Great pics, Trey! I recognize a few of y'all but I am assuming some of those people were randos? Sorry we couldn't make it this time. I only saw the deets at the last minute and couldn't make it work. I never actually check the OP so I missed it until it was too late since we already had plans. Next time!
Central Texas Community Thread of Heat, BBQ, Heat, Hail, Heat, and Heat
- Thread starter ExitPlanetDust
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Etrian Oddity
Member
Meh, it's Texas though. You guys oughta be used to our two seasons by now (hot and cold) . At least it's perfect for cooling off at Barton Springs.
Also, a brand new menu is coming to a dojo near you. >.>
Also, a brand new menu is coming to a dojo near you. >.>
Okay, this one may seem somewhat random but it gave me a Half Life/Mirror's Edge/Portal vibe.
Pinballz is so popular now we had to park near that stuff.
Pinballz is so popular now we had to park near that stuff.
Ha ha. No, I'm pretty sure you outlasted Trey that way too. He made me take over after he died. Still, the aiming was so poor that that was the best technique for sure.
Ramen Tatsuya
I haven't been yet, but Michi Ramen is supposedly good.
In general a combination of Fed Man 55, yelp, google+ and word of mouth works well.
As discussed earlier the best Asian cuisine restaurant in Austin, Asia Cafe, lost staff. Some seemed to have gone to A+A which has a 3.5 on yelp because it is indeed ambiguous if you're being waited on or not and there's a bunch of bitchy people on yelp.
My favorites so far:
1. Sway
2. Salty Sow
3. A+A (or Asia Cafe of old)
4. Little Deli
5. Home Slice
6. House Pizzeria (long wait, weird part of town is why it's empty)
7. Olive & June
Depends on what you like. Tons of honorable mentions for quick and easy, like:
1. Ramen Tatsuya
2. Cafe Java
3. Taco Deli
4. East Side King
1. Sway
2. Salty Sow
3. A+A (or Asia Cafe of old)
4. Little Deli
5. Home Slice
6. House Pizzeria (long wait, weird part of town is why it's empty)
7. Olive & June
Depends on what you like. Tons of honorable mentions for quick and easy, like:
1. Ramen Tatsuya
2. Cafe Java
3. Taco Deli
4. East Side King
Almost forgot to mention my most recent discovery: Taste of Ethiopia in Pflugerville. I went with Misses teh_pwn on Sunday randomly by dumb luck and the interior, atmosphere, and service was amazing. It felt like we weren't in the US. It was empty because the church goers hadn't finished yet and they put us next to a window with a bunch of greenery shading it up with song birds and a gentle breeze giving a strong illusion that we weren't in Texas.
Zoe
Member
They have a lunch buffet that we've gone to a few times.
I just went to Blackstar Co-op. Beer selection is good, but the logistics are really bad. It seems to take 5 minutes to get another round.
Sherlocks is a good generic north austin pub.
Of course the best stuff is downtown.
Etrian Oddity
Member
Devil's Backbone is a really good Texan beer. Rio Blanco Pale Ale is okay but nothing special compared to Sierra Nevada. Shiner is the go-to cheap beer here and has some pretty good specialty brews (the Ruby Red in particular is a great summer beer).
Austin has some really good local brews. 512 is a pretty rock-solid line and any of their beers are great, particularly the wit.
Also, Baguette House has the best banh mi in Austin. I personally like the grilled beef (I think it's the #11).
If you wanna eat fancy, Uchiko on north Lamar is pretty good (though not as good as its older sister Uchi, south of the river).
As mentioned, most of Austin's heavy-hitter restaurants are south, which sucks for us northlanders.
Zoe
Member
There's still plenty of stuff up north. Our usuals in no particular order:
Rudy's
Flores Mexican
Torchy's Tacos
Verts Kebaps
Stuffed Meat Market
Noble Pig
Plucker's
Muang Thai
Z Tejas
Teji's
Jack Allen's
Masala Wok
Ho Ho
Coco's Cafe
Ramen Tatsuya
Din Ho
Pho Dan
Korea House
Trudy's
Chuy's
Catfish Parlour
Cajun Pizza Place
A+A
Add in all of the national chains and fast food, and we almost never have a need to venture below Anderson Lane.
For fried chicken we prefer Bush's, but Chicken Express is just across the street...
Rudy's
Flores Mexican
Torchy's Tacos
Verts Kebaps
Stuffed Meat Market
Noble Pig
Plucker's
Muang Thai
Z Tejas
Teji's
Jack Allen's
Masala Wok
Ho Ho
Coco's Cafe
Ramen Tatsuya
Din Ho
Pho Dan
Korea House
Trudy's
Chuy's
Catfish Parlour
Cajun Pizza Place
A+A
Add in all of the national chains and fast food, and we almost never have a need to venture below Anderson Lane.
For fried chicken we prefer Bush's, but Chicken Express is just across the street...
I'd like to add Tacodeli to that list because it's my favorite restaurant in Austin. Also, most if not all of the Pho places I've been have been good up north. Pho Dan and Pho Thaison are my favorites.
Verts is probably my favorite lunch place atm. Hopdoddy's has delicious burgers but the line is always out the door.
I do agree that I barely ever need to venture far south to get good food. I mean, I do anyway, but there's quite a bit up north.
Way better off being within Austin city limits if you can swing it, for future property values and access. No one I've talked to likes living in Round Rock or the other suburb cities.
Zoe
Member
I actually haven't been to Tacodeli yet. I keep meaning to try it, but being only breakfast and lunch makes it hard. I'll just have to buckle down and go to the Burnet location one day.
+1 for that. I'm pretty far north, but still well within the city limits. Once you get into Pflugerville, there's like nothing there. I don't even want to think what living in Round Rock would be like. Housing is pretty affordable in the north Austin, but still more than the suburb cities for certain.
Yeah, I know it. That's the one thing I hate about it: it's never open when I really want to go for dinner. But they do have the most delicious tacos in Austin, in my opinion. The Frontera Fundido is a amazing. They're breakfast tacos are great too, but not the best in the city.
squidhands
Member
I live in south Austin but work in Pflugerville. I can confirm that this town is nothing like Austin and is just another cookie-cutter suburb.
Zoe
Member
I guess I'm a little biased because most of our friends live in either Avery Ranch or Teravista, but Round Rock isn't so bad as long as you're still near the major roads, especially with all the stuff still going up around the outlet. Good school district too.
Pflugerville though... at least they have a noticeable Vietnamese population?
FiveElementNinja
Member
I highly recommend checking out Blackstar Co-Op. They have awesome food and great beers that they brew themselves.
If you're looking for breweries, 512, Austin Beerworks, and Live Oak are favorites. There are lots of local breweries here, so it really comes down to style preference.
+1 Austin Beerworks. The Black Thunder is my favorite beer right now.
Not really into all the IPA's people love here, but maybe they'll grow on me.
FiveElementNinja
Member
Yeah I always have Black Thunder in my fridge. And like you, I'm not really into IPAs. I drink most everything else though.
First round of browsing done and were def doing north austin. The rest is too far out in pleasantville. I also want asian and mexican grocers near me.
Correct answer. I'm not even in the camp that suburbia is necessarily automatically bad. But at least the northern suburbs are from what I've seen.
The problem with Round Rock in particular is that despite having a population of something like 50k, it has worse traffic than all NYC boroughs sans Manhattan. Go on I-35 at 10 AM on Saturday. You will go full stop because regardless if you're going long distance or commuting to get groceries, you take I-35 because TX decided to line 1 way strip malls against every highway.
Zoe
Member
Menus are starting to go up for Restaurant Week: http://restaurantweekaustin.com/
Lessee... Our special dinners have been at Estancia Churrascaria, Kome (having a special TV taping tomorrow night), Roaring Fork, The Melting Pot, Salty Sow, Max's Wine Dive, and Hill Country Pasta House. The last one is the only one I'd cross off the list because last time we went they seemed to be struggling for their last breath, in service and quality.
You don't need to worry about dressing up here--this isn't Dallas. Only one restaurant has dared to institute a dress code, and they got blasted for it.
Lessee... Our special dinners have been at Estancia Churrascaria, Kome (having a special TV taping tomorrow night), Roaring Fork, The Melting Pot, Salty Sow, Max's Wine Dive, and Hill Country Pasta House. The last one is the only one I'd cross off the list because last time we went they seemed to be struggling for their last breath, in service and quality.
You don't need to worry about dressing up here--this isn't Dallas. Only one restaurant has dared to institute a dress code, and they got blasted for it.
FiveElementNinja
Member
All the ones Zoe recommended are good. I'd also recommend Pappadeaux or Eddie V's.
Austin doesn't really do dress codes for restaurants. It's very laid back here. The only one I'm aware of is Restaurant Jezebel, a fine dining joint downtown here that has no menu and just builds a custom five-course meal for you based on your ingredient preferences. They list jacket required for men.
The top restaurants in Austin:
-Congress, typical modern fine dining staple
-Uchiko for daring modern Japanese (I highly recommend this one and it's not super expensive, but get reservations)
-Barley Swine for Texas-style fine dining
If you want mid-tier budget instead of high end, there are loads of nice places. Try something like Justine's for awesome vibes and legit French food, or La Condesa downtown for modern Tex-Mex.
Thanks again. So far its been great with one notable fuck up http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1s1jcva
Which is awesome. Though I remember half of the people at wink being dressed up like it was NYC and the other like me.
Other than dress code some places are sticklers to formalities. The first time I went to Olive and June it was deserted and they wouldn't seat us because we didn't have a reservation. The appetizers at the bar were good enough to go back.
Etrian Oddity
Member
MT Supermarket is the best asian grocer in town. Hana World up on Braker isn't bad, though.
There are many good ones, but I also recommend Uchiko if we're staying north. Definitely one of the top three restaurants in Austin (along with Uchi and Barley Swine).
Zoe
Member
That's on Parmer/Scofield Farms. MT is near Braker.
perfectchaos007
Member
I can't believe Highball still hasn't reopened yet because they began renovations in early 2012. I hear they won't have bowling lanes anymore either which is a bummer, but I always went for karaoke anyways
FiveElementNinja
Member
Has anyone been to Porter Ale House? Their food and cocktails look pretty good, though pricey. It's pretty close to me so I'm interested in checking it out.
The entire plaza was destroyed as it's being converted into a massive mixed use condo development. It's just going to be a bar sadly but they'll still have some karaoke. The original re-opening date was supposed to be before Christmas 2013 but that was of course severely delayed. The exterior of the Drafthouse is pretty much complete but they're building an underground parking garage in front of it that is still a ways away.
We've been having to go to Slaughter for a year and a half now.perfectchaos007
Member
]The entire plaza was destroyed as it's being converted into a massive mixed use condo development[/B]. It's just going to be a bar sadly but they'll still have some karaoke. The original re-opening date was supposed to be before Christmas 2013 but that was of course severely delayed. The exterior of the Drafthouse is pretty much complete but they're building an underground parking garage in front of it that is still a ways away.
ugh, that has been the trend in Austin I'm told. Is Rainey street still scheduled to suffer the same fate?
Goddamn it, Zoe. We'll go wherever the hell you think is best if you join us for once ha ha
I've never been there tbh
I was there a couple weeks ago. It's a pub with boardgames and it's pretty fun. Might be a little small depending on how many people come out.
I'm in for whatever as long as there's alcohol involved.
ExitPlanetDust
Member
Oh hey, happy b-day!Sorry for double post. I was lurking in football thread and learned today is Meier's birthday.
Wish him well as he creeps closer to old age and mental deterioration .
Happy Birthday, Meier. I'll buy you a round next time we see you
squidhands
Member
Happy Birthday, Jon!
God, I can't imagine living north of the 35/183 interchange. Hell on earth.
As an aside, I've found myself a lot of times now taking 281 north from SA to Austin and vice versa instead of 35. Much more scenic, laid back, and I don't feel like I have to be on red alert the whole time.
As an aside, I've found myself a lot of times now taking 281 north from SA to Austin and vice versa instead of 35. Much more scenic, laid back, and I don't feel like I have to be on red alert the whole time.
Etrian Oddity
Member
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