Short N Sweet Cafe

Short N Sweet Cafe is a bubble tea/milk tea/smoothie/ice cream/dried fruit place located in the Megaplex known as Chinatown Center. "Chinatown Center" is basically a massive shopping center in north Austin filled with asian stores.
The cafe pretty much looks like a closet full of Christmas decorations threw up on it. But the bubble tea and smoothies are great!
Drinking our smoothies over The Onion.

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Shalimar

Shalimar is a Pakistani/Indian restaurant just a couple miles north of us in central-ish Austin. It's a total hole in the wall- I mean, it's just 2 doors down from a dollar store. But we love this place. We fantasize about the food here when we're not eating it. The menu is quite extensive, there are a lot of choices. Appetizers, meat dishes, as well as an extensive vegetarian selection.

Chicken Tikka Leg, $4.49
Aloo Palak, $5.49. Chicken Makani, $7.49.
Naan bread, $1.
Okra Masala, $5.49
Add rice & Naan to your meal for $2.

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The Belmont

The Belmont is a classy-ish restaurant/bar in downtown Austin. They've got really good quality food, and a nice rooftop deck. The best thing about the Belmont is Monday night Movie & Margaritas. Every Monday evening, they show a movie (usually either a classic or a comedy) on a movie screen on their outdoor patio, and their margaritas are only $2. Which is an awesome price, because their margaritas are both delicious and strong.

Mmmmm for $2 margaritas...

Pressed Cuban Sandwich, $9. Ryan really enjoyed this. In fact he didn't want to go to the bathroom because he was worried they'd take away what was left of the sandwich.
Arugula, Roasted Pear & Goat Cheese Salad with spiced pecans, $6. This salad was delicious. I don't know exactly how they did it, but the combination of flavors with the dressing, pecans, cheese & pear was really tasty. I don't usually love salads, but this one was good.

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Chinatown Restaurant

Ok, so our goal is to try every restaurant in Austin that has cart service before my parents come to visit in November. We want to take them to the best place since they don't exactly get a lot of Dim Sum in Charlottesville. So far we've only ventured to eat Dim Sum at Shanghai Restaurant since it's a mile from our house, so this time we decided to try Chinatown Restaurant after reading a good review in the Austin Chronicle.

Everything was delicious, particularly the dumplings.
The desserts were my favorite (they always are). The crust on the custards is so flaky it melts in your mouth.
Our total bill before tip was $27, for 8 dishes and hot tea. We definitely recommend this place to Dim Sum fans.

Dim Sum Menu

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Eddie V's

Eddie V's is a really, really nice seafood place. Great service, amazing food. The problem with nice restaurants is that the food is so pretty but the lighting is so dim, so it's hard to take good photos of it. These photos were taken after a lot of adjusting of the candle thing in the middle of the table and a lot of patience. I think we should push for dim lighting in places like McDonalds. Now there's a place where you don't want to be able to see the food that's going into your mouth. Anyway, here's what we ate at Eddie V's...

Tempura battered Softshell Crab, $16.95
Sweet Corn and Crab Chowder, $7.95
Swordfish Steak, broiled with fresh jonah crab, avocado and red chile vinaigrette, $24.95
Brabant Potatoes, $6.95

Alaskan Halibut, Sauteed with citrus fruit, roasted macadamias and brown butter $24.95

Bananas Foster Flambee with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, $6.50 (action shot with bananas still on fire)

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Which Wich?

Which Wich? is a sandwich shop on the strip of stores and restaurants across from campus on Guadalupe. We haven't really shopped much on this strip, but it's a nice place to stroll and window shop/people watch.

There are tons of different ingredient choices, which you mark on a paper bag along with your name. All of the sandwiches are $4.75. Milkshakes are $2.50.
Vanilla milkshake, egg salad sandwich on wheat bread.
Triple cheese melt with thousand island dressing. Yes I'm gross.

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Clay Pit

The Clay Pit is consistently ranked the best Indian restaurant in Austin, and was even ranked by Bon Apetit magazine as one of the best Indian restaurants in the country. While the food is amazing, I think a few hole in the wall places really give Clay Pit a run for their money. However, Clay Pit definitely has the best ambiance, if that's important to you.

Their lunch buffet became one of our addictions early on. The lunch buffet is served every day except Sundays, when the restaurant is only open for dinner. However that hasn't stopped us from showing up at lunchtime not once but twice on a Sunday hoping for buffet. No, we don't learn from our mistakes and yes we have trouble keeping track of what day it is.

The buffet is $8.50 per person, and includes meat dishes, vegetable dishes, a salad/fruit bar, 2 choices of soup, and dessert. You can refill your plate as many times as you want. We pretty much max out at 2 plates.

Cucumber sauce
Fresh Naan bread is included when you come for the buffet.

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Galaxy Cafe

The Galaxy Cafe has several locations throughout Austin. We decided to try the Triangle location, cause it's only a few miles from us. The Triangle is a fairly new development with apartments, shops and restaurants. They also have a nice park that hosts a farmer's market every Wednesday evening. Anyway, on to Galaxy Cafe:

Galaxy Cafe is one of those places that has good food that you order at the counter. It's casual and pretty cheap, while still having a really nice atmosphere.

Tortilla Soup. Flavorful, a little spicy. $2.50 Good beer on the menu. $3.50
Jerk marinated pork tenderloin, topped with cherry-apple chutney and served with rice pilaf. Slightly sweet, savory. $9.95
Grilled Chicken Chipotle Wrap with grilled chicken, cheddar cheese, pico de gallo, black beans, green leaf lettuce & chipotle mayo. Served with yummy sweet potato fries. $7.75

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