For a coffee shop, they actually have decent food. I wasn't all that wild about the spicy chicken skewers (which were pretty bland) but the crawfish pasta was pleasant enough, the service was okay, and the whole meal wasn't too expensive.
Though more of a coffee bar than a real restaurant, the food here is actually more than acceptable. The salad was adequate, as were the chicken quesadillas, and I enjoyed my crawfish linguini quite a bit. Where they really shine is in desserts; my white chocolate raspberry cake was very good, and they give you quite a generous slice. Even more amazing was the fact they employee people with the same slacker vibe as at Kerbey Lane, but who, by contrast, actually seem to enjoy working there.
Worth a visit.
This visit gave me the inspiration for a screenplay: The Chinese Restaurant That Time Forgot. Roger Corman, please call me when you get a chance.
Seriously, Nan King was more than a little strange. The main dishes run about $7.95 per (when was the last time you saw that entree price on a menu?) and the menu lists some interesting items, such as "Kung Pao Quail". However, the menu lacks things like dumplings (steamed or fried: either way, this strikes me as a weird omission). And when I tried to order the kung pao quail...yes, they were "out" of it. Same with the lamb dish that Lawrence tried to order first.
I thought the service was a little spotty (as Lawrence notes, we were sort of shoved in a back room), and the food...eh. There wasn't anything memorable about my scallops in brown sauce, and the tastes I had of some other folks dishes didn't make me want to rush back.
It almost seems like Nan King is stuck in some sort of late 70's/early 80's concept of what a Chinese restaurant is. I'm sure there are people in the area who like that, but I'm not one of them.
The food was actually pretty decent. I rather liked my spicy beef (which was in fact spicy for a change), the wonton soup was slightly above average, the foil-wrapped chicken on the pu-pu platter was quite good, and everything was reasonably priced. However, the service was indifferent at best (taking away the pu-pu platter while there was still a rib left on it without asking me is like snatching a bowl of food away from a Rottweiler), perhaps partially because we were situated in a back room not as easily visible from the main dining room.
I wouldn't rule out a return visit, but I'd probably opt for The Tea House in the same center for Chinese near my house. And if I'm not specifically hungry for Chinese, again, Reale's is all of 50 feet away.
True confession time: I have a secret fondness for Beef Wellington, a dish that was popular at one time but has sadly vanished, for the most part, from the American consciousness. So I was very happy to see that Fleming's has added it as a menu item (though they have, pointlessly in my opinion, renamed it "Beef Flemington"). I was even more happy to find that the dish was flawlessly executed: the puff pastry was rich and well browned, the beef was perfectly cooked, and the mushroom duxelles and madeira sauce were just right.
The rest of my dinner? The onion soup was very good, I'm still quite fond of the Fleming's Potatoes (but was, sadly, too full to eat as much of them as I would have liked). I would like to see a different preparation, and perhaps more variety than buttons and portobellos, to the mushroom side: for example, adding some hen of the woods and shitake, and roasting them (like Craftsteak in Las Vegas) would work.
I was also quite pleasantly surprised by the complimentary slice of cheesecake which they served me: I was even more surprised (but less pleasantly so) when Lawrence proceded to snatch the cheesecake out from under my nose, and replace it with the complimentary chocolate walnut pie he was initially served. However, I admit: it was damn good pie.
I do think they've backed off some on the almost absurdly excessive service (try "smothering") that used to characterize Fleming's, but they kept my glass full and treated us well.
My opinion hasn't changed: still your best bet for great steak.
As in our last trip, pretty much everything here was top notch. The calamari was definitely better this year, very close to that served at The Clay Pit. My steak was excellent, if even pricier than in years past, the cajun grilled shrimp were very well executed, and the shoestring potatoes I split with Diana were quite tasty (and not cooked dry the way the last batch I had at Ruth's Chris were). I liked both my complementary birthday cheesecake and the bite (OK, the half) I had of Diana's crème brulee.
The only thing that didn't work were the onion rings. They were decent, and the chipotle mayonnaise that came with them was very tasty indeed, but they simply aren't worth the $7.95 Fleming's asks for them. Also, the crab cakes, while good, were rather undersized for the price.
Was it worth it? Frankly, at $80 a pop, I'm having a hard time justifying it even for special occasions, though I do think your money goes further here now than it does at Ruth's Chris, especially given the blessed lack of a heinous tipping policy. While the steak and atmosphere are indeed better than that served at JC's, they're not twice as good, which is the price differential. Once a year I can handle, but they're not nearly compelling enough to consider more frequent visits..
Reale's maintains such admirable consistency that it is tempting to just cut and paste my previous comments on the last official SDC visit. The cheese bread, pizza and spumoni remain excellent. I didn't care for the white pizza nearly as much as the regular, but that's been true for pretty much every white pizza I've ever had.
About the only real news is that they have a new website.
Still the Austin Gold Standard for Italian food and thin crust pizza.
When I first reviewed the Roaring Fork, I was pretty excited about it. Sadly, this visit has tempered my enthusiasm somewhat.
The first problem is that they seem to have done away with the tasting menu. I say "seem" because our waiter was confused when we asked about it, and to this day, it isn't clear to me if they no longer have the tasting menu, or if the staff just doesn't know about it. (Or, worse yet: the staff knows, but doesn't tell people, just to keep the tips up.) I think doing away with the tasting menu was a rather short-sighted decision that runs counter to trends these days: I hope the Roaring Fork management will reconsider.
In the food department, I thought my duck was quite good, but the green chili macaroni served on the side stole the show from it. The cheese fritters were also delightful, but so rich that I couldn't eat more than one.
Service? I think the Andy Dick comparison is slightly unfair: our waiter didn't quite reach that level of annoyance. But it is almost inexcusable to me that my tea glass was left unfilled from the time my dinner arrived to the time they were clearing my plate. Meanwhile, they were busy refolding napkins when folks went to the bathroom. (Seriously, why do high-end places even bother with the napkin-refolding show? If you really want to impress me, take the old napkin away and leave me a clean folded one.)
In the absence of the tasting menu (and assuming you're not enjoying happy hour in the bar, which has a limited menu but great prices), Roaring Fork is a tough call. For me, the price/performance ratio at Roaring Fork doesn't match that at Mirabelle (which I have been to more recently than that log entry indicates). Roaring Fork may not be a bad choice if you have an out-of-town visitor who you'd like to impress with something more Southwestern, and you're willing to pay the price.
(And no one from the Fork has called me yet to ask if I was happy, unlike our last visit.)
Alas, this time they didn't have the tasting menu, which meant dining here was a considerably pricier proposition than our last visit. However, if you can drop the dough, the fare is pretty impressive.
The calamari was excellent, on par even with that at The Clay Pit (if a bit pricier). Also excellent were the Dr Pepper ribs, which sounds odd but was actually quite delicious, and my side of fritters, which were the best (of the admittedly few) I've ever had. Scallops were good, though the Pan de Campo didn't seem quite as interesting as last time. My salad was quite overpriced and unimaginative; one or the other I can tolerate, but not both.
My duck was very good, but not great, and the portions could have been more generous for the price. (In retrospect, I suspect I would have enjoyed the hefty steak Doug ordered much better, and Mike's (I think) pork tenderloin also seemed to have more substantial portions.) On the other hand, I was too full for dessert, partially because I filled up on their tasty bread basket (including the only cornbread I've ever tried that I actually like). The green chili macaroni and cheese on the side was also quite good.
Service was somewhat puzzling; generally excellent but with frustrating lapses. Hey, Andy Dick, how about paying more attention to refilling my glass than refolding napkins when people leave the table? At these prices I expect near-psychic service, not having to make multiple requests for a simple refill.
Still, overall the food was excellent. In terms of high end dining options, I like this a little better than Jeffrey's and Castle Hill, but not as much as Hudson's-on-the-Bend.
Hint: You might want to check a local calendar of events to ensure that there aren't not one, but two separate festivals going on in the same general area the same day, which might make parking difficult, before making plans to eat there, unlike some people.
See the logs for May of 2005.