K1 Speed - Indoor Go Karts, Food, Games, and Things to Do In Austin

K1 Speed is a professional, well-run outfit and being indoors makes it a perfect choice for summer daytime racing in Texas. The karts are well-maintained, and the slick concrete track is fantastic practice for almost any class of kart racer. My only critiques are that the karts seem inconsistently governed—certain individuals, often those known to the staff or bringing their own helmets, appear to achieve noticeably higher top speeds—and the wait time between heats can feel long if you’re eager to re-race. Overall, it’s a great facility with quality equipment and a track that delivers both fun and valuable driving experience.

Paid a pretty penny for 2 races for myself and my son each which wouldn't be an issue if our 40 min wait didn't turn into over 1.5 hrs and if it weren't for me asking I believe it would have been longer bc ppl who arrived after us raced before us, they forgot. Each race was also stopped numerous times due to faulty karts. Mine broke down in our final race resulting in me having to walk off the track and retrieve another kart. I agree with many others that the karts are very shaky and unstable (bruised the center of my back pretty badly)as well as there being pros given special attention. Staff is very unorganized and disconnected, the food is overpriced and the arcade area needs a revamp desperatly snd the pool table was out of order. There is not much to do but to watch others race and wait. I had high hopes as my 12 yr old was so excited but greatly disappointed.

The installations and overall setup at K1 Speed are great—clean, fun, and well-maintained. The racing itself is exciting and we enjoy coming here. The only downside is the way races are handled when there’s an accident. If one of the drivers crashes, the entire race is stopped. While they do offer you a chance to race again, the issue is that you have to wait until they have an open spot, which can take a while. This means our race gets cut short, but other groups don’t have to wait. This has happened to us twice now, and it takes away from the experience since it feels like you lose part of your race time and have to wait again. Overall, it’s a great place with a fun atmosphere, but the race interruption process could definitely be improved so all drivers feel they get their full experience.

We went to K1 for my son's birthday. We loved it because it wasn't busy and the kids has 2 amazing races. We didn't have to fight crowds on a Sunday morning which was lovely! Food was pretty good but pricey. Overall a great experience!

Comparing my family's experience with this K1 Austin, vs K1 Ontario California. This review is only focused on the go-karts the people were great. This review is for myself, my wife and my 17 year old son. Which afterwards we spoke and we all agreed on our experiences. The go-karts in Ontario Ca, drives much better, it's like night and day. Ontario go karts you know they have maintenance done routinely and they drive excellent! K1 Austin Tx, go karts seems like they missed several maintenance schedules, they drive horrible! They sound like they're about to break apart, The vibration and handling are terrible. I think they need to do a major maintenance routine on their go karts! First time coming to Austin, each of us paid for the three race package. Each car drove differently but still terribly. Ontario Ca, we went there three different times and bought the three race package every time, every go-kart drove phenomenal and each of them drove the same. Three stars just for the go-kart driving performance, other than that, we had a fun time, the employees were great. Just the next day be prepared to have some bruises on your back because of the vibration from the go-karts. We had no bruises with Ontario go karts, if you bring their go karts to Austin you will make new lap records for sure!

Went to K1 recently. AC was still broken, but it is what it is. The staff, having no ability to impact this were friendly and helpful. The manager Gerald was awesome and took care of our party. He's one of the reasons I continue to come back. The racing here is fast but safe. This is my favorite place to bring out of town friends.

We took a group of teenage kids to K1 Speed and had a good time. The karts are fast enough to keep them engaged, and the environment felt safe and well-run. They do slow the karts down when someone gets sideways or spins out, which helps avoid collisions—especially with younger or first-time drivers on the track. Overall, it was a fun outing and a solid choice for teens looking for something active to do.

While down in Austin, i thought I'd give K1 Speed - Indoor Go Karts a try as I heard some raves about it from a couple of buddies of mine down there. The hype was indeed quite real, especially with the bundle deal of two races (24 laps as one race is equal to 12 laps). It was a blast racing with my party. The area is quite spacious and has a ton of activities for any one of all ages.

It's pricey, but fun. My kids all had a blast! It got REALLY packed and that made it a lot less fun. So I would say if you can come on a slow day and time, I would definitely suggest that.

I had fun here, but it was dreadfully hot, and I am usually pretty good at withstanding heat. I asked if the AC was broken thinking that maybe it had just broken down that day. Turns out that it has been broken for THREE YEARS. These races are pretty pricey, and they make you pay for an annual membership as well, so it's kind of crazy that they don't have a working AC in Texas. I asked if there were fans, and they literally have one fan. We waited an hour for a ten minute race. It was fun, and I can really see the appeal for teenage boys to flock here, which was the major demographic I saw. One of the employees was really rude when I didn't have my feet in the right place while he was doing the safety check. He could've just told me what to do politely, but he was so disrespectful for no reason. My car wasn't even turned on yet.

Came in early for Father's Day with my dad and my son. We each purchased the 3-race package. The experience was frustrating from the start due to how the races were structured. Juniors race separately from adults--which is fine--but the scheduling made it impossible to communicate with my son at any point. As soon as I finished my race, he was already in a kart ready to go. Then when he finished, I was already being called for my next race. There was no time between to talk, coach him, or even ask how his race went. If you're coming with your kid, don't expect to actually experience the event together in any meaningful way. On top of that, the racing itself felt rigged and sloppy. Multiple times during our races, someone would spin out or get stuck, which caused delays or complete stops for everyone. That completely kills your lap time--and your momentum. In one race, I think I only had 2 or 3 clean laps out of 12. And even then, I'm not convinced I actually got all 12 laps. We paid for 12; we should get 12, period. Worse, it seemed like our karts were being throttled--either slowed down mid-race or held back until others caught up. Both my dad and I noticed it, and it completely kills the competitive aspect. I'm a faster driver, but I was constantly stuck behind slower racers with no room to pass, and anytime I tried, they'd cut me off or cause a collision. In one case, I tried to pass a driver on the straightaway and he deliberately swerved to block me. He ended up spinning out on his own, and I got blamed for it. One of the staff pulled me over and warned I'd be kicked out if I "pitted anyone," which I didn't even do. After that, my kart was noticeably slower, like they dialed back the speed just to punish me. To be blunt, the whole setup feels like a joke. You're judged on lap times, but there's no way to stay consistent with all the slowdowns, crashes, and people blocking you. The system penalizes good drivers and rewards chaos. Between the throttled karts, the constant interruptions, the lack of communication with my son, and the uneven enforcement of rules, I have no reason to come back. Unless you go when the place is almost empty, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Extremely Disappointing Experience with the Manager (Janaya) This was by far the worst experience I've had, all due to the manager, Janaya. When I asked if it was possible to receive a refund--given that the track was being repaired and there were six races ahead of ours--she responded rudely and unprofessionally. Lesson learned: always ask upfront whether refunds are available, rather than waiting to be told there's only a credit with no documentation or receipt provided. I later returned and spoke with a different employee, who was courteous and had no problem issuing a refund. In fact, he even encouraged me to file a formal complaint against the manager due to how she handled the situation. Frankly, management should seriously reconsider keeping someone with such poor customer service in that role.

We had the most amazing time here and shoutout to manager when we didn't feel equal to the other racers he offered a free pass to another race !! 10/10 experience my kids definitely enjoyed it and the go karts were very nice and comfortable. All the games in the arcade worked and had my kids at them for hours after racing Thank yall for making my son and husband birthday a special day !

While down in Austin, i thought I'd give K1 Speed - Indoor Go Karts a try as I heard some raves about it from a couple of buddies of mine down there. The hype was indeed quite real, especially with the bundle deal of two races (24 laps as one race is equal to 12 laps). It was a blast racing with my party. The area is quite spacious and has a ton of activities for any one of all ages.

Worse run k1 I've been to has no kids track so they wait hours never coming back don't bother

Service was amazing! However the reason for the one star was because there was no AC and it made the experience miserable. Will not be coming back until AC is fixed.

Usually go to COTA, but wanted the A/C. We waited for 2 hours. Spent $140.00 and the A/C was out. According to the employees it's usually out. There was 1 fan available. Womens bathroom needed attendance. The stars are for the employees. They are helpful and quick. Their employers should appreciate them more, and furnish them with A/C.

Came in with the family on a rainy super bowl day, hardly anyone in there to ride but it was still a 1 hour wait to do the adult course. Our young kids could do the kid course but mom and I couldn't ride with them, and kids couldn't do the adult course with us. I asked the lady working (who was nice enough) how are we supposed to do it as family if we can't ride together and she shrugged and said 'sorry'. This is not a family friendly place at all.

wow, saw these reviews (and they are are horrible!) BUT - I took a chance that mgmt would have read these reviews, and surely would have corrected them. (you know, a "make your weakness your strength" kind of thing) nope. as bad (or worse) than advertised. I will never understand a business that ignores the input and feedback of its customers. I genuinely believe you would get a greater rush taking your money and burning it instead. Make a video of it and post it to YouTube and take a chance on monetizing it. Anything is better than this place. Even the employees hate this place. Just ask them.

I had a couple hours before my flight back to NY-- thought maybe we could get a race or two, but unfortunately, the wait was going to be over two hours. So, we opted to just play some games, they didn't have too many options but basketball, air hockey, a few racing games did the trick. One positive was this was my first time playing Foosball, which was fun. I wish they had shorter wait times and more games, however, it was it was fun and helped past the time.

Clueless counter staff, disorganized and foul smelling. I might put up with it if cota wasn't 20 minutes away

For a birthday party for 10 years olds this is not the place. The wait time to even get to a race is ridiculous, our party started at 4pm and we didn't get to race until 6pm. Then part of the party package that you pay a fortune for, they only give you 10 tokens for the arcade so making kids wait 2 hours to even race then that is just not worth it. While fun to drive not worth the price for a group of kids. This should be done better!!!!

Mical was amazing! We used military privileges and he Meade it seamless. Made sure we were taken care of quickly and showed us around. We watched him run around and help a lot of people and fix things and made sure customers were happy. Words can't express how awesome this was and made us excited to go back again in a couple of weeks. He is the epitome of great customer service! Can't wait to go back!

Don't bother going on Saturday around 7:30 it's a two hour wait. You can't make reservations.

I've been coming here for over half a year now all the employees are super nice including the managers. The only thing don't come on Saturdays because it is Hella busy.

Stay away from this business.. It's big SCAM with very rude customer service. They canceled my order and no confirmation from me and kept my deposit. No response from customer service after sending them several emails.

Came here recently for a group event. I went through the main contact at the Irvine location who was the account manager somewhat. Wasn't too sure she wasn't at the actual location in Austin. Got the package and I believe 50% of the cost was paid up front. The rest would be at the facility. As we got here, we were the first group scheduled for 10am. I didn't know others would be here as a walk-in also so though we booked it at 10am, I was still in line until the staff finally noticed our group and pulled me to the side. Either way, a couple of walk-in's were racing first which lagged us a bit. We got our first race in after a while and put in our order for food. Too much mis-communication with the food orders. Ordered a couple of pizzas, wings and fries. I was hoping by the time our 2nd race was done, our food would be ready. Second race done and still no food. Took about 30 mins before our food showed up. Can't really blame the staff here. I had originally placed the order with our account manager and she told us that we would place our order there. Though I know the staff was trying, I think K1 needs to tighten up with their stuff. Definitely a great place to race with non-gas carts and machines that have auto detection to slow vehicles after a spin-out but group stuff and people walking in needs to be done a lot better. I'll need to check out the other locations to compare.

My friends and I signed up for 2 races. The first race was very fun! Then, as we waited for our second race, they immediately put us on different go-carts and then we had to sit there and wait during TWO other races. It was boring and uncomfortable and I got a headache from having to sit there with the helmet on. Why couldn't they let us back into the lobby so our group could mingle and hang out?

Waited TWO hours for the first race for our 2 kids 7 & 10 after they said it would be an hour or less. They don't let kids race with "private parties" which causes a massive delay! Cars are not charged properly so after spending $130 I have a kid in tears over his undercharged car. Very disappointing experience.

Paid for three races; first race was stoped three times in total. Somehow was the fastest of the vehicles. Second race was okay, but the kart was way slower than the first Third kart was the worst vehicle I've ever used. After turning a corner, the accelerator would take 1.5 seconds to begin accelerate, and the lady told me it was my fault despite this being my third race and by far the slowest.

I'd love to give this location 5 stars but based on the experience's quality declining over the years, I can't. However, there are some employees at K1 who really care about your experience there. I've been visiting since 2018 and I can safely say that the experience had declined in quality by a huge margin. I visited in January for the millionth time with some gift races from a family member and the first three races were all ruined by bad karts. The first kart had bad tires. The second kart had a bad battery. The third kart had bad brakes. This is just unacceptable from an experience delivery perspective. The employees present at the time understood but didn't seem inclined to stop the race for my issues. After the third bad race, I ended my race early and spoke with the manager that was there. He actually wasn't from the Austin store. He was graciously covering for the ATX location because they are severely understaffed. The manager was from the Houston location and after I explained the issues to him, he was incredibly understanding and gave me two free races as compensation. I really appreciated this gesture and it made the difference in terms of whether I return to this facility or not. In no way is this review an indictment on the local ATX employees. This is a message for K1 Corporate. You've understaffed your most profitable and popular location in the area so much that a manager had to drive 2 hours while sick to cover. Every employee at the facility that night was every ATX employee that is currently working for that location. It was only four people. FOUR. That's insane. So, K1 Corporate, you need to pay A LOT more attention to this location and staff it properly so your employees can do adequate maintenance on the karts and avoid the situation that happened to me. Do better, not just for me, but for your employees too. They bear the brunt of your poor staffing strategy.

Avoid this place at all costs. Rude staff, long wait times, and just an overall frustrating experience. Took my kid there for his birthday and prepaid 150 bucks and was told to just show up and you can start racing. We got there and we were told an hour and a half wait, and then probably another hour and a half wait between races. Asked for a refund and was told we'd have to go through corporate. And that will no doubt require all kinds of calls and will take up to eight weeks. That is absolutely ridiculous. Great way to spend my kids birthday.

great customer service and a great environment Came with a group of friends and had a great time

Get rid of the entire staff and start new. The cars don't work like they are supposed to. The cart attendants especially have the worst attitudes ever. One of them tried to engage in a fight with me. I will never return to this establishment ever again.

Took my wife here before she shipped off to Army training. We arrived early afternoon and asked for two races. The young woman at the counter rang us up and said wait for your names to me called. After 45 minutes and now two groups of people came, I went up to the counter and asked what was going on. She said, groups take precedence and "arrive and drive" will always get bumped. How about letting people know/update them, it was not busy at all, and would have been easy to say we were not going to race for ANOTHER 45 minutes, assuming another "group" would show up. Not to mention no refund, "you can come back any time" for what!? , sit around and wait to do nothing? As two active duty service members, the lack of professionalism and piss poor attitude from the girl at the counter was disgraceful. Business is done through word of mouth, we have a pretty big platform to influence, will ensure word gets out on all platforms--this Austin location is a do not go! And this being our first experience with K1 speed, I can only assume they all are poorly operated.

I came here with my son this evening for his birthday. They tell you the rules, no bumping and you can be removed. First round was fine but on the second I was hit repeatedly by one person and they did nothing. This was dangerous and reckless and I have a hard time thinking this is safe for kids. Go elsewhere

We went here for a party and the room was clean and the go carting was super fun! I don't think they go up to 45 mph like advertised, but it was still fast.

I Called multiple times to check the availability and didn't get an answer "due to high call volume". So i decided to drive 30 min to come check it out, soon as i walked in it looked like a ghost town so i start filling out my waiver& before i get a chance to type the worker at the front desk (who was not busy at all) tells me "oh sorry we're all booked for tonight". i wish i had known sooner instead i wasted my time and now im very discouraged to come in the future....

The wait took over three hours when they said one hour. They told me three races left when there were many, many more! And all of the workers did not care about you, they just wanted to talk to themselves. As well they were slowing my car down during the third race, all these people were passing me on the straights. Also there were people continually bumping into me and my three other friends and the employees said nothing

I've always had so much fun everytime I've gone. Only problem I noticed was apparently all of the waviers were "lost" which was time consuming to figure out.

First time here, with the family! Definitely enjoyed our time on the track. The kids were able to drive their own go-cart at 45mph. The manager Michael was very attentive and followed up with us on our wait during our visit. I would avoid the weekends, we waited 2 hours after checking in. This was communicated with us on the front side. Worked out well, we were able to check in and go stroll the Domain. Everything is so close by. Great staff overall from the beginning to the end.

Very poorly run, management changes looks like every other month. I have a child who races in junior league we pay all this money to race competitively but half of the junior karts are 2+ seconds off the other half, very disappointing for the money you have to pay and to not even be able to compete cause the karts aren't taken care of. It is very very clear that the owners have no interest in putting their profits back into the business to keep it up.

The service here is terrible. The games don't work. People aren't available to help and the wait for a race is unreasonable (3+ hours). Save your money and do something else!

I am updating my review to 5 star. The manager responded to my 4 star review and was very professional and considerate. At the end of the day, it makes sense that a 5yr old shouldn't really drive any type of K1 cart. And, regarding the broken pool table that let out only 6 balls..well.., life happens. And when crap happens.. they stepped up and gave her a free K1 matchbox car. They really did do every single thing they could do. So I am changing this from a 4 star to a 5 star

I loved the racing, really really fun. You can go extremely fast except you cannot drift and they did get mad at me for doing it even though there was no one around me. Staff was so nice and funny also take their job seriously just right and are super careful. There was an accident and they knew what to do so they were well trained. Food was horrible though, it took so long and was cold, we got the loaded nachos. Pretty nice place but I would eat before, fun and cheap games for wait time.

To start rep at the counter insisted I was a child when I am a 32 y/o mother had to show my license to prove my age. The was turned away saying I cannot race due to the me only being 4'10. Absolutely ridiculous, will also recommend to my employer to cancel our upcoming team building event here.

I've only been to two K1 Speed locations. The one in Arlington and Austin. The Austin location is by far my favorite! The facility is huge and they have pool tables, fooseball, and a dining area for when you wait for your races. I recommend doing at least 3 races. The course is great and you get to do 15 laps. Thing to remember is that you are racing for TIME each lap compared to the other racers. My only negative about this place is their bathrooms are disgusting.

This place sucks! The attendant told us that there would be a one hour wait but when it was our turn to race, they let someone else go before us just 'cause the other group had paid for 5 races, i.e. more money. We just had one race but they told us to wait another 1 hr until the other group had finished their races. We asked to speak to the manager who initially said that they would give us a free race for the additional wait but later refused to accept that his staff had told us it would be an hr's wait not 2. The entire interaction was very unprofessional. They completely ruined our evening and didn't even apologize. Poor customer service. I would not recommend this place to anyone, especially if you are in a group of less than 8 and cannot reserve a time slot. Plenty of better go karting options out there.

I'm absolutely horrified at what I witnessed at K1 today. While driving onto the track to start a race, a kid turned the wrong way down the track and mowed over a female employee (whom wasn't doing anything wrong, she was about to close the barrier they open to let the carts in). She was knocked off her feet and flipped through the air, then her legs were run over because the kid kept going. The cart seemed to have full power when it shouldn't have, usually they start off at a crawl until the track is clear. There seemed to have been malfunctions with carts moving at different speeds throughout the day... I saw the entire thing and understand accidents can happen. But here's where I'm upset. I personally notified the manager that an emergency happened and watched for over an hour while they continued races and nobody seemed to call 911. I would have called for paramedics the moment I saw the crash but I assumed management had a safety procedure in place for when accidents happened. Instead, K1 Austin continued running races while this poor girl screamed in agony right on the side of the starting line, 3 feet from where carts continued zipping by for at least an hour. The manager walked by, looked over and then proceeded to hide in the back while teenage employees tended to the severely injured employee with an ice pack. The boss did not help or seem to care at all. Thank goodness one of the teenage workers finally called for an ambulance as she continued screaming. After the paramedics arrived and removed the poor girl on a stretcher, the manager walks over to the employees who were assisting her and asked "who called 911". WTF?! It seemed like he only wanted to find out and reprimand the employee who did the right thing. The manager didn't seem interested in finding out what happened. That manager is absolute scum and should lose his job. This was the most greedy and disgusting thing I've seen for a long time and K1 corporate should know how awful the situation was. A bad situation was made exponentially worse due to the zero response provided. People were dumbfounded at the lack of response, over a dozen people saw what happened and watched in shock while races continued. The racing was fun, I guess, but I can't get over what I witnessed and this first hand and this level of negligence is criminal.

Midweek visit so not very busy. The staff is young and weren't very attentive to us upon entry. We kind of had to figure things out as they were more into their conversation about some musical artist/performer. Once the manager came and refocused the staff all was well. The young girl who gave us the introduction was informative and extremely pleasant. The other guys who gave us the driving tutorial were gentle with us as we were first timers. Very funny and made sure we were safe. The overall ride was cool! Worth the price and definitely worth the fun! We plan to come back with a few more friends and make it a party.

First time to any K1 Speed and we had a wonderful time! We did the 3 races and I was horrible the first round but I improved every time and it was so fun! Such a great place to try if you've never been. We loved coming and highly recommend coming at the beginning of the day to beat wait times.

Very fun! The staff were friendly and helpful. My kids really enjoyed it. There are two type of cars one for adults and the other for jrs according to height. This allows the smaller cars to go slower which was good for my younger kids. The cars do go fast but the staff always had safety in mind.

Such a fun time at K1!!! We went for our friends birthday & had a blast racing laps together. Definitely the perfect place to go with a group looking for an adrenaline rush and some good ol' comradely!

Wait times are excessive and more times than not you can't get your second race in without waiting two plus hours if at all. Management needs to address and figure out a reservation system and scheduling. Please don't take your customers money and not properly deliver your service We use to love going to this facility however now, it really is a cluster mess. I dislike leaving reviews like this ...

I've been to k1 multiple times and recently it has just been bad experience after bad experience. Today 4 of us went in to celebrate a birthday. First we waited for one of the MANY staff members around to come to the front desk for about 20 minutes. A lady finally came over and was so rude I wanted to leave immediately, however we decided to just do one race due to the time line- as we were discussing the options the lady over heard us discussing leaving to go eat and coming back and told us we shouldn't leave because we wouldn't make it back in time... we had an hour and a half. So we decided to stay however after getting food there (not good don't recommend) only two of our group was called to go- so we went to see why that was especially since the two that were up paid after the other two. No one really knew what happened but instead of putting us together for the race coming up, we would have to wait another two+ hours to then go together due to the girl that checked us out putting us all in separate groups - and only billed one of us for a membership not even the race ... like wtf. The maneger said he wasn't sure why she put us all separate and all that but all the could do is have us wait till hours later to finally go all together. - it was a mess and a waste of time - we waited around to basically get pushed back and back till we decided we just wanted a refund and left - DONT RECOMMEND

Facility is pretty good however it seems to get less and less organized every time we go there. Last week we checked online and there was nothing posted of it being booked for an event however, when we got there at around 2pm they had a handwritten sign posted that they are booked from 12:30 to 3:30 so we left, had lunch and went back at 3:30. There was a very long line forming and after about 15 minutes of waiting and registering and then getting to the cashier to pay, we were told that they are booked until 7:30. I pointed out their site and the sign that was still up and no mention of further bookings, the cashier just shrugged and said sorry. Unbelievable

Very disappointed in K1. A group of friends and I went to K1 on a Wednesday evening and it was the most unorganized experience. It's probably easier to create some bullets: * We tried calling days in advance to book a reservation and couldn't get anyone on the phone (after several tries). * All 10 of us paid different amounts for two races. Some paid $52, others paid $61+ with the same items on our receipts. * We waited 1.5 hours for our first race alone and another hour for our second. We were there from 7pm-10:30pm. They'd send some groups out with 2-3 people instead of filling up the track * The karts are electric and several died halfway through the race. We had to stop and wait for new karts everytime * They have speed restrictions on the karts if you've never been to K1 before (definitely not 45 mph). My group had a prize pool for the fastest lap time but it was inaccurate because they slowed some of our karts * Two people in my group bumped into each other and they were kicked off the track * We ordered chicken tenders that took over an hour to come to our table Overall, not a good experience. Highly recommend Pinballz or COTA instead