Ah, yes, Bennigan's. About as authentically Irish as John Kerry. Not that there's anything wrong with that, per se: I figure if you're going there, you pretty much know what you're in for, and the only question is the execution.
There was a time (in the past year) when I went to the Bennigan's on Riverside a fair amount: it was convienient to my (then) office. That one's all right. The one on I-35 at 183, though, seemed a bit off on this night.
First of all, they were "out of" tortilla chips for one of the sampler
platters. Sure, and I understand that with the weather and all they might
not have gotten in the truck, but couldn't they have sent somebody up the
road to Sam's, or Fiesta, or the H.E.B. to fill in until the truck got
there? (Maybe that's "against policy". If so, it sounds like a stupid
policy to me.) The French Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkey
Onion soup at Bennigan's is usually pretty good: here, though, it was
served at a temperature just below lukewarm.
The Monte Cristo (also known as "The Heart Attack On a Plate") came out within specs. Our server did a fair job: he kept my tea glass reasonably full, for example, but more or less ignored (even after multiple requests) that of the diner sitting next to me. It didn't help matters that we were crammed into a table at one side of a narrow section of the restaurant, with tables on the other side and a very narrow corridor between (not to mention the occasional loud electronic peep from some sort of door alarm or other electronic device).
If this is something you want to do, Lord love you. (Does anyone drink green beer? Green milkshakes, I can understand, though not condone, but green beer?) I'd suggest the Riverside location over this one, though.
Ah, Fern Bar Patient Zero. I can't help but feel the icy wind of Onrushing Mortality when contemplating the fact that Bennigan's was a Hot Trendy Place about the time I graduated from high school. How things have changed.
Which is not to say there's anything wrong with the food. All the appetizers (essentially wings, crab cakes, and deep fired everything) were firmly in the good-to-middling range. The salad was OK, and my steak-and-ribs combo was actually pretty tasty for a non-steak chain restaurant. And I really liked the one bite I had of Mike's structural white ice cream dessert thing. Service was pretty good except for a few tea refill bobbles.
From a sociological viewpoint (and really, who doesn't like a side order of sociology with their fries?), perhaps the most interesting thing about dining at Bennigan's is that, for the restaurant that once defined "Yuppie," yuppies now seem all but absent. For our visit, Bennigan's seemed host to a typical cross-section of Austin middle-class families. Indeed, lumpy 30- and 40-somethings were conspicuously more visible than attractive 20-somethings, especially compared with someplace like, say, Joe's Crab Shack.
As far as Midscale American Chain Restaurants go, I think I like Bennigan's better than TGI Friday's, but not as much as Chili's.
Really, I have nothing new to say about Outback, except that their
French onion soup is quite good for a chain.
Not a lot new to say here. Outback turns out some excellent cheese fries (though the portions seem smaller than they used to be), and more than passable steaks. However, in the same price range, I think that Texas Land & Cattle Company (especially the one on S. I-35) has been constantly improving while Outback has slid back a little, so that TL&CC now offers better steaks and superior service. Still, a credible choice if you want steak and don't want to lay out the scratch for Ruth's Chris or Fleming's.
Taj Palace was, at one point, one of the better Indian places in Austin. Of course, your choices then were Taj Palace and Passage to India (on Gudadlupe): as more places opened up, Taj Palace seemed to go into decline. They stopped offering some of the menu items I liked: I frequented their Monday evening buffet for a while, but stopped after finding bugs in the sugar packets.
I wasn't exactly looking forward to another visit after that experience. This time around, though, I can report that I didn't find any bugs, and that Taj Palace has improved some. Among other things, they've at least brought back the tandoori mixed grill, and priced it very reasonably ($11.95: Sarovar charges at least $2 more, doesn't give you any more food, and you have to deal with Sarovar's service.)
I think the service has improved a little, too. The bug problem still makes me nervous, so I can't give Taj Palace a very positive recommendation, but the observant diner might wish to give it a try.
I like it. It seems to have improved since my last visit many moons ago, and the service and ambiance are miles above Sarovar, while the Tandoori Mixed Grill seemed at least as good. However, it's not good enough to bump The Clay Pit out of our top spot. Still worth a visit if you're in the area.
This is another one of those apparently family run joints that makes me sad and sorry. Sad because the people seem really nice, and sorry because the seafood isn't very good at all. (Okay, with the exception of the raw oysters: those were good, but how many ways are there to screw up raw oysters that won't kill your customers?) My fried seafood platter sat like lead in my stomach, and seemed vastly inferior to just about any I've had in town. On 183, Catfish Parlor, Joe's Crab Shack, or Razoo's are all better choices.
It's hard for me to see what sort of niche Pacific Star fills. It's pretty adequate fried seafood, and my blackened snapper was OK, as were the appetizers and service. But it's more expensive (and not necessarily better than) Long John Silver's. In the same price range I prefer the Catfish Parlour, and for more money, despite all the latter's flaws, it really can't compete with Joe's Crab Shack.
While I did like it more than The Captain's Seafood & Oyster Bar, that isn't saying much, and I really don't feel any compulsion to return. In fact, the most memorable things about the restaurant was the tabby kitten scurrying around outside, which seemed most appreciative of the morsels of fish I offered it. All restaurants with outdoor seating should have cats.
I like it more than Kreuz.
Before I get stoned for being a barbecue heretic, let me just get this in: the pork ribs are pretty good, the sausage isn't bad, but the lean brisket (all they had, alas) was a little dry.
Building's nice, too. Sorry this so short, but I have to run before the barbecue jihad catches me.
For those of you who haven't heard the backstory on Smitty's, here's the Cliff Notes version: When the original patriarch who owned Kreuz Market died, he left the business to his son, but the building the business was in to his daughter. You know where this is headed. Hell, everyone in the world knew where this was headed, or at least those who have read King Lear. [An aside: And why hasn't there been a barbecue version of King Lear? I mean, they've done just about every other crappy re-imagining of Shakespeare possible. "Thou, Barbacue, art my goddess. To thy pit my services are bound..." But I digress...] Son and daughter come to a parting of the ways. Son opens up the new Kreuz Market in a building the size of an HEB. Daughter opens up Smitty's in the old Kreuz Market building.
And how is it? Pretty damn good, actually. Not quite as good as Kreuz, mind you, but a hell of a lot better than anything you can find in Austin, and even better than the last plate of 'cue we had at Black's. It's hard to fully judge because they were out of both the prime rib and the fatty brisket. However, the pork chop I had was the best BBQ pork chop I've ever had, tender, juicy, and flavorful. The sausage ("a hot") was just as good as it was back when Kreuz was here, making it among the best, and possibly the best, in Texas. The pork ribs were very good as well, but still a notch below Kreuz. I wasn't impressed with the shoulder, which I thought was too dry, but that's why I usually get the fatty brisket.
If you're going to make the drive out to Lockhart, I would still advise you try Kreuz Market first. But Smitty's is still good enough to be worth a trip by itself, and edges up into my top five BBQ places in central Texas, and thus the world. I just hope they have the fatty brisket and prime rib the next time I visit. And there will be a next time.
See the logs for April of 2003.