My folks and I like Tien Jen. It seems to be a pretty solid, mostly family-run restaurant in South Austin, with better than average food. I liked my shrimp in lobster sauce just fine, and Milton seemed impressed with his sea bass dinner special (which should have been impressive, as it was an advertised "chef's speciality"). Lawrence, on the other hand, was less wild about his beef dish.
The biggest problem I have with Tien Jin is that sometimes the service is off a couple of beats. This was especially true the night we were there: someone who I don't think was part of the family was waiting our table, and not doing a great job of it. One of the family members ended up stepping in and covering for her. I've noticed this odd misfiring on some of my other solo visits as well. The food's good enough, though, that I can put up with minor service issues.
I'll say this: I had a good meal at Banderas. I thought my braised short ribs were excellent. I also thought the bread was pretty good. I wasn't wild about any of the appetizers. And I was glad to see that they were keeping up the architectural dessert theme established by Trattoria Grande.
I'm not sure what my problem with Banderas was, however. It may have been just the fact that I don't like most hotel restaurants (this wasn't a terribly bad example of the type, though). Or it may have been the generally creepy feeling of being the only people in the place (we were eating, however, during the UT-Ohio State game). Or it may have been the slow pace of the meal. I don't know. I can't say you'll get a bad meal if you're stuck in the hotel and have to eat there, but I also can't say that you should plan on it.
We thought we would try this in advance of the World Fantasy Convention to be held there early November. And the verdict?
I wouldn't bother. Given the mediocre execution, I don't know why they replaced Trattoria Grande (which was also overpriced, but the service seemed quicker) with this place.
First off, it was deserted when we came in, which is always a bad sign for Saturday night. (Though give them credit: Unlike the Courtyard Cafe in the Doubletree, they didn't close due to "low occupancy.) The restaurant itself is rather nice, has a swell view of the grassy part of the Arboretum area, and the service was quite acceptable in all aspects except speed.
Food? Overpriced, and not particularly imaginative. The free bread basket was a nice gesture, but except for the very good cornbread muffins, each offering had deficiencies. The sourdough rolls would have been fine, save for the fact they were served cold, and thus were too crusty. The light brown bread rolls were OK if bland, and it took me a while to figure out why the crispy, cheesy breadsticks tasted so familiar, and then I realized they tasted exactly like Goldfish.
Appetizers were similarly a mixed bag. The BBQ duck appetizer was very good, and if you do get dragged there, by all means order it. By contrast, the skirt steak quesadillas were adequate but overpriced, while the crab cake was the second most disappointing crab cake I've ever had (the first was the breakfast crab cake at the Anaheim Hilton at this year's Worldcon).
My porterhouse was fairly flavorful, but overpriced for the size; the buttermilk and chile onion rings were also good, but I detected no chile on them.
The peach dessert I had was quite good, but not great, and the bite I had of RoadRich's chocolate truffle failed to live up to the extravagant hype.
But the biggest problem was the speed of service. The food....came...out...very..............................................slowly. (We're Talking Ma Ferguson's slow.) Granted, the meal lasted longer than it would if Roadrich hadn't joined us late, but it would have been a good two and a half hours even if that hadn't happened. There was a big gap between ordering the appetizers and their arrival. Given how empty the restaurant was (read: one other table), that's simply unacceptable. For some reason, all the high end Southwestern restaurants we've tried lately have been pretty underwhelming.
If you want high-end dining in this area, I suggest strolling over to Eddie V's Edgewater Grill, where you'll get much better food, much quicker, for about the same price.
Many of the things that annoyed me at this SDC were beyond the control of the restaurant. And I will give the server credit for handling a lot of things well.
However, there are some things that Z Tejas did control, and which bothered me. One is the menu: I don't think I've ever walked into a restaurant and been unable to find something on the menu that sounded appetizing, if not compelling. At least, not until I went to Z Tejas: every main course item (and all but two of the appetizers) were unappetizing, or unappealing, combinations of food. I ended up ordering a green chili stuffed pork tenderloin: that was, at least, tolerable.
The other problem I had involved the incident of Earl's steak. You know, we all understand what a spice rub is, and how it is applied to meat. A spice rub should not form a layer of charcoal so thick on a steak as to render it inedible. If someone in your kitchen is doing that, fire them. Not only did this bother me, but the waiter's attitude when Earl brought it to his attention was...well, not what I would have expected or hoped for.
I may just not have an affinity for this style of food. But I say: Avoid.
On the plus side, I do think that Z Tejas does the Southwestern Grill thing better, cheaper, and quicker than Bandaras does just up the hill.
However, on the minus side, none of the food was particularly memorable. The dumplings were nice, and I liked my steak fine (though Earl had problems with his), but nothing was compelling enough to make me choose Z Tejas over competing selections.
Note: It's possible to get in without reservations at 6 PM, but it starts to fill up pretty fast.
Solid TexMex food that I actually like. I agree with Lawrence that the combo appetizer platter wasn't worth the $12, but my Cozumel platter was hefty and substantial: I thought it was a pretty good deal at $12.
I'd go back here before trying Vivo again. (On a side note, I actually did go back a few weeks later: the Iron Cactus Sunday brunch is well worth trying, and an even better deal if you qualify for the senior citizens price.)
I like this location a good bit more than the one downtown. Service was pretty good, the food was OK, the hot sauce had some decent bite to it, and I liked my ice-cream dessert.
My only real complaint was about portions. The Cactus Platter isn't a particularly good deal, and my Plato Grande was insufficiently grande; I expect more for $17.95.
Power went out during our dinner due to the storms, but that was hardly their fault. All in all, I have to say that this was a better dining experience than the last one we had at Manuel's.
Turkey City.
See the logs for October of 2006.