Jalisco's

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For my last Tex-Mex meal in Austin, my dad and I checked out Jalisco's in south Austin.  They offer pretty standard Tex-Mex dishes at very low prices.  I wish I came here earlier on.  This would've been my go-to place for comfort food and queso!

Chile con Queso

Chicken Quesadilla

Steak Taco

Hwa Yuan Asian Restaurant: Surprisingly Awesome Korean BBQ!

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My mom's co-worker told her that she had to check out an amazing Korean BBQ restaurant that provides diners with thin slices of daikon radish for wrapping cooked BBQ meat.  At first, we had a hard time accepting that Hwa Yuan, a Chinese buffet/sushi bar place, could actually serve good Korean BBQ.  Well, the restaurant is indeed owned by a Korean family and they do serve Korean BBQ even if no one was eating BBQ when we got there.

Condiments and Banchan at the ready!

daikon slices with which to wrap BBQ meats

Sea Salt in Oil; Spicy Bean Paste Sauce

Meat Platter

Grilling

Meat Wrapped in Lettuce and Daikon

Rice Wrappers

Meat and Kimchi in Rice Wrapper

Spicy Seafood Stew

Grilled Mackerel

I highly recommend this restaurant for authentic Korean BBQ.  Their banchan weren't great, but the rest of the meal was awesome.  It's a little out of the way but worth a visit!

Le Soleil

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These final posts of my last mad rush to cram all the Austin restaurants that I've always wanted to try and can afford on my meager post-grad-going-out-into-the-real-world budget before leaving town will be hurried and lacking in details because I'm already in DC and have been here for a month now and need to start updating this blog on DC eats before I give up blogging altogether from being hopelessly behind!

I heard a while back that the couple who owned Sunflower together divorced and that the husband opened up Le Soleil on N. Lamar.  Since I love Sunflower so much, I was naturally curious about how Le Soleil fares in comparison.

The menu is substantially bigger and offers banquet-style meals.  The food was very tasty, however, every dish we had was quite salty.  I prefer Sunflower.


Vietnamese Iced Coffee

Shaken Beef

Vietnamese-style Sweet and Sour Soup

Five Spice Chicken Lunch Special

Fried Soft-shell Crabs

Pork Chop Lunch Special

Taiwanese "Xiao Chi" at The Rice Bowl

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Coco's was my go-to Taiwanese xiaochi (snacks) restaurant during undergrad in Austin.  However, I outgrew  the place by the time I entered grad school.  The Rice Bowl opened its doors this year and it offers quite a broad mix of Taiwanese and Northern Chinese dishes.  I'm not impressed by the listing of generic Chinese dishes, but their menu was saved by the awesome Roast Beef Rolls!  I believe it's the only place in Austin that serves this!  By "roast beef" they mean soy-marinated beef with tendon, which gives the beef a gelatinous marble surface.  Even if you're not into beef tendon, I promise that you won't even notice it when you bite in.

Roast Beef Rolls

Below are other dishes I've tried but weren't particularly great, except for the awesomely tasty Stir-fried Green Beans with Ground Pork!  The most disappointing dish was the beef noodle soup.  The noodles were chewy and kind of luke warm and the broth tasted like just water and soy sauce, no depth whatsoever.  Taiwanese beef noodle soup is supposed to have a very rich, deep beef flavor.  This broth was unfortunately flat.  The green beans and beef rolls, however, make the Rice Bowl worth frequent visits! 

Pig's Ear

Taiwanese Beef Noodles

Green Onion Pancakes

Stir-fried Green Beans with Ground Pork

Birthday at Enoteca Vespaio

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Enoteca Vespaio

I celebrated my birthday back in June by having Italian at the cute Enoteca Vespaio on South Congress in Austin.  I had previously only gotten their desserts to-go.  It wasn't until I was sure of my imminent move to DC that Enoteca came up on my list of "Austin restaurants I'll regret not having eaten at."  I can't afford Vespaio next door, but at least Enoteca gave me a taste of how delicious pasta and seafood can get in Austin.

Cozze - PEI Mussels Steamed with White Wine and Patate Fritte

My parents and I shared the Cozze as a starter.  The mussels were plump and juicy.  The white wine and garlic broth was so good that mom and I ate it up like soup.  The garlic fries are the best fries in Austin.  Yes, even better than the ones from Izzoz Tacos, which I was obsessed over, because Entoeca's is crunchier on the outside yet fluffy on the inside.

Cozze

Patate Fritte

Mom and Dad ordered the pan-seared halibut and wagyu beef pasta, both specials of the day.  The quality of ingredients is especially noteworthy.

Chisholm Ranch Wagyu Beef Sugo with Fusilli, Cipolline, Onions, and Reggiano

Pan-Seared Halibut with Sweet Corn, Tealla, Yukon Potatoes, and Shrimp-Caper Aioli

I ordered the rich and luscious linguine misto mare.  The tomato-based broth is so full of the sweetness of seafood and the pungency of garlic and herbs.  Heavenly.  What's very different about this pasta dish is that the sauce is as thin as soup rather than thick like regular pasta sauce.  This was great because I ate the sauce like soup after consuming all the seafood and linguine.

Linguine Misto Mare - Shrimp, Calamari, Mussels, and Linguine in a Spicy Arrabbiata Sauce

I ended the meal with a cafe latte not knowing that this was the best cafe latte I would ever taste in Austin!  It was a great surprise.

Cafe Latte

House Pizzeria

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After reading great reviews on House Pizzeria, I was determined to get a bite of what some say is the best pizza in town.  However, this was one of the biggest disappointments I've experienced in Austin!

Lemon-Rosemary Italian Soda

Let's start with first impressions.  There's a good variety of Italian soda flavors, which got me all excited.  The lemon-rosemary soda was light, refreshing, and had a strong rosemary scent.  Nice.

The first pizza we tried was the Subterranean with caramelized onion, fontina, mushrooms, rosemary roasted potatoes, basil.  This was pretty good, but the really burnt bottom made bits and pieces of the pizza difficult to consume.  Other than the burnt crust, the intermingling flavors of the fresh ingredients made the pizza quite enjoyable.  I never thought that I would like potatoes on my pizza!  Carbs squared!

Subterranean - Caramelized onion, fontina, mushrooms, rosemary roasted potatoes, basil

Subterranean - Caramelized onion, fontina, mushrooms, rosemary roasted potatoes, basil

The big disappointment came in the form of the Sausage and Mushroom pizza.  It was lacking in sausage, and the crust had an abundance of completely burnt air bubbles.  I had to remove all the burnt parts of the pizza before eating.  I wasn't impressed.

Sausage and Mushroom Pizza

Sausage and Mushroom Pizza

Dim Sum at Shanghai Chinese Restaurant

I've always felt like Chinatown at Mopac offers the best quality and variety of dim sum in Austin.  However, many have recommended Shanghai Chinese Restaurant's dim sum.  I tried it out twice in two months and found it to be pretty good!  Chinatown at Mopac is pricier but the portions are bigger, they offer some dishes that are outside of the dim sum repertoire but are tasty nonetheless, and there's notably more attention to details.  Shanghai Chinese Restaurant has a good amount of variety, the dishes aren't drenched in nasty corn starch, and the quality of ingredients is high.

Here are some of the things from the first visit:

Shu Mai, Fried Tofu Stuffed with Shrimp, Char Siu Bao, Mushroom and Pork Wrapped in Bean Curd Skins

Lo Bak Gao (Turnip Cake)

A Cart of Fried and Pan-fried Dishes

Jalapenos Stuffed with Shrimp 

Ma La Gao (Steamed Sponge Cake)

Green Tea Fried Sesame Balls with Black Sesame Paste

Photos from the 2nd visit:

Shu Mai, Curry Squid, Mushroom and Pork Wrapped in Bean Curd Skins, Ha Gao, and Chicken Feet

Char Siu Pastry

Beef Tripe

Steamed Pork Ribs with Black Bean Sauce

Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce)

Shanghainese Soup Dumplings (very bad version) and Fried Tofu Stuffed with Shrimp, 

Ma La Gao

Fried Sesame Balls with Red Bean Paste