Trace - W - Austin

Family brunch including a 3 year old. The Trace was perfect. Our server was friendly and helpful, delivering colors and a plastic cup right away. We had a wonderful time.

So much fun!

Anniversary Nee Years

We didn’t know when we made the reservation that the menu was limited due to it being NYE. Our options were to pay $75/person for the buffet, choose from 4 items on the menu, or try and find something last minute on NYE. If we had known all of this we would have eaten somewhere else but with it being NYE we didn’t really have a choice but to stay.

Went here for a busy New Year Eve's. Once things were sorted, we had a wonderful time and the food was great. Mgnt. was on top on everything.

The food was amazing, as was the service. I had the duck and my friend had the pork.

There was only a pre-fixe menu that night. Our waiter seemed in a hurry to get our order—offered no information without being asked specific questions, and his answers were not very helpful. Then our second course came out before our first course. All is all, it was not bad, but simply quite disappointing for the price.

Not worth it.

Christmas dinner with family

Our only complaint is with the waiter we had. He had a cast on his arm that partially covered his hand. When he would clear our plates he would stack them all together on the table before he picked them up. I can just imagine all the things that would be collected on that cast and transfer from table to table. I surprised that he was allowed to serve food with the sanitation issues of a cast.

Wonderful food and cocktails. Made for a great Christmas day event.

Christmas Eve dinner

Visiting family member with immediate family from out of town.

We chose to dine here for our 32nd wedding anniversary (12/20/2018). I had some custom GF cupcakes made with rose icing in the colors of our wedding and delivered them to the kitchen in advance - as a surprise for my wife. Unfortunately I managed to mess up the icing on the way. The pastry chef re-did the icing and they were served and presented beautifully. All of the staff were outstanding- from the front desk to the concierge to the restaurant host to our waiter. And the food was excellent too! She had the salmon and I had the grouper. It was a wonderful evening that was made moreso by the excellent staff at W Austin at Trace restaurant.

Took some clients out and everyone really enjoyed their meal.

Meh. . .
The room has a run down look to it. Service is strictly third rate.

I've been to TRACE tons of times and had a great experience but this time nothing was good about the experience. The service was extremely slow even though only a few tables were filled. There were lots of servers running around but the bar and kitchen were just really behind. My burger came out raw but it took so long to get it, that I didn't feel like sending it back and ate around the edges.

Local ingredients. Everything was fresh and well presented.

Due to my wife's garlic allergy the chef made a apecial appetizer of mussels without garlic. The dish was fantastic. She had the wrapped salmon and I had the crisp bass in red curry broth. Both dishes were beautifully served and amazingly good. For dessert we shared the pumpkin spice creme brulee which was about the best creme brulee I ever had. The service by Zane was perfect. Next time we are in Austin we are going back.

Our food was fine but I expected more from Trace's reputation and their prices. Our mussel broth was great but the mussels themselves were a bit overcooked. All the other dishes were fine but not as good as expected. Our waiter wasn't very attentive, maybe he was working in the bar area or such but never seemed to be around. All around I expected much more.

Visited Trace before an ACL concert. Went for Happy Hour. Prices were what you’d expect. Burger was small(left ½ the bun when meat was gone) but it tasted great - my only issue with the night!

Limited choice for vegan, non dairy, but chef accommodated is with some menu change and we enjoyed. Are there because of concert. Always love the ambiance.

Even though I booked well in advance they were totally unprepared to seat our party of five which they squeezed into a pair of very small tables for two arranged back to back. The tarpped outside space where we were seated was like a Rain Forrest Cafe but with real screeching birds drowning out our conversation, they finally quieted down well after dark. I don’t recall ever being served a cider or an ale unceremoniously in a can before at any restaurant but that is what happened to two of my party.
The menu was a set price for three courses but yet we still had insufficient cutlery to eat dessert?
Salads and tarts in first course were rough around the edges but fine.
Main course of Turkey diner was just what we were looking for and made all of us happy.
Pecan tart was a overrun by too much rigid and untasty pastry and was not finished by anyone.
A tip of 20% was automatically added which seemed peculiar. I don’t think I have ever run into this anywhere.
Not fine dining but fine for a hotel I guess.

Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving dinner was amazing. Everything was delicious. The turkey was moist and flavorful. I am not a big fan of turkey, but even I enjoyed it. The three course menu had choices which included a smoked butternut squash tart my husband loved. The atmosphere was intimate and the wait staff was great. We will definitely go back.

Always enjoyable and delicious

Not bad! Was a bit nervous due to the mixed reviews, but the main entree was good. I had a type of large tortellini filled with butternut squash. The pasta was toothsome, but not undone..I guess it could be called al dente. I added crab meat on top at the suggestion of the waiter, and it was delicious! The dessert sucked. I got it taken off my bill. The ambiance is gorgeous...not my taste, but I could see a girl who likes glamorous things loving this vibe. Maybe vacuum the velvet seat/couches. There was tons of dry skin on them...a huge turn off.

Quiet dinner with two friends. Our waiter-whose name happened to be Austin-was terrific. The food quality and presentation were top-notch, the desserts were fantastic. Would definitely go back

Disappointed that no bread was served. For a French restaurant I was expecting a nice French bread.

Have been here several times while visiting in Austin. Food is always good, service usually, great ambiance.

We all had the strip. Wasn’t very good. The meat quality of the steak wasn’t the best. Ordered it medium rare and it was super chewy. Also, slow to get drinks. Waiter seemed overwhelmed. They also brought our entrees to us at different times and set the wrong food in front of each of person. We also couldn’t find the waiter for silverware so our guest had to get up himself and grab it from another table. Only good thing about this place is location before a concert at the venue next door.

We had a great brunch here. Everything from the food to service was top notch. Our only complaint is several bees kept dive bombing us! Luckily they easily moved us inside.

The food on this visit was very disappointing. The burger was still good but other dishes not great. Service was excellent.

Very disappointed in the food choice. Description certainly doesn't match the plate that arrived. Omelette is buried under a pile of unkempt lettuce...for $17? Wait staff was over the top fantastic...Christopher did his best to make the most of our situation. He's a gem!

Prometheus was an amazing server. We truly appreciated his hospitality and food recommendations! We went for the Britney Spears drag tribute during Sunday brunch and the food was amazing. I got the pastrami on rye Benedict, and my boyfriend got the Lavaca omelet. Both were absolutely delicious and flavorful! We will be back!

Went with a few friends for the It's Britney Brunch - Drag Tribute. The servers were awesome and helpful with items on the menu. The place is very chic for friends and for a date night. It was pretty awesome overall. Love the gender neutral restrooms!

A truly excellent steak with terrific pistachio Mac and cheese topped off with an amazing mescal cocktail called The Nutty Mystic. Great service, a great singer/guitar player in the bar and right next to ACL...Clearly it could not have been much better

We came to Trace for a birthday. It was cold inside so we sat outside, it happened to be a nice night so that worked well. Our food was good except I ordered the short ribs and was told they cooked for something like 38 hours slowly. That could not be the case because they were not "falling off the bone" tender and they were kind of pink. I was disappointed in them, as I like them the way they were described - slow cooked and falling off the bone. Other than that our night was nice and we enjoyed the meal.

Kind of a bummer this time. We got the same thing as usual: fruit plate with lemon curd for me and Greek yogurt with fruit and granola for my guest. It wasn’t awesome.

I asked for no honeydew on my fruit plate. While it didn’t come with honeydew, it also didn’t come with strawberries or cantaloupe like it usually does. Presumably they kitchen had those items, as the child at the next table was given a bowl of strawberries. It also didn’t come with any lemon curd, which is the best part. What it did have was very overripe (to the point of mushiness/verge of rotting) raspberries and soured pineapple.

The yogurt for my guest was fine but the granola was soft, which isn’t the norm. Not sure if it was stale or just under cooked, but it wasn’t a great texture. The flavor was good though. Also, no strawberries or any type of melon for her, but she also got the questionable raspberries.

It seemed to take forever to get our meal, despite the fact that nothing had to be cooked, just assembled.

I’m sure we’ll return, but this time was a bust.

1st time eating here and the food was delicious! Would definitely eat here again.