Shalimar offers substantial portions of decent, cheap Indian food. And I was put off by the whole experience. They really push the buffet hard, to the point where they only had one waitress working the night we were there. The mixed grill, while cheap and plentiful, didn't taste that good compared to Bombay Grill.
I find it difficult to quantify why Shalimar seems to have rubbed me the wrong way. But it did. It isn't the worst Indian food I've had recently, but I have no desire to go back.
An Indian/Pakistani restaurant that has the misfortune to dwell in (cue ominous music) The North Lamar Dining Zone of the Damned (roughly speaking, north of 183 and south of T&S Seafood). Fortunately, the interior looks much nicer than the neighborhood.
The samosa I had was decent and cheap (I also liked the fact you could order them individually), but not fresh (I think I got the second to last one; gee, do you think you might possibly make some more? Is that just too much trouble for a restaurant to cook additional food?). They seem to push the buffet, but I opted for the Shalimar mixed grill, which was also decent but decidedly inferior to the mixed grill offerings at The Clay Pit or Bombay Bistro. The garlic naan was quite good, though.
Service was spotty, mainly because it seemed one waitress was tasked with waiting on the entire restaurant (or at least the half we were sitting in). The bill was quite reasonable.
I didn't try the Goat Kahari, which is supposedly quite good.
I suppose this is an adequate choice if you crave Indian or Pakistani food in the area, but I wouldn't drive across town for it. This is the point in the review where I go "I wouldn't mind trying it again." Actually, I would mind, but only slightly. I could be talked into it if someone really tried. But thus far it just doesn't excite me.
Small and kind of pricy. I liked my wild boar osso bucco at first, but after a while the dish became sort of a chore to get through. I found myself wishing I had ordered the scallop special, until the person who did said they thought it was skimpy.
I can see this as being a place I'd take a date to, but I'm more likely to go back to Gypsy Italian Bistro instead.
Sagra is obviously aiming to be an intimate, upscale Italian place near downtown. And as such it's more or less fine. But there are caveats.
First, the inside is pretty small; you have to be careful of bumping into people behind you when you slide your chair back to get up.
Second, the food is decent, but what I had wasn't good enough to justify the overhead. The best thing we had was the calamari, which very nice, with a light, crispy, well-seasoned batter. Unfortunately, as usual, it still didn't dethrone reigning champ The Clay Pit. This is not an inconsiderable problem, given that the Clay Pit is all of two blocks away.
My entrèe was the Rigatoni alla Bolganese, which struck me as underflavored. The sausage I had on the side was much better, so you might opt for the Penne alla Arrabitta that contains it instead. For dessert I had the Gatto di Formaggio (read: fancy-ass cheesecake), which was...interesting. Not bad, but tarter than I expected. It's probably a bad sign that I regretted not skipping that and stopping at the TCBY three blocks away instead. Service was a bit iffy at first, but got better as the meal progressed.
Third, there are the prices, with everything being just a bit more than you expect it to be. After the meal, there was that disheartening moment when all of us had put in what we figured we owed for the meal...only to discover that we were still considerably short of the total. There are a number of less expensive entrees on their extended menu; unfortunately, none of them actually seem to be available during the dinner hour.
Combined with the lack of any traditional "hearty" Italian entrees, I can't really recommend Sagra over competing Italian offerings.
You need to understand what you're getting into. This isn't a standard restaurant, or even a standard barbecue joint like Louis Muller. This is a beer joint, right next to the railroad tracks, that serves barbecue, complete with a jukebox and a population of locals drinking Bud on a Saturday night. We were way out of place here.
I liked the sausage and ribs quite a bit. The brisket itself was tender and moist; it might possibly could have used a bit of additional seasoning, but I thought it was more than passible.
Would I go to Taylor again for it? Not just for their barbecue, no; but I'd happily take out-of-town visitors for a tour of the area and a quick stop in. Sort of an anthropological expedition, if you will.
I really wanted to like this place. Unlike Louis Mueller, it's open until 10 PM. It's got the proper run-down, funky small Texas town BBQ joint atmosphere. And it's run by a World War II vet who fought in The Battle of the Bulge.
Alas, the BBQ itself is really nothing special. The pork ribs were OK, but I found the brisket quite disappointing. Sausage was maybe a step-up from the standard, but still not worth driving out of your way for. The potato salad served up on the side was nearly tasteless. Service was good, and the bill was pretty cheap ($10 for a three meat plate with drinks).
I can't recommend driving out to give it a try, but I wouldn't discourage you from visiting if you're in the area. It's possible we just caught them on an off-night.
Pretty good Chinese food' I would put it at about the same level as Suzi's, but a little cheaper. I did think the hot and sour soup was a bit pricy in proportion to the size, compared to the more substantial wonton soups. They also have real eggrolls, of the sort I remember from my childhood; the fat ones that went out of style in the 90's, not the skinny "spring rolls" that everyone serves today.
But how can you have dim sum without steamed BBQ pork buns? I don't see those on the dim sum menu...
Golden Wok is a central Texas Chinese food chain with much to recommend it. The interior is quite nice, and it's both cheaper and less crowded than P. F. Chiang's, an obvious point of comparison. (It's also has much more parking available.)
The potstickers were generally tasty, but I thought the wrappers for them were a bit thick (the pan fried dumplings at Wok on Fire are much closer to the ideal). The batter on the calamari was nice, but there was too much of it relative to the actual squid (though we did like the sweet and spicy dipping sauce quite a bit). I opted for the House Special Wonton Soup, which was quite impressive, probably the best since the close of the late, lamented Asian Restaurant back in the 1990s. The portions are fairly substantial, about halfway between the average wonton cup and a bowl of pho, and there was a reasonably generous amount of meat in the bowl, making it well worth the $5.95 or so they charged.
For my entrée I had the Peking Duck, which was quite a satisfactory example, tasty and nicely crispy. It wasn't the best example I've had of the dish, but I do appreciate the fact you don't have to order it 24 hours in advance, the way you have to at many restaurants.
Service was fine; our waitress forgot the no ice request, but was pretty good about bringing refills before I asked.
So far this won't push Pao's out of the top spot as our favorite Chinese restaurant, but it's considerably closer, and definitely nicer than Wok on Fire. This is a good candidate for a visit if you live north of the river. I look forward to coming back and trying the Dim Sum and some of the other entrees.
Perfectly competent thin-crust pizza. I think Home Slice does a better while clam pizza (but I admit, I got mine without tomatoes; that could make a difference). The problem is; it's just competent. There's nothing here that fills me with any desire to come back in the near future. It's just...there. Being there isn't enough.
New pizza places continue to sprout up like mushrooms after a rain. (Note to fellow Austinites: "Rain" is what happens when water falls from the sky. I know many of you may not have witnessed this in the last year, so don't become alarmed if it happens.) And The Original Brooklyn Pie Company makes a pretty good pizza; a thin style, a bit greasy with a somewhat thicker and chewier crust than usual. They also make perfectly acceptable salads.
However, it also comes with a significant number of drawbacks, even for a strip mall pizza joint:I wouldn't object to coming here, but unless you have a particular preference for this style of pizza over the Chicago Stuffed Style Mangia's serves, I can't see any reason to choose this over our reigning pizza champion.
See the logs for February of 2009.