Our family of five went there today for brunch after church to celebrate my daughter's birthday before we headed back home from the homecoming weekend. We were really excited, had an 11:30 AM reservation, but the service was unbelievably bad.

First of all, we weren't seated until noon, 30 minutes after our reservation and then, no exaggeration, we sat for 25 minutes before someone finally came to our table and asked if we had been helped.

It took another 10 minutes for the server to finally show up. We ordered immediately because we'd already been waiting so long, and then it took another 23 minutes (by this point I was timing it) for our food to come. Three orders of pancakes, one burger, and one breakfast plate.

So we started eating almost an hour and a half after our reservation time. The thing is, they were busy, but they weren't crazy busy. There were three or four empty tables visible from where we were sitting.

I don't know if this is the norm for this place, but we started out with such high hopes for it and left feeling like we don't ever want to go back.

From what I can tell they've had those issues since they opened unfortunately. My opinion is the restaurant is too big. Especially when considering there is another restaurant in the building. As a result they have to either employ enough people to serve when everything is full (which is a huge waste of resources for the majority of the time), or add a bunch of people for big weekends like homecoming, which is really hard to do logistically.

Ultimately, I hope they'll repurpose half of the Brasserie's dining area and focus on staffing appropriately for the smaller size. It has the environment to be a nice dining experience but they haven't figured it out yet.

Ate at the bar once and had a great experience.

Ate at a huge table as part of a large graduation group, and it was ... not thrilling. But I also hate eating in large groups like that. Almost never goes great.

I have eaten there twice and had a great experience. I will say as a person who waited tables in college and grad school that open tables do not really mean anything. Restaurants often do not have enough staff on to cover all the tables, so they don't use them. There is no excuse for them not to have it fully staffed Homecoming weekend though. We are supposed to eat there next weekend for brunch to celebrate a couple of family birthdays. I hope we don't have a similar experience.

First of all, it's a gorgeous facility. Everyone should eat there just to experience the environment alone. I had a couple drinks in the library. It was a fantastic experience.

Our service was fine. I wish they had a better menu. The food was good, but I would rather eat at that price at 135 Prime, 1424 Bistro, The BLVD Steakhouse, Diamondback's, or The Butcher's Cellar.

Still, I will go back to the Brasserie at some point, and I do think it is worth the experience as a whole.

I do hope Magnolia is able to work out the kinks.

Have been twice and both times service was painfully slow.

Yogi said:

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First of all, it's a gorgeous facility. Everyone should eat there just to experience the environment alone. I had a couple drinks in the library. It was a fantastic experience.

Our service was fine. I wish they had a better menu. The food was good, but I would rather eat at that price at 135 Prime, 1424 Bistro, The BLVD Steakhouse, Diamondback's, or The Butcher's Cellar.

Still, I will go back to the Brasserie at some point, and I do think it is worth the experience as a whole.

I do hope Magnolia is able to work out the kinks.

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Generally agree with all of that. The ambiance is great (that's what Magnolia does, after all). Really enjoy the bar. The food is good.

Waco's fine dining options are developing quickly, but it's a bit of a shame the best food in Waco is in a strip center on Hewitt Drive.

Robert Wilson said:

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Yogi said:

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First of all, it's a gorgeous facility. Everyone should eat there just to experience the environment alone. I had a couple drinks in the library. It was a fantastic experience.

Our service was fine. I wish they had a better menu. The food was good, but I would rather eat at that price at 135 Prime, 1424 Bistro, The BLVD Steakhouse, Diamondback's, or The Butcher's Cellar.

Still, I will go back to the Brasserie at some point, and I do think it is worth the experience as a whole.

I do hope Magnolia is able to work out the kinks.

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Generally agree with all of that. The ambiance is great (that's what Magnolia does, after all). Really enjoy the bar. The food is good.

Waco's fine dining options are developing quickly, but it's a bit of a shame the best food in Waco is in a strip center on Hewitt Drive.

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Truth, although I will be trying Opal's this week so we shall see.

loanbear said:

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Robert Wilson said:

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Yogi said:

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First of all, it's a gorgeous facility. Everyone should eat there just to experience the environment alone. I had a couple drinks in the library. It was a fantastic experience.

Our service was fine. I wish they had a better menu. The food was good, but I would rather eat at that price at 135 Prime, 1424 Bistro, The BLVD Steakhouse, Diamondback's, or The Butcher's Cellar.

Still, I will go back to the Brasserie at some point, and I do think it is worth the experience as a whole.

I do hope Magnolia is able to work out the kinks.

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Generally agree with all of that. The ambiance is great (that's what Magnolia does, after all). Really enjoy the bar. The food is good.

Waco's fine dining options are developing quickly, but it's a bit of a shame the best food in Waco is in a strip center on Hewitt Drive.

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Truth, although I will be trying Opal's this week so we shall see.

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Fair point. I still need to get to that one, too.

Robert Wilson said:

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Yogi said:

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First of all, it's a gorgeous facility. Everyone should eat there just to experience the environment alone. I had a couple drinks in the library. It was a fantastic experience.

Our service was fine. I wish they had a better menu. The food was good, but I would rather eat at that price at 135 Prime, 1424 Bistro, The BLVD Steakhouse, Diamondback's, or The Butcher's Cellar.

Still, I will go back to the Brasserie at some point, and I do think it is worth the experience as a whole.

I do hope Magnolia is able to work out the kinks.

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Waco's fine dining options are developing quickly, but it's a bit of a shame the best food in Waco is in a strip center on Hewitt Drive.

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Yes, but it doesn't have a strip center ambiance fortunately.

RightRevBear said:

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I have eaten there twice and had a great experience. I will say as a person who waited tables in college and grad school that open tables do not really mean anything. Restaurants often do not have enough staff on to cover all the tables, so they don't use them. There is no excuse for them not to have it fully staffed Homecoming weekend though. We are supposed to eat there next weekend for brunch to celebrate a couple of family birthdays. I hope we don't have a similar experience.

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So I went there today and had a horrible experience too. We had brunch at 10:45. We did not get seated until around 11:00 which really is no big deal. The service was slow, and it took forever to get our food. We were there for almost 3 hours. During that time I only got one coffee refill. The waitstaff are slow. Also, the manager needs to be fired. In restaurants you waiters/waitresses to a section. Our waitress had tables all over the restaurant. It also took her20 minutes to deliver the check and thirty minutes to pick up the card. There is no excuse for this. The restaurant was about a quarter full. I could have delivered the same level of service to the whole place by myself when I used to wait tables.

I don't know what is happening, but three hours for a brunch is ridiculous. This is a management problem. Either their manager is inept or they are not allowed to actually manage.

I don't plan to go back anytime soon.

sounds like 'big red' did the show up in a jock strap, manured red wings w/ green and gold tube sox and high school mesh FB jersey, the 19 year old john deere ball cap and started w/ the 'I run the show' routine again.......

D!

- el KKM

{ sipping coffee }

go bears!

beat the zags!!