Gourmet recently called the Austin branch of Roaring Fork one of America's best restaurants. Now, we at the SDC believe in not believing the hype, but Roaring Fork also got favorable reviews from the usual local suspects, they have a reasonably priced tasting menu, and we had some out-of-town visitors (unindicted co-conspirators Cheryl Eberhart and Allan Gerlat) coming in for the weekend (and attending a show downtown that night).
I am pleased to report that everyone may be right: my meal was damn good. Everyone at our table ended up ordering off the $25 four-course tasting menu, which offered two salad choices, three appetizer and main dish choices, and two dessert choices. Of these dishes, I was impressed with the ruby red trout salad (which had some nice texure contrasts) and the excellent roasted corn soup: that soup is one of the best I've had in Austin. (I was also able to sample some of the very good pan de campo, a sort of skillet flatbread.) My venison and mushrooms main course was good: however, I slightly prefer the venison Mirabelle has been serving recently. (I think Roaring Fork's version could maybe use a more assertive spice rub, and perhaps a slightly larger portion size.) I gave in to temptation (actually, it came with the meal) and had the bannana empenada for dessert. However, some of the other diners ordered the chocolate brownie-like thing, which was pretty amazing: when they brought it to the table, the dish was still warm enough to be giving off serious chocolate fumes. You could literally have gotten a chocolate buzz just by inhaling.
Roaring Fork, I'm pleased to say, was also very accomodating to our large party of eight. (They do take reservations.) However, there were two small service glitches. Our busboy seemed to have a habit of taking away things that someone else had set on the table (appetizer plates, silverware) in anticipation of us needing them for an upcoming course. Also, our waitress didn't make us aware of the tasting menu: I had to specifically request it (having heard about it elsewhere) before she brought it. Had I not known in advance, we would have missed out on something good (and paid much more, too). On the other hand, someone from Roaring Fork called me at home a few days after we ate there, just to make sure everything went okay. I assume they do this with everyone they have phone numbers for: the SDC does not identify itself when we go out, so I don't think this was special treatment just for us.
I like the Roaring Fork very much. I think the $25 tasting menu may be one of the best deals in town: I was satisfied by the time we left. (If I was with someone else, I might order an additional appetizer.) There's also a very cheap happy hour menu (available only in the bar) which may be an even better deal: I hope to try it soon and report back.
I like it, but I'm not sure if I can recommend it apart from the tasting menu, which, at $25 a pop for a four-course menu, is a nice deal. I liked my venison and the iron skillet "campo" plate (which actually turned out to be a small pizza, though that's not at all obvious from the description) quite a bit, and the fried banana empanada with ice cream was excellent. The crabcakes were nice, but seemed undersized for the price.
Both of the salmon dishes seemed to have problems: the salmon salad seemed to feature chunk salmon straight from the can, while cold salmon on nachos just seems like a bad idea.
Coming to a general verdict about the place is hard, as I can't tell if the portions for the tasting menu are the same as those for a regular dinner. If so, they're easily 66% too small for the prices charged. But since none of us ordered off the regular menu, I really can't say that's the case. But if you eat there, be sure to ask for the tasting menu.
Shady Grove does what I think are probably the best wings in town. They also do a pretty fair burger.
The problem is, once you get past the wings and the burgers (and, okay, the cheese fries, too), there's not a whole lot left on the menu that really appeals to me: most of what's left is eccentric veggie mixes or weird attempts at dressed-up down-home dishes. I have to be in a kind of specific mood to want Shady Grove, and I don't find myself with that desire very often. I don't mind going with someone else who has that desire, though: what they do, they do tolerably well.
However, our server could have used some extra training: you don't walk away from the table without taking everyone's order. Even if you are distracted by shiny objects: take the damn food orders! How hard is that to understand?
Shady Grove does the down-home thing pretty well. Now that the Barton Springs roadwork has finally been completed (at least for the stretch in front of the restaurant), we thought it was high time to pay Shady Grove a visit.
The appetizers were fairly tasty, though both the cheese fries and the hot wings seem to have shrunk over the years. I had the Hatch Green Chili burger, which was fine, but I really fail to see what all the fuss over Hatch Green Chilis is about. There's not much heat, and I find them less flavorful than habaneros, serranos, thai peppers, pequins, or fresh jalapenos. In fact, the only peppers that Hatch Green Chilis taste better than is those out-of-the-five-gallon-drum pickled jalapenos you find in most restaurants. I suppose they're peppers for people who really don't like peppers...
There were some service fumbles, but nothing extreme (though I didn't know that the lesbian dog trainer from Best in Show was waiting tables now). All in all, Shady Grove is much better than Threadgill's, and about on par with Hoover's or Hill's Cafe. Which you should visit probably depends on your mood and which is closer.
"You'll get your serving of meat (a big link of hot sausage for about
twenty-five cents) on butcher's wrapping paper, along with pickles, sliced
Bermuda onions, and crackers-they seldom serve bread in these places.
Texas-brewed beer will be twenty-five cents or less a bottle...
"Krause's Grocery and Market in Lockhart, south of Austin, is a good
example of such places. The smoked sausage plant and the huge brick
barbecue pits and the serving rooms have crowded the grocery store and the
meat market into a corner of the first floor of the nineteenth-century,
two-story brick building."
--from A Bowl of Red by Frank X. Tolbert, 1966.
Well, bread's more common now, and the brick building has been replaced. According to the handy-dandy inflation calculator (thanks to the Columbia Journalism Review), twenty-five cents in 1966 dollars translates into $1.39 in 2002 dollars: Kreuz's sausage goes for a bit more than that (depending on whether you order the regular or the jalapeno), and I think you'd be lucky to get a bottle of beer for under $2. And they charge for pickles and onions now. But you can also get beans and something called "German potatoes".
The barbecue at Kreuz Market wasn't quite as good as it was the last time we visited, but I put that down to them having run out of some of the best stuff (such as the prime rib and the fatty brisket). The barbecue they did have was still very good, and the ribs first rate, but the pork chop was exceptionally flavorful on the outside, but a bit too dry on the inside (a flaw with all the restaurant barbequed pork chops I've ever had); also, the jalapeno pork sausage isn't spicy enough to justify the price difference between it and the regular sausage. Still, Kreuz on an off day beats most other barbecue places at their best. You might consider going earlier in the day than we did (an hour before closing), but it was still well worth the trip.
How do you observe the 40th anniversary of the assination of JFK? Have a writer's workshop.