Cedar Creek Cafe, Bar & Grill

On a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon the weekend before last, my wife and I went up to the Cedar Creek for lunch while out running errands. The Cedar Creek is located in The Heights and is a sister restaurant to the Dry Creek and Onion Creek. 

It has a fairly large indoor seating area and bar, but the outdoor areas are definitely the best place to be (weather permitting).  Lots of seating on large patios as well as tables out on the grounds under the trees and along the creek make for a very relaxing atmosphere. The smoke from the nearby firepit made us think we were sitting in a campground and not in the middle of 4th largest city in the U.S.

They have about 35 beers on tap as well as more in the bottle with a decent selection of craft beers. The lunch menu is pretty large with various salads, sandwiches and burgers.  It looks like Tuesdays would be good time to go as its steak night with all Texas beers on sale.  My wife had the Bison Burger which was thick and juicy with a great flavour.  I had the Flank Sinatra which was basically a cheese-steak sandwich made with flank steak.  The steak was tender and delicious and it came with my favourite seasoned thin cut fries.

If there is one drawback to the place, its the ordering process.  Ordering for all food and drinks is done at the bar and if the place is busy like it was on Saturday, it can be chaotic.  It basically results in people crowding around the bar in front of the cash registers trying to get the attention of the harried bartenders.  People who are unfamiliar with the place and how it works end up standing around looking confused and searching for a menu.  It also means each time you you want another drink, you have to jump back into the fray of people placing food orders and asking questions about the menu.  When your order is ready, the food is brought out to your table by staff wandering around looking for the number you were given when you placed the order.  I watched several trays of food make multiple trips around the entire inside and outside areas by staff who obviously couldn't find the number.

However, the ordering difficulties aside, this was an awesome place to chill for a couple of hours.  It's yet another bar that I would frequent often if it was closer to where I live and it would be a great place to grab a beer after work.