The Saturday Dining Conspiracy: April, 2009

April 4, 2009: Tony C's Coal Fired Pizza.

Dwight's comments:

Decent enough pizza. The staff and management were quite nice, and the service was pretty good. My problem is that, while the pizza is decent, it isn't so overwhelmingly great compared to Rounder's or Home Slice Pizza that it makes me want to schlepp out to Bee Cave and try to park at the Hill Country Galleria ("Look! We combine the worst features of shopping downtown with the worst features of shopping at a shopping mall!") just for pizza.

Lawrence's comments:

Another week, another new pizza place to try, this one way the hell out SW in Bee Caves. In some ways the surroundings are more interesting than the restaurant itself, being in a sort of open air mail like The Domain, except less annoying. (For one thing, parking seemed to be more plentiful.) The interesting thing was that I had never seen a mall with the City Hall and Public library ensconced near the center; I'm assuming that was part of some sort of development deal with the Bee Caves government. "Build us a new city hall and we'll make sure all those annoying regulations get waived." In truth I don't really see the appeal of the outdoor mall, especially when summer rolls around: "Hey, let's walk around outside getting hot and sweaty moving from store to store." Then again, I visit indoor malls pretty infrequently as well, so what do I know?

As the name indicates (missing hyphen aside; Who is Coal, and what did Pizza do to get fired?), this is a pizza place that takes great pride in their cooking method (go to the website if you want their spiel on why coal is better than wood, yadda yadda yadda). The interior is nice in a trendy sort of way, if more than a bit narrow. The appetizers are expensive for what you get; the garlic knots were nothing special (Rounder's kicks their ass), and I was underwhelmed by the antipasta plate. The calamari was more interesting: it was among the tenderest calamari I've had anywhere (right up there with The Clay Pit, but both the batter and the accompanying marinara sauce were woefully underspiced. Come on guys: How hard could it be to add a little garlic, salt and lime to your batter?

And the pizza itself? Perfectly acceptable thin-crust pizza, with a slightly firmer crust than the average foldable New York-style pizza, but not nearly as crispy as, say, Mangeri's. Like most non-Mangia's pizza these days, it seems a little pricey for what you get. Service was pretty good.

If you live out near Bee Caves, it's certainly worth a try, but it's nothing so special I'd drive all the way out here for.

April 11, 2009: Zorba Greek Restaurant.

Dwight's comments:

Pretty good Greek food, cheap and lots of it.

Lawrence's comments:

I like it! This is good, cheap Greek food, and the big murals help offset the generic strip mall ambiance.

For appetizers we had the flambée cheese plate (unlike The Veranda, they must have passed their flambé license, as they were actually able to light it at our table), as well as the meatball plate, both of which were fine. I also had a cup of the lentil soup, which was acceptable, but I prefer my lentils in chunkier form, rather than boiled until atomized. I also got a salad along with my entrée, and it was perfectly acceptable as an add-on.

For my entréee I had a gyro plate, since that was what I had been jonesing for all week. While I think it could have used a bit more tzatziki sauce, the meat served was more than ample, and is a pretty good deal for $9.95.

The only drawback was the pita bread, which was of a thicker kind that didn't stand out for me.

Zorba's offers solid Greek food at a reasonable price, and is worth a visit, especially if you live in the area.

Tip: If you get the Feed Me plate (as two coconspirators did), don't bother getting separate appetizers. You'll be hard-pressed to finish it anyway.

April 18, 2009: Fleming's Steakhouse.

Dwight's comments:

This may come as a shock to some of you, but Lawrence has some pet peeves.

One of those peeves is online restaurant menus that don't have prices.

So we decided to try an experiment this year. We sent the following email to three of Austin's better steakhouses:

From: Dwight Brown
Date: Mon Mar 2, 2009 6:53:18 PM US/Central
To: Dwight Brown
Cc: Lawrence Person
Subject: Some thoughts on the usefulness of online menus with prices

Greetings and salutations.

My good friend, Mr. Person, and myself have a tradition of going out to celebrate our mutual birthdays at a nice steakhouse sometime in the middle of April. If you're reading this message, it is because your establishment is one of the steakhouses we're considering for this year; this message is being sent to the most prominently listed contact address on your website.

One thing that we've noticed while trying to make our decision is that none of your online menus have prices listed. Now, we're not cheap people; we're not exactly lighting cigars with $20 bills, but we both have good jobs. We're not looking for the cheapest place; price is just one of many factors we're considering, including location, reputation, and the dishes your establishments serve. We also understand that menus change from time to time. But when someone doesn't put prices on their online menus, it makes us think that they are trying to hide something. Mr. Person finds this seriously annoying; I don't have quite the same reaction, but it does leave a bad taste in my mouth.

So, a little challenge for all three of you. First restaurant to put up online menus with prices gets our patronage this year. In addition to Mr. Person and myself, we usually have anywhere from six to ten other people join us, so we're talking a party of ten to twelve people with drinks, main courses, sides, and appetizers.

Rules:
* You have to respond to this email and let us know.
* We have to verify that the menu, with prices, is on your website.
* First email response, that we can verify, wins our business this year.

==Dwight Brown
stainles@mac.com

This email went to the most prominently listed contact address on each establishment's website. The results? Of the three steakhouses this email went to, Fleming's in the Domain was not just the first one to respond, but the ONLY one to respond as of this writing. While Lawrence and I didn't agree 100% with their response (or their police work), it was at least a response.

So how was the food? Expensive and worth it. I was slightly disappointed that they had dropped the Beef Flemington (as noted previously, I'm a sucker for Beef Wellington) but I still managed to get an excellent steak. Their versions of mac and cheese and potatos au gratin are also quite good. And they were even nice enough to provide Lawrence and I with a small box of chocolate truffles. The only real problems I had were with the location (better in the Domain than downtown, but better still someplace with easy parking) and the weekend bartender (who failed the Sidecar test; it isn't like the Sidecar is an obscure drink these days).

Here's an $80+ meal that doesn't leave you wanting to stop for a burger on the way home.

Lawrence's comments:

If you're going to drop $80-120 on a meal, Fleming's is a pretty good place to do it.

It was our yearly high end steak trip, and just like it's downtown brethren, Fleming's didn't disappoint. We started with a nice fried soft-shell crab appetizer, which was quite tasty, as was the dipping sauce on the side. The calamari was also good, but still pales next to perennial champion The Clay Pit. For my entréee I went with the bone-in ribeye, which offered a substantial, well-cooked, and tender cut of steak. (I do think the steaks at Ruth Chris are still a bit more "vertical.") The macaroni and cheese and fries and onion rings side I partook of were also quite satisfactory (though I would have liked more of the advertized Chipotle in the mac and cheese). The cr�éme brulee provided a very nice dessert. Service was uniformly excellent.

Fleming's is a fine place to do this sort of thing if you're going to do this sort of thing.

April 25, 2009: Elsi's Restaurant.

Dwight's comments:

Tolerable TexMex. I think I'd skip the al pastor tacos next time.

Lawrence's comments:

I think of Elsi's as an above-average Tex-Mex place with a bit of Salvadorian place thrown in on the side. I really like the chips, which are nicely thin and crispy, though they could be a bit saltier.

However, while all the food was decent, none of it really knocked me out this time around. The botanitas platter is ample and adequate, but otherwise undistinguished. My tacos al pastor was OK, but I've had better. And the empanadas I split with Dwight were vaguely disappointing.

I'd like to try some other things, but so far, chips aside, they seem to much better at breakfast than dinner.