Mike B's Profile
Austin Food & Wine Festival
Thanks for the detailed rundown. Bummed I missed out on that one.
Austin Food & Wine Festival
What wines did they end up tasting at Superstar wines? I waited in line for 45 minutes for that one and got shut out when the VIPs ended up filling the spaces en masse.
I'd say that was one of my major complaints for the fest. If you spent your time waiting for a wine or food demo and ended up not getting a seat, your chances of getting into another one were slim at that point.
I think they're really going to have to consider holding the wine tastings indoors or in bigger air conditioned tents next time. I could actually see dust clouds wafting in towards the speaker's podium for one of the tastings I did make it into. He jokingly referred to the effect of gulping a mouthful of dust when wine tasting as 'Texas terroir'.
Food and wine fest
I saw a lot of complaints from the $250/pass people who weren't even able to get in to see the demos they wanted, so I guess that's the real difference between the $850/pass and the $250. Both are potentially ripoffs, but the $850 at least gets you into what you want to see.
Visiting from California
La Condesa has an outpost in Napa now, so if you are only in town a short time, it might be worth checking out other places since you can hit La Condesa closer to home.
New Hot Pot Place on Anderson
Yes, I went to Chen and encountered the same blandness which is also why I never returned to his original noodle place on 183/Spicewood after my first visit. I also tried the pan-friend dumplings and the bottoms were charred to a crisp which resulted in a not so appetizing combination of burnt taste mixed with bland meat taste.
Clay Pit
I've been mildly disappointed with my recent trips to Clay Pit. I've always thought their protein portions were borderline tiny for the prices charged, and the last few visits have resulted in overcooked, overchewy meat with even tinier portions than I remembered.
I wish there were more authentic Indian choices in Central Austin, but I still resort to Clay Pit in a pinch. Before the culinary boom of the last decade, it used to be one of _the_ places to eat in town, but I think it's just coasting on its reputation at this point.
Elaine's Pork & Pie - great staff, pork, and carrot cake
Pork, pie, and carrot cake are three of my favorite things, so I'll definitely be checking this out.
With all of these retro-hipster places opening up on the Eastside, maybe we need to start referring to East Austin as Little Brooklyn?
Overall view of dining scene in Austin
Is Pappas Bros shooting for the world record in longest wine list?
Hillside Farmacy Report: Good and Bad
Yes, but I'm sure it's farm fresh, local dirt under those fingernails! Worth every penny.
Uchi vs Uchiko?
Interesting. That makes the choice a little more difficult.
If you have a reservation and don't have to wait, I'd choose Uchi over Uchiko due to the intimacy of the smaller space. Plus, it will be closer to all the SXSW action.
Uchiko is better if you have to wait for your table due to the large bar area.
Uchi vs Uchiko?
One of the biggest benefits to Uchiko is that the space is larger and you can make a reservation there. So, I'd suggest making one ASAP.
I bet it will be hard to get into either restaurant during SXSW especially after Paul just won Top Chef.
Austin Food and Wine Festival- worth going to?
I agree with you on some of the crazy crowds at past events. Having a smaller crowd would be nice, but I really doubt C3 took it over to sell less tickets. My main concern on this new format is paying $250 and still not being able to get into the events I want to due to to the crowd sizes.
The $850 ticket is the only ticket that guarantees you a seat at the events.
Austin Food and Wine Festival- worth going to?
I'm still considering going, but when I looked at the schedule it seemed like most of the demos I was interested seeing are up against each other in the same time slots.
For the $250 ticket, it looks like there are 6 time slots with demos and 3 additional tasting events.
I wonder how ticket sales are going for this?
Austin Food and Wine Festival- worth going to?
This is a completely different event this year having been taken over by the C3 folks this past year. My initial inclination would be to say the crowds will be even worse given every other event they do around town, but the price point seems high enough to possibly keep the crowds away.
Should be interesting to see how it plays out.
Olive and June opening night
I also went to O&J on opening night, and I agree that it is sort of hit & miss at this point, but I think they'll get things sorted out.
The $54 steak was very flavorful and quite large (supposedly two pounds of meat) -- it could easily be split between two people. But, it was unevenly cooked and not good enough to warrant the entry fee when there are many better steaks in town to be had cheaper than that.
The pasta is all made in house, and the pasta dish with the short ribs and apple slices was the standout for me. I'd love to go back and just eat that dish on the bar patio with a glass of wine.
Our waiter told us that all the items on the menu were meant to be shared and eaten family style. There are a number of dishes that echo other items that are offered at Parkside or Backspace. I'd like to see O&J's menu continue to develop more of a unique identity.
I think they're still working out the kinks, but this is definitely one to watch. I'll check it out again after the SXSW rush.
Hungry for Fajitas
North Austin is getting Lupe Tortilla, a Houston fajita chain, soon in the Arbor Walk shopping center. I don't know if it's any good. I think Austin may be there first expansion outside of Houston.
Austin Food & Wine Festival
As of now, you have to buy a ticket to the whole weekend.
Austin Food & Wine Festival
Seeing that this is now a C3 run event, I'd say that crowds and seating will definitely be a major concern. I'm not sure I want to spend $250 just for the chance to find out.
I'll miss some of the single ticket events they did in previous years.
Groupon Restaurants to Avoid
The key is to avoid these restaurants in the last week or two before the Groupons expire. If you happen to purchase one of these in demand Groupons, use them up early, because this place will be packed in the last few weeks.
At least Mandolas is pretty large so they can probably deal with the crowds.
I remember that there were big issues at the sadly departed El Arbol where they couldn't accomodate all the people who wanted to use their Groupons in the week before expiration. I wonder if their over-Grouponing was an early sign of the problems to come?
Needed:Chinese Delivery in North Austin
I'm pretty sure that Food Shui at Parmer/Metric delivers. Not anything special, but it might do the trick. Otherwise, I'd try to convince a friend to pick up Ho Ho and deliver it to you.
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Food Shui
1700 W Parmer Ln Ste 610, Austin, TX 78727
Blue Bell Ice Cream
Thanks, I didn't know Graeters was available here. I'm going to have to look for a pint of their Black Raspberry Chip.
Blue Bell Ice Cream
Let us know how it turns out.
She just released a first rate book on how to make ice cream which includes many of her famous flavors modified for making at home. I haven't tried making any of them yet. Every time I look through the pictures in the book it's just inspired me to go to the store and pick up a pint.
Blue Bell Ice Cream
If you are willing to spend $12 on a pint of ice cream, I highly recommend grabbing a pint of Jeni's Ice Cream at one of the Royal Blue Grocery stores.
She uses all natural ingredients and comes up with flavors that are out of the ordinary and most are borderline extraordinary. You can get an idea of the flavors available here:
http://jenisicecreams.com/
Royal Blue seems to get a random selection so the flavors available are different most times I go in.
Sonoran hot dogs?
The Evil Weiner truck does a version of this.
http://theevilwiener.com/
Dry Reisling rec's?
Trefethen from Napa makes an amazing Dry Riesling. It's not widely available, but it should be available to you in the Bay Area. I'd suspect it costs around $17.
Austin airport
The only thing worth eating at the airport that comes close the non-airport version of the restaurant is Amy's Ice Cream. My only other piece of advice is to avoid the airport versions of Austin Java if you can. Try to get coffee at a different airport.
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Austin Java
1206 Parkway, Austin, TX 78703
"Taiwanese style" Chinese Food - very good - Rice Bowl Cafe (North Lamar and Braker)
Thanks, I'm going to check it out this weekend. If they have handmade noodles, I'm sure I'll be there often.
Uchiko
I've been twice now, and I have to admit that I'm unimpressed. At half off, I'm happy to eat at Uchiko, but at full price, I'll head on down to Uchi.
The good:
- the design and size of the restaurant on the inside are a big improvement over Uchi
- the large bar area actually gives people a place to wait
- the presentation of the dishes is excellent
The bad:
- what's with the bland white exterior of the restaurant?
- it's loud. just as loud as Uchi, if not louder
- about 2/3 of the dishes I've had on both occasions were over salted by a wide margin. other people in my party commented on this both times, and this is my main complaint that I hope is corrected soon
- many of the combinations completely overwhelm the flavors of the fish so that you end up tasting very little of the fish. i haven't found this to be true at Uchi.
- the price. not good enough to justify the high price at this point.
After working through most of the menu, my favorite dishes were the Bacon Sen and the grapefruit & corn desserts. None of the fish oriented dishes really did much for me, but if I had to choose one, I'd get the Cobia Crudo.
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Uchi Restaurant
801 S Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78704
Looking for family friendly dim sum
Given your requirements, I'd go to Chinatown off Mopac. It's probably the priciest dim sum in Austin, but they have many non-exotic choices and it isn't intimidating in the least.
