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Overrated Austin restaurants?


Chet Steadman

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El Arroyo - Holy hell, this place has had a dramatic fall from over the past few years.   Aside from the iconic sign and the nostalgia factor, what more do they do well?  I can’t imagine they’re long for this world.  

Kerbey Lane - Good queso, average breakfast.  Everything else is forgettable.  

Guerros - No explanation needed.  That’s not mexican food.

What say you?

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1 hour ago, Chet Steadman said:

El Arroyo - Holy hell, this place has had a dramatic fall from over the past few years.   Aside from the iconic sign and the nostalgia factor, what more do they do well?  I can’t imagine they’re long for this world.  

They still have 99 cent margaritas?

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For me Polvos was an acquired taste. Took a few times, enchiladas and fajitas are my go to. Fucking love the escabeche at the salsa bar. 

Agree with the op on all three and Chuy’s sucks as well.

I will add Flores Mexican Cantinas or whatever they call them  They all suck and you better not use a credit card there or you will end up with some nasty charges pretty soon after your visit.   Especially the Lakeway location.

 

 

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Other than the margarita special, I don’t think El Arroyo is rated highly by anybody.

I’ve never been a big Kerbey Lane fan either. I don’t know if it’s the pancakes or the syrup but one of them has a fairly strong vanilla flavor that I don’t care for.

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It's been years, but I like Maria's tex-mex crispy tacos with potatoes in the beef and sharp cheddar.  For crispy beef tacos, that'd be my choice, but there may be some nostalgia from living across the street in college.

 

The Chili Parlor is a weird one - I don't particularly like their chili, but they quietly have some of the best enchiladas in town.

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This board/shaggy have done nothing but pile-on Trudy’s at its every mention for years. It’s become the Rick Barnes of restaurants- everybody says it’s overrated but nobody actually rates it- except for me.

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16 hours ago, SmokeyTheBear said:

Maria's taco xpress for anything other than breakfast tacos

Flame away

That is the only thing it is rated for. I think some people have a weird definition of over rated, some of these places are just bad but I never here anyone from Austin hyping them. 

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Wholeheartedly  agree with pretty much all the responses so far, esp P Terry's.

I'll toss Torchy's into the mix. ETA: Jack Straw beat me to it. Just don't get the crazy Torchy's love.

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26 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Uchi is good, but there are a number of LA and NYC spots that blow it out of the water.

Which ones? I haven't found places that blew it out of the water yet and as far as sushi it remains the top 3 sushi or Japanese meals I've had in all 3 spots. Did you do the omakase at Al these places? I really want to know so I can go. 

 

Also Trudy's is overrated as fuck. So is via 313 so is any food from any food trailer except maybe the OG Franklin's. 

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I like Kerby but it’s mainly because my kids love their pancakes and I can take them there for kids eat free dinner and get a decent dinner myself. I like their breakfast but it’s nothing out of this world.

 

I haven’t exactly been dining out a ton since I moved back three years ago but I’m amazed at how blah I find pretty much every Mexican place. Flores, Maude’s, Santa Rita, Matt’s El Rancho - they’re all good but nothing exceptional. I really have no preference of one over the other.

 

One thing I find vastly over rated is most of these brewery/distilleries in southwest Austin. If they have a nice outdoor place for the kids, I’m in, but otherwise I’ve found most of their drinks and just about all their food to be mediocre at best

 

 Yeah an P Terry’s blows. Are their the first week I was back as a bunch of people told me how great it was. It’s just an over priced McDonalds

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

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53 minutes ago, Hellraiser97 said:

 

I haven’t exactly been dining out a ton since I moved back three years ago but I’m amazed at how blah I find pretty much every Mexican place. Flores, Maude’s, Santa Rita, Matt’s El Rancho - they’re all good but nothing exceptional. I really have no preference of one over the other.

 

You live long enough you'll realize that this is just the way texmex is.There's really only so much your can do with rice beans and beans and tortillas.

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Torchy's is pretty overrated. Mediocre tacos for way too much money.

Uchi is good but it isn't even the best sushi in Austin, much less in the country. I prefer Tomo. Masa in NYC is supposed to be godlike, but I can't say I've been there. I think its the traditional "Best Sushi in America" thing. Uchi puts a lot of work in their rice I guess, but their fish is just average. I guess they're creative with their rolls but their Nigiri is below Tomo, Musashino, Komé, and also Hanabi.

County Line is just ass quality barbecue. Pok-e-Jo's has better bbq than County Line. Rudy's is decent for a gas station Q place outside of deep East Texas. Something about rural East Texas where you can pull up to a shack that looks like it's about to collapse which is attached to a potentially abandoned gas station and have the best meat you've ever tasted, but this thread is about overrated food, not expectation defying food.

For controversy's sake, La Barbecue is pretty damn overrated. It's decent barbecue, but nothing I would wait in line for. Especially recently where the quality has been downright shrugworthy.

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Maudie's is fucking crap. At least the one in the triangle. I could microwave better food.

East Side Pies. I mean, they're fine, its pizza, but fucking $20 large pepperoni is overrating your own product. people pay that too.

Celis brewery. The wit is on point. If that all they ever made again, they'd be a very successful brewery. raspberry is cloying, pale bock is a pale ale?, and don't even with that NEIPA. Also, exporting to Asia seems like their business plan is doomed to fail THE SAME WAY as before. Overexpansion, underdelivering, product becomes shite. Shutter. Apparently, they're not reading into regional breweries being the most sustainable model and just going full global expansion. Lets see how that works out for them. Lets ask Green Flash.

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2 hours ago, immamac said:

Which ones? I haven't found places that blew it out of the water yet and as far as sushi it remains the top 3 sushi or Japanese meals I've had in all 3 spots. Did you do the omakase at Al these places? I really want to know so I can go. 

 

Also Trudy's is overrated as fuck. So is via 313 so is any food from any food trailer except maybe the OG Franklin's. 

False.

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Trudy's catching some shit and I get it, there is no reason to be that bad at something as simple/basic as Tex-Mex. The one on 290 West is scary bad. Would rather eat boiled owl than their crap.

Salt Lick is 5 minutes from me and I can't remember the last time we were there. It's not that it's so overrated as much as it has become the Six Flags of Texas BBQ.  Doing BBQ for that many people.... how the hell do you keep food quality up? Do the leftovers all get turned into a chopped sandwich the next day? The smoked turkey was the best thing I had.

Kerby Lane has been hit or miss, the one on Wm. Cannon is the closest and there always seems to be a long ass wait to boot. Hard pass.

Never thought Maudie's was anything but average 

I like Pious Pizza but they are always running out. WTF? Maybe that's on me, I should monitor their pizza making schedule more closely.

Got to read more of the Shit I cooked Lately thread since apparently restaurants in general are overrated, they are just convenient and no clean up.

 

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