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Review content:
I went here last night, enticed by the Austin Restaurant Week Menu offering a three course meal for $35. This was a Wednesday night so we didn't expect it to be hugely busy, so where slightly disappointed to be sat on table halfway into the stairwell with every waiter and bathroom patron brushing past my jacket. Why did no one take our jackets?!? To be fair I asked to be moved, and was moved to a great table, that certainly cheered me up.
The menu is amazing. A little bit pricey, but some very interesting selections. I decided to ignore the set menu and go a la carte, the other 3 went for the menu. We began, of course, with the wine list, and started to get disappointed. A Mediterranean grill / tapas bar with 0 Spanish wines ?!? Interesting.
A wrong starter was brought out for one of us, but our great waiter left it for us on the house, which was nice. It would be generous to describe the actual food as such. A tuna tartar had an extremely bitter aftertaste that none of us where able to place, and not much else. My softshell crab with a crunchy batter turned out to be more deep fried fish finger than anything else. That's fine though, I love fish fingers. Both the ladies went for a creamy pasta dish who's name I forget, but it was rather good.
Ah, the mains. My duck was tough, my side order forgotten. My wife, who had specifically requested her r*ck of lamb to be at least medium rare due to her being pregnant was dismayed to find it rarer than the two steaks we had ordered as well, and I found myself eating lamb instead of my duck. The steaks were unimpressive cuts of meat, averagely prepared, nothing to write home about. The ladies ordered Creme Brulee for desert, and I am somewhat of an aficionado. I rarely order it in restaurants as a disappointing creme brulee makes me very sad, but I have never come across one that I didn't finish anyway. Imagine slightly runny scrambled eggs, flavoured with vanilla. Disgusting.
Overall, poor poor poor.
Pros: Ambience
Cons: Food
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