Panda Express

2501 W Parmer Ln
Austin, TX
(512) 821-2307

My wife and I were on our way to a meeting and needed something quick for dinner and I let her talk me into Panda Express.  It was against my better judgment.  I'd been there once before and hadn't liked it.  

First, I don't really like the way they do things.  You end up having to order two entrees, along with rice and soup and an egg roll cost extra.  By the time you get what would be considered a whole meal in a true Chinese Restaurant, it costs you as much or more as that Chinese Restaurant, and it isn't nearly as good.

I got Orange Chicken, as the closest thing to the Sesame Chicken that I love, and something with Beef and broccoli.  The chicken was chewy, the beef was tasteless, and they need to change the name of that entrée to Broccoli with a hint of Beef.  There was very little beef, which as I said was tasteless, and it was hidden in masses of overcooked broccoli.

Of course, things can't help but be overcooked, because they come out and sit under heat lamps for hours on end.  But, I didn't think that chinese cooking could manage to cook all the flavor out of food this way.  Of course, Panda Express bears as much resemblance to chinese cooking as Taco Bell does to mexican cooking (and I like Taco Bell).  And, to accentuate the tastelessness of the fried rice, they didn't give enough sauce with either the chicken or the beef to add much flavor to the rice.

The fried rice was as tasteless as the beef.  I got an egg roll and it was actually crispy on the outside, which was a bit of a surprise, but it was mushy inside, and it tasted a bit odd.  I have eaten a lot of egg rolls and none of them ever tasted like this.

Now, it wasn't a complete loss and I might go back to Panda Express, but it won't be for the Orange Chicken, the Broccoli Beef, the Fried Rice or the Egg Roll.

The Hot and Sour Soup was excellent.  I am a big fan of Hot and Sour Soup, even if all I really want is the broth, and theirs was really good, probably the third best I have ever had and certainly worth a return trip, but I think I will just get the Hot and Sour Soup to go, and then slip across the street to Taco Cabana for Mexican food a step above Taco Bell.

The Great Austin Burger Hunt - Burger King

Burger King

2700 Guadalupe

(512)477-5672

Well, the advertising worked on me...once.  Over the weekend, I saw several commercials for the Burger King Chef's Choice Burger, and that is what I decided to try.  Now, it is not too unusual considering that I write the Great Austin Burger Hunt.  Now, I often end up buying burgers while out doing something else for lunch, and that was again the case today.

I was intrigued by the description of the burger, a special blend of beef, bacon, a thick slice of American Cheese (meh) and an artisan roll.

The first problem was the lettuce.  It was leaf lettuce, but they used the base of the leaf, so that I ended up with a thick stalk, almost like having a celery stalk on the burger.  It was not appetizing, and I ended up pulling it off the burger and throwing it away.

The meat was tasty-ish.  There was nothing wrong with it, but there wasn't really anything special about it either.  It was beef, and surprisingly, the signature Burger King char-broil taste was missing.

The cheese was there, but American cheese is never much to write home about, and putting on a thicker slice, means a thicker slice of nothing much to write home about.

The bacon was limp.  By my way of thinking that makes it undercooked.  Mostly, that makes it a big non-factor in the burger.

An Artisan Roll?  Well, they may want to claim that it is an artisan roll, but I doubt an artisan would be willing to claim it.

The fries were good, better than I remember for Burger King.  They were fairly large cut and well cooked.  I also found that they had reasonable legs, so one point for the BK boys.

Having nothing to do with the burger, except that it could affect any future decision to try Burger King again, the only diet drink they had was Diet Coke.  I prefer Coke Zero or Diet Dr. Pepper.  I have been known to make restaurant choices based on beverage selection.

Conclusion?  I cannot recommend the Burger King Chef's Choice Burger.  It was a very average burger at a premium price...not a good combination.

The Great Austin Burger Hunt - Stallion Grill

Stallion Grill
5201 Aiport Blvd

512-380-9433

I have to admit that I ate my burger from Stallion Grill on the run. I'd been out doing errands on my lunch hour and saw the Stallion Grill and decided to give it a chance. I intend to go back some time and sit down for a burger at my leisure.

The combo that I got was a little odd. It isn't a big chain, so no one asked me if I wanted to upsize, and I ended up with a very small drink. Of course, that isn't the biggest problem in the world, since I didn't actually come for a soda, that is just to wash down the burger and fries.

The burger was enormous, 1/3 lb. and you get a selection of cheeses. I chose Swiss. The burger was excellent, one of the best I have had during my search and easily in the top five, possibly as high as second. The meat was well cooked, not too done, and the cheese was actually there...as a taste, and not just a gooey mass. The only bad thing I have to say about the burger is that the bun did not impress, and yet it was still better than most fast food buns.

The fries were seasoned. They were a bit on the greasy side, but they had good legs as I drove back to work, and they provided catsup in a cup, which is a big boon for the driving diner. When are fast food restaurants going to understand that a catsup packet is worthless to someone in a car?

I was very impressed and the Stallion Grill will be getting more of my business.

Fast Breakfast Tacos Done Right

Taco Cabana

517 MLK Blvd

Austin, TX 78701

(512) 478-0875

So, in a recent review I mentioned Taco Cabana in passing, and I thought I would give them a full review for their breakfast tacos. Taco Cabana's standard breakfast taco combo is $3.29 for two tacos and a drink. If you look back at my previous breakfast taco review, you might see that I paid $3.25 for those two tacos, with no drink.

The real beauty of the Taco Cabana taco is that it is constructed after you order it. Fresh tortilla (they make their own) loaded with eggs and bacon and then wrapped up just for you. Of course, the eggs and bacon are cooked before you ordered it, but the whole thing isn't assembled ahead of time, and then stuck in a warmer.

Fresh food is always better, and so the mass produced tacos of the taco truck just are not going to fair well in comparison...and they don't.

I like the Taco Cabana salsa and I like to order cheese on the side. You can order the cheese on the taco, but I found that the amount of cheese they add to the taco is very small, but if you order it on the side they give you a little tub of cheese which is plenty for two tacos.

There may be better breakfast tacos in Austin, but they aren't close to my work, and they don't have a drive-thru.

Bamboo Garden

Bamboo Garden

625 W. Ben White

(512) 444-6022

I've been looking around for a new place to get a good Sesame Chicken lunch, and today my search brought me to Bamboo Garden in south Austin.  I cannot really claim to like Chinese food, but I love Sesame Chicken, and Hot and Sour Soup.  I've tried the Magic Wok and Sun Hing on the north side of the UT campus, and they are okay, but not really good enough to get my repeat patronage...at least not very often.  My favorite is China Wall, in Round Rock, but that is a pretty far drive from downtown, when I am looking for lunch.

I tend to order to go, because I rarely care for sitting by myself...in any restaurant.  I ordered the Sesame Chicken lunch, with Hot and Sour Soup.  It also came with an egg roll, and two fried wontons.  I called ahead and the order was waiting for me and without a drink it was $7.04, so quite reasonable.

Everything was very hot.  The egg roll and wontons were in a small paper bag within the plastic grocery bag, and not in the hot food container.  That is one point to Bamboo Garden.  It is a terrible idea to pack anything crispy in with a pile of hot chicken with sauce and rice.  If you carry it back home, your crispy egg roll is now a steamed egg roll.  Yuck!

In the standard styrofoam plate was a good pile of Sesame Chick, a large scoop of rice, and three or four broccoli florets.  Another point to Bamboo Garden, for leaving the broccoli on the side.  I can always push an unwanted bit of broccoli to the side while eating, but I get annoyed when some of the delicious sauce is clinging to the broccoli and I don't get to mix it into my rice.

The Sesame Chicken was well cooked, not perfect, but better than a few I've had.  The sauce was a little spicier than most places.  Nothing wrong with that, it gave it a more distinctive taste, and it wasn't overly sweet, which can be a problem sometimes.

The rice was fried, and one point against Bamboo Garden for not giving me an option when I called.  The rice was nicely prepared, but was somewhat unusual in not seeming to have anything but rice and seasoning.  There were no vegetables.  I didn't mind.

The eggroll was nice and crispy and tasty as well.  The wontons were unusual.  They were just two flat fried wonton wrappers.  I'd never seen that before.  They were sort of dry and tasteless...well, not completely.  They just didn't have any sort of seasoning on them.  They were okay, sort of like a piece of bread to push things around with.

The Hot and Sour Soup was excellent.  I'd almost go back again just for that.  I think I would have to rate it just below the Hot and Sour soup at China Wall, but not by much.

So, the conclusion?  The Sesame Chicken was good, the rice was good, the egg roll was good and the Hot and Sour Soup was excellent.  I won't mind going back.

Original Brooklyn Pie Co.

Original Brooklyn Pie Co.

8127 Mesa Dr.  B-202

Austin, TX 78759

I was out one day wandering, which I tend to do in my car, when I say this near a burger place that I intend to review sometime in the future.  It's in a strip mall, which isn't always great, but you never know, so in I went.

It's a small restaurant, not pretentious, but not bad, very casual.  I arrived after 1pm and they were doing a steady business without being full.  They have wireless, but they also have a network key that is 26 characters long.  That seemed a bit much and the waiter had to bring it to me on a piece of paper.

I ordered a slice, but it was a really big slice, about 1/4 of a large pizza.  With one topping, a drink and tax it came out to $7.08.  How do I say this without making it sound like I thought it was too expensive?  I don't consider that a budget price, but it was okay.  It was less than a most places for a sandwich, chips and a drink.

I chose Italian Sausage for my topping, but it turned out to be sweet, and I really prefer hot.  I could have gotten pepperoni and saved nearly a dollar, but I think that was the deal of the day.  It's a thin crispy crust, with plenty of toppings, but do yourself a favor and grab a knife and fork.  You may not want to eat your pizza that way, but it would take the skills of a native New Yorker to fold that giant slice.  The crust is foldable in the best New York tradition.

Actually, I should point out that I have never been to New York, and I don't know any New Yorkers, so I do not really know what a New York pizza should be like, and I have never eaten one that I could verify was authentic New York pizza.  Everything I know comes from TV.  Based on that information, this seems pretty authentic to the New York pizza tradition....but, I don't know for sure.

The pizza was very hot when brought to my table and it was very good.  It wasn't a drippy pizza, all the parts of the pizza could be tasted, nothing got lost in the mix.

The Original Brooklyn Pie Co. is a little out of the way, up on Mesa Dr.  It seems more like a neighborhood pizza place, which may fit very well with the New York tradition.  I cannot say that I would drive out of my way if I were hungry for pizza, at least not just to get to the Original Brooklyn Pie Co., but it is good, and if you want a place with a nice, casual, neighborhood feel, and good pizza, you could do much worse than the Original Brooklyn Pie Co.
 

Bread, the Missing Element

If you do a tour of American Sandwich Shops and Burger Joints, you could easily come to the conclusion that the only reason for bread is so that you do not have to handle the meat and cheese with your fingers.  Rather than being an important part of the sandwich, they seem to have become little more than the delivery system.

Burger Joints were probably the first purveyor of this tragedy.  Of course, that might be because most of the big burger chains got their start in the 1950s, when Wonder Bread was king.  Wonder Bread, and most buns seem to be mostly flour and air.  They have no body, or true texture.  They add nothing to a sandwich, except something to grab it by.  Very occasionally, you will see somebody try putting a burger on better bread, but the big chains never get the message, and so none of them are any different from the rest.

Some get the idea, like Schlotzkys,  Their sourdough roll is a joy, it has bite and flavor.  I sometimes wish that I could just buy the rolls, and it is even better as a pizza dough.  I keep wondering why no one has stolen that idea.

Some don't get the idea, but they try.  Subway offers a selection of breads, but no matter what you order, you are getting Wonder Bread with flavors added.  It tastes good, but there is no body, no bite, nothing to chew.  It's a little sad really.

Even good sandwich shops can suffer from this problem.  They take the time to find the best meats, and good cheeses.  They procure good, flavorful condiments, and then when it comes to bread, they seem to think any old thing will do.  Even when the bread isn't bad, like at Jimmy Johns, it isn't really good either.  I will take Jimmy Johns over Subway any day, because they are a little better at each and ever aspect of the sandwich, but not enough to make me go out of my way.

So, to all you sandwich makers out there, give a little more thought to your bread.  I have some ideas too. 

Pretzel Buns might be nice, but remember to get a really chewy pretzel dough if you are going that direction.

How about a Rye Bun?  I think this would be phenomenal with a good Hot Dog.

Bagels anyone?  They are already round, just like your hamburger buns.  I would suggest a bagel on the lighter end of the spectrum.

Ciabatta's been used, but it would be better than Wonder Bread...much better.

So, be creative, make your sandwich something unique.  Don't follow the present trend of putting meat and cheese between two pieces of cardboard and hoping people don't notice.