Hill's is yet another of those "traditional Austin" joints: only this one went into a now-acknowledged decline before being purchased and revived by a prominent local radio personality.
How is it? I'd have to say that, for a radio personality, he's not a bad resteraunteur.
The barbecue isn't ambrosial, but I find it more than passible (especially the brisket, turkey, and pork loin). They also do pretty fair bread (both white rolls and cornbread muffins), and the waitstaff seems to know what they're doing.
On the other hand, I am told by my source that the chicken fried steak (which is promoted on the menu as one of their most famous dishes) was pretty bad: I haven't tried any of the regular steaks or burgers yet (and I don't know if I'll ever be trying the "truck stop enchiladas").
In the end, I can't gripe too much. Hill's sure beats Threadgill's all to heck. I'd be willing to take my folks (or other out-of-town) visitors there to experience the "old Austin".
I think I like Hill's more than I liked the particular dish I had there. I think if I had opted for a chicken fried steak, or a regular steak, or a hamburger, I would have enjoyed my meal more.
Instead I opted for the Bob's BBQ Platter (substituting pork loin for the chicken), which does offer you a fairly impressive spread of food for the price. (I ended up taking some of it home.) However, the BBQ itself is generally in the fair-to-middling range. The pork ribs and brisket were good, but the beef rib was distinctly inferior to those offered at The Iron Works, the pork loin was merely decent, and the sausage was the standard dull fare (though still better than the sausage at Rudy's).
The most interesting thing I had were the sweet corn nuggets, which are actually kernels of sweet corn stuck together and fried in a light batter. They're actually surprisingly good. French fries were the usual wedge shaped type (not my favorite, but competently executed here), while the side salad was entirely adequate for the price. Service was generally pretty good, but I was displeased to see another restaurant infected with the UNACCEPTABLE 18% automatic gratuity policy for large parties. However, I do like the wood interiors and general attitude of the place ("Vegetarian in Navaho Means 'Lousy Hunter'"). I'd be willing to make a return visit and try some of the other dishes.
It is tempting, given the size of Yoli's Jambalaya, to give it a negative review, in hopes of keeping the hordes away from the place and perhaps allowing myself to get a seat for dinner without a wait. But I can't do that.
Yoli is back, baby!
The menu is much the same as it was at the old Gumbo's: great etouffees (or so I'm told), a couple of excellent seafood pasta dishes (I liked the shrimp, crawfish, and jalapeno sausage fettuccine), fresh fish, and the terriffic (again, so I'm told) bread pudding. Also, of course, gumbo and red beans and rice. The portions seem a bit smaller than I remember from the old Gumbo's, but the prices are very reasonable. ($11.50 for the above mentioned fettuccine: the most expensive dish on the menu is $13.95, and a bowl of crawfish etouffee is $8.50.) And Yoli even comped one of the desserts we ordered; I'm sure she had no idea who we were. (I can't promise that this will happen while you're there, but some posts on austin.food indicate that our party was not unique in this regard.)
What would I like to see? More space. Expanded hours. (Yoli's is only open for dinner Thursday - Saturday from 5 PM to 10 PM, and for lunch Tuesday - Friday from 11 AM - 2 PM.) A few more appetizers. Some of these things may fall into place as Yoli's gets more popular (and as additional space in the strip center opens up). And I would hate to see the character of Yoli's diluted by over-extension.
Back in the dim mists of time, this place was known as Gumbo's, when it was the best Cajun place in town by a good measure. You had to show up when they opened at 5:00 PM or face an hour wait. Then the original owners sold the Gumbo's concept to someone else, who opened up locations in Round Rock and downtown, which I still haven't managed to eat at yet. (Dwight tells me they're inferior to the original, which I believe.) Then the same couple opened up Yoli's Mediterranean in the same space on Bratton Lane, running that until their non-compete agreement with the people who took over Gumbo's expired, at which point Yoli's Mediterranean became Yoli's Jambalaya. And there was much rejoicing.
If you loved the old Gumbo's, you'll love Yoli's, with the same great food at reasonable prices. (IIRC from five years ago, except for the gumbo, both the portions and the prices have shrunken; since dessert (more on which later) left me pretty much stuffed, this strikes me as an acceptable trade-off.) The gumbo was every bit as delicious as I remembered it, but not quite the same outstanding value it used to be, when you got a bowl literally brimming with good stuff. The salad was slightly better than average, with a few too many trendy leaf things in it for my taste ("oh no, my fork has nothing but the dreaded spiky lettuce on it!"). But the blackened salmon with crawfish etoufee was really outstanding. And dessert? Finally, I know what bread pudding is supposed to taste like.
Good service, good bread, excellent garlic butter, and surroundings several orders of magnitude quieter than Pappadeux round out the Yoli's experience. And it looks like you could come in as late as 5:30 PM or so and still get seated. About the only drawback here is the lack of a "group" appetizer to pass around. (Some "crawfish bites," perhaps?) Still, this automatically catapults Yoli into the top tier of our favorite restaurants.
Very good sushi, at what I thought to be a more reasonable price than Ichiban. The entree offerings are a bit pricy, but in about the same range as Mirabelle, and are pretty well prepared. The service is excellent, and the inside of the restaurant is very nicely finished and comfortable.
I want to make a return visit and try the sushi bar next time. Mikado shows a lot of promise.
I don't pretend to be a sushi connoisseur. Doubtlessly someone with more experience in this culinary arena could provide a more suitable analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the sushi that Mikado offers. However, I can offering up the following observations:
On the other hand, the rum cake was great, among the best desserts I've had in Austin, ever. I was seriously considering ordering another slice; it was that good.
So: Decent sushi, and at least one excellent dessert. I would like to come back, though I do want to try some of the other sushi offerings in the area before a return visit.
Yawn. Yet another unimpressive storefront TexMex place. I can't think of a single reason to go back.
This place is within walking distance of my apartment and it offers cheap, decent Mexican food. Alas, the fajitas for two were distinctly undersized, but Earl's carnitas plate looked like a good value for the money. The breakfast tacos I had on the side were also reasonably tasty. The biggest lack is any sort of real appetizer selections (I think this is the first sit-down TexMex place I've been to where you can't get quesidillas or nachos.
Still, it's worth a visit if you're looking for good, cheap TexMex in the NE quadrant.
Like so many other Vietnamese places in Austin, they turn out a good bowl of bun. There's really not much more that I can say: this seems to be the best choice for Vietnamese food along Oltorf. (I admit to not trying the 888 location on Oltorf, but I have a good reason: they don't open for dinner until 6 PM.)
Despite good reviews, this turned out to be Yet Another Pho Place. The eggrolls are decent but not in the same league as Kim Phung's, and the grilled pork bun (that's vermicelli, for those of you who don't speak pho) was merely adequate. Fine for a neighborhood pho place, but nothing worth driving out of your way for.
See the logs for July of 2002.