newme's Profile
Best Dessert Dish on South Congress?
I like the cannoli at Homeslice and pretty much any dessert at Vespaio.
enoteca: not very good...
I really like the polpete. In the sandwich is my favorite, but with the penne is good too. I would wait until cooler weather to order it, but I have to have it when the time is right.
For dessert, I like the olive oil cake, but that is easy to make at home. To me, the fries used to be really good, and then dropped off. But maybe because I got more interested in the other menu items. I don't remember the salads very well, but do remember that they were dressed well - light but with flavor.
Options close to Zilker Park?
Made me laugh. I am going to assume by "foodie" you mean people that want to eat something actually good and not pay a crazy price for it. If you are looking for more fine dining, there are lots of posts about that.
Sounds like you want better food than what is right by Zilker park. (God bless those Barton Springs restaurants, but great food is not what they are serving. Not that there is anything wrong with good ambience or convenience.) Besides they will be full of folk who don't know better or just want to eat.
Taco Deli would be a long walk from Zilker, but not unreasonable – they have good tacos. (I like the fish and the mojo tacos. But there are lots of other options) They have been up and down, but they have good, fresh food. I wonder if there would be a bus that could take you closer? They are on Spyglass. No dinner.
There is also Phoenicia on Lamar. More likely bus route. Good kafta, sandwiches, zatar. Also no dinner, no tables. Maybe Curras on Oltorf is also on the bus route? Sandy's has a decent hamburger and good enough frozen custard. No dining room, only picnic tables outside.
Of course, there will be shuttles downtown, and there are a whole lot of options that way. You could walk to Whole Foods (it is not a short walk, but also not unreasonable), which would make sense when you don't need a waiter and can't decide what you want.
If you are not from Austin, I can be more helpful with directions.
Starlite- Excellent meal
I was impressed by the other two reviews and went tonight with a friend. It was great. Ambience - great. Service was really good. He suggested the right wine, gave good comments on the menu. Only (tiny) service complaint was they got busy near the end of our meal and we waited for a little while for a dessert order to be taken. It did appear that they were not overstaffed - which I think is good. As a former restaurant person, I would rather work than stand around. And the standing around usually means whatever tables you have suffer.
The food! The amuse was house smoked salmon. Very nice. Simple. It had a drop of a white sauce something (can't remember what it was) and sprouts (or microgreens?) on top. It had both the fresh texture and the smoked flavor. Good bread roll served. Very hot, not bland.
We had the fried green tomato salad and the hearts of romaine salad. We loved the fried green tomato with the cucumber and minted lime - but it seemed like the aioli made it. I feel like I rarely say that - usually the aioli seems like something I would rather leave alone. Hearts of romaine - good, crisp. I didn't really taste the anchovy, but I love that flavor probably more than other people do. Good cheese.
Lamb loins - if you ever complain about not having enough food at a place like this - it seemed PLENTY. I am a woman, but a good eater. I loved loved the tandori chick pea puree and wish I could get it at the grocery store. The cucumber feta salad was also a good compliment. It sounds like it was "extra" but it was great.
Lovely sauce with the lamb. I don't remember what was in it, but it was good. Now that I think about it, the lamb might have been a hair dry, but I didn't try it until my friend had it for a while. The outside was very good - crispy and firm with good seasoning.
The halibut was also very good - cooked just right, still delicate, but firm. The grits were great and the best part was the glazed endive. It sounded unusual to me, but was lovely - really made the dish. Broccolini was very good, one of my favorite veggies. Again, something that could seem like a superfluous element, but was in fact something that you really want to eat.
The interesting thing about this dish was that I tasted the salt at the end of a bite instead of at the beginning. Kind of a fresh feeling at the end. I love salt, and to me this indicated that they had worked out the seasoning in a way I have no idea how to do.
We didn't eat dessert, but the bar poured a very nice (more than generous) Makers on ice. This is not a dig, but neither of us loves fruit in desserts. There was a lot of fruit in almost all the desserts. Just a matter of personal taste. We were full anyway.
We were there on a Wednesday night. I would go again and suggest it to others. I think the total was 110ish with a nice bottle of wine before tip.
Where to try when you have been most nice places?
Thanks for all the suggestions. We are going to try Starlite.
Where to try when you have been most nice places?
I went back and read your report and it was great. (As were the comments!) Starlite definitely on the list.
Thanks to the chowhounders who do the detailed reports. I should have done that for my recent Fino and La Traviata visits, but now the details are long gone. I will try to do better, as I surely appreciate a good detailed description.
Thanks ashes!
Where to try when you have been most nice places?
Thank you for the suggestions. Vespaio is a possibility - it has been a long time since I have been there. Belmont seems not food-focused enough.
I guess the question is - if you were going to roll the dice, would you choose Wink, La Traviata, Asti, Fino, Zoot, or Vespaio? I am having a hard time getting really excited about any of them, but am looking for that sort of general atmosphere, food and wine. Maybe Starlite should be on the list - does that deserve another run?
Where to try when you have been most nice places?
My friend and I are going to dinner on Wednesday to celebrate her birthday. We have been to all of the medium fine to fine dining places in Austin and want to go somewhere in that range to celebrate. Who is exceeding your expectations these days? (For example I have had lukewarm feelings about Fino, but had two very good lunches there recently.)
Is there anywhere that you think might be on a streak? I was thinking about giving Wink another shot or maybe Zoot? Any thoughts? Many thanks for your help.
Austin-Little Thailand
If you have concerns about going with someone who may not be into Thai food . . . they also do an excellent steak. Sounds funny, but it is so.
