Sunken Gardens

Looking for a quick lunch prior to visiting the Shiner brewery. The buffet looked so good. Service was fantastic and everyone was so cheerful. I tasted the Mac & cheese, friend chicken, catfish and pea salad along with Caesar salad. It was all so good. I do wish they had real plates and silverware, but it was a minor nuisance. Took pie to go and haven't tried it yet, but looking forward to it!

A friend from Weimar and I met for lunch at Sunken Garden. Having never been here, I didn't know what to expect. Several different sources quoted various closing times. Some stated 1:30 p.m., another quoted 5 p.m., while the sign on the door claimed a closing time of 3 p.m. We were in and out for lunch well-before any of those times. The bill is derived by weight: $8.99 per pound for adults, and a different price for kids. Trying to stay on my diet, I stuck with the meats on the buffet line. The food was very good and exceeded my expectations. Everything is self-service, including bussing our own tables. There wasn't any staff or server hovering over our table, which allowed for an uninterrupted time of fellowship. The ambiance is extremely casual as I was in shorts and a pullover collared shirt. This was a good enough experience to want to come back in the future if I'm every in the area again.

We asked a local for a good place to eat. He recommended Sunken Gardens. Sunken Gardens is home cooked food. You choose your plate, then your food and pay for it by weight. The choices range from salads and salad bar items with house made dressings to fried chicken and catfish to chopped beef patties. You can easily go gluten free, low carb, or meat and potatoes with a dinner roll. They have home baked cakes and pies. The german chocolate cake was almost as good as mom's! Mom is always the best cook! You can taste that a box mix was nowhere near when this cake was made!

This is a nice place, a favorite spot of the locals. Comfortable and roomy seating inside and out. This is a self service buffet, but it is NOT all you can eat. You fill your plate and then you pay by weight. I'm personally not a fan of that. The food is very tasty and there was a decent variety of choices. I won't choose to come by myself again but I would go with others.

Great fresh chow!Great people and very friendly and the service is fantastic Love the pies and I'd go just to have pie or cake.

Catfish was good and the banana pudding was delicious as well. Staff is very friendly. It is all buffet but they keep it fresh and hot.

Historic building-old dance hallBuffet styleHome cookingLots of vegetables and saladsLunch steak, fried catfish, chicken, etcAcross from shiner brewery In shiner Texas Get off truck packed ih10 and take us 90 to Houston

Our Tuesday brunch at Sunken Gardens:Dude. Delicious is not enough to describe the food and drink. Here's how it works. It's a buffet style of delicacies but they charge by the pound. It was $7.99/lb. Put what you want on your plate. There's so much to choose from. You can have it to stay or there's to-go containers. There's cold and hot options and plenty of entrees. Dessert is limited to cobblers. I highly recommend the sweet and spicy beef, the catfish, and the jalapeño-cheese beefsteak. Same goes for the tuna salad, crab salad, and zucchini salad. The pasta salad I could give or take because it was al dente. Wife had the meatloaf and it was gooood. Same goes for the chicken strips. The sides were all freshly made (macaroni, rice, etc), and we weren't disappointed with any of it. The rolls were also good but not sweet or anything. They were basic, but that was a good thing because I didn't want anything competing with the food flavors. We also got some cobblers (one pecan and one blackberry, but there were others). I prefer crispy cobbler and this one was doughy and dense. Some like it that way though. I will say that the flavor was good and refreshing, despite being dense. Despite having indulged ourselves at the neighboring Friday's the night before (see previous review), we woke up famished. Having no food available at Shinerville Coffeehouse (see review because they were so nice and even pointed us here), we wound up eating at the Garden. It turned out to be a great experience. At $8 a pound plus $2 for drinks and a tip, we paid around $40, but our plates were laden from side to side. We greedily ate all of it. I forgot about the mozzarella spinach. Get that. Drink options were typical sodas and four ice teas, or (free?) fruit-infused water from a cistern. The teas were also in cisterns. There were four options: a red unsweetened eucalyptus tea that I liked, unsweetened, sweetened, and peach. We got the peach. There's only to-go cups and refills are free, so you're welcome to take some for the road. The atmosphere:Inside it was cool and crisp. The noise level was moderately low and they had good music. Blackbird was playing at one point. Being that it was such a nice day, we opted to eat on the covered wrap around porch that overlooked the Spoetzl Brewery. Btw (in terms of distance) with a good driver and the wind at my back, I could hit the brewery with a golf ball from the parking lot of this place. The restrooms were unisex, as you'd expect for a small establishment like this, and very clean. The people: Staff were excellent, accommodating and knowledgeable. The manager took the time to speak to me for a bit in between rushes, but a wave of people came in so I didn't hold her up. Back on the porch, a young male staff member engaged us in some more conversation and we spoke a bit about Texas history. He is very, very proud of our state and our history - both eager to share and learn. On our way out I met a cook named Mike (easy for me to remember). He was tossing a box with a cool dragon graphic and let me keep it. He also let me fill our carrying-sized igloo with ice. Mike is ex-military like me and it was fun swapping "war stories." He started cooking when he was in the military and is a native Shiner (I gotta figure out what they call the denizens of Shiner). The patrons were also very nice and easily exchanged pleasantries and held doors for one another, which is one of the coolest parts about being a Texan - but is especially so in Shiner. Friendly and unintrusive is the best I can describe. We left full and satisfied in many ways. The pictures are of some cool views I saw. One is their electrical boxes outside, which are painted uniquely, despite being outside of clear view. Just another example of the grooviness that's the prevalent, unspoken expectation of the township. It really speaks to the spirit of the town. We also took pictures of our food before we devoured it.

What a Fantastic gem in the beautiful countryside of Shiner, TX! If you enjoy and appreciate southern comfort food, you'd better stop for lunch some day...I went there based on a recommendation and was so glad I did. Fresh, delicious, great variety and plentiful. Loved their Ice-tea as well! I would absolutely return...

This was a wonderful choice for our lunch on our road trip. Everything on the buffet was wonderful, and my husband especially liked the fresh greens.