The biscuit is ON POINT! I'm from Alabama and finding the perfect buttermilk biscuit in Texas has been near impossible. Texture and flavor are spot on. I took one look at it and knew I was about to feel right at home. Added cheese, egg and bacon with a side of gravy. We will definitely be back! It was everything we wanted and beyond. The girl who took our order over the phone was so kind, hidden gym. read more

This is the second time to visit. The first time I had the chicken fried steak breakfast... it was not fresh but I frozen beef patty. I tried to ask for a substitute for my biscuit...thinking it may be an up charge for this request... I was told by the waiter that they could not substitute (period). It was a Saturday morning so thought no problem. I came back the following Friday, and ordered meat lovers omelette with mushrooms ( should have taken a picture... it was more of a scramble and not an omelette ) ... the waiter asked after my order was that it. I had to prompt him by asking what was my choice of sides. I ordered hash browns (again frozen not fresh). The thing that makes me want to do this review was the side of gravy that they call sausage gravy... it is powdered gravy mix that in a 1/2 cup serving size with tablespoon of bland sausage on top.... Not one spot of pepper in the gravy WHAT WAS THE ADMIN CHARGE FOR? (see photo) read more

Hippo Cafe - Recipe for the mess the call home cooking - American Near Me - Hutto, Texas

My wife and I have been here before and had a very positive experience. I guess all things change. We typically try and seek out locally owned businesses. We had moved and are much closer to Hutto. We decided to hit the Hippo again. My wife ordered breakfast tacos and I ordered an omelet. I requested sourdough bread instead of regular. My wife ordered 2 egg, bacon and potato tacos. The waiter asked if hashbrowns be OK, we agreed. She requested more salsa after seeing the small container. The waiter advised it would be 0.99 cents. We declined. When we got the bill there was an extra charge for sourdough $1.59, .99 cents for the first salsa and $6 for the hashbrowns, $3 per taco. I approached the manager and he didn't balk on the charges. BY the way the sourdough was one piece, sliced. This will be the last time I visit this establishment. The food was overall good but thought the up charges were ridiculous. Breakfast was $45 before tip. I can eat at Cracker Barrel, Java Cafe and a couple other places for less money and better quality. If you do go be sure you ask what the add ons will be. read more

What happened to this place? Our salads were slimy and bruised and the burgers were cold. The food quality has really gone down hill. A $50 lunch totally not worth it. read more

Hippo Cafe - American Near Me - Hutto, Texas

Rainbow Cafe we've been here on a whim and glad we did home cooking great atmosphere just a little spot here in hutto Texas!

Absolutely the best breakfast we've had in a long time. Fresh food , friendly service . The wait to get our food was a bit , but worth the wait . Cafe was clean and had plenty of room. Will definitely go back again!! read more

Small town cafe, great breakfast with delicious and plentiful food! I had the Hippo breakfast and took food home. riendly staff

the food is mediocre, the server Pedro was not a very good server he only came to bring us our food and bring us the check. Why ask how i would like want eggs if youre gonna charge me??? the food was not good and for a "special" it was very expensive for one mediocre plate. read more

Came here with my Wife for the $2 unlimited pancake deal. We were the 2nd table in the restaurant as we got there shortly after they opened. We both agreed the time to get our food was a little lengthy as it was almost 20 mins just to get our food. The pancakes were good but as I got my 2nd plate the pancakes got less fluffy and soft and more overcooked and harder. My Wife also ordered 1 scrambled egg and she said the egg itself was good but that there was some weird seasoning on top that made the egg not so good. Overall a good experience everything was pretty good. We both agreed that unless you're getting some kind of deal like today that the amount of food you get may not be worth the price you'll pay as on the menu 2 pancakes were $6 and 3 were $8 read more

The food was delicious! This was my second time visiting and I just had to bring my family. The establishment was very clean and the decor is nice as well. Food came to the table pretty quick. Our waitress was very friendly and helpful. Pricing is inline with other restaurants. Overall great experience again. We will be returning. read more

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Food is delicious and so are the drinks. The staff are always nice and friendly. The food is slightly expensive, but it's a wonderful place to meet people. read more

The food was great. The Carne guisada was surprisingly good. Big portions. I got a carrot cake to go and it was both delicious and sizeble. My waitress was very friendly and so was the rest of the staff. There's also some cool art all around the restaurant. read more

Hippo Cafe - American Near Me - Hutto, Texas

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Service fee added to your tab with no explanation on the ticket or by the server. When asked about it, was told that's the bank fee for using a credit card; it would be taken off if we'd paid in cash. Not good enough. Adding a service fee without explanation is not the norm. Bank fees are a cost of doing business. Many restaurants in this area are cashless, but this place charges extra if you don't use cash. Ridiculous. It took awhile to get served once we sat. There were as many occupied tables as there were servers: three. Local joint. Nice atmosphere. Not attractive to have chairs flipped onto unused tables while still open for business. Food was good. Good-size servings. Liver & onions overcooked, but tasty. Sliders we're spicier than described. Mild turned out to be hot, or maybe it was an error in the kitchen. read more

Great food, great service, great atmosphere! Went there with a large group after softball and they treated us great! Fast and friendly. read more

Food was pretty amazing workers were nice and it's a small little place me and my family could go to before church and we went there was a nice man working and he remember us and he was super nice and I recommend going at least once read more

I simply love this place. The food is truly Texas style food. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Texan Omlette with brisket. The brisket is sweet and tastes so good. I look for excuses to head up to Hutto. The owner is really nice as well. You can see him standing there making sure things run smoothly. The service is usually fast. The food is always right. This is one of my all time favorite "mom and pop" breakfast spots. If you are in the area you must try this place at least once. read more

Hello Hippo Cafe! We arrived at noon on a Saturday and this place was busy. We got lucky and found a parking spot on the side. We were greeted immediately upon opening the door. Love that! We were seated quickly and our server came by to get our drink order. I saw Big Red on the menu, but unfortunately they don't have that. I didn't know what to order so I went with breakfast. I ordered the Hippo Breakfast with bacon. When our plates came out I was surprised when the pancakes came out. They were not tiny and they were delicious. Yaaasss!!! I love the pancakes. They are putting IHOP to shame with their large and delicious pancakes. Everyone working here was very friendly. We were greeted by the owner which was a really nice touch dining locally. Come out and try this cafe! Support local businesses. read more

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So what to say about my experience at the Hippo Cafe... I had seen so many ads on Facebook about this restaurant, and decided for my wife and I to give it a try for supper this evening. I can wrap my experience at the Hippo Cafe with only one word...DISGUSTING!!!! We came in and was told to sit anywhere we wanted and that a waitress would be with us very soon. I had noticed only two other tables had guests at them, but it still took around 10 minutes before someone came over and asked if we would care for something to drink. I noticed they had large pieces of brown paper on each table instead of using the tabletops, I thought that as a little different to begin with. My wife ordered water, and I ordered a coke to drink but my wife's water glass was clearly filled with tap water even though the fountain has a water dispenser on it. My wife ordered turkey and dressing and I ordered wings with fries and veggies. My wife's turkey and dressing was completely inedible. First, when you think of turkey and dressing, you think of a nice slice of turkey, not some shredded turkey thrown on a plate. There was a lot of water pooled up on the plate, so you could tell that the food had been microwaved and some gravy thrown over it. My wings were so dry and not flavorful. The fries on my plate were cold and the veggies had gone bad. I ended up having the waitress just take both plates away and asked for the bill so we could leave. She did take my wife's turkey and dressing off of the bill, but we got no apology for the food that was served to us this evening. I did notice a service fee on the bill, no explanation on why this is, but I guess if you don't pay cash, then you have to pay for using a debit/credit card. I am very disappointed that the food was this mediocre. I really had my hopes up in the Hippo Cafe but I will definitely not be back. I would've left 0 stars if that would've been an option. read more

Hippo Cafe - American Near Me - Hutto, Texas

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Went for lunch 3/22/19 Greeted warmly as we walked in. Seated quickly and given clean menus. My wife won't order till she reads every line of the menu. I knew what I wanted before I got there. She ordered a side salad and the chicken strip lunch. She loved everything and only minor complaint was the Texas toast was blah. I ordered the chicken fried steak for seniors. I got fried and Mac and cheese. Loved the CFS and the gravy. The fries were perfect also. The Mac was creamy but lacked the cheese taste that I love. It was good just not great. We will definitely be back soon. I loved the family atmosphere of the place. It is just what I love about local restaurants. read more

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Order the meat burrito. Honestly got nothing but mush. Everything was chopped and straight mush. Sonic does better than this. Shame on Hippo Cafe also left out the extra sauce that I paid for!! read more

Service was great food nice and hot. I'll recommend trying it if you're ever in Hutto.

Went here hoping to have a nice breakfast on my bday. Hoping to like our neighborhood local restaurant. We were surely disappointed. I wanted corned beef hash,without bell peppers, but that wasn't an option because they're premixed. So then I asked for brisket in my omelet, and it also couldn't be done without bell pepper. There were no GF options for pancakes or waffles. So I asked for ham in my omlet, which was a sad little cubed canned ham (or at least it seemed) placed on top of my omelet, rarther than in it. The eggs were also overcooked and dry. Luckily, the hot sauce made it palatable. The hashbrowns were so salty that we could barely eat them. My guys' eggs were also overcooked. His sausage, he said, tasted like frozen, just heated up. We definitely don't recommend going here, nor will we go back. read more

For us, breakfast was flavorless and subpar. Far too expensive for what it was. Staff was friendly though read more

Food way too expensive and not great quality. The portions are small. The here pies are great!

The food was great and we love to see all the pictures everyone was very friendly, very clean and no wait

Place is so noisy I couldn't hear myself think. Then to make it worse, some loudmouth cop comes in and drowns everyone out he was so loud & obnoxious! Obviously, they don't care about us customers having an enjoyable experience!! Food was okay, I guess. But it's hard to enjoy my breakfast when I have to look over my shoulder because some low life comes in making noise! I was in fear for my safety with the 3rd Reich there!! read more

Small town, down home cafe. Breakfast served all day. Coke products. Daily specials. We got the homemade chips and queso to start. I thought they were good. My husband thought the chips tasted stale. I got the BLT with onion rings and hubby got turkey club with fries. Both sandwiches were good, but neither of us really liked the onion rings or fries. They were edible, just not very tasty. The staff were nice and friendly. We will be back read more

Hippo Cafe - BLT with Onion Rings - American Near Me - Hutto, Texas

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Ordered chicken fired steak ($17.99) that was swimming in a pool of grease/oil. When asked to be compensated for the meal, the waitress was very rude and refused. (Owners daughter) service and quality has gone way down recently. Would not recommend! read more

Hippo Cafe - American Near Me - Hutto, Texas

Two mornings in a row we ate breakfast and both mornings the service and food were right on the mark. Ashton was our waiter the first day and can I just say he made our meal and fit right in with us and how we are. I asked for a custom breakfast and man did he deliver. Great job guys we will be back. read more

Absolutely fabulous food and the service was excellent!! Our waitress served us with a smile and was very attentive! We had breakfast. The best pancakes I have ever had and they are huge! The price for the meal was excellent also. I highly recommend this restaurant! read more

Hippo Cafe is a cool diner in the small city of Hutto that offers all of your standard American diner breakfast and lunch options. The decor is cool and servers are friendly. Unfortunately, the food is overpriced and pretty bland. However, they are not shy about the portion size and visually, the food looks good. Just expect to be using the salt and pepper shakers for pretty much anything you order. We ordered the Chicken Fried Steak, the Chicken Fried Chicken, Scott's Hot Roast Beef Sandwich, and a cheeseburger for my son. Everything tasted mediocre except for Scott's Sandwich. Jesus, what a shocker that any restaurant would put this on their menu. It was literally a couple slices of roast beef inside of two slices of dry bread. No sauce, no veggies or anything else at all. They did pour some of the same gravy that they drowned my fries in. Flavorless and unsatisfying. Surprisingly, the most flavorful and enjoyable dish was the Nacho appetizer. Even the chicken that they used for the nachos was seasoned and cooked well. This is definitely a place for the Hutto locals. Not worth driving to from outside of the city though. read more

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Everytime we travel down 79 towards Hutto we see the billboard high above the street advertising the Hippo Cafe and since we are all about supporting local businesses (especially mum and pop establishments), we finally decided to take the plunge. This place has glowing reviews stating 'made from scratch'--those points alone should speak enough for how great this restaurant should be. Large parking. It's not tricky to get here... walk, hitch a ride, take a scooter... you can probably arrange a helipad too, as this place can be easily found. Located adjacent to the railroad tracks and near a busy intersection. I love the atmosphere. Open interior with plenty of table and chairs to sit at. Exterior looks like a solid place for some good ole country home cook food. Appreciate the plethora of elderly patrons. We both thought it was rather nice to see and personally experienced it. The staff was very attentive, cordial and friendly. The food however is a different story. To quote the Queen, "I'm not amused!". Simple and straight forward menu but unfortunately, the food was just not at all. I wouldn't even say average!!! We ordered their meat loaf with corn and french fries along with fried steak with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. While it came to our table rather quickly it got me thrown off how fast it did especially for a place that claimed to be "made from scratch". My mashed potatoes alone was served cold and their fried steak was, like...listening to the same songs you hear from the male dominated country radio today...boring. We could tell the corn came from a can as it's the same we buy at H.E.B...which was also luke warm at best. We had really high hopes but overall my impression after eating there... will probably give them another chance to redeem their hometown cooking claim. "I went to a restaurant that serves 'breakfast at any time'. So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance." --Steven Wright read more

Hippo Cafe - Meatloaf - American Near Me - Hutto, Texas

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Waitress (Sarah M.) spilled coffee on the mat and didn't wipe it up. Wife wanted hash browns and toast with old number one. Waitress said would be extra for the toast. Never was the case. She said could only order one in list so toast is extra. I was eating my pancakes and she asked if I wanted a to go box. I said no I'm still eating! Pressure to leave! In general she had a nasty attitude! read more

Servings are large and the service is friendly! The French toast was fabulous! I was not a fan of my omelette but it was because I wanted fluffy and stuffed. It was me! read more

I REALLY, really wanted to like this place, but it just did not meet my expectations. I feel bad because the employees were all incredibly kind, but the food was not good at all. The brisket hash had way too much rosemary, the French toast wasn't sweet, and the eggs were a greyish/green color. None of us could eat more than a few bites. Unfortunately I would not recommend coming here. read more

Service is great, just unimpressed with the food. Been a couple of times and disappointed.

Stop by had breakfast this morning, eggs , sausage , pancakes , hash-browns and coffee . Food was served hot , pancakes not what I expected, texture a little though to cut . Service was fast , attentive waitress , ambience also ok . Menu I received was dirty a small paper copy , not to professional. Overall is ok . read more

I have been enjoying this place since it was opened and the quality of food and service has degraded significantly in the past few months. The portions are very small compared to other similar restaurants, especially considering their high menu prices. The meat patty was paper thin while being overpowered by a huge bun and the kids meals were as basic as a cafeteria lunch. Service was nonexistent, and there were large gaps in seeing our server. We ended up going to the front desk numerous times for refills or condiments that didn't come out with the food (ketchup, mustard, mayo for burgers and fries). Lastly, they charge a 4% "admin" fee on every check that they will not remove. It seems crazy to list one price and then charge another at the end...and what for? More profit for a restaurant that probably pays minimum wage to its staff? In case anyone doesn't understand inflation, this is where it stems from. When people stop spending their money on places like this, these businesses are replaced with better businesses or the business adopts better business practices. read more

Great cafe! The food is delicious and the service has always been great. We highly recommend this restaurant.

Food is always good here and the servers are always friendly and attentive even when short staffed. The French toast is by far my favorite but everything we try is great! read more

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