(A note to restaurant staff: It is generally not a good idea to use traditional military cadences as your birthday song. Especially ones that evoke Full Metal Jacket.)
First off: yes, it is a chain. But I think it is a shockingly decent chain, even if the burgers should probably be at least $1 cheaper. (What makes a burger a "gourmet" burger, anyway?)
The meat just seems to me to have a better taste than, say, Fuddrucker's or Chili's. The buns have more texture, and less of that sweet, kind of brioche feel. And their "steak fries" are, I think, better than the equivalent at most places.
The onion soup is okay, but nothing to rave about. I'd avoid the onion ring tower, and just stick with the fries. Other than that, there's not a lot to complain about, especially when you get to hang with Andrew "Mound of dirt does not come with gun" Wimsatt.
Red Robin falls firmly in the Fuddruckers range of chain family eateries: Same concentration on burgers, same array of posters/photographs stuck up on the wall, and same general price range. The big difference is that Red Robin is more of a sit-down restaurant (including, though none of us tried it, a full bar) whereas at Fuddruckers you order your food in a line, then pick it up when they call you. Red Robin seems to have their restaurants adequately staffed.
And the food? Pretty decent, but nothing to get excited about. I liked my burger fine, though not quite as much as those offered up at Fuddruckers. Onion rings were very good, fries merely OK. They also make a pretty good banana malt, though a little of the malt was left unmixed in a lump at the bottom of the glass. Except for one quickly-fixed problem with my burger (they left off the bacon), service was quite good, and the restaurant adequately staffed.
All in all, I think I do prefer Fuddruckers slightly to Red Robin, mainly because they offer a much wider range of burger sizes, and I actually prefer the build-it-yourself concept. Plus Fuddruckers is a bit cheaper (which is what you would expect without the waitstaff overhead). However, if you're in the mood for burgers and don't want to wait in line, Red Robin does what they do pretty well.
Very average, and (in my opinion) very expensive Thai food. I'm sorry: it may be Lakeway, but $11 is a lot for a plate of pad thai.
I wouldn't drive out to Lakeway for this, and, if I lived in Lakeway, I'd drive into town for Thai food.
This is an OK local Thai place for Lakeway, but not worth driving out for.
The Diet Dr Pepper the brought me was off, and they said the rest of the batch was bad as well, so I switched to Diet Coke. The appetizers, including the Thai eggrolls, were good, though distribution of items on the sampler platter seems a bit suboptimal. The Tom Yum soup was OK, but I should have ordered the Tom Kha instead. Once again, the heat on my chicken entree (marked as one of the hottest things on the menu) was barely discernable. The banana in fried honey dessert was good, though they could have used a bit more honey. The small amount of sushi I had (unagi and part of a Rainbow roll) was pretty good and reasonably priced (for sushi, that is).
Frankly, the only reason I can see to go here is that you already live in Lakeway, and have a very specific craving for sushi or Thai food. In the same center, Ciola's is a much better dining choice, and for Asian food Pao's blows this place away.
I decided to go back and give Freda's another try after hearing some of their radio spots. (See, radio advertising works!) I keep going back for two reasons: the first is that I pity the owners, who are constantly being hosed by road construction. (On one particular night that I visited, construction crews had put up barracades immediately before, and immediately after, their driveway, for no apparent reason. Since Pecan Park is a divided road, this basically cut off all access to the restaurant, short of parking in the hotel lot and walking over.)
The other reason is that I do like their food, with some minor quibbles. Lawrence didn't like his dinner salad: I suggest that folks order the side spinach salad, with the warm bacon dressing, instead of a normal garden salad. I'm also fond of the bourbon pasta, which provides a good mix of shrimp, crawfish, and sausage in a spicy sauce over bowtie pasta. The pecan crusted tilapia is also very good.
Quibbles: the menu doesn't offer complete information on everything. For example, the bourbon pasta doesn't mention that it has chunks of tomato in it. The servers will gladly comply with a request for the tomato to be left out of the dish, but I've found in the past that there are problems getting the kitchen to comply with that request. Likewise, the mixed seafood grill doesn't mention that it comes with steamed veggies, which can be a problem if you find the smell of broccoli disgusting.
In spite of those things (and, let's face it, normal people may not even care about those problems), I'd recommend Freda's as a reasonably priced dining spot if you're out near Lakeline, or just want some good seafood. (By the way, they also have a pretty good Sunday brunch.)
I liked it better this time around. All the appetizers were good. The butter sauce that came with the crab cakes was tasty, and I liked the batter on the calamari and crawfish plates. My salad was mediocre, while the bowl of gumbo I had was reasonably flavorful, but lacked sufficient meat, and here again Gumbo's is superior.
My blackened red snapper entree was acceptable, and the sauce was nice, but the snapper itself seemed under-flavored. The accompanying thin fries were quite good, but could have been just a touch crisper. The crème brulee I had for dessert seemed both average and undersized, but the cinnamon ice cream I had on the side was excellent.
Freda's isn't exceptional, but it does offer you a good bang for your seafood dollar buck in this part of town.
It's Italian is a very friendly, apparently family run, restaurant that seems to do a big neighborhood trade. I got the impression that the manager knew most of the people who were in that night (with the exception of our party, of course).
I liked the fried ravoli just fine (I think that's something I'm a sucker for, and Lawrence isn't.) as well as the toasted garlic bread. The calamari was slightly greasy, but I didn't think it was too bad: I do believe the other members of the party made a mistake in ordering it after having eaten at The Clay Pit the night before. Speaking of calamari, I was a bit surprised that Andrew "Philip Nolan" Wimsatt took my riff, "The Man Without Calamari" seriously, but I do plan to write that short story at some point.
As for the main dish, I had the best plate of pasta carbonara I've ever had in Austin. Indeed, I can't even name another place that even serves pasta carbonara, except my own kitchen from time to time. (Reale's has a "tortellini carbonara" on their menu, which is okay, but I don't think it is a true carbonara.)
And our waitress was both efficient and very, very attractive. I like this place very much, and I hope they stick around (and perhaps even expand).
Occupying the old Gumbo's/Yoli's space on Bratton Lane, It's Italian is a nice family run serving up (wait for it) Italian food. And as such it's fine. Both calamari and garlic bread were pretty decent (the toasted ravioli didn't do much for me), salad was OK (save for the unpleasant surprise of the unpitted olives), and my lasagna was just fine (though bringing me a sausage on the side, rather than as part of the lasagna, was rather puzzling). Also, the crème brulee was excellent, and much better than the one I had at Freda's last week.
Though decent, and better than our one visit nearly a decade ago to Italian Garden in the same area, there was nothing so compelling that I would ever think of going to this place over Reale's just around the corner. Though I could be tempted back to try the pizza.
See the logs for June of 2006.