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Austin
Austin, TX 78731 512-343-9307 |
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I recently went to Chinatown with a dinner-mate for… dinner. I wanted sushi and oriental food and he recommended we go to this place, Chinatown, which is an oriental dining establishment with a sushi bar on the floor below it. As I understand it, they are two separate establishments with two different names (the name of the sushi bar escapes me now), but are part of the same establishment, so if you dine at Chinatown, you can order sushi from the other establishment and have it brought to you.
So I wanted sushi, but we went on a Sunday, which is apparently the only day that the sushi bar is closed. Oh well, so my dinner-mate and I just had standard oriental food. He ordered a plate of something consisting of chicken and peanuts and I ordered a plate of scallops and beef. Looking at the menu of the plates, I thought the prices were kind of steep (average $10-$20), until I saw how big the plates were, which were easily more than enough for one person. And the food wasn’t too bad either. I got the impression that this is a place you want to go to with a group of friends and have each one order a different plate and just have everybody share. Honestly, I got kind of bored just eating the chicken and peanuts, the scallops and beef, and the unlimited rice. One thing that I was really impressed by was their service. Maybe it was just because there were just two occupied tables at the restaurant (including ours), but the service was excellent. My dinner-mate told me that one time he had come to dine here with a friend and was seated in a section all by themselves. Apparently, his table was the only one for their waitress, who kept a sharp eye on their table in case they needed anything – every time they finished a drink, she was there to refill it, every time they finished a bowl of rice, she there to replenish it, etc. My dinner-mate said it felt weird having the waitress watch over them like that, which I guess is an example of too much of a good thing, but I rather have too much good service than too little service any day.
Overall, I wasn’t that impressed with the place (except the exceptional service), but that might have just been because the sushi bar was closed and we were a party of two. I should go back there with a large group of people and see how I like it then. Also, I noticed they had some pretty good lunch specials on the menu, which I’ll probably go back and try someday.
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Leftovers (beef and scallops only, I made the rice)
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Austin, TX 78731 512-343-9307 |
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I returned to Chinatown recently for some sushi and I was successful. For those of you readers who remember (I'm deluding myself -- I have no readers), my first and previously only visit to Chinatown was in February, about which I wrote, "I recently went to Chinatown with a dinner-mate for... dinner... So I wanted sushi, but we went on a Sunday, which is apparently the only day that the sushi bar is closed," and, "Overall, I wasn’t that impressed with the place (except the exceptional service), but that might have just been because the sushi bar was closed and we were a party of two."
So, I finally got to eat sushi at Chinatown and it was pretty good. I ordered a salmon and scallion roll, a philly roll, and a piece of fatty salmon, all of which I enjoyed. Like my previous visit, the service was good. It did seem like the restaurant was understaffed with respect to waitstaff, but the waiters that they did have were on top of their game. Overall, a good experience. |
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Austin, TX 78723 (512) 495-9083 |
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Burrito restaurants and me have an 'off again, on again' relationship. I'll go to a burrito restaurant, enjoy my burrito, but complain about the fact that I hate paying so much for the burrito because all the restaurant did was throw a bunch of stuff together and wrap it up in a tortilla, then I'll swear I'll never go to another burrito restaurant again, then either 1.) some friends or family will want to go to a burrito place and I'll begrudgingly join them making sure they know that I'm only going under protest, then I'll get my burrito and complain all over again, or, 2.) I'll just start craving a burrito and go by myself to a burrito place making sure that none of my family or friends know what I'm doing so that they will not call me a hypocrite, which, in this case, I am most certainly.
On this occasion, a lazy Sunday afternoon, I got a craving for a burrito and decided to hit up a newly built Chipotle that is relatively near to the area I reside in. I entered the restaurant at the worst possible time, right behind a huge Mexican family, so I had to wait a while to put my order in. When I did put my order in, it was for a carnitas (pork) burrito (the other options were chicken, steak, barbacoa, or vegetarian), to which they added cilantro rice, black beans, some sort of pico de gallo which they call 'salsa', and guacamole, for which they charged mw a dollar and a half (or something like that) extra for. I love guacamole and I feel it is a must-have for burritos, even when the establishment charges a dollar and a half, which could have gotten me one and a half double cheeseburgers at McDonald’s, but oh well. So I got my burrito, I ate it at my table by myself, and I enjoyed it... despite feeling a little gross with myself while eating it because, lets be honest, burritos are basically trough food -- a bunch of different food stuffs thrown together into a wrapper that you then use to stuff your face with. Go burritos! I love them for the same reason I hate them. |
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Austin, TX 78750 (512) 257-3565 |
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I was passing by a Church's chicken restaurant the other day on my way to the bank when I saw a sign on their window offering a 2 piece chicken meal with side item and biscuit for $1.99. I like fried chicken, but I like two dollar meals even better, so I got down and checked out this awesome deal first hand.
When I got inside, I couldn't find any mention of this deal on their menu and started thinking maybe I had hallucinated the entire deal. I was already in line and there were people waiting behind me to order, so I got my phone out and pretended I had just received a phone call which allowed me to get out of line and let the other customers pass me without them thinking I was an idiot. I went back to the window where I had seen the advertisement and, after reading it backwards, realized I was right and they were offering a 2 piece chicken meal with a side item and biscuit. So I got right back in line and ordered it. The meal was pretty damn good for the total amount of $2.15 (after the inclusion of sales tax). The only bad part about the meal was the chicken was very hot and I kept burning myself in my hurry to eat it. But the chicken was good, the mashed potatoes were good for a fast food restaurant, and the biscuit rocked, being nice and fluffy on the inside with honey on the outside. Overall, this meal was a great deal. |
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Austin, TX 78701 (512) 322-5131 |
| I tried the weekday lunch buffet at Clay Pit and it marked the third time that I have eaten Indian food. The first time was at a friend's wedding, the second was at that same friend's house, and now the third at a restaurant. The buffet was smaller than I had expected, but was overall good. I only managed to eat one plate because I got full and believed that had I gotten a second plate, while getting more bang for my buck, I would have felt like shit for the rest of the day. As for the particular items that I ate, I have no idea what the fuck they're called, they just looked good, so I got some and ate them (that's what the pictures are for). |
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Austin, Texas 78705 (512) 322-9168 |
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This is my favorite bar. Good beer, decent selection, decent prices, great atmosphere, and also good food (bar food).
Admittedly, this last time I went my cheeseburger and fries could have been a lot better (my meal was a bit cold, as if it had been sitting awhile before it was brought to me), but overall, I love this place. |
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Austin, TX 78705 (512) 322-9168 |
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I went to the Crown and Anchor, my favorite bar, on a Sunday evening. I was going to meet my friend there -- I had forgotten about his birthday that had occurred a couple of days before and to make it up to him, I told him that I would buy him a pitcher at the Crown and Anchor. I wasn't planning on eating, but then I got hungry, and I'm keeping track of how much money I'm spending on food and expenses (like gas) so that if the day ever comes that I make any money off of this site I could claim all of the food I eat as tax deductible, so given that, I decided to get a chessburger and fries (and just so that we are all clear, I did not start this web site to make money, but I if I do make money off of it, I'm not going to complain -- and just so that we're all clear, I started this site out of pure pettiness and vengeance, so haha, fuck you 'Logan's Roadhouse' (read review #0)).
Anyway, the cheeseburger and fries were pretty good considering that it was 'bar food'. Overall, there's nothing like spending a Sunday evening eating a cheeseburger, drinking beer, and hanging out with your friends at your favorite bar... except having to go to work the next morning, which just sucked. |
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Austin, TX 78705 (512) 322-9168 |
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From my previous review of the Crown and Anchor, minus the "I wasn't planning on eating"-part: "I wasn't planning on eating, but then I got hungry, and I'm keeping track of how much money I'm spending on food and expenses (like gas) so that if the day ever comes that I make any money off of this site I could claim all of the food I eat as tax deductible, so given that, I decided to get a chessburger and fries."
The "chess"burger and fries were good. |
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Austin, TX 78705 (512) 322-9168 |
| The crown and Anchor is my favorite bar, but man do their nachos suck ass. |
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Austin, TX 78751-1058 (512) 459-3239 |
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Dan's Hamburgers, and it's offshoot Fran's Hamburgers, apparently are pretty popular here in Austin. The burgers are pretty good too. You can order small, medium, or large burgers (I guess based on weight) as well as small, medium, or large fries and drinks (I guess based on volume).
I had a large cheeseburger with small fries and a small drink. The cheeseburger came wrapped in paper with everything you would reasonably expect a cheeseburger to come with, like lettuce, tomatoes and pickles. The lettuce was shredded -- I prefer whole leaf lettuce over shredded, and I don't really understand why places serve shredded lettuce, but it's a smaller deal than I 'm making it out to be. Shredded lettuce is fine, although I do prefer whole leaf. One weird thing did happen to me during this visit. As the cashier was taking my order, some lady (maybe a manager or something as she looked to be in a position of authority) was asking the cashier how he was feeling. The cashier responded that he was still feeling sick from food poisoning and the lady made some "Well I hope you feel better" remark. And this all happened right in front of me, while the cashier was still taking my order. That sort of conversation is not really something you have in front of customers, but I guess they didn't care as I don't think either of them owned the place. But man, when the cashier said he had food poisoning my first response was, "I hope he didn't get it from here." But despite the looming threat of food poisoning, the food at Dan's Hamburgers was pretty good. |
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Austin, TX 78759 (512) 346-8015 |
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Dave and Buster's is a restaurant with a huge arcade. You go there to eat and play video games. I would just want to play the games personally, but they are kind of costly on their own. On the other hand, Dave and Buster's offers a series of entrees where you get a game card included in the menu price, so they encourage customers to eat in order to play. They have several different series of entrees at different set prices with the inclusion of either a $10 or $20 game card.
I had the 'chargrilled Atlantic salmon' with a $20 giftcard for $27.99. The salmon, served with rice and green beans, wasn't bad, pretty good actually, and the games were pretty fun (except for one stupid jump rope game that was impossible to beat and just pissed me off during all of my futile attempts to conquer it), so I was happy. The only bad part about my visit was that I only ate half of my entree, so I had to carry around the rest in a to-go box while I was at the arcade portion of the restaurant. Then, after I had driven home, I left my leftovers in my van over night, which I hadn't noticed until I got back into my car the next morning to drive to work, which was when I realized my mistake and promptly put the leftovers in the fridge. Later than evening, I was wondering whether the salmon, rice, and green beans were still good after being left in the van overnight, but I'm not one to waste food, so I microwaved and ate it, and it tasted fine. Later, I started to get paranoid that I might have poisoned myself, and then my stomach started feeling a little queezy, but I didn't know if that was from actual food poisoning or me thinking that I had poisoned myself. After an hour or two, when I had stopped thinking about it, my stomach returned to normal, so I guess it was all in my head after all. So the lesson to be learned is that you can leave leftovers overnight in your van and still eat them the next day for dinner. Live and learn. |
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Austin, TX 78729 (512) 258-8881 |
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For two weeks last year I was homeless because I was between leases and I ended up crashing at a buddy's of mine house which was in close proximity to this oriental take out place, Egg Roll Express. The people with whom I was crashing got take out from there all the time, and consequently, so did I for that short time I was with them. Egg Roll Express' food was good, but what I really liked about this place was that they gave you a shit load of food.
Skip to almost a year later and I'm working a part-time, non-restaurant-reviewing position for a company not too far from this oriental place I used to frequent for two weeks, and, in the company's small kitchen/hallway-to-unisex-restroom, I found a menu for Egg Roll Express and started looking at their sort of extensive lunch specials and was extremely impressed with their prices, especially since I have prior first hand knowledge of how big their portions are. So, I started thinking that I should start a review series where I review every single lunch special from Egg Roll Express (similar to what I'm doing with Thundercloud Subs and their semi-monthly sandwich specials). So, I started with their first lunch special, the Lemon Chicken. The food was alright, and there was a lot of it -- it came with some egg drop soup, an egg roll, fried rice, and of course the lemon chicken, which I discovered was just fried breaded chicken that you dip into some sort of watered-down lemon-flavored sauce. The meal was relatively cheap, and they gave me so much food that I had more then enough leftovers for a second meal the day after, which is where I realized how awful the food really was. The food was bland, but serviceable on the first day, but the leftovers on the second day kind of sucked. (The pictures where I'm giving the peace sign denotes the leftovers). For some reason day old rice doesn't microwave especially well. I was all gung ho to reviewing all of the lunch specials at Egg Roll Express one at a time in order, but this particular meal I had on this visit has kind of deterred my interest in continuing with that particular venture. I might revive it, but for now it's indefinitely paused... after one meal. |
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Austin, TX 78722 (512) 382-3797 |
2/26/2008 |
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I don’t know how it happened, but the last three places that I have gone out to eat at I have ordered fish tacos, so I guess this is part three of my three part fish taco review series.
The first place I went to was a place called Quack’s Maplewood Bakery and Café, the second place was Wahoo’s, and the third was El Chilito, which so happens to be the order of least favorite to favorite. El Chilito is a place I visit frequently. It’s basically a large taco stand serving tacos, burritos, and other stuff, as well as beer. You go up to the building to place your order and they’ll call out your number when it’s ready. I normally just pick up my tacos and go home, but they do have an open air dining area that’s nice on good weather days. For breakfast, I normally get their Charlie’s Special on corn tortillas which has egg, chorizo, potato, tomato, and jalapeno, for about 2 dollars, and I normally get cheese with it as well for a small additional charge. For non-breakfast, I normally get their fish tacos on flour tortillas with cabbage and aioli, along with guacamole at an additional charge. It’s a really good place. |
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Lunch 
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