A worthy (and somewhat less expensive) competitor to Clay Pit and Sarovar. The service and atmosphere, in my experience, has been better than Sarovar's recently. (However, I think Sarovar makes a better biryani. On the other hand, I think Bombay Bisto makes a better mixed grill.)
I have no qualms about saying this is the second best Indian place in Austin, and should be preferred to Clay Pit in some circumstances (you live north, it is a Friday or Saturday night and you didn't make reservations, etc.)
Better than Sarovar, not as good as The Clay Pit. That's pretty much all you need to know about Bombay Bistro. The naan was really tasty, I liked both the chiken pakora and the calimari, and my lamb vindaloo was adequate (they didn't have my first lamb choice). Service wasn't perfect (they forgot my stew), but was still better than our last sojurn to Sarovar.
A good choice if you live north and don't want to drive downtown.
A bar (with all that entails) with a pretty decent selection of bar type food (and some unexpected non-bar type food). My problem is that I can't see coming here as a destination just for the food (though I might have to swing by one Wednesday night for steak night), and I don't generally hang around in bars for reasons other than eating.
Another bar and grill near my house. Dimmer and less swanky than Riata Bar & Grill, and serving up the usual variety of pub grub. However, for the most part it was pretty tasty pub grub. The potato skins were among the best I've had, and all the other appetizers (wings, onion and jalapeno strings, nachos) were pretty good incarnations of those as well. My burger and fries were just fine, although I do think Riata Bar & Grill does a better job here as well. Service was pretty good, especially considering that that barmaid (and possible owner) was doing double-duty working the bar as well (and, for all I know, reticulating pythons in the back room).
Still, it's a bar, and not a destination restaurant, though I can see calling in a to-go order if I wanted to grab a burger on the way home.
I know I seem dismissive of TexMex, but the truth is, this town is full of average, unexceptional TexMex places, of which La Feria is just another example.
This was adequate TexMex with pretty good service, but nothing to get excited about. The chips were good, but the hot sauce was too thin for my tastes. The appetizers, fajitas, and tres leches cake were all OK, but not exceptional.
Alas, our ongoing search for exceptional TexMex continues...
I have been informed that, yes, as a matter of fact, I am supposed to come up with something clever every time we don't have an SDC.
Who knew?
I guess I could congratulate A.T. Surely that counts? Right?
I don't have kids, so I'm left to wonder: is this what fathers fear their daughters will become when they go off to college? Artificially pneumatic young bikini wearing vixens waiting tables in a nearly deserted sports bar? Hooters objectifies women less than this place. Heck, Bone Daddy's is a paragon of good taste and restraint in comparison.
The kindest things I can say are that at least we could carry on a conversation, and that they do have Wi-Fi, making it possible to carry on a conversation about the worst songs of the '80s. (As I recall, we all pretty much agreed that the WFMU poll is probably trustworthy on the '80s, but grows increasingly less so as it moves back in time.)
This place is enough to turn me into a womyn's libber.
I really wish that Making It's "Good Taste: You Can't Afford It" cartoon was somewhere on-line (it was originally published in The Before Time, The Long Long Ago (i.e., pre-WWW)). It was a guide to making money in the restaurant business, and in addition to telling you to buy signs from BMTCRSC, it also gave you handy pointers like "Remember: Women in degrading costumes spells M-O-N-E-Y" and "Excess is Success." ("The latest trend in decorating is neon. What do you decorate your restaurant in?" "Uh...neon?" "NO! Too much neon. Way too much! On the walls! On the floors! On the toilet seats!")
And then you have Bikini's Bar & Grill, which seems to have followed all these rules, with waitresses in bikinis and flat screen TVs tuned to every conceivable sports channel...and it's still deserted on a Saturday night. Maybe they do gangbusters business when UT is in session, but I wouldn't count on it.
And the food? Pretty adequate pub grub. The chili tasted like it was out of a can (thankfully, a fresh can), and the potato skins were bland, but the rest was decent, if nothing to write home about. The onion rings and fries were good, the salad adequate, and my steak sandwich featured an actual steak. Our waitress did a good job of keeping our drinks refilled without overplaying the "look how friendly and sexy I am" vibe. (Then again, I don't think she was terribly busy.)
Pretty much the only reason we tried this was so I could cover it in
the dining guide for this year's Armadillocon. That accomplished, I can't
ever see returning here for any reason...until after the inevitable
restaurant closing, when the next victim tenant moves
into this Restaurant Site of the Damned.
