjoyed my tortilla breaded catfish, but the horrible service trumped the food. It took 25 MINS for a waiter to come to our table and that was only after someone from our party notified the hostess. Drinks then took another 15; the place wasn’t busy and had plenty of staff… multiple bartenders! First and Last visit here.

Went to this awesome patio only to receive the worst service and lack of customer concern ever. The place was not even packed.
22 min for waitress to come to get our drink order, 18 – 20 min to get our drinks (non-​alcohol), 10 minutes to get straws once we got our drinks.
Food was cold to the touch like it has been barely warned in the microwave.
Had a coupon for free queso, however after twice telling we were still charged.
3 people did not receive their entrees.
Management was notified during the service and did nothing to remedy the situation.
Save your money and head down further on Greenville.

The service here leaves very much to be desired… Bacon cheeseburger = average
My group stood at an empty host stand for 5 minutes while multiple servers passed us before someone noticed and seated us. Once seated, our server took 10 minutes before he attended to us and was definitely looked uninterested in his job. I feel like I’ve had better service at phở restaurants, which says a lot. To his credit though, he did remember the whole order. I had the bacon cheeseburger, which was average but the side of saltiness from the lackluster service made it taste worse. Would only come back for drinks.

What’s not to like about Ozona? The patio is great. Such a relaxed hang out vibe, whether for lunch, happy hour, dinner or evening drinks. They have a decent tap selection and drinks are reasonably priced. Food is actually always surprisingly good to me. Went this last weekend for a friends going away and we had most of the bar. We had the quesadillas that really hit the spot. Service was very quick and responsive throughout the evening.

After taking a final, it definitely warrants a drink… or two. Came here as a suggestion of a classmate. We were seated at a table that had flies actively circulating. Ehh… I think I was turned off at this point. Looking at the drinks special, I thought it was pretty cool. On Wednesday, domestic drafts are only $ 1.50. Seemed like I would be getting more than one drink after all! The beer was so flat. The waiter was accommodating and replaced our drinks. I ordered a Bloody Mary next. It looked very boring, no pickled novelties in the drink?! It definitely did not rank among my top 5 or even 10 of Bloody Marys I have drank. Well, I moved onto a shot of Henessey after. That never disappoints. I did not eat, but all of classmates enjoyed their food. We all agreed the drinks were not all that great.

This is a great place for a private party. Ours was about 100 people, occupying the side room and the patio next to it.
The service staff was attentive, persistent, and on time with the correct drinks. Drinks, including shots, were very reasonably priced, especially for a Saturday night, 6:00 to 8:30.
Catering-​style food trays were kept full, and man that food was good. I think those crispy outside, tender inside chicken fingers rival their already legendary chicken fried steak. Quesadillas were another winner.
Overhead doors opened to combine the room with the patio, a very homey effect.

Humongous place. I was shocked. Guess everything in Texas is BIG.
Country fried steak. Nothing special gravy is good though.

Fun casual place to hang out or enjoy a good meal. Plenty of parking including complimentary valet. Lots of outdoor seating. Décor is fun, like you would find off the beach in Cancun Mexico. No problem getting a table for 6 during brunch inside. A little bit of noise but not too noisy. Server greeted us with a smile and immediately took our drinks and appetizer order. She also had a trainee with her, but smiled as well, didn’t try to hide. Plenty of room for 6 at the table and didn’t feel cramped in.
Chips were warm and had garlic seasoning on them. Didn’t taste fresh, but worked well for dipping in salsa or queso we ordered extra.
More than just Mexican food, the menu included a brunch menu with your typical egg items and had American fare food like chicken wraps and burgers. On this visit (my first), I got the bacon burger on sourdough. Other choices included a wheat or cheese jalapeño bun. My burger had good taste, just medium well instead of the medium I wanted. The fixings made the bottom of the burger soggy, but it didn’t fall apart. The sweet potato fries were great. Hot, good amount of seasoning and crisp to the bite. Had choice of regular fries as well.
Servers very friendly and anticipated our needs for more drinks. She had to remind me that I got sweet not unsweet tea. Really felt welcomed and encouraged to come back.
Check it out next time on Greenville in Dallas.

The biggest dive bar with a huge patio I’ve been. Lots of sitting outside and inside. Parking could be a pain if it is a good weather out and people want to be seen. Great selections of draught and bottles. I saw some fresh herbs on the bar counter that looked like ingredients for their fresh cocktails. As I look around, food is plated nicely and huge in portion. Only spent about and hour because we have a place to go to. Would definitely comeback to try the food and maybe sit out in the patio and for drinks after dinner.

Loved the coffee! But had a hard time getting refills. I asked the guy who brought our meals because I couldn’t find our waiter, and he forgot to bring refills, too.
I ordered eggs over medium, saying I didn’t want runny whites and they must have thought I said no runny yolks, for they were too hard.
Everything else was adequate. Great outside seating, it’s huge indoors with a large meeting room.

Ozona is good, but overrated.
I think a lot of the attention it gets due to its patio, which is nice and big, if that’s your thing. I don’t really like eating outside all that well. If I’m going to eat outside, the food has to be incredible. Some would say that the food IS incredible here, but I’d disagree. I’d classify the food here as «pretty good.»
Allegedly, they have the best Chicken Fried Steak /​Chicken Fried Chicken around. While theirs is okay, I wouldn’t say it’s the best. I’d actually say their queso is better than their CFS /​CFC. (Again, there are better quesos to be had, example: just down the street at Rusty Taco.)
Overall, it is worth a trip, but it is not worth a detour, as the D magazine hype would lead you to believe. (And that’s surprising, because usually the D magazine hype is fairly legit!) However, if you’re looking for a margarita on a large patio in kind of a cool atmosphere, Ozona shouldn’t disappoint.

Ozonas Grill & Bar is deceptively large. I walked inside the restaurant, expecting it to be like the patio, but it was HUGE. A group from SMU, that I am a part of, was hosting a happy hour, and the host led me back the winding halls to an even large space.
We ordered a variety of appetizers: Spinach Dip, Quesadillas, Chips & Salsa, Fried Mushrooms, etc. My favorite was the spinach and artichoke dip. The chips were delicious as well. They reminded me of Cool Ranch Doritos.
I would definitely come back again and try out some food besides appetizers. Their prices are reasonable and they have a good selection.