Swim Club

Swim Club is the restaurant and bar attached to the pool at the Downright, a hotel that looks like Wes Anderson took a stab at renovating the former Sheraton near I-35 and 10th Street. There’s an overwhelming amount of pink: the tables, the chairs, the ceilings, the painted concrete around the outdoor pool, even the rubber duckies topping certain cocktails. A portion of the dining room is sunken, having once been an indoor pool. The whole place feels plucked from some ‘80s Miami Vice fever dream. It’s very cute, and you should probably check it out for the design alone—but not much else.

The drinks are light and refreshing but pretty forgettable outside of some appropriately playful garnishes, and the food is a microscopic step up from what you’d find in the freezer aisle at H-E-B. The wings are dry and crumbly, the burger patties seem like they were ice-cold pucks just moments before, and the ceviche pairs a few chunks of floppy fish with a broth that tastes like bland tomato water. Swim Club is clearly styled for bachelorette parties and social media photo ops, somewhere to drink spiked seltzers by the pool on a Saturday afternoon. Order fries for sustenance (they’re satisfyingly crispy), but get a full meal elsewhere.