Ideas for Christmas Eve dinner downtown? (Austin, Cactus: restaurant, to eat, friendly)

[AMJ27]

Any ideas for a nice, yet still casual, Christmas Eve dinner downtown? We have vegetarians in the group.

Ideally, something that is authentically Austin since we are having family from out of town with us. Nothing too fancy (we have kids), but we don't want a Chuy's or Kerbey Lane type of restaurant either.

Thanks!

[mark311]

Not the easiest combination of wants and I think that's why there hasn't been any responses yet: Kids, some Vegetarians, downtown, no Kerbey Lane or Chuy's type places.

Not really in downtown, but close: Maybe Threadgill's on Riverside (probably not a ton of options for Vegetarians) or Shady Grove (probably just Vegetarian sandwich options), but "authentically Austin".

Of course the Driskill came to mind, but that would be too fancy.

http://www.theshadygrove.com/

http://threadgills.com/

[Moonlady]

Threadgills does have plates where you can get just vegetables. I'm not sure if they meet vegetarian standards (i.e., cooked with bacon) so you might want to call and ask. It's close enough to downtown and it does meet the other criteria of casual and kid friendly.

I did a yelp search with the filters for vegetarian, downtown and good for kids and it didn't return any results. You might consider branching out a little from downtown to meet all your criteria.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by AMJ27

Any ideas for a nice, yet still casual, Christmas Eve dinner downtown? We have vegetarians in the group.

Ideally, something that is authentically Austin since we are having family from out of town with us. Nothing too fancy (we have kids), but we don't want a Chuy's or Kerbey Lane type of restaurant either.

Thanks!

Dont know if south congress cafe is open then, but we really like it.

Moonshine is also good

[AMJ27]

I love Shady Grove, but that's going to be too casual for my mother on Christmas Eve (she's the one who requested no Chuy's or Kerbey Lane type place). I haven't been to Threadgill's, but I'm thinking that might be a little too casual as well.

I'm the vegetarian of the group, and honestly, I'm not that picky. My mother just requested that we go somewhere that has more than a baked potato and a side of veggies for me to eat. I'm not terribly worried since pretty much every Austin restaurant caters to vegetarians, but I just threw it out so "steak" places weren't the only places suggested.

What about a more upscale tex-mex place? I like Iron Cactus and I thought that Garrido's was okay. Any other suggestions for tex mex downtown?

[TexasHorseLady]

Chez Nous.

Or, a little bit of a drive but only about five minutes or so, Azul Tequilla for Tex-Mex or Interior Mexican.

Hyde Park Bar & Grill.

[AustinGuy]

Check out Fabi and Rosi. It has a nice environment in a converted house. Just west of downtown off Lake Austin Blvd.

Fabi and Rosi European Kitchen Austin, TX