Wild times at Willie’s Grill and Icehouse

Willie’s has a prime location located in the new Creekside shopping center in New Braunfels. It is directly across the street from the mega gas station Bucees and the same exit used to get to Canyon Lake.  The parking lot is huge enough for their large crowds and you can always find parking, just not up close. I have yet to understand their food ordering method though. Once inside patrons wait in a single file line to speak with a waiter/waitress to put your order on a ticket. You then are allowed to seat yourself anywhere in the restaurant. After finding the perfect table you must wait for your waiter/waitress to come greet you at your table and pick up your food order ticket. It is not until this point will your order actually be placed. While waiting for your food they offer a variety of things to do. If sitting inside the casual atmosphere allows for conversation to flow easily among those you sit with. The appeal of Willies is the outdoor seating! It has a wraparound porch with fans to help keep you cool in this Texas weather. There are bean bags that you can borrow to play corn hole and the kids are welcome to run freely between their two sand pits. Another positive of the venue is the variety of foods offered. Mostly all American style, burgers, fish, and all things fried, and an even bigger selection of beer. The service can either be a hit or a miss. There have been times the food comes out in a timely manner, fresh, and smelling scrumptious. Other times, however, the service is horrible! The waitress may only come by the table three times, to pick up the ticket, drop food off and after she is flagged down for the ticket and to-go boxes. I am not able to determine the service I will get based off of the time a day I am there or size of the crowd. The inconsistency can be very frustrating and has deterred me from the restaurant on a number of occasions. There are those evening when the breeze is just right, and we get the corner table facing the parking lot, right next to sand box. Kids are able to enjoy their dinner, mostly burning off their energy between the two sand boxes and us grown-ups can have conversations where we are not constantly interrupted by little people. The atmosphere is top notch and highly recommended worth trying on a summer evening. I feel Willie’s warrants an apology ahead of time for their odd method of ordering food which causes you to wait in hideous lines and the 50/50 chance you might have a crappy server.