Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Park North

Uhhhmazing. The ordering with QR codes works for this, rare, I know, but writing “hot dog” on a piece of paper and turning on a little red light was weird. And then they’d like roadie run to grab my secret message requesting a hot dog. Now you just do all that on the app. Had the Parmesan and truffle popcorn. It was gross. Obviously had the hotdog. Tasted like they microwaved it too long and then it explodes at the ends. But the movie was good. The seats used to lay back further, no?

A nice quiet drafthouse theater, they play great movie selections but the drinks can be pricey. After service charge + tax my (single) margarita came out to $19 🥲

The seats are new and reclining. The popcorn and sodas are refillable. But gone are the days of waitstaff taking your order or order cards. Now you have no choice but to order via a phone app and QR code. You have to remember to close your bill or they charge you 5% tip on top of an already mandatory 18% gratuity. Mind you, there's no warning of the added 5% before you place an order in the app. There is no physical bill brought to you or any kind of reminder to close you bill. A place where phones use to be banned entirely to allow movie fans to sink into the movie are now using ordering via phone app. So phone lights are constantly flashing off and on during the movie because people are ordering refills. This isn't the Alamo Drafthouse you knew.

I've treated myself to a movie & some of my favorite theater snacks at Alamo Drafthouse on/around my birthday for the past few years. Nice to see the renovations and reclining seats! The only problem I experienced is with ordering once the lights are out. You cannot scan the QR code on the tray to order food now that servers do not take your orders themselves. I had to wait for enough light from the screen to be able to order. Just a suggestion to add a sticker/label with the QR code to the instruction card under the tray. Customers would have enough light from the tray bottom to scan QR for orders, help, complaints about talkers/texters, sloppy eaters smacking and burping in the theater. On the topic of sloppy eaters, like the one two seats over from me---please, please, please incorporate no burping, smacking, crunching on ice, and loudly sucking on straws in empty beverages into your "quiet zone" policy. Please! Not sure how I feel about the new ordering system. I'll have to give it another try. My queso wasn't as good as I remember it before, barely warm & little taste. It was too difficult to order in the dark and I didn't want to spend more time requesting help from a server and miss more of the movie. I'll be back for another try soon with hopes for a better experience.

I’ve honestly never left a review like this before, but this one matters. I took my son to Alamo Drafthouse for his 13th birthday to see a special screening of Project Hail Mary—his favorite book that he read with his sisters. This wasn’t just “going to a movie.” This was the birthday plan. I made a mistake and thought the showtime was 7:30 instead of 7:00. We arrived around 7:25. Anyone who’s been to a theater knows previews usually run about 15–20 minutes, so realistically we were only a few minutes into the actual movie. We were denied entry. I calmly asked to speak to a manager and explained the situation—birthday, favorite book, honest mistake. I wasn’t rude, I wasn’t demanding, just hoping for a little understanding. The response I got was essentially: “It’s policy.” I even asked a simple question: how is someone quietly taking their seat more disruptive than people getting up for food, servers walking in and out, or normal theater movement? No real answer—just “policy.” I get that policies exist for a reason. I spent 20 years in the Army, I understand rules better than most. But I also learned something just as important: there’s a time to apply rules, and there’s a time to be human. This felt like one of those moments. My son handled it incredibly well—better than most adults would—but as a parent, it’s tough to watch your kid try to hide disappointment on their birthday. You only turn 13 once. After about 10 minutes of back-and-forth, Gabe (the night manager) ended up giving us replacement tickets—but later I found out that’s standard policy anyway for late arrivals. So it didn’t feel like a gesture of kindness, just procedure. I’ve been to a lot of theaters, including this one and ones with similar policies, and I’ve never seen it enforced this rigidly—especially without any attempt at discretion or empathy. Alamo Drafthouse has a reputation for being different—in a good way. But last night, it felt like policy mattered more than people. We’ll use the replacement tickets. But that moment? That birthday memory? That one doesn’t get a redo.