Gabriel "Way Behind on Reviews" L.'s Profile

We're on our fourth bi-weekly box.  So far so good.  One mix up (an omitted item) which was replaced in the next box.

It is a little odd that they have all of these non-local options, which I guess is their way of trying to keep the customers "happy", but I just always substitute out any of the "foreign" items.  While not-so sustainable, I guess it's still a smidgen better to support a local company (FCF) rather than buy the same long-distance produce from the mega-chain corporations.  I am curious to see what happens once the colder weather hits... in which case I could re-evaluate my score.

Went on a friday night a while ago and was surprised to find the place almost empty.  I liked the atmosphere of the place.  The bbq was average... nothing shockingly memorable, nothing horribly bad.  Pretty much a middle of the road southern bbq joint.  With other bbq offerings in the neighborhood, I probably won't be frequenting this place too often (again, it was fine, just not super special).

Nice 24-hour korean joint.  Relatively limited menu of dishes, but as Allen M. alludes, it's cheap.  Quite a few dishes in the $6-8 range.  Wife had the bibimbap (not in the scalding hot stoneware) and I had some funky korean sausage (sun-dae) stew that I think had some bonus trotters in it.  Tasty stuff, decent banchan selection, good value.

Located right behind you as you come up the escalators in terminal A, this is a pretty run-of-the-mill Chinese fast-food joint.  Most of the food is decent, but nothing to write home about.  The food is perhaps a little too saucy.  Service is relatively quick, which is a good plus for those looking to wolf down some calories (a tiny packet of biscoff biscuits isn't going to do it...) before running off to catch their flights.

One notable highpoint is the chicken wings.  They're just fried chicken wings (no sauce), but the outside is nice and crispy without requiring a huge dunk in batter, and the inside is nice and moist.  Actually reminds me a little of the fried wings you get at Gladys Knight's.  The wings alone would get 4 stars, but the rest is ho-hum average, hence the final rating of 3.

This place gets some things about TX BBQ right, but other elements are missing.  Pros: beef brisket and sausage on the menu; lotta places around here don't serve green beans on the menu either, but 1star does.  

What I didn't like so much: sauce was way too tangy and poured all over the meat, thus obscuring the meat flavor.  Most of the BBQ joints I'd been to in the Austin area would have the sauce on the side so you could put on how ever much or little as you wanted (with I guess SaltLick being a notable exception of pre-saucing).  So it was a bit difficult to really taste the meat and smoke; next time I'll order sauce on the side, but that really should be the default.  The texture of the brisket was pretty good, although it was served in chunks rather than long slices (FYI, I'm a "fatty brisket" guy when ordering at Rudy's).  The sausage was a little soft and was overall only so-so.  The plates didn't come with white bread by default, and so I had to ask a couple times as I kept running out.  Pickles and onions also were not provided.  Banana pudding was also missing from the dessert menu.

So overall, not bad.  "Texas-style" BBQ?  Sure, maybe.  Texas BBQ?  No.  (To be fair, the sign outside the joint does indeed only claim to have Texas-style.)

The patio was really nice to sit out on on a warm spring/early summer evening.

Service was pretty good, until the very end when it took a *long* for the waitress to come around and bring us our check.  I think there was a large party inside that she got hung up with, so I won't ding them too badly for that.

Went to Top Spice with the wife on a quiet sunday evening; the place only had a few other diners.  The order consisted of Roti Canai, Hot and Sour shrimp soup, a Malay curry dish and pad thai.  The roti was decent, although the sauce had some flavoring in it that was different than others I've had... something a little smokier perhaps?  The soup was decent, but nothing to brag about.  The curry consisted of mostly chicken and potatoes, and it was decent but could have used a little more kick or something to make the flavors stand out a little bit more... probably should've ordered a Thai curry instead.  The pad thai was also ok, but nothing special.  Based on this experience, we weren't overly impressed, but I'd be willing to give them another try.  One plus was that I did like the decor; the giant wall of spice jars is a nice touch.

Went there for lunch; I ordered the Duck Confit which was pretty good.  The portion was not very large, but wasn't embarassingly small either.  Other folks I went with ordered the trout and the braised lamb; no major complaints from either, but no one seemed incredibly wowed.  Overall, the food was pretty good, lunch time prices make it a little more reasonable (the $7-9 small plate salad is a complete rip-off) but still fairly pricey; the final verdict is that the overall price-performance ratio is below average.  Being that it wasn't all that crowded at lunch, the time from ordering until the food arrived seemed a little long (the waiter did a good job of keeping our wayer glasses filled at least).  I'll probably only go when it's on someone else's dime.

Thursday margarita specials!  Hooray!  This is fancier than normal mexican food, but I was pretty pleased with the quality.  Perhaps not as upscale as Sala, but the prices aren't nearly as bad either.  Somewhat annoying that you have to pay for chips, but they do come with your choice of three salsas which I have to say was pretty tasty; I appreciate the variety in chip-dipping condimentage (pineapple salsa interesting; my favorite was the chipotle).  I also got several tacos which were all prepared quite well.  I'll be visiting this place again, although I do miss the old Surin noodle bowl that used to be here.

I was not super impressed by the donuts here, although I did find the place to be rather amusing.  It's a total attempt at ripping off dunkin donuts, complete with similar color schemes, remarkably similar french cruller donuts, and pretty authentic-looking "munchkins".  At the end of the day, however, I found the donuts to be pretty average (not bad, but certainly nothing special)... based on the other reviewers, I may need to go give them another try sometime.  Serving buffalo wings at a donut shop is another funny feature (there are lots of uses for fryers I suppose).

Pretty solid Korean BBQ joint.  Prices were perhaps a touch higher than some other places I've been to, but the meat was tasty.  The meat menu had some additional items not always found elsewhere (beef tongue for example, which was decent).  Spicy pork bulgogi was yummy, and the kalbi is true Korean style (as opposed to "L.A. style" cross-cut kalbi).  They use real charcoals as opposed to gas grills which is also a good thing.  Soju was fine, panchan was standard.  It's smart that they basically have a whole separate room/area for the BBQ grills to keep the smokiness in the rest of the restaurant to a minimum.  My shirt smells like meat now, and that is also a good thing.