Pretentiousness in Austin? (Dallas, Brownsville, Taylor: condo, transfer, luxury)

[readymade]

Originally Posted by mlassoff

I'd add Vegas, LA and Toronto

VEGAS?!?!?!

Where on earth are you eating? Obviously in better places than I.

[TexasHorseLady]

Hoffbrau steaks are amazing - but you have to check your "health nut" credentials at the door! Worth it, too!

I disagree with you about BBQ, but the best way to get a "fight" started is to start a conversation about BBQ. I think Lockhart is highly overrated (except, possibly, Blacks, which is okay) - I used to board my horses near there and ate in Lockhart a LOT. I'd prefer to keep on driving down the road to City Market in Luling - now THAT's amazing BBQ!

Our first trip to San Francisco, way pre-internet, we researched and made a list of places we wanted to eat based on the recommendations we could find for "world class food". When we got there, every single one of them had closed down. So, we learned a trick we've used everywhere ever since. We saw a likely looking person walking down the street that looked like a local, stopped them and asked them, "If you could eat anywhere you wanted within six blocks, where would it be?" Worked beautifully our entire trip. We learned, if they reel off five or six places, thank them, then stop another person. If their eyes light up and they say you MUST eat at such and such a place, go there - and if you can, take them with you! We've found some really good food with that technique, and most places reasonably priced because we're eating where the locals, not the tourists, eat.

[sliverbox]

Well... the thing is that in SF the city, its actually not that hard to find good restaurants because there's so many of them. Personally, I think some of the best food I've had out here is in the Sierra Foothills. By the way, Blacks is where we went. I thought it was really good.

[TexasHorseLady]

We ended up, as a result of that tactic, driving 75 miles up the coast to a restaurant that someone said we HAD to eat at, only to find that it was closed for the season. It was clinging to the cliffside over the water, and it had a menu posted that was to die for. Pure torture.

We actually did find a couple of places in SF where the food wasn't all that good, which is when we came up with our solution. But I figure it's sort of like New Orleans - throw a rock and you'll find a good place to eat. Or Austin - throw a rock and you'll find great Tex-Mex or BBQ.

[mlassoff]

Hoffbrau? Shudder! Low quality meat, everything covered in some kind of wretched sauce. Sopping wet french frys. No thanks.

[TexasHorseLady]

Like I said, you have to check your "health nut status" (and your pretentiousness, to keep this on topic) at the door. The meat that I've had there has been quite tasty (and I'm a carnivore from way back, so I'm really familiar with good meat), and my son who lived in and ate in and loves NYC in particular for its food found it so, as well. The "sauce" is basically butter, by the way. You might have heard of it.

[mlassoff]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Like I said, you have to check your "health nut status" (and your pretentiousness, to keep this on topic) at the door. The meat that I've had there has been quite tasty (and I'm a carnivore from way back, so I'm really familiar with good meat), and my son who lived in and ate in and loves NYC in particular for its food found it so, as well. The "sauce" is basically butter, by the way. You might have heard of it.

Oh Wait-- I get it. Hoffbrau is "Austinish." It's old, has broken, cheap furniture, is less than clean, has a filthy outhouse for a restroom. It's very 78704! Never mind the food. It feels "cool" to eat there.

For good steak in Austin, I'll stick to Joe DiMaggio's Chophouse, Sullivan's and Austin Land and Cattle.

[TexasHorseLady]

Clearly you haven't learned what most foodies do sooner or later - some of the very best food is found in "dives". Not that Hoffbrau constitutes a dive, it's just not a fancy restaurant or a nice "safe" chain restaurant.

Did you have one restaurant meal in all your years here that you liked? If so, can you tell us what and where?

[Ketabcha]

Originally Posted by paul6835

Dallas is an ugly, inexpensive sprawl where you can make really good money.

Dallas is not ugly.

[artsyguy]

I laughed when I read that he/she thought Dallas was ugly. White Rock Lake and Cedar Hill State Park are very nice areas of Dallas.

Originally Posted by Ketabcha

Dallas is not ugly.