16th March, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Lats weekend I went with my hubby to Hai Ky on Spicewood Springs for an early dinner. This is the same location where Triumph Cafe used to be. The Yelp reviews aren’t that great, but I thought the food was pretty good. I had the Bun Goi Cuon tofu, which is sauteed tofu with carrots, cucumbers, peanuts, cilantro, and peanut sauce, and I thought all the veggies were nice and fresh and the tofu was cooked well. My husband had the pho, and thought it was good. The service wasn’t spectacular, but the place seemed pretty clean, the servings were large, and the food was typical Americanized Vietnamese food. A good choice for vegetarian meals if you want a lot of options, as there were probably 8 or so tofu meals. 
17th June, 2011 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
Yesterday I went to Phara’s Mediterranean Cuisine for a friend’s birthday, and it was really good! Probably not THE best Mediterranean food I’ve ever had, but still pretty high up there and also earning extra points for being such a unique spot with excellent service. (We probably had a group of 25 people there, and our food came out quickly and we were well taken care of by friendly staff.)
They had 4 vegetarian entrees, and of those, I chose “Tenzin’s Famous Aloo Channa” ($14), which was recommended as the best vegetarian dish of those 4. The menu describes it as a ”combination of potatoes, garbanzo beans and coconut milk together with a zesty blend of curries” served with couscous and basmati rice. It was very delicious and I had no leftovers. It reminded me a little of Indian food, maybe because of the coconut milk, but it was less spicy while still having a lot of flavor.
Phara’s had a belly dancer while we were there, so that was fun to watch as we sat outside in their expansive patio area. Phara’s also is BYOB, which is great, especially with a large group of people. We had a great experience there and I would highly recommend trying it out for a vegetarian meal, or for your next large get together.
And no restaurant review on this blog is complete without a poor quality phone picture of what I ate, so here it is! It was really good!
24th September, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Last weekend I had an enjoyable dinner at the North location of Kerbey Lane. I’ve been to the Northwest location several times, and to the campus location a couple of times and I’ve usually have a pretty good experience. Kerbey Lane is listed in the Austin Environmental Directory as one of a handful of restaurants in Austin that uses locally grown food, and if you are looking for something vegetarian, they have a lot of choices (in addition to great non-vegetarian dishes.) The food is inexpensive, and while often compared to Magnolia Cafe, I have to say I like Kerbey Lane better. However, as with many Austin restaurants, the service is not always great and that’s my biggest complaint.
Last week when I went though, the service was good, and so was my dinner. We ordered the queso, which was tasty.
My husband had a salad and I ordered a tomato pie from the seasonal menu. I was expecting something with a flakey crust and was a little disappointed when my meal arrived and saw what looked to be a piece of bread topped with tomato and cheese.
The presentation wasn’t great, but my disappointment ended there. I don’t know how they made it, but it was so delicious I would like to go again tonight and pick up another. The crust was soft and rich, the tomatoes were well seasoned, I didn’t even notice the olives on it and I hate olives, and the cheese was melted and a little tangy. It was so simple but it was wonderful.
I’ve also had their pancakes (always good) and salads (always fresh). So check it out if you haven’t yet!
23rd July, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Last week I visited Bombay Bistro with a friend, and we both had great meals. It’s located in the Great Hills area at 10710 Research Blvd, Ste 126 (right by the HEB), and it is rated pretty well by customers on yelp and urban spoon (4 out of 5 stars for both places). The restaurant’s website isn’t working well for me, and without being able to look at the menu again I can’t tell you what I had, which makes this a pretty inadequate restaurant review, but what I can tell you is that this was probably my 4th visit to this restaurant in the past 2 years, and I’ve never had a bad meal and the service is always good. Each time I’ve always gotten a vegetarian dish, of which they have a good variety, and I’ve always overeaten. It’s American-ized Indian food, so it’s probably not very authentic, but it’s a nice spot to go during the week if we don’t have time to make dinner. The lighting is sort of dim and it’s decorated very nicely (big comfy booths, bronze decorations, sort of an exotic feel) – you wouldn’t expect such a nice looking restaurant to be located in an HEB strip mall - it’s a very relaxing, comfortable atmosphere. The prices are reasonable ($10-15) at Bombay Bistro, and if you are trying to eat vegetarian meals more often when you are eating out, Indian restaurants in general are a great place to start because there’s always such a great variety of interesting vegetarian dishes!
16th July, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 4 Comments
A few months ago, Carsi and I tried to review several farmer’s markets in Austin – we were able to go to 3, but since then we’ve become aware of several that we’ve never been to (for example, one at the Barton Creek Mall, one in South Austin). One farmer’s market that I’ve never been to but would love to try out one of these weekends (since it’s probably the closest farmer’s market to my house) is the Cedar Park farmer’s market. Starting this Saturday, the Cedar Park farmer’s market is relocating from its former location to the Lakeline Mall, located at the intersection of 183 and 620.
Here’s some info about the market from its website:
“F2M’s Cedar Park Farms to Market is an outdoor market where you can not only
meet the farmers and producers; you have the opportunity to ask them how they grow
and produce this wonderfully fresh food. The relationship with the producers is quite
a bond,” said Carla Jenkins, Organizer and Founder of Cedar Park Farms to Market
Texas. “Lakeline Mall, with its accessibility to Central Texas and large space, is the
perfect setting to relocate Cedar Park Farms to Market.”
Approximately 45-60 vendors will be onsite including:
Amador Farms, Bush Farm, Cowan’s Farm, Fruitful Hill Farm, Green Valley
Farms, Hairston Creek Farm (organic), Hillside Farms, Manheim Market Gardens,
Orange Blossom Farm (organic), Schwegmann Orchard, Star Farmers Market, Tecolote
Farm (organic) and Two Happy Children Farm.
In addition to offering sustainably grown fruits and vegetables, the market also
features meat (pork, lamb, beef), poultry, eggs, dairy (goats and cow milk products),
seafood, many fabulous prepared foods to take home or eat there.
photo credit
30th April, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Last weekend I went to lunch at the vegetarian Indian cafe, Bombay Express. It’s an old favorite of mine and I hadn’t been there in awhile. There have been times before when I ate dinner at Bombay Express, took home the leftovers, and then immediately started to eat the leftovers, continuing to eat to the point of making myself feel sick – and yet still continuing to eat. It is that delicious. And the reviews on Yelp are very good, and I’ve spoken to friends of mine who are Indian who say it is the best Indian food in Austin.
The green part: it’s all vegetarian. And delicious. If you’re looking to branch out and try new vegetarian foods, and foods that are very different from what you’ll get at most Austin Indian restaurants, it’s a great choice.
The not green part: everything is served on disposable plates. Some things are even served on styrofoam. It’s a little out of control and I’ve backed off of eating there because of it. When I went last weekend, I probably hadn’t been there in about 1 year, and things had gotten a little better, with the use of paper plates for more dishes than had previously been the case. But I still felt wasteful eating there.
Here’s what I had:
Thaali: an assortment of different dishes. Served on a plastic tray, so not to good for the environment. The food was good but because of how it’s served, I don’t think I would get it again. The next two dishes are much tastier and a little greener in their presentation.
Masala Dosa: A generously-sized, extra fine crepe made with rice batter, filled with seasoned potatoes. Served on a paper plate, it’s one of my favorites and is a meal in itself.
kachori: fried dumplings with a spicy green pea filling. I get these every time. These yummy little guys are served in a little paper tray.
So there you have it – the green and not so green of Bombay Express. I hope to someday have the courage to strike up a conversation with the owner about the styrofoam.
19th March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
This week I tried out Elevation Burger. It’s located near the Arboretum at 9828 Great Hills Trail. They serve 100% organic, 100% grass feed, free-range beef. I gave up beef for lent, so I didn’t try the burgers, but my father-in-law and husband each had one and thought they were pretty good. I had the veggie burger, toped with caramelized onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and “elevation sauce,” a creamy tomato sauce, which was pretty good as far as veggie burgers go. At $3.89 it was a good price too. What I was really impressed with though was the french fries, which are fried in olive oil – they were the best fries I had had in a long time. I also had a vanilla milkshake with black cherries and chocolate sauce, which was very tasty as well. It wasn’t very busy when we went and the service was very good – we were even asked if we wanted extra fries near the end of our meal, but by then we were too stuffed. It’s a nice place to check out for a mid-week dinner.
5th March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
For Restaurant Review Friday, our goal is to not only present some restaurant ideas for the weekend that highlight local or organic food, but also some vegetarian menu suggestions at more mainstream restaurants.
In February I had dinner at Jardin Corona with some friends. I can’t find a website for the restaurant, but its rated 4 stars on yelp and google, and I thought it was delicious and very reasonably priced. I had the veggie fajitas and they were great. I’ve found that the veggie fajitas at most Mexican food restaurants are pretty standard – zucchini and/or squash, onions, and maybe green peppers that have been sautéed. The fajitas at Jardin Corona were unexpected and scrumptious with all the usual veggies, plus sautéed carrots and button mushrooms. And the veggies had a spicy flavor that went really well with fresh sour cream and guacamole. For $8.99 it was a great value, and there was enough leftovers for 2 more meals.
19th February, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 3 Comments
I recently tried out the new Torchy’s Tacos location on Spicewood Springs. Torchy’s is part of the Go Local program Carsi wrote about, which promotes local Austin businesses. Additionally, Torchy’s buys all of its food products from local Texas-based businesses (with the exception of their green chili’s from New Mexico), so it’s a cool business to support. I went on a Saturday afternoon around 3:00 and it was still packed at that hour. It was worth the wait though -I had the fried avocado taco for $3.25 and it was a delicious, inexpensive lunch. The employees there were very friendly even though they were up to their hips in taco orders, and the restaurant was very clean.
5 stars!
