Austin Food Data Bank

Freebird's

2005-09-28T08:15:00.000-05:00

Freebird's is the type of place that seems to compete with, say, Chango's, Chipotle, and Baja Fresh.. i.e. they specialize in design-your-own burritos. Just to let you know, I find Freebird's vastly superior to the latter three. On some days, I will die of pleasure eating their stuff.

I'm going to say that my ranking is (from best to worst):

Freebird's
Chango's
Chipotle
Baja Fresh

Of those four, Baja Fresh is the one I really can't handle. It just affects me negatively on so many levels. First, the food's just nasty. It's like bathing in a sea of nastiness... for hours after you've eaten. Well, at least that's been my experience. Plus, it is Baja Fresh that replaced the Sound Exchange music store on Guadalupe street in Austin. It's unfair to use this against them, I guess, but it still hurts. At least they didn't knock down all of the wall art.

Anyway, this is not meant to be a Baja Fresh hate-fest. Besides, if Taco Bell offered build-your own burritos, I imagine they would rank lower than Baja Fresh. They would also rank lower than the dirt in my backyard. ... which, by the way, is free.

On with Freebird's then! My latest visit wasn't so great.. It was an absolute contrast with the first, heavenly visit. The second and third times were decent... but very clearly sub-heavenly. I'm not sure what happened. The first time I went, I was completely transfixed by the habanero sauce. Oh yeah. It was fire and damnation.. Fire and damnation totally taste good. The next couple of times, I got the same sauce... which was great.. but I wasn't really writing home about the other objects in the burrito (like beans, peppers, rice, cheese, etc). As for this latest visit... I'm reminded of the time a friend of mine had access to a potato gun. I would have rather starved that day for lunch, and shot my burrito with the potato gun into Barton Creek.

Let's consider this fourth visit a big freak accident. The main problems were that some things seemed to be missing from the burrito, like... there was not enough cheese, not enough pinto beans (replaced by too much rice), etc... Really, I like to like Freebird's. They do really cool stuff, such as loudly proclaiming their non-use of pig fat, displaying aluminum foil art, making many of their sauces fresh, and having several vegetarian options. Plus, again, I've had pretty good fast food there.

I can't stress the badassness of the habanero sauce. No one messes with Freebird's habanero sauce. End of story. Thinking of trying? Not a good idea. Now go away. For some reason, this reminds me of some dialogue from a movie (Maybe it's Raging Bull??):

Joe Pesci: "blah blah blah..." (something lightly denigrating DeNiro)
Robert DeNiro: "What? Get the %#&* outta here!!"
Joe Pesci: [starts following order... getting out of there]
Robert DeNiro: "... Where you goin? Come ere!"
Joe Pesci: [comes back]

Clearly, Robert DeNiro is in control in this scene. That's because he's like the habanero sauce.

Besides that, the other ingredients seem pretty fresh.. What's also cool is their choice of 4 or 5 different tortillas. (flour, cayenne, wheat, spinach, and corn (for tacos)). That's definitely a plus for me. Other choices you get are of beans (refried, whole pinto, or black), sauce (habanero is one of 7), "meat" (white chicken, dark chicken, steak, combo, or "veggie"), and "freebies" (tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, roasted garlic, lettuce, etc, etc).

Freebird's is also a Texas chain... so more "locality" points than Baja Fresh and Chipotle (I think Chipotle is partially owned by McDonald's). Chango's seems to be strictly in Austin, by the way.

I would say, for fast food, DEFINITELY give this place a shot, especially for burritos. For tacos, you might want to consider Maria's Taco Express or Mi Madre's... But this place surely rocks on a good day!

Sao Paulo's

2005-09-19T22:10:00.000-05:00

It is definitely cool that there is at least one Brazilian restaurant in town, namely Sao Paulo's. This place used to be called Sampaio's, and they're opening up a new Sampaio's-named place on Burnet. FYI, the number to Sao Paulo's is 512-479-9988.

Since I was born to Brazilian parents, I'm guessing I'm supposed to be a fine critic of Brazilian food. Unfortunately, I haven't eaten a whole lot of it in years, even from my mom, since most of the real stuff has meat. For example, the "national dish" of Brazil, called Feijoada, usually contains pork (if not, then beef). So in a way, I'm a novice, at least since I went vegetarian. Please keep this in mind.

When this place opened, under its old name, I freaked out; it was advertising itself as "Brazilian & Tex-mex", AND they didn't even get the Brazilian flag right on their sign. This was all very scary. I took my parents there. It was all very scary to them, too. I suppose I can empathize with the whole "tex-mex is an option" thing, especially since the place is so near to UT, but I don't see El Salvadorian or Columbian restaurants in town adding "and tex-mex" to their taglines. Also.. this place oozes weirdness anyway, because it's kind of "upscale" in service and price, yet it's adjacent to a convenience store, which is itself adjacent to a sportsbar (Posse's, one of my favorite locations). There are college students everywhere around here, all the time. Like 24 hours a day.

My parents' verdict? All they liked was talking to the owner in Portuguese. I have to say that's my verdict, too, after going there maybe 4 times now. There are about 3 or 4 vegetarian options, but only one of them seems to be a sufficient meal (the Palmito ao Forno, because it contains lots of cheese). My latest visit was around Labor Day weekend. Here's the data I have....

ENTREES:

Palmito ao Forno: "Huh?", in Portuguese, is what my mom said when I told her about this dish. Ok.. I didn't think it was too bad, but it's basically a consolation prize for the vegetarians. A layer of decent white cheese on top of a mixture of vegetables... mostly green beans and hearts of palm. It was a bit too salty. My friend ordered the same thing and privately confided to me later that day that she "absolutely hated it". It came with breaded, fried banana slices, with some kind of sweet dip. I thought those were ok. I believe the same friend "absolutely hated" these, as well.

Veggie Sandwich: Ok... er.. This might no longer be on the menu, actually. I had it a couple of years ago. It was pretty good... but definitely not a complete meal. My memory suddenly runs thin.

Bobo de Camarao: This being a shrimp dish, I haven't tried it. My mom ordered it once though, and decided it was pretty authentic, but almost spat it out. A friend of mine ordered the same thing two weeks and was absoltely unimpressed. Shortly after, he said something to the effect of "You know, the food here isn't really very good."

Chicken Milanesa: Another friend ordered this the other day, and seemed to be very happy.. I think I almost heard him yelp with excitement. To put it in perspective, my dog never yelps ... even with excitement.

APPETIZERS:

Fried Yuca: My mom's fried yuca is spectacular. The fried yuca at Sao Paolo's? Give me a break. They're okay, but I'll take fries next door from Posse's over these any day.. And for half the price. Maybe they'd be interesting if you're trying fried yuca for the first time. It's basically like french fries... except a bit different.

Pao de Quejo: This translates literally into "cheese bread". It's essentially little balls of bread where cheese is smoothly, uniformly part of the dough. Pretty good stuff, even here at Sao Paolo's. This is the best item at this restaurant. Little balls of bread.

Nachos: I guess this is one of those tex-mex items.. with a "twist" (!!!). That twist is apparently using wheat chips instead of tortilla chips. That's it. That's the twist. Is this review almost over yet? I think it is.

DRINKS:

Mojito: Whatever. The one at Saba Blue Water Cafe is much, much better.

Caipirinha: The latest one I had here was fine, though not as good as my dad's. The first one I had here? UGH! I think maybe they changed the recipe....

Passion Fruit Juice: The same friend to declared the Palmito ao Forno to be the enemy, liked this drink. The waiter said it was not freshly-squeezed, but.. it was still pretty good. How often do you see passion fruit juice?

That's it. Besides the nachos, I haven't tried the tex-mex stuff. I mean, if I wanted to, I would rather be at, say, any tex-mex place in Austin. The atmosphere is cool, though the look they're going for is probably spoiled if you look outside. Also, they had a jazz band playing during my most recent visit. Then there was the quirky waiter. It's a locally-owned place, which is cool, blah blah blah. Maybe having more decent food would help. Or at least slash the prices by 70%. Make it a food clearance sale, all the time. This message goes out to the new location: please improve on the first one.

Ararat

2005-09-14T23:14:00.000-05:00

Looking for a cool place to eat? Ararat is a good answer. This is, roughly-speaking, Middle Eastern food with (a) a cool interior, (b) great food, (c) belly dancers, (d) choice of pillowed or chaired seating, and (e) a good set of vegetarian options among many other options for carnivores. Yeah!

The belly dancer I saw was balancing a sword on her head. Yes I know you can balance a sword on your head, too. It wasn't that way. She was balancing it by the blade's sharp edge. As in, I had a slight fear of death at my table.

Is the food terribly authentic? I'm not too sure; I am unlucky enough to still not have had home-cooked food relating to this region... nor did I actually eat anything regional the one time I was actually IN the Middle East (Dubai).. (they gave me a free sandwich at the airport). But I do know this: the place is BYOB. (Beer, wine, whatever). I doubt you'll see that too often in the Middle East. I've also heard whisperings.. where from I don't know... that this claims to be a Turkish place.

Small tangent: I'm looking for a term that basically means "The Middle East and North Africa" that (1) is not "The Arab World" and (2) isn't relative to another place in the world (i.e. "middle east" is east only of the things west of it). Suggestions anyone? Include Turkey? Maybe... Sigh.

Anyway, I've been to Ararat probably about 3 times now. The first time I went there, I was a meat-eater extraordinaire. Unfortunately, I have no idea what I ordered, except that i thought it was ok. The second time, I was vegan. Still don't remember what I ordered.. except I remember vegetables on top of a pita. It was pretty good. Now for this latest visit, I'm just a normal vegetarian. This was 2 weeks ago. I went with a group of about 10 people, and we pigged out. Majorly. We were all oinking at the end. The BYOB (2 bottles of wine in this case) probably helped. So... breaking it down:

APPETIZERS:

Pita: Pretty tasty. Nice and hot, too, in my mouth. Yeah.. this was ideal for scooping up the hummus and baba ganouj. Incomparably better than the (bwahaha) "naan" trianglets at Cosmic Cafe. This was whole, though, not cut into pieces and destroyed.

Hummus: Nothing completes a nice Middle Eastern meal like some awesome hummus. Oh yeah.. This was good stuff, though I still found the one at Marakesh Cafe and Grill way better. This is also better than the hummus made by Tom's Tabooley. I respect them and all... but.. yeah. All of these of course put to shame various hummuses (hummi?) all over the city, found in hummus sandwiches and whatnot. All right, I had hummus in New York. It was insanity... (in a good way). This wasn't quite that good.... but I liked it here anyway. It was on par with the one at Alborz Persian Cuisine, I thought.

Baba Ganouj: Ok... interesting. Sweeter than I expected.. Certainly more than the one at Marakesh, which I really like. Still parsing this. Maybe in a few weeks, my brain will have properly figured this out. Not that it was bad! Just not what I expected.

ENTREE:

Dolmeh Felfel: Basically this was something like a the grape leaf dolmas I'm used to, except they were stuffed green bell peppers. The stuffing was a highly yummy mixture of rice, nuts (walnuts, maybe?), and various spices. Rounding out the dish, there was bulgar wheat (basically seemed like tabouleh), roasted veggies (*magnificent*. Zucchinis, tomatoes, red/green peppers, onions, with equally-magnificent brown mystery powder on all of these)... hmm what else? Oh yeah: maust museer (reminiscent of Indian raita), and some sort of spicy tahini sauce. ALL of this was great.

Other people ordered stuff that also looked, smelled, *and* sounded good (sizzling chicken, etc).. I definitely sat next to the right people. Of course, the BYOB could have just been causing me to hear food wailing when in fact it was silent and happy with itself.

DESSERTS:

Halva: You either love halva, or you don't. This style of halva is heavy on the sesame flavor, and sour-ish in the way that I like. Many people invariably hate it. But not me.... I'll take this kind of halva any day... 24 hours straight, if necessary. The one here was no exception.

Apricot Fruit Cake Thingie: Huh? I don't really care for apricots all that much... but I tried this anyway. But... I didn't detect any apricot flavor. Who knows what I was smoking. The point is: this didn't seem very special.

In conclusion... Ararat is totally a winner, though I still like the more no-frills Marakesh better. Both way better than Alborz, for sure.. at least for vegetarians. So: (1) I believe 8 out 10 at the table liked their food, obviously including me. (2) The waitress gave us free hummus and baba ganouj because we were a large group. (3) This is a *local* restaurant.. There's only one of them. (4) The menu has 5 vegetarian entrees.... and they all look *really* good. (5) I must reiterate: BYOB!!!!!!

You may want to make a reservation.

Central Market Cafe

2005-09-12T00:10:00.000-05:00

Central Market Cafe is kind of a funny place. It's probably the only grocery-store cafe I would consider a restaurant in its own right. The food is pretty dependable, too, as long as you know what to order. For me, without exception, that has always been their Veggie or Vegan burger.

I've always wondered if the cooks just go into the grocery store and buy the supplies they need everyday.. If so, I'd *really* be interested in knowing where they get their fries, which are some of the best in the city (my ranking for fries is probably Opal Divine's, Posse's, EZ's, then Central Market Cafe). The patty they use for the vegan burger is great, too. It's of the meat-impersonation variety (unlike the superior veggie burger at Artz), which is usually fine by me. It has always impressed me that "Vegan Burger" is actually an item you can order, though unfortunately it's not on the menu. I'm not sure, but I believe the vegan and veggie burgers use the same patty.. and all that's different in the vegan one is a different bun and a lack of mayo, etc.

This review concerns the Central Market Cafe South location. It should be noted that the last time I went to the OTHER Cetral Market Cafe location, up around 41st and Lamar, they told me they "do things a little differently here" and that the menu there wasn't the same. The last time I heard "We do things a little differently here", someone was in the middle of telling me how people work 35-hour weeks in France. So I don't know if that's somehow related here. Also, the veggie/vegan burgers there used a completely different patty... I believe it was the Gardenburger patty. I'm ABSOLUTELY sick of the standard Gardenburger patty, to the point where even the sight of the box makes we want to... seek out some privacy.. quickly. So for me, the south location is therefore the way to go.. no doubt about it.

Now... the other vegetarian options freak me out. Once I tried... I think it's called.. "Silken Tofu". This was an absolute mistake I should have seen coming. Imagine being served a small rectangle of tofu, with a few herbs and spices on it. The waiter tells you "This is your meal, and you will like it." Of course, you eat it, because the gun's pointed at your head. Maybe I would've enjoyed it if I were in prison.

I also had a pasta there once... I vaguely remember a creamy sauce... lots of pine nuts... and not enough food. To top it off, I believe there was a stomach ache involved. If I'm going to suffer a stomach ache, I should at least get a decent helping of food. Sorry, but I don't remember the name of this dish, and there seems to be no menu online. Just tell them to not give you the "stomach upset" pasta.

Enough of the not-so-great food there. What else about the vegan burger? The bun can sometimes be a bit thick, but it's pretty good; looks like whole wheat flour. I always like to choose the excellent fries as my side (which also means it will have a few fried onion string things), but one could also go for fruit salad or side salad... probably a couple of other options. Nowadays, they've been putting guacamole in the burger, which I'm not really into in this setting... so I just ask for it on the side. I also ask for extra lettuce, and that usually works out pretty well.. (I think it's green leaf lettuce usually). There's also tomato and onion inside, as well as a few pickled vegetables on the side.

It's a big meal. The last time I got it for lunch during a work day, I was pretty much out of commission afterward. It was almost like coming out of a buffet. So if you're veggie, and you visit this place, the veggie/vegan burgers, especially with fries, score highly with me. Everything else... don't bother. There are probably a couple of vegetarian things on the menu I still haven't tried, though. And in case you don't know, Central Market, the grocery store, is owned by HEB, which is a large grocery store chain in Texas and Louisiana. As far as non-natural-food grocery store chains go, HEB is pretty cool, as in they seem to do a relatively good job listening to their customers, etc. For example, just as for the natural food stores, HEB's milk doesn't contain synthetic Bovine Growth Hormone. You can't get that guarantee at Albertson's, Randall's, or Walmart Supercenters, etc, as far as I know. To me, that's a huge plus. For me, Wheatsville Food Co-op is still king, but I still find myself at HEB a lot.

Anyway, there you go.. No data on the meat items for you, but at the south location, the veggie/vegan burger (with awesome fries) is great! Also, I forgot to mention the excellent salad bar with several veggie and meat options. I believe both locations also have live music sometimes, which is cool... Give it a shot!

Cosmic Cafe

2005-09-08T01:15:00.000-05:00

I'm not entirely sure what's going on. First, there's Galaxy Cafe. Now... Cosmic Cafe!! (taking over West Lynn Cafe location) Away, and into the solar system! All this reminds me of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and this space craze seems a bit odd. These all sound like little bistros that might perhaps be in the corner of a space station, feeding astronauts with bags of ready-made food.

Not that I have any problem with this; I welcome references to outer space in food. I still haven't been to Mars Restaurant & Bar, but I want to. I'm not sure if the deli in Sun Harvest counts. "Cosmic" Cafe *definitely* counts, though. It seems the owners of vegetarian Mother's Cafe decided to ditch their other veg restaurant, West Lynn. They sold this location to the Cosmic guys, who are *supposedly* from Dallas. I'm thinking it's more like M31. These people (?) are doing the vegetarian thing, too, so have no fear! Check out the menu at the website for the only other location, in Dallas.

This is the kind of place that is trying to be extremely... zen-like? Supposedly they have yoga there. Meditation everywhere. Very chill. That is, except for our waiter, when a friend and I visited there for lunch one day. He was SO hardcore. HOW ARE THINGS TODAY!!!!!???? MAY I INTEREST YOU IN ONE OF OUR SPECIALS!!!!!!! AAAAHHH!!!!! Totally frenetic (but cool) guy. My friend did make a good point that, really, he was the only source of energy in the whole place, so he was doing a perfect job. Basically, the place was still half-painted.. few bells and whistles.. Menu looked bland, etc, and didn't have all the items from the Dallas location. As of this writing, they are in transition.. Still moving in. So that's all ok.

These guys basically serve Indian fusion food. It's interesting and very worth checking out. Here's what I can tell you about the food thus far:

- Mango Lassi: THE BEST mango lassi I have ever tried. I normally like plain sweet lassi instead, but this was a great exception. It tasted like they used fresh mangos, instead of canned mango juice or something. Additional evidence of this: the color was not a deep orange or bright yellow.. but instead was sort of a washed out yellow. To me, it looked more like the real thing.

- Portabella Trance: All I know is that my friend ordered this and was blown away. It might be next on my list to try. Literally, he almost was blown out of the restaurant, through the roof. Luckily, the surrounding roads aren't that major.

- Eggplant Masala Pizza: I am told by a different friend that this is spectacular, at least from the Dallas location. It wasn't on the menu yet here when I went. Hmmm.. maybe actually this is the next one to try.

- Buddha's Delight: I'm not entirely sure this is what Gautama Buddha would've eaten, as many of the ingredients (like chili peppers and potatoes) apparently only existed in the Americas when he was around. That aside, this was a pretty good selection. It came with a lot of stuff, so I'll have to break it down further:

a) Rice: Not from outer space. Standard. Plain white basmati. Next topic.
b) Naan: Hmmm. Disappointing. I was expecting a real... like... Naan. Instead, I got 4 or 5 pita trianglets. I like non-existent words.
c) Samosa: Yeah this was pretty good! Not the best around... but enjoyable. On par with Madras Pavillion's in quality I'd say.. Spicy and potato-filled. The real star here, however, was the tamarind chutney. Sorry.. that's The Tamarind Chutney. There is a god, and it is called The Tamarind Chutney. I got blown away by this... even more than my friend by his dish. WOW. I was trying to dip everything on my plate into this stuff. The other chutney? Bleh. I think it was mint. It was tried and immediately scorned and rejected.
d) Dal: Certain friends of mine are way into this dal, but I just found it average. I thought they needed to calm down on the cloves. Also it was really more of a soup. I think it was made with Masoor lentils.
e) Spinach w/ Tofu: Hmmm.. I remember thinking of canned spinach when I had this. Were I to be a spinach-hater, it would be because of items like this. Maybe Popeye would like it.. but not me. Note: this was actually the vegetable of the day, so any other day, there might be something different on Buddha's Delight. Note #2: This item was supposedly a fluke. I've just had too much input from friends saying that the other daily vegetables are absolutely delicious.

I admit, the stuff here that I liked... I REALLY liked... and was Cosmic in stature. I'm willing to blame the earthly remainder on the whole "transitional" state of the restaurant. The receipt even said "West Lynn Cafe" on it. Not to mention people were walking in thinking it was still West Lynn... It was funny trying to count the number of those that promptly just walked out. Anyway, I'm going to recommend that this place definitely be checked out ASAP. Very promising place, even with the galactic trianglets, etc. All vegetarian... and local to Texas. I'll find myself here again very soon!

South Congress Cafe

2005-08-31T00:24:00.000-05:00

Our plan was to surprise my friend at South Congress Cafe the other night... She arrived a LARGE tad too early (normally she would have arrived 15 to 20 minutes late), and this almost ruined the plans. I don't know how she managed not to notice us scrambling about like ants, trying to pick seats at the table. It might have had something to do with the large crowd. This place is clearly popular. Long wait? Yes.

This place has no one genre. Maybe we could call it American, but with a heavy tex-mex influence? There were probably four vegetarian entrees on the menu, but only three I remember. All of them sounded good, but only one seemed like a complete meal to me:

- Angel Hair Pasta: Not enough protein for my taste. Common problem with pastas.
- Vegetarian Stroganoff: No tofu or cheese anywhere, so ditto.
- Portobello Fajitas: Cheese present. Full meal. I had to order this.

Ok, so here's how the evening went. First some bread arrived. No further comments on this, because it was absolutely nothing special. Asti's bread was much more interesting. Then, the main course made it's entrance. To summarize: the main fajitas were excellent.. Everything else accompanying it was generally pretty average. Here's the detailed breakdown:

- White flour tortillas: Ok. Better tasting at Julio's, but certainly these were better for making hats, as they were much bigger.

- Rice: Two rices actually... Some kind of green one, which was... blah, and then the saffron rice. That was great, and pretty unusual for tex-mex-ish stuff.

- Beans: The beans were... nowhere to be found. This is one of those things that irks me. Perhaps I've not consumed enough fajita plates in my lifetime....

- White/Red cabbage shreds: Raw. Unspecial. Ignore unless you love cabbage or need to write a restaurant review.

- Sour cream and guacamole: These served their purposes well, I suppose. The guac was all luxuriously whipped, but it was average in taste. The guac at Maudi's is way better.

- Grated cheese: I love cheese. It was a major contributor in my abandonment of the vegan lifestyle. So by definition this stuff was good... but it was totally average for cheese. It reminded me of Monterey Jack. Anyway, it worked.

- The actual fajitas. Now these were, again, EXCELLENT. Marinated portabello mushroom slices.. Sizzling alongside the shrooms were some onion, green and red peppers, and small dried peppers, too. Yeah! Now for my slight, paranoid concern... I wonder if these mushrooms were grilled with the meat fajitas... Hmmm. Next time I will ask. Either way, I was sad when these were finished.

- Mystery Pico de Gallo: Once again, style over substance. I'm sure you could find better pico in a school cafeteria, but ... it won't be gift-wrapped in a corn husk. It's all about priorities.

Back to the tortillas... I received two huge ones, and I only had enough room to finish one. So one of my friends did, in fact, fold it into a hat, which I promptly wore for about two minutes. It was a great time... half the table was totally embarassed, which I found totally amusing. A couple of others wore it, too, including the birthday girl. Pictures exist, FYI, but it wasn't my camera... sigh.

Now for dessert:

- Cream cheese brownie with ice cream: Okay. Where was the cheese again? I looked everywhere, even under the plate. Nothing. The brownie itself was all right. The ice cream? Exceptional. Mexican vanilla... very nice, and, importantly, purchased from Amy's. By the way, this was free for the birthday girl.

- Raspberry chocolate tort: I normally like raspberry, but I didn't thing the raspberry syrup here was notable. The tort part of it was just ok, I thought. Thick, but not the kind of chocolate taste I like. Wasn't worth it.

Anyway, there you have it. This place was overpriced for the quality, at least for my stuff... The other guests mostly liked their food, it appears. Maybe I wouldn't have this gripe if the fajitas' side items hadn't been so average. I wish I could have just ordered the portabello fajita pieces a la carte. Seems like the place is local, though, so that's a plus. There's a lot more on the menu to check out; that's for sure.

Rudino's

2005-08-29T01:23:00.000-05:00

My workplace has done take-out from Rudino's twice now, despite the fact that's it's slightly.. prohibitively far away. Basically this is a pizza place with a little specialty they call "grinders". Maybe grinders are some known type of food.. maybe it's something they made up. I don't know. Well.. actually, some very elementary research turns up this. So I guess it means a sub sandwich. Regional term, I suppose.

These grinders weren't sub sandwiches, though. They were something different. Something ... alien. The bread was more like... pizza dough maybe? Perhaps with a nod to focaccia? I hope I'm not completely, horrifyingly incorrect in this assessment.

Rudino's is a chain, so I was a bit worried that they wouldn't be able to tell me about vegetarian options properly. As it turns out, they passed my tests with flying colors! Check this out: I asked them on the phone about the pizza sauce (whether it was vegetarian), and the highly complete and competent-sounding answer was "all the pizza/pasta sauces are vegetarian, except for the lasagne". Turns out that the menu even says "meat sauce" for the lasagne. Good job!

Next test: the actual food quality.

Unfortunately, the items I've ordered here have all been pizza-like... The grinder I got was the "pizza" one.. Then for the other time, we got, well, pizza. So I don't really have a proper cross-section of flavors. Could be worse, I guess. Anyway, such is my disclaimer.

My cheese-pizza grinder was pretty good. Think of it as a pizza sandwich. Maybe it's sacrilege, but I mean... I liked it. I'm all for it. This just seems like the kind of thing I'd want to send back in time to myself, say, 25 years ago... when I was but a clueless lad growing up in my hometown. I can totally see myself having had roughly the following exchange with my mom:

"Mommy! Can I have a sandwich??"
"Sure... What kind of sandwich do you want?"
"Ummm... I wanna PIZZA sandwich!!!"

Unbeknownst to me then, what I wanted in that conversation was *exactly* a Rudino's cheese pizza grinder.

The grinders don't just come in the pizza flavor, of course.. They have all sorts.. ham & cheese, spinach & feta, for example. "French Dip" is a variety I found amusing on the menu.

The pizza itself: I thought it was ok, in the grand scheme of pizzas. Probably a tad not as good as that of Craig O's, though some coworkers disagreed with me there. It was definitely still a step above the standard pizza chains. No comparisons to places like Rounders, however. I mean... I still enjoyed eating it anyway. I believe my toppings were black olives, green bell peppers, and onions. I was quite happy with the olives, as I generally worship all things containing them. One good thing: very little grease on the bottom crust... One weird thing: the cheese layer seemed to detach from the crust somehow in some situations.

I just remembered: they also these *great* cinnamon stick things.. Yeah... nice dessert after pizza.

So, I'd say there's no need to try out the pizza unless you're nearby. The grinders have potential, though, for sure. If we do this place again, I'll probably get the spinach & feta grinder (or one of the 3 or 4 other veggie options). Need more data!

Texas Chili Parlor

2005-08-24T23:45:00.000-05:00

Having either "Texas" or "Chili Parlor" in a restaurant's name would normally be about enough for me (and probably other vegetarians) to just filter the place out forever. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I somehow got dragged into Texas Chili Parlor for dinner. Given my expectations going in, I was pleasantly surprised just looking at the menu. Soon after, I was filled with food. And I've been there twice now.

Before I viewed the menu the first time, the whole wooden "Texas sportsbar" interior had me lowering my expectations even more.. Don't take me the wrong way; I've been a regular of the Texas sportsbar known as Posse East for years. For vegetarian food, though, that sort of decor seems ... worrisome. Anyway, look what I found:

- 5 bean vegetable chili
- Cheese enchiladas
- Sauteed vegetable tacos

All of these are vegetarian. Three options is more than LOTS of other places. Cool! I believe there was also a breakfast menu, with migas, etc.

Since this was a chili parlor, I felt it might be wise to choose the chili. Next time I'll try the enchiladas probably. Anyway, what was in this chili, you ask? Well:

- Chickpeas, pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, and black-eyed peas
- Bits of yellow squash, also maybe zucchini?
- Other unidentifiables in the bowl
- No cheese (maybe you have to ask?)
- Optional garnish: chopped jalapeños (pickled), onions

My take on yellow squash and zucchini is that.. I generally like them when grilled, say, kind of by themselves. In chili, they probably don't add so much, but for some reason, I support their existence in it. I began the meal by of course sticking in the jalapeños and mixing them around. Crackers (in packets) were provided for scooping up the chili (crackerware?), so I used them. They did the job, though I was thinking "I am in Texas" the whole time. "I should buy a cow and move to Amarillo." "Etc.."

The chili itself was pretty good... everything was well-cooked and flavorful. Slightly not spicy-hot enough for my taste, but no big deal. One thing that interested me was that, of all the chilis on the menu, this is the only one which doesn't offer a hotness-level option. Hmmm... Perhaps that means it's packaged chili? Or else they figure the average vegetarian will NOT walk in... I'm guessing the latter, because the beans tasted fresh. Incidentally, it was better than the veggie chili (containing kidney beans and tempeh) available at Spiderhouse, at least as of the last one I had. Also better than the one at Kerby Lane Cafe.

By the way, in case you were imagining this place as having a large longhorn skull mounted on the wall... I, surprisingly, couldn't find it. Maybe it's in the restroom??

I almost forgot: the chili comes with a side salad.. (+1 points). The salad was great! (+1 more points). Stuff in the salad: freshly chopped non-iceberg lettuce, small amount of julienned carrots, black olive slices... some other objects.. It was all uber-good. FYI: I usually despise raw carrots, but these were sliced thin enough so it was ok. Also, the waitress messed up and put my dressing on the salad instead of on the side which I requested... but.. she was *really* cool and is 100% absolved, for life, many times over.

They also have desserts, like key lime pie, which was pretty decent... not to mention tasting entirely unlike the chili (I had been a bit worried about that).

All around, better than I expected, for sure. No doubt the food was tasty. And of course I'm happy that they're local. Definitely give it a try if you're in the mood for chili. Challenge for you: find the longhorn skull! (They're open late, too.)

Swad

2005-08-22T23:55:00.000-05:00

I've long been looking forward to reviewing Swad, the vegetarian Indian restaurant on North Lamar. What great food!

Now... a light disclaimer. If you're someone who is really into the service at a restaurant.... well.. let's just say I would focus on the food, above all, at this place (though I guess I have that philosophy in general). Not that the service is bad. It's just, basically, hardly existent. Let's call the servers here, not waiters, but: food distributors. You pour your own water, get your own silverware (if you need it, that is), etc. Don't bother asking them any questions (the experts lurk behind the counter). Personally, that sort of thing is a nonissue for me, as long as *someone* knows what's going on and the food is sufficiently delicious... which is DEFINITELY the case here.

It is my understanding that this is, generally speaking, a Gujarati place, with a large number of South Indian items on the menu, as well. In the past, I've usually ordered the Chole Bhatura, which is simply-speaking a chickpea dish (chole) served with puffy bread (bhatura). It's insanely good. During my most recent visit, I ordered the Thali, which has a sampling of a variety of dishes. Hence, I've got a lot to talk about.

First, the item from the old visits. The Chole Bhatura. It's awesome. Highly tasty puffy flat bread, kind of like a Puri, but thicker and less bubble-like, with a bowl of spicy chickpeas in a tomato-based sauce. OMG this is good. I believe I ordered this 4 straight times from there once.. (that sort of consistency is rare for me). Great first item from there! Lots of food.

Now on to the stuff that came with the Thali. There was a choice of bread between puris and rotis. I chose the rotis.

Dal: Pretty good, but nothing compared to the incredible one at Shalimar, that's for sure. Madras Pavillion also had one that was better.. But this one is still highly edible... WAY better than those at Masala Wok and Rushi.

Spiced milky item: Don't have a name for this one, sorry. I guess it was something used for dipping... very liquidy... but tasty. I ended up mixing it into the white rice later on. Oh by the way, there was white rice.

Roti: Very nice. Pliable.. rollable... not as greasy as a puri or bhatura... Let's say this round bread certainly served well beyond the call of duty. Support the Rotis!

Eggplant item: Sigh... another case of my not knowing the name of a food. I need visit this place with one of my Gujarati friends next time. All right... so this was great, too. Kind of a spicy, dry mixture of eggplant, maybe some potato pieces (including perhaps some blue potato??), and some variety of lentil. A bit salty, but delicious.

Mattar Paneer: !!!!! Yes this was excellent! Like Madras Pavillion's in quality. Tops in Austin, both of them.

Papad: Standard. Not an important part of the meal... so no biggie.

Pakora things (I think): A bit dry inside for my taste.. Not entirely sure what these were. Good. Not great.

Rasmalai: I had a friendly heated argument with my friend at the restaurant, who said this was actually Gulab Jamun. After hitting him repeatedly, he finally conceded. That and I (loudly) asked the woman behind the counter. Anyway, the rasmalai was awesome. It's a dessert made of sweet ball things, soaked with and in a spiced cream of sorts. Were it not so good, I would have been more tempted to throw one of the balls at my friend.

Sweet raita?: I was surprised by this, because I don't expect raita to be sweet. I enjoyed it a lot... but .. was it really raita? Does anybody know? ... Is anybody out there?

Dosa: This wasn't part of the thali; I mooched of my friend's meal a bit. This was probably almost about as good as Madras Pavillion's.. though I've had only a few pieces at Swad, compared to many different varieties at MP. Anyway, that means it was great! So was the sambar that came with. Tomato chutney was pretty decent. Coconut chutney was... eh. Ok. I long for Rushi's.

Not that this should matter, but the pickle (not the American pickle) included with the thali was probably something I'll forget about soon. Just ok. Doesn't really matter.

In case there are any Swad employees reading this, I'd like to request that you put back the really funky tiger painting back on the north wall. It was cool.. and certainly better than nothing at all (which is what's up there now).

That is the scoupe. Swad. All vegetarian. Tiger picture missing. Obviously mouth-watering food. Service-robots. You must go! Any meal will do! You like it already! (I would hope)

Julio's

2005-08-16T23:16:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, on a weekend, I headed over to Julio's for lunch. I walked in, and they told me "We're closed." Okay. So I walked out... then I saw a sign on one of the windows, scribbled in pen, stating "Closed today for no particular reason". Or at least it seemed like that. And this wasn't the first of these occurrences. Though I would see the place full of business most of the time, my wanting to eat there would immediately cause it to be closed. Repeatedly. For about two years. Earth went around the Sun *twice*.

That is until this past Sunday, finally. We opened the door, and it was "May I help you?" The menu had one obvious vegetarian option, the "Vegetarian Tacos" or somesuch... but I wanted enchiladas.. So I tried to order off-menu: "Do you have cheese enchiladas?" "Yes we do." Just in case, I asked if they were vegetarian, and she said "Yes." No lard? "No lard." Great!

So the stuff comes. Let's break it down:

- 2 cheese enchiladas under a tomatillo sauce
- Mexican rice
- refried pinto beans
- bit of lettuce w/ tomato
- white flour tortillas
- a little plastic container of salsa

The enchiladas were great.. I was very happy. No doubts better than the standard fare from Chuy's and Trudy's. The cheese was of much higher quality (almost as good as that of Maudie's), and the sauce... The sauce! [imagine victory music playing]

The rice (orange in color) was the opposite... pretty devoid of much resembling flavor. It was there, existing. The refried beans were almost like that, too. It's sad... Ugh... It could have all been so perfect.

Bit of lettuce and tomato. I admit... it was pretty good. Freshly cut lettuce, etc. It at least enabled me to cross "greens" off the list for this meal, in a pleasant way. The salsa (red) didn't seem like anything special, but the tortillas... they reminded me more of the enchiladas in their quality. Good stuff. They made the journey through the refried beans much more worthwhile.

Did I miss something? Oh yeah... That would be the chips (i.e chips and salsa).

That's because: they never served chips and salsa. Ummm... What kind of tex-mex place doesn't give out free chips and salsa?? I've developed several theories as to why this happened. Here they are:

a) They consider the tortillas to be the "chips".
b) They forgot.
c) They ran out of chips.
d) Someone... or .. something... stole their chips.
e) They ate all their chips.
f) They didn't like us.
g) They're anti-chips-and-salsa.
h) I have totally spaced out.

You be the judge. Frankly, I think it was (e).

All right, so the lack of chips to try and the lame rice/beans are big deals to me.... but I'm willing to forgive, since the enchiladas and tortillas were so good. Plus, the fact that it's a local business has to count for something. Maybe if you decide to pay a visit, you'll have much better luck finding it open. Check it out.. but call them up first!

Asti

2005-08-14T22:30:00.000-05:00

The word on the street about Asti Trattoria is that it's decent Italian food (unless you're a hardcore Italian food fan), but probably not worth the price ($10 - $15 a plate). I'd been there once before when I was vegan, and this assessment seemed true back then.. though it can be harsh to judge the quality of a restaurant just based on the vegan options. Unfortunately, Asti starts with points off for being the favorite restaurant of the woman at my title company who did the closing of my house. She was rude in so many ways, it was unbelievable. Ok, that was unfair. Sorry.

I went to Asti (named after an Italian town) the other night for a friend's going-away dinner. Just FYI, the friend treated us all. Free food! Here's what I got:

- Champagne
- bread
- mushroom thing (appetizer)
- Tomato Risotto

Allow me to expound on the "mushroom thing". Well.. let's do that later. Allow me to expound on the champagne. First and foremost, it went straight to my head. I'm no Mr. Champagne, but it was very tasty... a rosé Champagne to be precise. Yeah... don't know too many champagne-related adjectives. Hmmm... well it's not as if Asti made their own champagne, so perhaps it should not have been included in this review. Ah well.

The bread was kind of funny. They gave us this "bucket o' bread". Totally plain looking bread. No olive oil for dipping. No butter for spreading. Not even little herbs at the bottom of the "bucket". Nothing. Just bread. Turns out it was trick-bread: it had some invisible source of flavor, such that it was something like garlic bread. It was pretty good, but vastly more impressive was the sneakiness of it. Makes me want to give little pieces of it at Halloween. I'm sure kids would love that!

Tomato Risotto. Meh.. it was good. Not worth the extra Asti-tax. But good. I took a bit of it home. Basically it was risotto rice (slightly undercooked perhaps??), within a tomato-based sauce, upon which a small nest of delicious mixed vegetables was resting. Once I got to the mixed vegetable section, the quality increased five-fold. Though I didn't finish it fully, it was the kind of meal that left me hungry almost immediately after leaving the restaurant. This is just another example of the fundamental flaw in Italian vegetarian food that doesn't have cheese: it's not a complete source of protein, unless they add a lot of pine nuts. Craig O's is the same way. Before I forget: Asti had five vegetarian entree options, as well as a few appetizers. Not too shabby.

Speaking of appetizers, let's get back to the "mushroom thing". "Mushroom thing" was *amazing*. It was definitely the highlight of the visit, yet it was also a sad moment... for there were six people at the table, and only six "mushroom thing" items. So I had to limit myself to one. Sigh. Anyway, I shall now reveal the full text that was on the menu for "mushroom thing":

Stuffed Mushrooms with Fried Breadcrumbs & Truffle Oil, stuffed with Goat Cheese, Ricotta and Pecorino Romano with Sage

If you like all the constituent ingredients, I can't see how you wouldn't totally worship this item. Also, this is one of the few things I've eaten where the texture is something I actually care about a LOT... I think it was the fried breadcrumbs. They gave a snappy little crunch at the very end. Excellence.

So that's the story.. appetizer was absolutely incredible, and everything else besides the champagne was just good. Also, the service was of expected quality from a place like that. Again, the food was not enough to fill me up properly, but in this case a quick trip to Mozart's, involving a piece of Strawberry Cheesecake, solved that problem. So, I would say, Asti's a good place to try out... get the "mushroom thing" appetizer, and maybe you'll have better luck finding an entree of comparable quality.

Craig O's

2005-08-11T22:16:00.000-05:00

I'll be honest. The only reason I ended up finding out about Craig O's Pizza & Pastaria was that it was so close to work, no one could miss it. Literally across the street (er... freeway), we were all so happy when it opened, as it breathed some fresh air into our previously-stagnating set of nearby lunch options (Sawadee Thailand has now done that again, to a much greater extent.... same with Galaxy Cafe). It was like we were all trapped in Hell, where Hell was eating of the same thing day in and day out. Well... I should pick my words with care. It really wasn't Hell.

The food. Admittedly, it's nothing special (with the highly notable exception of the garlic bread). Pizza? It's okay. Pasta? It's good. Doable for sure. I'm sick of talking about the average-ish things here... let's get straight to the good parts:

- Several vegetarian options: pizza, as usual, works. The pastas have a choice of sauce, etc.. There are also sandwiches, salad, and antipasti (appetizers).

- Ok. I can't stress this enough. Sawadee Thailand has some of this as well: INSANELY friendly ownership! All I know is, if the owner guy (Craig himself?) is there, I'm happy for the rest of the day. That in itself seemingly bumps up the quality of the food.. (more reason not to do the delivery).. The guy is so nice... remembering names... asking about my day, etc.. Maybe I'm just easy.. Just easily amused by people.. Either that or Craig is... not a person?

- This is also a local Austin business (depending on whether you believe the last sentence). So you'll be keeping your money in town, most likely.

This week I ordered the Penne with Marinara sauce. No, this marinara sauce does NOT contain anchovy or anything else nonvegetarian. Oh yeah. That's another thing. Craig knows which things are veg and which things are not. None of the "it's vegetarian, and there are bacon bits in it" revelations you hear at think tanks like Black Eye Pee. Whoops my spelling's a bit off today.

Anyway... right.. The garlic bread, always a bonus with the pasta, was exceptional. I was so sad to see it finish. The pasta was ok. I did not get a chance to get it blessed by Craig. It was a nice hot meal nevertheless, though I admit I was craving a bit more food at the end (this probably wouldn't have happened had I ordered one of the cheesier selections).

As for other items I've tried there, I seem to remember the Baked Spinach Ziti being decent. The pizza, though I don't think is anything really special, it still a step beyond the standard chain pizza places. I mustn't forget about the focaccia bread. That's pretty good, with parmesan baked on the top of it... cheese oils (nothing excessive) seeping in and everything. Oh yeah baby. Highly useful for scooping up sauce from the pasta. Not as awesome as the garlic bread, but still.

So here's the plan. If you're in the area, and you want a .. healthy uplifting experience, combined with sufficient-quality food, make sure Craig is in the house and hop over there. OR, if you're anywhere else, and someone wants to go to Olive Garden, tell them "Ok", but take them here instead.

Sawadee Thailand

2005-08-09T22:17:00.000-05:00

Update: New data from one more buffet visit as well as a take out lunch. For the take out at my workplace, people liked what they ordered, save a few notable exceptions. One person got a ground chicken salad... and it was quite disliked, apparently. Someone else ordered a duck soup. They really, really, really hated it, mostly because the duck had the skin on (supposedly duck skin is much more substantial than, say, chicken skin) and the greasiness level. I personally ordered the Pad Plick Pring (I think), which was pretty good... not to the point of causing me to start a new religion, but, a decent meal. Many people had the Chicken Pad Thai and liked it. As for the buffet visit, it was as good as the first visit, and even better in some ways. New items included the coconut jelly dessert (thumbs sideways), plantain egg rolls (thumbs up!), and pineapple dip for the appetizers (thumbs escaping Earth).. Even more tofu dishes, as well. I must also mention that, after we inquired about the great music that was playing (classical renditions of movie soundtracks), the wife of the ownership couple came to us and showed us the CD. They're so nice.

Original Entry:

Sawadee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The other day, this place was the chosen lunch destination... mainly because it's new, Thai, and near my work.... Here's how it played out:

Approached intersection of Manchaca and Stassney.
Noticed the very nice looking Laredo Bank (or something) building.
Noticed the scary facade of Sawadee Thailand. And the empty parking lot. (ok.. it was before 12)
Walked inside....

... and it was beautiful. Somehow it even smelled like my childhood.

Decent size buffet, good selection of vegetarian options (tofu & potato green curry, tofu pad thai, fried rice, egg rolls, some mixed vegetable thing.... more perhaps). The first two were especially tasty. Meat options mostly, for those wondering. Sorry.... Please realize: I *really* liked this place. I can't stress that enough.

Points for:

- local business
- tasty vegetarian options
- smell reminded me of childhood
- highly nice husband and wife owners ... apparently former techies from California
- PAD THAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Learning my first Thai word (left for you as an exercise)
- second thai buffet option in town (first being Bangkok Cuisine)

Points off for:
- Absolutely nothing

(I don't consider the facade points-off-worthy)

Ok. That was the first visit. We'll see if they vary up the buffet the next time.

Go to Sawadee Thailand!!!! Immediately! Whether you're hungry or not! Tell them you love them!

I'm not done. Good desserts, too: tapioca pudding (w/ diced taro here and there... really cool)... and also the "sweet corn custard" or something... That was great, too. In fact I shall consume one next time. There was also what I call "tapioca pudding #2".. also pretty good.

And the mints are huge.

Go. Now.

Masala Wok

2005-08-07T23:40:00.000-05:00

Update: My most recent visit there had me choosing the Malai Kofta. This may have surpassed the quality of the Spinach Masala w/ Paneer. Upon further reflection, it appears to use the same sauce as the Paneer Butter Masala. The kofta balls are supposedly a mixture of paneer, potato, and some other ingredients. Wow they were good. I'm not saying they're the healthiest things in the world... but... this ain't Casa De Luz. Anyway, I now declare my favorite dish here to be the: Malai Kofta!

Original Entry:

I remember the anguish-filled days after I found out it was opening here. Indian-Chinese food. In. Austin. (Chili chicken at Shalimar doesn't count). Finally.

I went to Masala Wok on its opening day, and it was totally packed. That was about 4 months ago, and the crowds are still huge.

The verdict? Hit or miss food, for me personally, but if you know what to order, you should be VERY happy. Service is what you would expect from kind-of-like-fast-food (it's a chain, albeit with only about 4 locations). The people behind the counter know very little about the cuisine. But don't worry about that for now. It's definitely worth AT LEAST a trip or two, *especially* if you eat chicken, as the Chicken Tikka Masala is universally fawned over by my non-veg friends.

Alas, avoid anything but the entrees. Everything else (appetizers, desserts, tea) seems like it's from a box. Tea/coffee will often be watered down or cold. (meat-eaters liked the Chicken Lollipops, though) (the name makes no sense... at least to me) (there's no lollipop anywhere)

The menu has two sections, "Wok" and "Masala". The Wok ones are the Indian-Chinese food. Now the the novelty has worn off, I have to say that the Masala (i.e. normal Indian food) entrees are king here. Here is a breakdown of most of the vegetarian items the menu: (Yes... Obsessively, I have tried all of these. Yes.. Masala Wok is far away from me. Don't know what to say)

MASALA:

Spinach Masala (w/ paneer): My favorite item here. In normal Indian cuisine parlance, it's palak paneer. Pretty darn good, the times I've had it. Not as good as the one Shalimar used to have... but still, get it!

Paneer Butter Masala: Second favorite Masala item. Nice creamy sauce... somewhat close to the sauce in the Chicken Tikka Masala, supposedly. Update: Well... actually... the creamy sauce is perhaps much like the Chicken Tikka Masala sauce, except without the tomato.

Dal Fry: Average. Just dal in a tomatoey sauce. Nothing special. Dal should be cheaper, anyway.

Malai Kofta: Veggie balls in sauce... Not sure how else to describe. Pretty darn decent when I had it. I'll have this one again for the next trip.

Chole Masala. See my Dal Fry comment. This is better than that, though.

WOK:

Veggie Manchuria: Yeah this is great! More veggie balls, except these are different and in a "Manchurian" sauce. Somewhat reminiscent of the Lucky 7 at Veggie Heaven, but only somewhat. Good intro to the Wok menu.

Masala Wok Spicy: Just tasted like generic American Chinese food to me. Except with paneer. And not enough of it. Blah.

Chili Paneer: Ok. This is the one that was supposed to be the killer. Well... it's really not. Not enough paneer again, that's for sure. The Chili Paneer at Rushi is WAY better, anyway. Basically it's (a bit of) paneer in a chili sauce.

Ginger Masala: Ugh... Why did I even bother with this? I usually like ginger, but.... not this time.

Blazing Masala Noodles: See Masala Wok Spicy.

Allllrighty.. hope this was informative. Something else: the deals are much better with the Masala dishes, as they give you naan in addition to rice, to eat with your entree. With the Wok dishes, you get only rice or noodles. That plus the strange paneer-amount problem in the Wok dishes.... really only the Veggie Manchuria is worth eating from the Wok menu. Strange.

Oh yeah... the music's good here! (from the speakers, not the TV)

So that's it.... Lots of stuff here you may or may not like, but certainly a good set of things to at least get you there a few times.. probably way more. Enjoy! (hopefully)

Chuy's

2005-08-06T19:11:00.000-05:00

For some reason, my office has made Chuy's the default for lunch. Hence, I've eaten from there WAY too many times. Please keep that in mind as I describe the food there... I'll try to be ... objective.

It is consistently decent, however, no doubt about that. Not the best tex-mex in the world by any means, but always edible. It's funny though: they really are *not* consistent when it comes to packing chips, etc, for take out. This last time, they gave us a small white paper bag of chips. A couple of years ago, however, ... let's just say that, for a minute, we weren't sure if they were giving us a week's worth of trash for free.

The chips are pretty good. So is the salsa (red), though there's a slight resemblance to ketchup.

For those who'd want to visit the place, it can get as crowded as Trudy's sometimes. By the way, remember the Bush daughters' fake ID thing? Well, this is where it happened. So that's a reason to visit (or not). Anyways, at least we've got evidence that the drinks are popular.

As for this most recent sampling, I ordered the Cheese Chile Rellenos with (I think) the Green Chile sauce. Came with rice and refried beans. The rellenos were on the delicious side, especially the poblano pepper part of it. The cheese inside was, well, good.. But to me, cheese is always at least "good", so as far as cheese goes, this was just ok. Mediocre. No.. I'll say ok. I guess. Well, I ate all of it. Batter was good, and the sauce was pretty much crowded out by the other tastes, though the texture it provided was nice. The rice was, you know, present. Refried beans were pretty standard (which means tasty). Then I went crazy on the chips and salsa, as always. This time the chips were a bit stale... or something. Very abnormal for these guys. But.. I pigged out on them nonetheless.

To sum it all up, it's a local Austin business, with consistely fairly decent (I really want to say just "edible" again... but... err... trying to be objective) food, and almost some presidential history, so you should give it a try if you're in the area! I'm sure I'll eat from there again.. (not exactly by choice)

Rushi

2005-08-06T13:38:00.000-05:00

Ah yes... the other day we finally made our long-awaited trip way up to Rushi to try their lunch buffet. I had been there on two other occasions for dinner, and it's ranged from blah to excellent, depending on the order. I'd say the buffet had a similar range, but overall, it was good... No bad things, some great things.

Quick overview of previous visits: Dosa good! Sambar bad! Coconut chutney excellent! Chili paneer (Indian-Chinese) excellent! Paneer tikka good but supposedly not authentic!

It should be noted that the people there are really nice. Ramgopal (sp?) (from Vijayawada), who I think owns the place with his wife, said he would offer my Goan friend a free Goan dish as long as she gave an honest opinion of the food. Pretty cool, eh? They serve lots of things from all over the Indian Map (they're from Andhra Pradesh state), so they're looking for input on the stuff they didn't totally grow up with. Also, most of the items on the buffet have a little sign with a listing of the main ingredients as well as whether they have dairy, egg, meat, etc. Big brownie points for that!

Enough of the playing around. On to the hard data.

Naan: Ok to decent. About as good as Masala Wok's.

Potato stuff (?): Pretty good... unfortunately didn't get the name.

Papad: Standard. Kind of like the one at Madras Pavilion.

Matar Paneer: Went back for seconds. Paneer was ok here, but overall the dish was decent.

Lemon Rice: Mmmmm! Lemon-y and Peanut-y! Nice...

Chili Gobi: I got four servings of this. It was AWESOME. Kind of like a different version of Madras Pavilion's Gobi Manchurian. I came close to smuggling some home, but it didn't work out. VERY SPICY.

Misc noodles: Blah. Not worth the scooping action. Well... better than that. Kind of low-to-medium flavor generic Chinese-ish noodles.

Chicken Wrap: Supposedly pretty good (not Indian at all).

Chicken Tikka Masala: Supposedly almost, but not quite as good as Masala Wok's (which has its own religion now)

Coconut Chutney: Not the same as the insanely good one I had last time, but still ok.

Dal: This tasted like what comes out when I make dal at home but forget to put in half the ingredients.

Chana Masala: Ah yes also went back for seconds on this! Seemingly a bit too clovy for my taste, but I still liked it.

Boondi (Bondi?): Yummy appetizer/snack. I think I had two of these. I believe I've gotten the name wrong somehow. Help anyone?

Taro chips: Meh. Though it's a great concept, execution wasn't special here. I'd rather have had any random potato chips.

Idli + Sambar: Didn't get these since I tried them on another visit.

Mango Lassi: I'm not the biggest fan of mango lassi in general... Though I have nothing against mangoes, I vastly prefer just sweet lassi. The one here didn't change that philosophy.

Strawberry ice cream: Wow. This was unexpectedly delicious. Tasted and looked homemade even.

As long as I find a couple of things at a buffet that I really like, I'm very happy.... so if you're like me that way, don't worry too much about the number of "ok" items there.

All right... so I'd say it's worth a trip! Locally owned place, and REALLY nice people. Tell Ramgopal that Paul sent you...

Shalimar

2005-07-29T18:58:00.000-05:00

In my book, Shalimar has a storied past. Honestly, I wish it weren't so storied. Ah.. the old days... before the ownership change.... before the food turned to evil. 'Twas the best South Asian food in Austin (arguably).

[minute of silence]

The old glory days of Shalimar are over, but I'm trying to forget about that. I won't go into what used to be good there, etc. Consider the universe to have begun right after the ownership change, which was mid-2004, I believe. After that, I went there a couple of times, tried some of the "new" recipes, and promptly locked myself in my house for a few days so as not to vent my frustration on the wrong people.

Weeks later, with a clear mind and zero expectations, I went in for another try and was shocked to discover one spectacular menu item, the Dal Fry.

Fast forward a few months, to this past weekend. I paid another visit there and decided to play it safe, so I ordered the Dal Fry again, with a naan. My friend ordered the Palak Paneer, also with a naan. We shared.

Naan: Highly edible. That's still great here. Looks like the best naan in Austin now that Bismillah no longer exists. Served piping hot with a bit of ghee drizzled on top.

Dal Fry: [drool].... This is one of those items... so tasty that it seems like it ran out before you even sat down. The best dal in Austin that I've had. Such a rich flavor.... I can still picture it on my toungue. [still drooling]

[still drooling]

Palak Paneer: There are two general categories of palak paneer that I've had. One has very creamy spinch (i.e. with added cream or yogurt), such that it's taken on an almost light green color. [drooling starting to end] The other kind doesn't have this creaminess, so it's left with the normal forest green color. I usually like the second one the most. Well, Shalimar has the first one.... but, I guess I was pulled into the dark side, because it was still pretty good. Actually, it was really good. The paneer within was of decent quality, as well.

Last but not least, I had looked forward to having a paan after my meal, but I heard that the normal paan guy has been sick. Let's hope he has a speedy recovery.

[drooling basically finished]

So, an excellent visit it was. Worthy of future exploration, for sure!

Trudy's

2005-07-26T22:35:00.000-05:00

I don't have much to say about Trudy's. It's popular to a fault, the food's decent, and the drinks (i.e. Mexican martinis) can be quite good. Excellent for people-watching. That and the Mex-marts are probably the main reasons to go, as well as the fact that the kitchen is open until midnight.

The other night I was there to celebrate the in-town-ness of a friend's girlfriend, who proceeded to reach a hilarious state of intoxication, to the point where every thing coming out of her mouth (words, that is) made perfect sense, yet did not fail to rhyme. Well most of it made sense. In our state, we all thought it made sense.... Ok anyway, here's what I ordered:

- 1 Mexican martini
- 2 enchiladas, one spinach, one mushroom, both with the hot "caliente" sauce
- sides of Spanish rice and pinto beans

Mex-mart was standard. Pretty good. Did the job properly. Enchiladas were, you know, ... good. Normal. Not *awesome* like those at, say, Maudi's. The caliente sauce wasn't as caliente as I had hoped... Maybe they got the wrong sauce? Pinto beans were surprisingly tasty... though they didn't light a candle to the ones at Artz. Rice was ... useful.

Ho hum... this is the normal situation at Trudy's. Now here are the odd standouts this time around: black beans from my friend's plate were REALLY good... That completely flabbergasted me. Another, more important, is the salsa that goes with the chips. The chips are average, and so are the salsas (green and red).. But this time the green hit the jackpot.

There's a salsa made in San Antonio (or El Paso?) called La Fogata, easily acquired at groceries here. I think it's their "roasted" one. It drives me insane.. Total salsa bliss, everywhere you look. Inescapable. Nothing you can do about it. The point: this Trudy's green salsa (just from this visit!) was evvvver so slightly comparable to La Fogata. Realizing that left me in a sweaty mess and with a burned mouth... as I'd suddenly finished several refills of the stuff. Anyway, many salsas around town are better, but this was completely unexpected.

Moral of the story: go there for the crowd and/or the drinks. You might get lucky and go on a day where one of their normally passable food items is suddenly, deperately, inspired.

Artz Rib House

2005-07-25T22:44:00.000-05:00

Artz Rib House is the best BBQ place in Austin.

Here is the big reason: It's the only one in town that carries a veggie burger. On top of that, it's even homemade... and WAYYYY better than the ones at, say, Hut's Hamburgers. I think it may be my favorite veggie burger.

Let's run down my meal from the other day:

- Veggie burger, with smoked gouda cheese and extra lettuce
- Potato salad
- Pinto beans
- Pickle

I will ignore the pickle's mediocrity in this review. But who cares about pickles? As I was saying, the veggie burger is great. I had it from there probably... 10 times, and it's *never* been bad. Always good or better. This time it was way up there. The bread is a tasty whole wheat bun. The lettuce wasn't the pathetic iceberg shreds you get at (again) Hut's. It was healthy-looking green-leaf lettuce. As for the gouda.. Meh... not worth it. Didn't really taste it. No biggie.

Now on to the potato salad. This stuff is one of the most consistently well-made items I've had in this town.. It's always been top notch. The main points here:
- Paprika sprinkles on top
- Celery seeds scattered about
Don't like celery? As it turns out, a good friend of mine hates it, yet he's still fond of this. Anyway, it's awesome. Whenever we have some leftover at work, and I'm in the office, I eat AMAP, ASAP.

Pinto beans. If you're hostile toward black pepper, I predict you won't like the ones here. I, however, am pro black pepper. I think they also have some crushed chilis or something. [mouth waters scarily]

Oh yeah... and the BBQ sauce is great, too. I just stuck some on my spinach salad today. I was a happy man.

So make the trip to this local joint for the veggie burger and some very satisfying sides (don't forget the cole slaw). Otherwise, if (a) your meat-eating friends are craving BBQ and you're a burden, or (b) the one carnivore in the group can't stand seeing her veggie friends happy unless she's ingesting vast quantities of cow and pig, this is your place!

(Incidentally, the cow and pig are apparently pretty good here, too)

Madras Pavillion

2005-07-18T21:31:00.000-05:00

It's time for the essay you've all been waiting for: my Madras Pavillion retrospective. (Let's call it MP for sanity)

In short: Go. Eat well. Say hi to Delfino (the manager).

I've been paying visits to this place for a few years now. In general, it's pretty darn sweet because:

1) All vegetarian
2) Huge buffet
3) Pretty good food most of the time, some of it excellent
4) South Asian food (my favorite genre - albeit a hugely general one)

I admit, this is an awesome restaurant.

Ok. Some history. I remember back in the days when the best South Asian place in town was probably Sarovar. Long ago, my son, that changed. This place came along.... and I think pretty much was king for a while. Then we saw Shalimar enter the picture and change the playing field... To me, Shalimar at its peak was the best South Asian place in Austin before or since in my experience. (ok, MP *looks* a bit better... but usually don't care about these things). Welll.... ok .. this is clearly very arguable. But no doubt about it: Shalimar was heavenly.

Look... every restaurant has something messed up going on in the kitchen... at least some of the time. MP got caught... and a couple of years ago failed a health inspection. They even closed down for a while. Then check this out: at the same time, their quality was going down.... PLUS... they raised their prices.

Thanks MP! I'll gladly pay more for your worse food that failed the inspection! Yay you! Ugh. (repeat this last word ad infinitum)

I want you to go there. The food is great. There was a stretch last year when I was going there every week. Could have been everyday it it had not been 15 minutes from work. It was scary.. I was obsessed. (Shalimar had it's era like this, too) I admit that. My denial phase is over. And ... I still... have this "problem" to some extent. To sum it up, MP has erased the dark era completely. Good has prevailed. Evil has been confined to the outskirts of the restaurant, alive, but longing for a quick death. (and I suppose much of the evil has taken shape at Shalimar, which plummetted in quality after an ownership change) No more failing inspections. MP lowered prices. Most importantly, the food!!! It has returned to its higher plane of existence. Any questions?

Ok well... the prices have gone up again. But so have all the others in town (yeah yeah blanket statement, blah blah...).

Last year I developed a system for going through the buffet. Here it is for your reference. If you have the same taste buds as mine, you shall find this method ... infallible.

1) Pick up large plate.
2) Rest two of the small bowls (of the larger variety) on the plate.
3) Fill one bowl with sambar (generally pretty good here).
4) Fill the other bowl with rasam.. Quite refreshing.
5) Pick up one idli (I've seen two kinds there... one plain, and one with.. stuff), and one vada. Both of these are quite decent. Evvvvery once in a while, the idlies feel kind of sticky... but they still taste good.
6) In the remaining real estate on your plate, you have your first choice of the day. They pretty much always have either the rice pongal or the upma available. Scoop up one of those. If sweet pongal is there, by all means... please get some, too.
7) Optionally proceed to the end of the buffet and pick up a papad. If it's anything other than brittle, discard it.
8) Also optionally pick up some of the onion or coconut chutney. I think the coconut one is worthy of moderate worship... though Rushi's is superior.

9) Go to your table.
10) Sit. Consume. Soak the idli and vada in the sambar before ending their existence.
11) When they ask you if you want a dosa, say yes if you're REALLY hungry, because we'll be going back for seconds, and possibly dessert. Oh they're great, it's just that I've personally had too many of them. As for the choice of dosa, I recommend the masala, mysore masala, or onion rava. Keep the employees on their feet by asking for a "sada masala dosa" (impossible combination, because sada means plain, while masala implies non-plain).. (I don't take credit for this one)
12) Go back for seconds. Get a large plate.
13a) If gobi manchurian (cauliflour in a chinese-influenced style) is available, fill your plate with it... and try to steal the metal container and take it home. Actually... venture into the kitchen and get all of it that you can... tell them that you'll die if you can't have it. Everyone will freak out. Madness. Let none slip through your fingers. I think they have couple more restaurants in Texas. Go to those and steal all of it from there, too. Once you're done, eat all of it, wait a week, and do it all over again for dessert. (all right... that was a joke, but.... believe me... just eat it)
13b) If gobi manchurian is not available, go home. Just kidding. Do this: declare loudly "It's a non-gobi-manchurian day" so that Delfino will hear you. Then sample whatever other stuff they have. You'll like most of it probably. Sometimes, you'll find something excellent. Whatever it is, complement it with rice or roti.

14) Go to your table
15) Sit. Consume. If you ordered a dosa, and it arrives, make sure you have more sambar and maybe chutney, and consume that as well.

16) Room for dessert? Yes, because this is all planned out. They are, however, fairly hit-or-miss in this department. If there's payasam, you're set. The warm kesari is also pretty good. Everything else is ... questionable.

17) Optionally try the curd rice if you're into that... Not my thing.

18) Go to the counter. Have some saunf. Pay. Take note of the bear near the door. And it's all done!

I hope that was helpful. Now for a summary of today's experience there:

- non-gobi-manchurian day
- sambar was a bit off
- vada was a bit undercooked
- pongal was pretty good
- idli was decent
- no dosa was had
- mattar paneer was excellent
- chana dal was excellent... and unexpected.. perhaps better than the one Bismillah made once.. before it became "El Azteca Marketa"
- the green bean thing was also hardcore excellent
- warm kesari was great

All in all, a good day! But for reasons other than those I'm used to.

I'm sure I missed something. Go there anyway! MP!

Galaxy Cafe

2005-07-13T23:07:00.000-05:00

My workplace did takeout from Galaxy Cafe (!!!) today. I called them at some point before, asking if their soups were vegetarian. Turns out they are not, but the answer was instant from the lady I spoke to. That makes me happy.. Plus she realized that chicken broth in soup = nonveggie! Awesome. No worries though, plenty of vegetarian sides.

What I ordered: Veggie burger (their homemade pattie), with smoked gouda cheese, plus french fries. Good bun... decent pattie... (points for being homemade, of course)... gouda cheese was... well actually I forgot about it during the meal. As for the fries... nothing special... Tasted like Dog & Duck's fries. So overall I consider it a good experience.

There were two other veg options, besides the sides, etc... One was a wrap... and the other was . . . a sandwich perhaps? In general, besides the breakfast section, the menu items were burgers, wraps, and sandwiches.

Because the chocolate chip cookies inside looked insanely good, I tried to guilt them into throwing one in... you know... since we ordered so much... for the whole office.

Paul: "Wow those look really good."
Lady: "If you'd like, I can add one to your order"
Paul: (rrrrr!!! doesn't sound free)

Points for:

- local business
- decent veg options
- cool inside! (like you're in a GALAXY)
- knowledgeable phone attendant
- sweet potato fries being on the menu
- getting the large order exactly right
- great name
- veggie burger is homemade

Points off for:

- blah french fries
- and not enough of them, at that

Ok. Yes... Sure.. I know. French fries don't transport well, and after they lose their piping hotness, it's all over. I understand that this is the prevailing view. And I respect it. I feel differently. Though I still prefer the freshest fries possible, I find cold ones still edible... and for sure: my favorite fries (opal devine's), cold, are still leagues better than average fries.. even fresh.

Sounds like other people in the office generally liked their orders... One didn't expect mayo to be in her wrap.... but hey... it was clearly on the menu as such!

On the sweet potato fries.. I tried one. It was pretty decent. Generally I'm not a huge fan of the orange sweet potatoes... which is what these are made of... but I found these good nonetheless.

Try it!

New Romanian restaurant in Austin

2005-07-13T22:56:00.000-05:00

I have no idea if the food is decent. No veggie options I could see. All I know is the name.

Drakula.

All is right in the world.