It had been a while since we tried Gene's, but we're happy say that it remains consistently good, and still a heck of a deal for the money.
My pastrami poboy was quite tasty, and I also really liked my bowl of Gumbo, which is probably second only to Gumbo's. One caveat: I'm not wild about the whole, unshelled crab pieces plopped down into it. Also, please note that if you do get one of these pieces, remove it from the bowl before attempt to break off individual crab limbs. By failing to do this I insured that a significant percentage would end up on my shirt.
Finally, the banana pudding remains some of the best in town.
Drawbacks: An early lack of clean glasses at the "serve it yourself" fountain. Also, be advised that the decor of Gene's is permanently set to "funky" (and the bathroom really needs new wallpaper). But we knew the job was dangerous when we took it.
Still one of the best dining values in Austin.
For the most part the food was fine, but there were a few niggling problems.
I'm not sure if they've changed their recipe, but the chips didn't seem as tasty this time around. They were fine with the somewhat generic salsa, but after eating a few dry, I noticed a faint, slightly unpleasant clay-like aftertaste to the chips.
The quesadillas were decent and the fajita nachos definitely above average. My beef fajitas were fine, though just slightly short on the expected amount of meat (2.5 tortillas worth rather than 3). And I really liked the Tres Leches cake, which would probably be among the five best I've had of that particular cake (not to mention pretty generous portions for the price).
Second, service was just slightly off, in the "This is my job, and I'll try to do it well, but I'm really thinking about how I get off at 9:00" sort of way. They didn't bring A. T. his cotn tortillas with his entree, and when he asked, the waitron replied "they're coming." Oke-dokey, but proactively telling him that would have prevented some consternation. Unfortunately, they were out of the green chile chicken soup I wanted to try. And after some opening bobbles they kept my Diet Coke close well refilled.
All my quibbles are relatively minor. A slightly off night here still beats the majority of TexMex places in Austin.
Let me be blunt: There is no reason anyone in the Austin area should ever drive this far for BBQ this mediocre. The brisket and pork loin were substandard and dry, the pork ribs were decent but nothing to write home about, and the sausage was slightly above average. You do get a bigger choices of sides than usual, but my mac and cheese was too runny for my taste. Banana pudding was fine, and the drink refill and fixings bar seemed pretty well stocked. But I don't go to a BBQ joint for sides.
Frankly, the best thing about the trip was seeing the "Keep Georgetown Normal" T-shirts, an inspired swipe at the "Keep Austin Weird" campaign. But I'm pretty sure you can find such T-shirts online, saving yourself a trip to an excruciatingly mediocre BBQ joint.