Chowing in Austin is taking a one week break for the holidays. If you and your friends or family are going to be in Austin, here are some places around town with special Thanksgiving menus. Call in advance to make a reservation and check on their hours, because many are serving their Thanksgiving feast during lunchtime on Thanksgiving or the night before or after Thanksgiving.
III Forks - Thanksgiving menu
Shoreline Grill - Thanksgiving menu
Driskill Grill - Thanksgiving brunch, Thanksgiving dinner
Katz Deli- Thanksgiving & Christmas day menu
Mansion at Judge's Hill - Thanksgiving brunch
Monday, November 24, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Bombay Bistro
We had a hankering for Indian food today, and found ourselves trying Bombay Bistro for the first time. It's a little pricier and fancier (read: dimly lit) than some of the other Indian places in town, but the quality of the food is superb.
I'm not sure what the thin, crispy flat bread is called, but they bring it to your table for free at the beginning of the meal along with two dipping sauces. The appetizer is Aloo cashew rolls, $3.95.
Bombay chicken curry, $11.95. Roganjosh, $13.95. The entrees were served with Basmati rice. In the background: Riata, $1.95
I'm not sure what the thin, crispy flat bread is called, but they bring it to your table for free at the beginning of the meal along with two dipping sauces. The appetizer is Aloo cashew rolls, $3.95.
Bombay chicken curry, $11.95. Roganjosh, $13.95. The entrees were served with Basmati rice. In the background: Riata, $1.95
Friday, November 21, 2008
Cookie Lounge
The Cookie Lounge is a brand new place near campus. It was started by Mark Chapman, who is one of the best pastry chefs in the US. These cookies are on the pricey side, but delicious and the concept is so unique it is worth the visit. You get to pick a cookie dough flavor, then pick from an extensive list of "mix-ins," and then pick a cookie size. Cookies can be ordered by themselves or with milk or ice cream. Your personal cookie is baked just for you and delivered hot out of the oven in about 10 minutes.Medium dark chocolate cookie dough with butterscotch pieces & English toffee, $2.75. Large oatmeal cookie with St. Domingue 70% French Chocolate, $3.40. Both partially eaten by the time this picture was taken, because they just smelled so good.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Leaf
The salads at Leaf were delicious. Even if you aren't a salad fan, you might appreciate the huge variety and interesting salads they have. The salads are large and filling, and they also have bread, soup, and a variety of drinks including wine available. We were there near closing, and the owner was nice enough to come out and ask the few remaining diners if we would like a cup of soup for free, since it would just be thrown away otherwise. So Ryan had a yummy cup of lobster bisque on the house.Cobb Salad, $8.99, Strawberry Fields Salad, $8.59
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Mooyah
Mooyah is basically fast food burgers and fries. Except, it's a lot better, both in quality and service. For one thing, they make your burger and fries while you sit and wait, and then bring it to your table for you.
The fries are fresh and delicious hand-cut potatoes, the burgers are great, and the milkshakes are quite tasty. The only thing we don't recommend is the grilled cheese sandwich, because for some reason they forgot the "grilled" part of grilled cheese. Looking at this photo now, it looks pretty gross. But that's just how fast food looks. Trust us, this is better than the standard places.
The fries are fresh and delicious hand-cut potatoes, the burgers are great, and the milkshakes are quite tasty. The only thing we don't recommend is the grilled cheese sandwich, because for some reason they forgot the "grilled" part of grilled cheese. Looking at this photo now, it looks pretty gross. But that's just how fast food looks. Trust us, this is better than the standard places.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Jorge's
Jorge's is pretty standard Tex-Mex, and they've got locations in Austin as well as Dallas & Amarillo. It's good, but definitely not some of the best in Austin.
The soups were the best part of the meal. This size was called a "cup" of soup, but it was really a small bowl. Posole, $5.29. Tortilla Soup, $5.29.
Jorge's Deluxe: cheese enchilada, beef taco, pork tamale, beans and rice. $11.79. Flautas de Pollo: Two chicken grilled flautas topped with Salsa Espanola, beans and rice. $10.79.
The soups were the best part of the meal. This size was called a "cup" of soup, but it was really a small bowl. Posole, $5.29. Tortilla Soup, $5.29.
Jorge's Deluxe: cheese enchilada, beef taco, pork tamale, beans and rice. $11.79. Flautas de Pollo: Two chicken grilled flautas topped with Salsa Espanola, beans and rice. $10.79.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Mozart's Coffee
Mozart's is the awesomest place. It's right on Lake Austin, and has several huge decks overlooking the water. What better way to spend a beautiful fall afternoon than relaxing at Mozart's with a good book, coffee, and something chocolate?
Shanghai Restaurant
Shanghai Restaurant is the 4th Dim Sum restaurant we've blogged, and I'm sure all 2 of you who are reading this blog have had about enough of this. Sorry! We really love Dim Sum. Shanghai is our favorite in Austin, partly because it's so close to our house we could walk (if we weren't so lazy) and partly because it's just amazing. So much selection, and the quality is fantastic. The prices are great too, you can expect to spend about $15 or so per person and feel like you've just had a feast. The Austin Chronicle seems to agree with our love of this place.Fonda San Miguel
Fonda San Miguel is considered one of the best if not the best Interior Mexican restaurants in Austin. (Unfortunately, it's also pretty much the most expensive Mexican food in town.) And of course, the best Mexican restaurants in Texas cities are the best in the entire country. For those of you who are new to this terminology like I am, "Interior Mexican" means authentic Mexican. Non-border, non-Americanized Mexican.
The atrium at Fonda:
Inside the main dining room:
The atrium at Fonda:
Inside the main dining room:
The Oasis
I promise to start blogging more restaurants on the water, (various lakes around Austin) since Austin has some great ones and I have yet to blog about any. Naturally I had to start out with The Oasis. This is the place that everyone takes out of town visitors who assumed Texas would be a desert of tumbleweeds. One friend of mine who was visiting from the east coast described The Oasis as "sitting on the corner of paradise."
The cool thing about this restaurant is that you're up high. Really, really high. So you have a grand view of Lake Travis stretching off into the distance.
Lunch on a beautiful fall day. Don't get drunk and fall over the edge! We forgot to take photos of the food... just imagine run of the mill Tex-Mex and American food. It's decent, but the reason you come is the view, not the food.
The entrance to the restaurant has sort of an Italian villa feel to it. There are multiple floors and decks, and the top floor is a bar, so you can come for a few drinks if you aren't in the mood for food.
Since it's November, we went for lunch, which is why it's daytime in the pics above. However the main draw of The Oasis is the sunset, so I thought I'd throw in a pic of the sunset I took at the Oasis while there for dinner over the summer:
The cool thing about this restaurant is that you're up high. Really, really high. So you have a grand view of Lake Travis stretching off into the distance.
Lunch on a beautiful fall day. Don't get drunk and fall over the edge! We forgot to take photos of the food... just imagine run of the mill Tex-Mex and American food. It's decent, but the reason you come is the view, not the food.
The entrance to the restaurant has sort of an Italian villa feel to it. There are multiple floors and decks, and the top floor is a bar, so you can come for a few drinks if you aren't in the mood for food.
Since it's November, we went for lunch, which is why it's daytime in the pics above. However the main draw of The Oasis is the sunset, so I thought I'd throw in a pic of the sunset I took at the Oasis while there for dinner over the summer:
Imperia
Imperia is a pretty new Fusion restaurant downtown. They've got inventive stuff on the menu, some straight sushi, some mixing food from different Asian countries, and some mixing Asian dishes with stuff the chef pulled from who knows where. It's got a cool interior.
Edamame, prepared hot and salty. $4.95
Edamame, prepared hot and salty. $4.95
Monday, November 3, 2008
MT Supermarket
MT Supermarket is a huge Asian grocery store that mostly carries Chinese goods. This place is seriously like a football field, it's so big. There's an entire aisle dedicated to potstickers! As well as an entire aisle dedicated to different types of soy sauce.Aisle of soy sauces:
Produce section:
Some frozen goods, and a bunch of other stuff. Come here for each and every one of your cravings for anything Chinese. MT Market is in Chinatown Center in north Austin.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Korea Gardens
We've driven past this place so many times on our way home, and also read a good review, so really had no excuse not to try this place out. I'm glad we did! They've got a great variety of dishes on their menu, and what we had was quite tasty. We were there for lunch-- dinner is a bit more pricey and includes the option of grilling at your table.Chicken BBQ with veggies, $11. Side dishes that come with the meals also pictured (kim chi, sprouts, etc.)
Stone pot Bimbimbob, $12.
Halcyon
UPDATE! We returned to Halcyon last night for S'mores (which you roast right at your table!), Bananas Foster Crepes, and coffee. All delicious! They accidentally lost our ticket and took over 30 minutes to serve us-- so they comped all our food! This was just icing on the cake for us, we were enjoying relaxing on their patio and people-watching so much that we didn't even realize how long it had been. Free, delicious food after 30 minutes of relaxation? I hope they lose our ticket next time...
previous entry, 9/29/2008
After leaving Austin City Limits Sunday night, we staggered into Halcyon on our way home. Halcyon is a downtown coffee shop/bar that we've passed many times and thought was cute, but never tried. Turns out we were really missing out. This place is awesome.
First of all, it has a great outdoor patio area that's perfect for people-watching. And the interior is cozy- tons of tables, couches, and a nice bar area.
We decided to eat outside so we could watch everyone else limp home from ACL while we relaxed. Here's our iced latte and vanilla frappe, $3.70 each:
My Nutella crepe. I love these things. It was hard to pick between the Nutella crepe and the bananas foster crepe, but not that hard. Nutella always wins in the end. The crepe was only $4, so I was expecting one crepe with a little Nutella thrown on a plate. Instead, it was 2 delicious crepes filled with Nutella, covered with chocolate sauce and finished off with whipped cream. So good!
Ryan's carrot cake, $6. Also very delicious. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to fill up on caffeine and sugar before bed... oh well. It was worth it.
Maiko
First, a note to sushi lovers: There are a lot of sushi places in Austin, considering the population here. I don't really know what the reason is, but this city is just packed with sushi bars. So if you love sushi, you'll like it here. Check out austinsushi.com, a blog about eating sushi in Austin. And if you're a very experienced and picky sushi eater, head straight to Uchi, which boasts one of the best sushi chefs in the country. (Listed in Food & Wine magazine as one of the best new chefs of 2005)
Ok, now on to Maiko...
Maiko is a trendy and somewhat pricey sushi place downtown. However, they have a happy hour every day with discounted sushi, appetizers and drinks, so check their website for the happy hour times. On Sundays, they have $1 sake carafes! We were there for the Saturday happy hour, so we got cheaper sushi but no $1 sake carafe. :-(
Ok, now on to Maiko...
Maiko is a trendy and somewhat pricey sushi place downtown. However, they have a happy hour every day with discounted sushi, appetizers and drinks, so check their website for the happy hour times. On Sundays, they have $1 sake carafes! We were there for the Saturday happy hour, so we got cheaper sushi but no $1 sake carafe. :-(
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