One of those "out of town for the holiday weekend" weekends.
Vivo managed to annoy me early on (starting with the people at the front desk, who I thought were rather snippy to us) and kept my annoyance level at a slow simmer through the night.
There were several good things about Vivo: the food was much better than I expected. Once we got seated, our server did a pretty good job. And the salsa is nice and subtle, one of the better salsas in town.
However, as Lawrence notes, the place is noisy. When you have trouble hearing Lawrence at the same table, we're talking industrial-level noisy. Then there's the whole issue of the tipping policy. I don't share Lawrence's foaming at the mouth viewpoint about anything over 15%, but even I thought 20% for a party of five was pushing the limit pretty hard.
I don't dislike Vivo, but it isn't a place I'd go back to again unless I was dragged.
There's a lot to like about Vivo Cocina Texicana, but there are also a couple of big caveats.
On the pro side, they have perhaps the best salsa I've had in an Austin restaurant. Though I normally like my salsa considerably hotter and chunkier, there was some ingredient here so intriguing (some reviews say smoked serranos plus garlic, but I suspect something else as well) that I kept going back chip after chip to figure out what it was. A big, hearty thumbs up for the salsa. (Less so for the nachos, which were pretty undistinguished).
I also liked my entree fine. I went with an "Emma's Plate," which included a puffy taco (their specialty) and a chicken verde enchilada, both of which were fine, Save for one drink refill wait, service was pretty good, especially given our ever-expanding party and how rapidly we consumed chips and salsa. And the interior of the place is reasonably nice; they've gone with a "large paintings of attractive women" motif, of which I approve.
However, there were also some drawbacks. For one thing, in addition to being crowded, IT WAS VERY, VERY LOUD. How loud? Andrew, who was sitting across the table one seat down, said he had trouble hearing me. The last person that close who had problems hearing me was Helen Keller, mainly because she was dead. Another drawback was that UNACCEPTABLE mandatory tipping policy of, no, not 18%, but 20%. (Frankly, the fact that they were pretty full by the time we left suggests they can get away with it.) Finally, the menu is pretty limited: If you don't like puffy tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, or chalupas, you're pretty much out of luck. (Then again, what are you doing at a Mexican restaurant in the first place?)
If you can put up with the drawbacks, then Vivo Cocina Texicana is definitely worth a visit, if only to try the salsa.
There's nothing wrong with Shilla: the bulgogi is pretty good, the sushi is decent, and the service is fine modulo a slight language barrier.
But it really isn't that much different than Kimchi before it, or several other Korean/sushi places around town.
This is the restaurant which replaced Kimchi in the same spot, and serving much the same food. (Someday someone should write an essay on "The Great Asian Restaurant Name Change Tax Dodge": an Asian restaurant closes, and then a few weeks later (if that), a suspiciously similar Asian restaurant opens up in the same space with seemingly the same staff. I suspect this is a dodge to screw tax collectors and creditors alike, but I leave the proof to some enterprising investigative journalist out there.) I don't think I like it as well, but it may depend on what you order.
The dumpling appetizers were quite nice, and I liked my bulgogi pork just fine. (The miso soup was tasteless, as it always is.) But except for the unagi, the sushi seemed pretty tasteless to me. Japon, on the other side of I-35, offers much better sushi. They still offer several tiny side dishes, but they seem to have done away with the ones I liked best at Kimchi (like the dried squid). Service was a bit scattershot, and they seemed less English proficient than even the Asian restaurant average.
If you're looking for Korean food, Shilla is just fine, but if you want sushi, give it a miss.
Very good pizza: I thought it was different enough from Craig-O's and Reale's to fill a little ecological niche of its own, and that niche satisfies me nicely.
On an unrelated note, sadly, I was laid off from the job that I've held for the past 14 years the day before this conspiracy. If anyone needs a talented, hard-working system administrator/computer guy, here's my resume.
Rudino's makes pretty good pizza (a soft, thin, nearly crustless New York style), but there are some drawbacks:
On the other hand, the bite I had of Mike's grinder was just fine, and I'd like to get a full grinder from them one day in the interest of science.
The pizza is good. If your route from work takes you along 620 but not 183, then it would be well worth your time to pick up a pizza or grinder on your way home.
Decent pho and noodle soups (I thought my seafood noodle soup was just a touch salty) and a reasonable selection of Thai main dishes. The big problem is, except for being on 6th Street, there's nothing that distinguishes it from a dozen other places here in town.
There are precious few times in my life where I say to myself "Hey, I'm hungry. I know! I'll drive down to Sixth Street!" Still, if you happen to find yourself hungry on Sixth Street, you could do a lot worse than Mekong Delta, which serves up quite passable Thai and Vietnamese food. The Tom Kha Guy soup was credible, the fried rolls were tasty and inexpensive, and I liked my Thai Basil Chicken just fine. (As always, it could have been hotter.)
They do charge $1.25 for 12 oz cans of soft drinks, which is probably not that big a rip-off given the locale. And I think they should have cranked up the air conditioning a notch; it was just warm enough to be on the verge of being uncomfortable. (Then again, it was a pretty hot day.)
On the rare occasions I find myself on Sixth Street and in need of sustenance, I usually grab a slice or two of pizza from Hoak's. But if I was with a group that insisted on sitting down, but wanted someplace cheap, Mekong Delta is a pretty decent choice.
See the logs for August of 2006.