November 6, 2006
Zagat's Says We Like Eating Out. Har Har Har.
Zagat's 2007 America's Top Restaurants Survey is out and although the setup on this one begs for an immediate rimshot, it's true - we love eating out. In fact, only Houston residents eat out with more frequency *snicker* than Austinites. Hungry Houstonians are eating out an average of 4.2 meals per week while residents of Austin and Dallas/Ft. Worth eat out an average of 4 times per week.
Trailing in weekly eating-out outings are the respective populations of Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, San Antonio, New York and Boston.
While Austin may not be a gastronomic capital like some other super fancy cities, that didn't stop us from compiling our own list of restaurants Austinites should think of when they ask themselves where the hell they're going to eat dinner tonight:
• French: Aquarelle, Chez Nous
• Italian: Siena, Vespaio, Cipollina, La Traviata
• Mexican: Fonda San Miguel, Borego Del Oro, El Chile Cafe y Cantina, La Mexicana
• Burgers: El Gringo, Jackalope, The Cafe at the Four Seasons, Casino El Camino
• PanAsian: Madam Mam's, Uchi, Satay Restaurant, The Clay Pit, Madras Pavilion, Kim Phung, Tan Tan
• Breakfast Tacos: Mi Madres, Maria's Taco Express, El Chilito
• Sandwiches: The Kitchen Door, Delaware Subs, P&K Grocery, Thundercloud Subs on Lake Austin Blvd
• Pizza: Salvation Pizza, East Side Pies, Home Slice, Mangia, Rounders
• BBQ: TheSalt Lick, Iron Works, Rudy's
• Bar Food: Roaring Fork, Z'Tejas, Hotel San Jose
• Home Cooking, Comfort and Soul Food: Hoover's, Hill's Cafe, Dot's
• Coffee Joints: Flipnotics, Jo's Downtown, Progress Coffee, Clementine Coffee Bar, Cafe Mundi, Bouldin Creek
• Date Favorites: Hyde Park Bar and Grill, Wink, Starlite, El Gringo
• Special Mentions: Pink Avocado Catering, Whole Foods Downtown, Chow Baby Organic Food Delivery
• Overrated: Eastside Cafe, Chuy's, Las Manitas, Manuel's, Mother's Cafe and Garden
Photo by powerbooktrance on flickr
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whaaa? east side cafe is overrated, but fonda san miguel makes yr list?
that headline made me blow dublin dr. pepper out of my nose. sammy, you cad. i didn't actually read the post, though. but i'll get to it.
i have been a huge fan of el chile since it opened, but must admit, the last couple times have been kinda sub-par while the last couple times at manuel's have been de.lic.ious.
Azul used to have the best sandwiches in town, but they started skimping on them and now you need two feel satisfied. it is really one of the saddest developments in my life over the past year.
Seriously, Fonda San Miguel's is the most overrated restaurant EVER. When I went there after hearing people rave and rave for years I was expecting it to have a good wait staff and awesome food. Instead, I felt like I'd traveled back in time to some hideous dinner at grandma's house circa 1983. The whole place had the look and feel of being Ted Haggard's favorite place to eat in Austin. And the food was about as bland and surprising as hearing that he is "sexually immoral."
That said, it IS pretty expensive, so I can see how some people could easily confuse that with Good Food. If Taco Bell charged $18 for a gordita the Fonda San Miguel fans would probably rave about how awesome Taco Bell is, too.
That's cool with me, though. You guys avoid East Side all you want; it just means more baked brie and chicken mushroom artichoke soup for me!
breakfast tacos are an entire gastronomic category now? you ARE aware that they're not technically food, right?
Thanks for posting this list of good places to eat(sw). At least those "bad" places won't be jammed with noobs now.
Need to check the definition of overrated me thinks
Deb, either you're Odam's dream girl or...heeeey, is that *you* Odam? Okay, take off the wig & lipstick. You're not fooling anyone.
Speaking of breakfast tacos, I tried the Wheatsville Co Op version this weekend (egg, cheese, & vegetarian sausage), and mmmmm-mm! The chipotle salsa alone is rave-worthy.
I officially protest Mother's being in the overrated category. It is my favorite restaurant. Someone give me an alternative (a different place where I can sit down in a relaxing, beautiful setting and get a super-fresh salad + a bowl of rice-n-amazingly-delicious black beans for $6.25...) and I'll gladly check it out.
if you are going to be as snarky as to call out specific restaurants in an "overrated" category, then i have to call b.s. on Vespaio as being in the "italian" category. great staff, nice atmosphere, but simply not good italian food by any standard. go to another city (that has an italian population) and see what you are missing.
ps. mothers is wonderful
jooley ann--> i don't know what odam's told you, but all his cute anti-breakfast taco slogans are stolen from me. you really shouldn't eat those things. they're scientifically proven to give you acne of the soul.
www.groups.myspace.com/breakfasttacosareforchumps
eastside cafe is not overrated.
wow, nobody's happy here...
yea, people get more riled up about food than almost anything else on this site, outside of politics and religion, apparently.
as for z.f., i don't know what to tell you. we live in austin, the small somewhat homogenous burgh it is. vespaio is an italian restaurant in austin. probably the best italian restuarant in austin.
Yo! Deb. Wuz up? Why you gotta be a player hater? BT's are what's for brekkie, and lunch, and dinner. Don't hurt me. I might cry.
my gripe with vespaio is that i like good italian FOOD.
not good italian presentation.
or good italian wine lists.
FOOD, my brothers in gastrointenstinal arms.
mutha.frickin.FOOOD.
the service at vespaio is awesome, and they really know how to decorate a place, but the dishes are lacking. i'm gonna be a hater and say Vespaio is the Roy's Hawaiian kitchen of italian in A-town. sorreeez.
sadly, Tony's Vineyard on 24th is the closest i have found to good ital around this bastion of hippieshit tex-mex.
Yeah nobody's happy. Too many mediocre names included in this list.
omg shut this mediocre shit down, nobody happy. Plz suggest alternatives, staff opinions clearly predictable and pedestrian plz advise
Aaron--> I didn't mean to hurt you, didn't mean to make you cry. I'm not against you or your BT loving cronies. I even have a friend who SELLS breakfast tacos. Don't let little old me get in between you and your taco.
Even though they're completely Wrong.
Vespaio may be overrated, but it's little brother, Enoteca is an absolute gem. Moderately priced, pastas made fresh daily, great wine list, excellent Vespaio-style service. My favorite first date restaurant.
Las Manitas is overrated. Do Austin a favor and tear that piece of shit down.
Hey, don't forget about the Don Juan breakfast taco at Juan in a Million. It's the stuff of dreams, or, for certain people, nightmares.
hmm. i *always* have a great meal at chuy's and manuel's. oh, and i tried hill's twice and neither time was impressed with the food. i would recommend moonshine and threadgill's over it any day for home cookin'/comfort food.
Don't listen to her, Deb had a relative killed by a taco. It's understandable since that Taco was her LOVER!! Love/hate triangle relationships can be hard to deal with later. Emotions hard to sort out, etc. Just don't take it out on the entire food genre. Don't hate, love.
Nothing gets more comments than food on Austinist. You could announce that Willie Nelson and Lance Armstrong were dating and there wouldn't be this much response.
Lance and Willie are dating?
The food at Fonda San Miguel is decent, but not really worth $17-$25 a plate. However, their dessert coffee and tres leches cake - the only reasonably priced items on the menu - are great.
armstrong:
i cannot respect any list that does not include Luby's.
viva el hot roll!
Why is the Thundercloud on Lake Austin better than all the others?
If it were me, I'd drop Hill's Cafe from home cooking and replace it with Arkie's Grill on East Cesar Chavez. They have weird hours, so check the website before you go.
Four words:
Awesome Blossom! Swallowed by a bowl of grease/carrot-infused queso. Fry that in lamb lard and coat with powdered sugar or dead fleas. Eat with cantaloupe spoon or rusted kebab skewer. Pair with a nicely chilled table wine or spritzer. Marvel.
Can someone please tell me why Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, and Thai restaurants were all lumped into "Pan-Asian"?
Sam Armstrong doesn't care about Pan-Asian people. Le duh.
Hangingfire, I can be that someone. It was clearly done in order to disrespect all Asians, especially their culinary customs. Wasn't that evident? Take that Allen Chen!
Which was a joke. Harharharharhar. It was mostly perpetrated out of a low-grade laziness that kept me from typing out a new category for each Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, and Thai restaurant, even though they clearly have distinct and unique characteristics. Le DUH. Something in the back of my mind told me to expect a response concerned about any perceived insentisivity, though, and here it is. I probably should have known better.
Anyhoo, when I am burning in Hell with Ann Coulter, Hitler and Doug Henning, you can look down through the clouds and say to me, without hesitation or regret, "I told you so, Sam Armstrong! I told you so." To which I will reply, "My bad."
Hey, for all I know, it was a Zagat convention. In which case you'd just have been following orders their manual of style, right?
Any thoughts on Din Ho? Or are there better Chinese restaurants that I ought to know about?
Rob, each Thundercloud gets their produce, bread and meat from different companies.
Good point re: Zagat Conventions. We made our own though, thanks to the inimitable Tom Thornton. Goooooo Tom!
Doug Henning is not in hell.
Regarding Doug Henning's current residence, it was only an assumption based on my unsatisfying childhood. Plus, everyone knows magicians are devil worshippers. DUH.
I'd add Acquario's on S1st to the taco category, and Mandola's Italian Market to Italian.