Not as miserable an experience as I expected it to be. (Actually, I was expecting to get thrown out for not wearing a jacket: the dress code apparently doesn't extend quite that far, but we were seated in a fairly remote section.)
I was fond of my sliced duck breast and duck comfit (served over fettucini noodles), but I'm not sure I was as fond of it as Louie's was, given the price tag.
The mussels we ordered as tapas, on the other hand, were very well prepared, and a good sized serving: I could have eaten two or three bowls of those with a salad and called it a meal for less.
The service also seemed better than our recent average. And I liked the interior design and layout: sit in the balcony if you can for the full effect.
Next time, more tapas. And there will be a next time.
Louie's 106 seems to have dwelt near the top of the Austin Chronicle Restaurant Poll since shortly after opening, so we thought it was finally time to check it out. It turned out to mostly live up to the hype, mainly due to the tapas.
In theory tapas are like mini-appetizer trays, not unlike a Mediterranean version of Dim Sum. In practice, Louie's 106's tapas are big enough to serve as appetizers at lesser establishments, while the appetizers themselves were enormous. (There are many dishes available as both tapas and (in larger portions) as appetizers. Unless you're going to be splitting it among three or four people, go for the tapas.) The mussels tapas were quite good, very cheap, and as plentiful as you find in other restaurants as appetizers at twice the price. Also excellent was a grilled chicken sausage tapas plate with dijionaise on the side, even though chicken sausage was a beast I had never heretofore encountered. The escargot appetizer, suitably drenched in butter and chopped garlic, was as good as any we've had in Austin, as were the grilled garlic bread and the huge appetizer plate of calamari.
However, when it came to the main entrees, Louie's 106 went from outstanding to merely good. My pallea valencia with saffron rice had generous portions with a fair amount of chicken, mussels, etc. mixed in, but wasn't nearly tasty enough to justify the $18.95 price tag--though the Creme Brulee (which I barely had room for) was first rank.
My advice? Order lots of the tapas and skip the main course, and you might be able to get an excellent meal for under $20.
Unimpressive variants on TexMex food, and overpriced as well.
Looking at the menu, this is clearly a place for frat types to get drunk on tequila: the quality of food (and service) seems to be a secondary concern of the management.
A special annoyance (for me, anyway) was the fact that pretty much every dessert was spiked with some sort of liquor (the only exception was the milkshakes, and I'm sure if they could have figured out a way...). Why did this bother me? Well, it made sharing with a non-drinking companion tough. But it also made the desserts more expensive: and, in the case of the ice cream pie I had, the sprinkling of booze really didn't do anything to enhance the dish.
I have no problem with dishes that legitimately require ethanol (hey, I can booze it up with the best): however, the liberal and unnecessary use of it is a cheap sleezy trick. I suppose I shouldn't have expected better from a joint in the heart of Sixth Street.
From the outside, Iron Cactus closely resembles the callow yuppie theme bars that line the rest of Sixth Street. However, on the inside, it looks like...every other callow yuppie theme bar on Sixth Street. Fortunately, the food is a bit better.
Though there was some initial delay and confusion in getting our drinks, things were soon straightened out. The nachos seemed a tad better than usual (though still not better than Curra's), but since they charged for a bowl of chips (no extra points there), we didn't try the salsa. The beef fajitas were good, but no better than a half-dozen other TexMex places. I had a vanilla shake for dessert (no malts, alas), and while good, it doesn't hold a candle to Player's Ubershake.
There's nothing wrong with the food at Iron Cactus, but they haven't done anything (at least for non barflies) to distinguish themselves from the pack. Both Jazz and Louie's 106 offer better food a couple of blocks walk in either direction, and with the new Ninfa's open across from Adventures in Crime & Space, they're not even the best TexMex place on Sixth Street.
Yet more Vietnamese food. If you've been to one, you've been to all of them, though I do think their vermacelli is better than Pho Cong Ly.
Frankly, though, I'd probably go across the parking lot to Sea Dragon, or over to Fortune Pho 75 before eating here again.
I'm running out of ways to describe pho restaurants. It's pho. It's cheap. It's filling. There seems to be very little to distinguish PhoNom from Pho Cong Ly. Don Webb said the pork chops were better, but none of us tried them. The lemonade was of the "one cup artificial lemonade flavor mix, five cups of white sugar" variety. Their grasp of English is sketchy at best; refills were iffy, my pork rolls were late, and they neglected (despite my request) to refrain from putting peanuts on top of my vermicelli.
Not a bad place to visit if you've only got $5 and want to fill up, but I think Kim Phung is a better bang for the buck.
Tocai was nicely uncrowded at 6 on a Saturday night: a good thing for our party, which was larger than we had anticipated.
The claim here is "Mediteranean" specialties, but the menu seems much more Italian influenced. I was tempted by the beef and lamb tenderloins, but wound up ordering the gnocci (Italian potato dumplings) of the day. This was a pretty good choice: served with chicken sausage and mushrooms in an asiago cream sauce, they were the best I've had outside of Rhode Island.
The dessert and cordial list is impressive as well, but I wish the wine list had more wines available by the glass. (The bottle of the house Merlot we shared was pretty good, though.)
Tocai does have two minor problems: the salads could stand some improvement, and the tip policy is a bit questionable to me. I have no problems with places that add a tip for large parties: Tocai defines "large" as "five or more", which is non-standard. And they add 18%. Last I checked, the standard tip was 15%.
Neither of these problems will keep me from going back, though. And with the new Ninfa's across the street, plus Castle Hill and Cafe Josie just down the road, West 6th Street is becoming the place for fine dining in Austin.
Italian food in an atmosphere of elegence-out-the-wazoo. I opted for a rather uncharacteristic Italian dish for me--spaghetti and meatballs. Actually, they were Guinness meatballs and spaghetti carbonara, and it turned out to be both pretty good and reasonably priced. However, a few fellow dinner's entree's seemed to suffer from The French Problem. Service was quite attentive, if a little grim ("We're very, very serious about food here").
The best thing about Tocai is its location: right next to Adventures in Crime & Space bookstore. (Shop there. This is an order.) And if you're looking for elegant Italian dining in a downtown location, I like Tocai much better than Basil's. On the other hand, it's not quite up to the level of Reale's or Cafe Spiazzo.
Worst of all, as Dwight notes, they automatically tag on an 18% tip to a meal for parties of five or more rather than the customary 15%. Repeat after me: This is an UNACCEPTABLE POLICY. I've heard of at least one other restaurant with the same practice, and being a guerrilla consumer activist, I think this particular bit of hubris should be nipped in the bud (or next year it will be 20%). Therefore, I am declaring that any restaurant which institutes a mandatory tip percentage over 15% automatically receives a NO STARS rating until they change the policy. FEAR MY WRATH! I HAVE SPOKEN!
Tip: If you want to get a salad, make sure to ask if lettuce comes in it. A fellow diner made the mistake of asking for the mozzarella-and-tomato salad, and received...chunks of tomato and mozzarella arranged in a zig-zag pattern on his plate. I don't know about you, but to me these "salad" plates (we ran into one at the Trattori Grande as well) tend to reek more of pretentious snobbery than customer service. ("Ha-ha, you stupid bourgeoisie pig! We fooled you again! We wave our gastronomically superior armpits in your general direction!") How about breaking these up into two sections: "Salads with Green Leafy Things" and "Salads of Non-Green Leafy Things In Tiny Portions Artfully Arranged in Geometric Patterns On Your Plate"?
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