For a pub, Fado's food offerings seem pretty calculated: not "let's just serve some slop so that we can sell a few more pints". There's real effort here.
And it seems to work okay: my fish and chips were much lighter and had much less oil than I would have expected. The stuffed mushroom appetizer I had was equally pleasant.
However, it seems that four to six people is the maximum number for comfort at Fado: our much larger party was able to fit into one of the alcoves, but it was hard for any group of more than four people to talk comfortably (as opposed to, say, Dog and Duck). I'm not sure I'd want to do a happy hour here.
And I guess I'm a little turned off by what seems to be an attempt to construct an artificial pub, rather than let one build up naturally. Too calculated. Too cold.
An Irish pub and restaurant, evidently part of a chain. They do a reasonably good job. Appatizers were adequately tasty, but portions were far from generous (the mussels, for example, were less than half the serving Carabbas offered the week before). My steak sandwich was fine, at least after I picked off the lame "Irish Cheddar" I foolishly paid more for (silly me, I thought it would be melted onto the sandwich), and the fries were nicely seasoned. Dwight's cheesecake was also very good.
Drawbacks: No Dr Pepper, and Coke comes in those teenie weenie ripoff-size bottles. Refills also seemed a bit slow.
Fado's leaves me with no strong impressions. I like the idea of Irish ethnic cuisine, but the menu seems a bit vegetable heavy for my tastes. I can't quite shake the impression that Fado's is missing something, but I can't quite lay my finger on what it is.
Let us use this space as a memorial to Lawrence's blue 1986 Honda Accord sedan, which died the True Death after over 180,000 miles. They don't build cars like they used to these days: Honda, as far as I can tell, builds them better.
You could pretty much drop my previous comments about Castle Hill Cafe in here and be about 95% accurate. But that would hardly be fair, would it?
On the other hand, they've managed to capture most of what's good about Castle Hill: the same wonderful appetizers, excellent beef dishes, and exceedingly pleasant and helpful service staff.
Complaints? Yes, I have a few. Then again, too few to mention. I could do without the Southwestern and wood decorating scheme. And I wish Mirabelle hadn't already been discovered: by the time we left, the waiting area was packed.
Since Mirabelle is owned and operated by the same people who run Castle Hill Cafe, it's no surprise that the style are very similar: same decor, same ambiance, same service, same food, same prices. In fact, much as I like Castle Hill, they're too similar. To my eye, the appetizer and dessert menus are identical, and I suspect the entree menus are pretty close as well (and, like Castle Hill, it changes from week to week). I'm not sure why they didn't just name it Castle Hill North. In fact, the only real difference is space: the dining area is roomier, and there are more places to park. Despite that, several people were waiting for a table by the time we left (another Castle Hill similarity).
Like Castle Hill, the appetizers were good; the duck springrolls were very tasty, but the lamb empenadas seemed a bit blander than at Castle Hill. They had a special halibut entree I tried, thinking that perhaps my previous disappointments with this fish were due to bland preparation; alas, it turns out that the fish was at fault, as halibut seems bland no matter how you fix it. (Thus complaining about the French Problem seems beside the point.) Other than that, my same comments on our last trip to Castle Hill apply here as well: it's all good, but increasing the portion size, jazzing up the salads, and offering a wider variety of dishes would make it even better.
If you're going to slavishly copy a single restaurant, you could do worse than copying Castle Hill Cafe. However, I was hoping for a little more innovation.
More generic Tex-Mex. You'd expect better from a place in this part of Austin, and the owner certainly seems to be trying hard, but the food is still unimpressive. (Well, except for the fajitas: the tomato chunks mixed in left me with a strong negative impression.)
There's better food available all over town.
Eh. I'd heard good things about this place (at least back when it's name was Dos Hermanos), but the reality proved mighty mediocre.
The nachos proved a little better than average (but where were the jalapenos?), and the hot sauce was OK, even if the chips were bland. The fajitas were acceptable but nothing to write home about. We didn't try the gorditas, which are reputed to be a specialty. My biggest peeve: despite the name, I didn't see a single dish on the menu with habaneros.
Prices were cheap, and the service was adequate considering that there was a single guy running the register and bussing all the tables, but there's nothing that makes Habaneros stand out from other hole in the wall Mexican places, nor is it better than El Barrego de Oro a block over.
I have nothing new to add to my previous comments about The Filling Station.
I will say, though, that Sweetish Hill makes one heck of a good chocolate cake.
And Happy 30th Birthday, Clyde.
(With apologies to David Byrne.)
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