I hate Threadgill's. I hate it beyond my usual hate for pseudo-country homestyle dining: I have had some awful meals at Threadgill's. But Lawrence insisted, for the reasons he outlines below. He also argued that, if Threadgill's is that bad, eating there and reporting it would be a public service.
So he wore me down. I went. And the salad was okay. And the waitress kept our glasses filled. And I will concede that the yeast rolls are pretty good hot.
But the fries were awful: limp and greasy. The "bronzed" catfish (a dish highly praised recently by those 60's burnouts at the Austin Chronicle didn't have any hint of spice or taste: it was a bland piece of catfish, as far as I was concerned. I don't eat chicken fried steak, but my CFS consultant tells me that Threadgill's tastes like it came from a box.
Rest in peace, George. Threadgill's sucks.
We're not really big Threadgill's fans. In fact, the worst restaurant fried chicken I ever had was at Threadgill's many moons ago (it tasted like shake-n-bake). However, after hearing of the very untimely death of my friend, science fiction writer George Alec Effinger (see me memorial to him here), we decided to eat at Threadgill's since it was his favorite Austin restaurant.
Unfortunately, nothing about this trip changed my basic impression of Threadgill's, which is that it's been coasting on its reputation for years, if not decades. One sign of that is that the place only seemed about half full when we left at 7 PM, when it used to be packed. While nothing I had was particularly bad, it wasn't particularly compelling either. Yeah, the chicken fried steak was good, but not any better than half a dozen other places in town, and the gravy seemed particularly bland. Decent salad, decent macaroni and cheese on the side, slightly undercooked rolls, and onion rings that are probably slightly better than average. Service was quite good, as I never had to ask to get my bottomless glass of Dr Pepper refilled.
It wasn't a bad dining experience, but nothing here makes me want to rush back. Frankly, when it comes to the "down home" restaurant sweepstakes, Hoover's kicks Threadgill's ass.
The North Curra's was okay. This time.
The appetizers were generously sized. (Though someone shouldn't have put so much beer and achiote sauce in the bowl with the mussels. It was sloshing way too much.) I was perhaps more fond of the papas than the rest of the table: it didn't bother me that they weren't crisp. The mussels were very good, and providing bread to soak up the sauce was a nice touch. (As was the sauce itself.)
On the other hand, there's a reason why Lawrence didn't get any of my pork (as he mentions below), and it wasn't that I wasn't willing to share: four bites of my concinta pibil and it was gone. I felt kind of ripped off at $10 for the plate: the tamales and tacos seem to be a better deal.
My other problem with Curra's (and this applies to the north and south locations) is that they seem to want to play server roulette. My last meal at the south Curra's resulted in a screwed-up order. I ordered some pork tamales on my previous visit to the north Curra's: I got chicken. (I know this because of the big chicken bone I found inside one of the tamales.)
The food's good: I'd recommend getting some tacos or tamales and perhaps an appetizer or two. And crossing your fingers.
Curra's North seems to have a lot of the same virtues that made the South location such a hit when it first opened, and provides a much better use for the space that the long-past-its-prime Good Eats Cafe used to occupy on North Burnet.
The appetizer portions are very generous; we ordered the nachos, mussels, and papas, each of which came out on a huge platter. In addition to being plentiful, the nachos were among the best we've had, with lots of chicken, chorizo and beef on top. Though the quantities were generous, the papas (French fries with a cheese and chorizo topping) really didn't work for me; the fries weren't crisp enough to stand up against the chorizo's greasy onslaught; both The Outback and The Filling Station's cheese fries are much superior. While there was also a generous supply of mussels, they tasted slightly off (Chuck: "they taste like a beach smells"; does that old prohibition about only eating oysters in months with an "R" also apply to other shellfish?), so I left most of them for Dwight. Frankly, the three platters for only four people eating appetizers (John, as part of his one-meal-a-day Dachau diet plan, abstained) was too much food, and we ended up taking some of it home. Be forewarned.
For my main dish, I had the sirloin tips in chipolte sauce, which was quite good. I meant to try some of Dwight's pork, but forgot (and was feeling pretty full by then anyway). Except for the waiter screwing up the "no ice" order for my Dr Pepper, service was pretty good (though Chuck narrowly missed getting splattered with mussel juice as our waiter turned around with the over-full platter). They also didn't stiff us for the chips, though chips and salsa are listed as $1 on the menu; are there really that many people in North Austin who scammed free chips out of them without buying anything else? If not, then why the verging-on-insulting menu listing?
Those quirks aside, I found my dining experience at Curra's North fairly satisfying. Though early word was that they were having trouble assembling a competent wait staff, those troubles didn't seem to manifest themselves during our visit, and there was already a considerable crowd waiting to get in by the time we left. Indeed, Curra's seems to offer a superior Burnet TexMex experience to Jorge's, El Mercado, and Elsi's. (Whether they're superior to Taqueria Arandas #3 may depend on which side of the time/money tradeoff line you're on; certainly Curra's offers a superior sit-down dining option.)
I like the barbecue just fine (with the exception of the sausage: hot or regular, skip it). The brisket and baby back pork ribs are very nice. I'm less fond of the choice of sides (new potatos?) and of the dining environment: the tables and chairs seem remarkably uncomfortable, like church basement supper furniture.
Get the barbecue and take it home with you.
First off let me state that I hate Rudy's commercials. A woman drinks a bottle of talking BBQ sauce. Yeah, right. Guys, next time you go shopping for an advertising agency, I think I'd opt for someone other than the firm of Crackhead & Freebase. As for the "country store" gimmick, that actually works for me. It's nice to have a wide array of snacks, desserts, etc., to either eat there or take home.
And the BBQ itself? Pretty good but overpriced. The "moist" brisket and the pork ribs are excellent, up there with the best central Texas has to offer. The pork loin was good if not outstanding, but the prime rib just can't compare with that offered at Kreuz Market, and the sausage was fairly dull (I should have gone for the "hot" sausage).
But the big problem was the price. I got a fair amount of meat (indeed, I ended up taking a little of it home with me), but I was still shocked to find that my order came to $25, until I realized that the prices on the sign were for the half-pound rather than the pound, making it almost twice as much as you would pay at Kreuz Market or Crosstown. Hell, it was a good bit more than the all-you-can-eat at The Salt Lick.
Whether it's worth the extra price for not having to drive to Driftwood or Lockhart to get good BBQ I'll leave as an exercise for the reader. I think Rudy's works best as a lunch spot if you already work along that stretch of 183. In the same area, I think, if you pick right, the BBQ is better than that at Texas Rib Kings, but Texas Rib Kings offers you a better bang-for-your-buck.
Din Ho is close enough to home for me to consider. But I almost never eat there. They've always failed to excite me. The barbecue, frankly, could use something extra: okay, so they roast the chicken. It tastes like chicken. The duck tastes like duck. The pork, at least, has a slightly sweet surface sauce. I also would like to see more appetizers (other than the hastily added "egg rolls") on the menu.
This time, though, they had an even bigger problem. They brought out our fried rice with shredded duck, and that was fine. They brought out Lawrence's pork with garlic sauce, and that was okay (perhaps a bit heavy on the veggies, though). Then we waited. And waited. And they brought the check. And we told them at least three times before it finally sank in that we were still waiting on my damn barbecue combination plate. And when they did bring it, it was cold. At least they kept the tea and water glasses filled.
Oh, well.
What Dwight said. My pork in garlic sauce was OK, but too heavy on the vegetables. Service veered between "semi-typical, semi-indifference to white guys eating at an Asian restaurant" service and manifest incompetence (the BBQ dish flub).
I like the idea of Din Ho; I like some of the food. But the execution continues to disappoint.
See the logs for June of 2002.