Solid barbecue. Excellent baby back ribs and good brisket. I didn't like the sausage as much, though. Not in the "drive to Lockhart" range, but I wouldn't hesitate to swing by if I was out at the lake.
This was one of the (relatively) local BBQ joints on the Texas Monthly Top 50 List we hadn't tried yet. And it has some virtues.
They're got the standard free drink refills in addition to free bread, onions, etc. I liked the potato salad, which is the mayonnaise-based type I prefer.
The BBQ itself was a mixed bag; the pork ribs were very good, but the brisket was too dry, at least the piece I got. (Other conspirators seem to have fared better in this regard.) The pork chop was a mixed bag; it was very rich and flavorful near the outer edge and the bone, but way too dry in the middle, and since you have to pay for a whole pork chop, this was a significant problem. The sauce itself is pretty uninspiring (so is that at Cooper's, but they do more with it).
However, the most surprising thing about our visit was that one of the employees (I'm guessing the owner) came by a couple of times to ask whether everything was all right a couple of times. When she asked whether the pork chop was moist enough, I went "eh." She came over to take a look, agreed it looked too dry, and offered right then and there to replace it with pork or Baby Back ribs. ("You paid a lot for that pork chop.") I readily acceded to this generous offer, and the baby back ribs I heated up the next day were excellent.
For dessert I ordered the banana pudding, which was among the best I've ever had (it was a bit like a heavy meringue (if that makes any sense) rather than a pudding, but still excellent).
By and large, the BBQ itself isn't in the same league as Cooper's or Kreuz Market. However, it's good enough, and the service is above and beyond the call of duty, so you might consider a trip there if you're looking for a new BBQ joint to try. And the banana pudding is so good you might abjure dessert at Cooper's so you can drop in and try it on your way back.
Fairly decent food. I like that you can get barbecue pork buns for $2 as an appetizer, and I thought my kung pao squid was pretty good. My main problem is that there's not a whole lot here to distinguish it from other storefront Vietnamese places, even some of the ones in the same center.
I am saddened that Tien Hong is closing. Unfortunately, TC Noodle House, which is owned by the same people, isn't an adequate substitute.
Most of the food was pretty good. The rice omelet thing (which we ordered because it seemed different) was actually pretty good, and I liked my steamed pork buns (a dim sum favorite) just fine, though the pork dumplings were merely adequate. And my salt and pepper beef was among the best versions of that I've had, and pretty reasonably priced to boot.
The biggest drawback was the service, which tended to range between "almost adequate" and "huh?" Drink refills languished, they brought out the wrong dish instead of our duck appetizer, and by the time they corrected it we were pretty much finished. (Plus the duck itself sucked badly enough that no one wanted to take it home). Maybe the service will improve once some of Tien Hong's staff transitions over, but I wouldn't take that as a given.
The biggest problem with TC Noodle House is location; with Wok on Fire right across the parking lot, there's no reason to go to here for dinner. (I would be willing to give the a try if they do Dim Sum.)
Good duck, but not as good as El Gringo's. I think the problem here was the sides. Chicken liver paté is okay, but I would gladly have paid more for duck; also, I think Mirabelle's is better.
This is a tough one for me to call; it isn't that the food is bad (what I had was pretty good), but more that there's nothing here to really engage me or get me craving dinner here again.
Stortini Ristorante Italiano is a pretty decent Italian place, and a marginally better use of the space previously occupied by El Gringo.
I'll let Dwight rant about the coolness of the bread, but the white bean dip they brought out with it tasted like nothing so much as nothing. The appetizers were much better, with very solid (if not exceptional) calamari and mussels. My Caesar salad was a very good example of the form.
For an entree I had veal scallopini, which was a very nice, very tasty example of the dish, and the side of fries I had were fine. Service was generally quite good, and I was given several drink refills without asking. And although I didn't have it, the pizza seemed a bit bigger than the pie-plate sizes offered at some "upscale" Italian places.
For dessert I had the Blueberry crostata with vanilla bean ice cream, which was somewhat disappointing, with the pastry portion lacking a definitive zing; the taste I had of A.T.'s caramel gelati (sic) was much better.
My problem is that most of the menu shies away from hearty Italian dishes in favor of light cuisine, leaving a menu without terribly many dishes I'm interested in. And it certainly wasn't compelling enough for that mandatory 18% tip for parties of six or more.
I would not object to another visit, but nothing here was overwhelmingly compelling.
Here's my problem; a plate of mole enchiladas is $13 at El Chile. A plate of mole enchildas at Curra's Grill? $10.
This is a much better use for the space than Mesa Hills Café. (Yes, that's the very first review we put up on the SDC site, way back in the dim, misty days of early 1996. And we didn't do another SDC there in all the intervening years, which should tell you how much we liked it...) They serve up good nachos and queso flameado, pretty decent fajitas, and a very nice Tres Leches cake. And service was fine.
However, there are few nits. First, they offer you some sort of bean dip with their chips, which would be fine if it were in addition to salsa rather than a replacement for it. Second, they have that irksome mandatory 18% gratuity for large parties. Third, we had one of those "wait a minute, everyone" moments where we had all put our money in and still didn't have enough to cover the bill, which suggests that things are a bit more expensive than you suspect.
I certainly have no objections to coming back and trying some other dishes. But I would really like some salsa for the chips...
See the logs for August of 2008.