Austinist: Hopes Raised, Abandoned at Belmont Restaurant

Joe

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 12:36:17 -0600

I always consider it a mistake to order seafood in any town that isn't a seaport. Of course there's no guarantee you'll be getting fresh fish or competent preparation on the coast, but the odds are higher. But it sounds like the problems at this place are far larger and more systemic.

jimmy

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:42:16 -0600

great room, we had tasty martini's and yummy salmon and salads. we will be back

tom

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 07:21:47 -0600

i had a great time and the steaks were the best we have had in austin

ultradave

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:45:17 -0600

Yeah, nice-looking place but wow did they blow it with staffing. Food is so bad it's like some kind of performance art (I kept waiting for someone to come out with a camera and tell me it was a joke), and its always a great sign to order drinks from a bartender who tells you "I don't know what that is" when you ask for a manhatttan, and then looks at you like you're a jackass for ordering it. Wow. I'll give them a few months to get all this sorted, but in the meantime I am steering WAAAAAY clear of it.

Jmac

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:37:12 -0600

Incompetent bar staff no doubt. Over the weekend I leaned over the downstairs bar and said "gin gimlet, with onions". The tardbender scoffed "with onions?!" as if I requested something out of the ordinary, bizarre or severely not-right. Maybe I missed the new rage with gimlet style only in-the-know kool kids can cop to, but unless I'm mistaken, onions are traditional. Hindsight always 20-20, I should have told him I was just "Keepin' it weird". The irony of a Native saying that to him when ordering a traditional drink in just the kind of yuppie hoedown that is making Austin anything but weird... most likely woulda been lost. Oh well. At least he had a foreign accent, that always helps any situation. When I got my drink, it had 2 pitiful, floppy little onionettes, but whatever, onions. I took a sip. I'm not sure how, but in a drink composed of gin and juice (and onions), this dude fucked it up. The good news: it was real juice. The bad news, it was way too much, and bitter. Fortunately we made our way over to Hi-Lo who served it well and classy.

oh, steph

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:36:54 -0600

I just saw an ad on Craigslist for a Sous Chef position at the Belmont. Perhaps the bartenders were pulling double duty and making sloppy sauces....or maybe you got the sous chef fired! The austinist deals another crushing blow.

bug

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 10:51:29 -0600

I can't agree with you more. I had high hopes myself, but the food is fried to within an inch of its life, and the clueless college-aged wait staff knows little of bartending outside offering you another bud-lite. There's a lot of potential there, but the belmont has squandered so much of it on the physical space that they have little/none left over for actually hosting their guests in style.