If you are downtown Austen, want to watch sporting events on TV, and want pub food, then Champions hits the spot. The Loaded Nachos and the wings were excellent. While they were extremely busy, we didn't have any issues with our service.

Surprisingly good. I was not expecting this. * * * Champions is the Sports Bar in the Courtyard Marriot. Marriot food is nearly always good. Marriot used to be expensive and overpriced for food - then completely fair market price and good value - and then expensive and overpriced. Most of the Marriot restaurants continue to be expensive and overpriced. But Champions when I was there was back to being good value for the money. I was impressed and grateful. * * * I had a good experience which I will tell you about below. But before I get started - let me comment on the large number of negative reviews. The reviews are truthful but give an incomplete picture of what Champions is about. One set of bad reviews date back to about 2015. All signs are that in 2015, Champions was just terrible. What you read is what you would have gotten. The other set of reviews is about service quality. The servers and people who work there are perfectly nice and perfectly hard working. Staffing levels are kept thin. This means that it is possible for the people who work there to get completely overwhelmed. I showed up at Champions a few hours before a big Texas Clemson game - an early rounder for the National Collegiate Football Championship. Usually when tourists come to Austin, they leave the hotel and go see Sixth Street or the city. Because these were football fans pregame - and they did not have cars to tailgate with - they were basically staying at the hotel resting up before the major festivities. So Champions was atypically packed with a zillion people all wanting lunch. The bartender and the maitre d' had to take care of this giant horde all by themselves. Now to be honest, the maitre d' was not doing much except waiting for guests to talk in the door. This meant the bartender had to take the orders, make the drinks and buss the tables for a zillion people. She was working at lightning speed and was stretched beyond her limits ... While she was doing this, tables were going dirty and the place looked bad. The bartender finally got to me, cleared the bar around me and served wonderful food. But 99.999% of the time, the Champions staff will not be facing such a work crunch. All signs are that in normal times, service is fine. * * * I had a first rate and highly innovative Cobb salad. What was the gimmick? Almost no lettuce! Marriot piled on the expensive ingredients - while most people pile on the lettuce as a cost saving. The expensive ingredients tasted first rate. (A special shout out for the smoked turkey and the Mexican street corn.) And the salad itself was big. Good value for the money. * * * The bar selection was wonderful. I got all historical and ordered a Crown Royal. This could have happened at any bar ... Champions was just the unlucky location where I got a lesson in whiskey history. Whiskey has vastly improved in the last 30 years. The old brands our parents used to like just don't cut it any more. You can now get artisanal Canadian blended whiskey to die for. Brands like Crown Royal or in Bourbons, Jack Daniels and Wild Turkey Are now third rate merchandise. Crown Royal is rough. Really rough. And rough without tasting good. Jack Daniels and Wild Turkey are smooth without tasting like much. A good artisanal whiskey these days is smooth AND tastes wonderful. But struggling my way through the Crown Royal ... I now understood why my parents drank Manhattans or Old Fashioneds rather than straight up whiskey. Or why they drowned their whiskey with ice cubes. Their whiskey was not good enough to drink straight. The same applies for them loving martinis - while modern gins are totally good enough to be enjoyed neat. Vermouth was a necessary protection against unpleasant merchandise In an age where people could not imagine anything better. * * * Marriot gets no credit for me getting a whiskey history lesson. But they did serve me a lovely salad in a nice room. And they served it at a fair price. Thumbs up all the way.

Good sports bar (hard to find in Austin). Good beer selection. Had the audio on for the college games. Had the pork nachos which were huge and pretty good. Will be back.

This place is connected to the Courtyard /Residence Inn hotel. The bar is decent size and is generally packed. The restaurant is fairly large, and the menu is decent. Typical Texas based meals. However, they have a few fish based proteins that might be a surprise. Frank was my waiter, and he kept me informed on the timing of the drinks and food throughout my stay. The wait times can be a little longer than most places, but not killer long. I started with the Iron Skillet Cornbread. It was well cooked but dry. The honey butter could have been better and more of it. Then...it was a hard decision between the cheesy chicken Enchiladas or the charred WAGYU short ribs or the Southern Fried Chicken...have to be honest it all looked good, so I did what your not supposed to do and asked Frank for his recommendation. The fried chicken is half a chicken (wings, thigh, breast) plus the sides. The Enchiladas are the most modest of the offerings with two Enchiladas and order chips on the side. You will want them for the extra sauce. OVERALL, I wasn't completely disappointed. Ii took a little longer than it needed for dinner with only me, but it was good. Come for a good time and don't look at the clock.