Waterloo Ice House

With 8 locations around the Austin area The Waterloo Ice House is a 30 year old franchise that has room to grow. Just like the city it calls home which is among the fastest growing in the country. The first thing I noticed on the menu was a little blurb that said something to the affect of "Been serving Austin since the first hippies showed up" and from that moment on I knew we had found the right place to eat this afternoon.

What a hectic day it had been, I went on four job interviews which went VERY WELL, then we found our way over to a U-Haul locations in order to finally unhitch the trailer and deposit our stuff in a storage unit. While waiting for the trailer to be checked out we got the best news yet, we were accepted in to our apartment and can move in next Friday! So with all of the great news coming back to back it was time to go out and celebrate!

The Waterloo Ice House is the first place we stumbled upon. There isn't even a reason to look in the GPS for food anymore, you can throw a rock blindfolded and hit a world class restaurant. From the outside it looks like it could be hit or miss and the sign looked like it had seen better days, but the moment you step inside Waterloo Ice House you are met with friendly staff and a comfortable atmosphere. Then when we opened the menu we were pleasantly surprised to find what we would consider dinner food selections. Of course they still had tacos, every place in Texas serves tacos.

It's incredibly easy to find a Tex-Mex place out here, finding an authentic American meal has been a bit of a challenge though, but that is probably because we haven't scratched the surface of what Austin has to offer yet. I was actually a little shocked to see that they had Veggie Burgers and even a Veggie Sandwich, seeing as how BBQ and Pork are like air and water down here. But considering this place has been around since the hippies obviously they have catered to a diverse selection of appetites.

I ordered the Texas Philly... what seems like a contradiction ended up being a savory meal that made me shudder in joy when I took the first bite. What makes it a "Texas" Philly I am not quite sure, I think it was the "Queso topping" but whatever the case may be it was incredible. The veggie burger Laura ordered lived up to her high expectations as well. The absolute best and most impressive part was that from the time we put the order in to the time we were served it couldn't have been any more than 4 minutes.

I was astounded by the quick service, but at the same time, having been a line cook for many years I know how quickly I get my meals cooked. If it takes me 8 minutes create a plate it's because someone wanted a well done burger. Otherwise anything else on the menu shouldn't take any more than 5 minutes. So in reality the speed of this service is what every place should aspire to. Sadly most cooks can't handle more than one ticket at a time and many servers let food sit under a heat lamp for 20 minutes before bringing it out.

This is definitely not the case with the Waterloo Ice House, the service was quick, their food was delicious and the Shiner Boch I tried for the first time hit the spot after a long but very productive day filled with great news and great food!