nato's corner

Belated Mother's Day Dinner

2007-05-18T02:37:54Z

Had finals, so we (my family) postponed Mother's Day a bit.. today we finally went out to eat at Kona Grill.

Oriental Salad w/ Macadamia Nut Chicken
Kona Grill (The Domain)
Price: $9.50 + tax/tip

*Picture soon.. need to transfer it to the computer*

Kona Grill apparently is an Arizona-based restaurant chain that recently plopped down in Austin with the opening of "The Domain", an upscale outdoor mall that opened around spring break. The food has been described as a fusion of Asian and Hawaiian. In addition to meat/seafood entrées, they serve pizza and sushi. Yes. A very interesting combination, to say the least. They offer seating in an outdoor patio/lounge, at their sushi bar (which faces an aquarium), or in their main dining hall. We ate in the hall, which offered a rather subdued atmosphere, a bit upscale-ish with dim lighting and dark tones overall. My only complaint on the atmosphere was that it was a bit noisy. Service was friendly and efficient, although they don't have any complimentary bread/finger food while you wait, so that was a bit of a letdown. Overall price range for dishes is from $10~28, with the lower end being things like my salad and their pizzas, and the upper range dominated by fish fillets and steaks. We discovered at the conclusion of our meal that they have weekday happy hours involving half priced pizzas and half priced sushi rolls; however as this was discovered at the end of our meal, a review of these offerings will have to wait until I have actually had a chance to try it.

From the restaurant website, my dish is described as:

napa cabbage, green onions, almonds and ramen noodles tossed in a vinegar-soy dressing with macadamia nut chicken

The simplicity of the dish almost made me wish i made it myself. It has very finely shredded napa cabbage, chopped gren onions, and tiny bits of ramen and almonds mixed throughout. (I actually didn't notice the fried ramen bits while I was eating the majority of the dish.) The salad itself is very thoroughly tossed in a light, sweet dressing. We (my sister, her husband, and myself) were trying to identify all of the ingredients of the dressing (which was described on the restaurant menu as a "sweet soy sauce dressing"), and all we could really come up with was definitely sesame seed, sugar, probably a rice vinegar of some sort, and then maybe just a hint (barely discernible, the dish is not salty at all, nor particularly brown) of light soy sauce. Being a primarily napa cabbage salad, it was a very moist dish, and perhaps for this reason they tried to counter the wetter nature of the salad with dry, very crispy chicken. However I found this to be the dish's primary flaw. Chicken meat was overly dry in the beginning. (Later pieces might have absorbed some of the dressing/water from sitting in the dish longer.) The outer skin was a bit too crispy in mmy opinion, or at least, in pieces that were too large to be an effective crunchy counter to the salad. That being said it was still a good dish.

All in all, this was a very good salad. It was very light and refreshing, which one should expect from a salad. I was left a bit hungry after eating it, but this is most likely due to the fact that the last time I had eaten anything before this was a bowl of cereal eaten some 12 hours earlier. So! if you're ever bored on a hot summer day and wish for a cool refreshing salad, and you happen to be in The Domain at that time, I recommend dropping by Kona Grill and trying their oriental salad! I hope you wont be disappointed, because if so, it means you probably shouldn't be reading my reviews anymore...

Overall Conclusion: One Thumb Up

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A late night run to...

2007-05-05T08:02:21Z

#15 Popeye Omelet
Magnolia's Cafe (Lake Austin Blvd.)
Price: ($7.25)

*no picture, sorry, didn't have a camera :(*

Magnolia's is another unique 24/7 Austin diner that's very similar to Kerbey, except it holds no pretenses about being healthy at all. (Ok well there are some vegetarian dishes, but for example, when we were there tonight a waitress commented to another table about the Mag queso something along the lines of "It's really bad for you but really good!"... a very true assessment of the appetizer... its definitely on par with (real) Kerbey queso...) This place is almost always crowded on weekends in the early mornings (the only times I've ever been..) and parking can be a bit tricky.. (sloped lot.. limited space..) but when you're hungry in the early mornings.. it's a place to be :).

The #15 Popeye Omelet is one of Magnolia's specialty omelets and contains spinach, grilled red onions, and bacon and is topped with sour cream. Most of their specialty omelets are similarly priced, and they each come with two breakfast-y sides. I ordered it with home fries and fruit.

If the above description sounded appealing to you, I recommend trying it! I doubt you'll be disappointed. Now I'm normally pretty picky about grilled onions, but these tasted just right. My one complaint about the omelet was the way it was mixed. Most of my spinach and onions ended up being on the fringes of the omelet, and the bacon mostly in the center near the fold. (I was about 1/5th of the way into the dish before I found the bacon). Thus it was a bit difficult at times to truly taste the blend of all the flavors. It's a good mix though, if you can get a whole sliver of omelet into your mouth :).

The home fries were very flavorful, although slightly on the more crisp side. Fruit is always fresh, and will vary depending on the season. Tonight's was sliced strawberries that tasted quite delicious. Additionally they had pineapples. (Another person in our party ordered these instead of the strawberries; I did not try any but they looked really fresh). All in all it was a quite hearty breakfast... at 1 am.

Overall Conclusion: One Thumbs Up

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Winds of Change

2007-04-30T00:35:11Z

Decided to take this blog a different direction on the recommendation of my sister, who said I should start reviewing the different dishes I get at places I go to eat. So yes, I might be posting more, and yes, it will be about food :D yay!

Chipotle Bacon Chicken
Kerbey Lane Cafe (Kerbey Lane & 35th Street)
Price: $9.95 + tax

Kerbey_chipotle_bacon_chicken

This dish is a seasonal offering from Kerbey Lane Cafe, a local favorite with four locations around Austin. This was my first time to the original Kerbey. (Normally I frequent the one up in Northwest Austin off Research Blvd.) It is, for those of you on campus, significantly better than the campus Kerbey, which in my opinion does not provide a particularly fair or complete impression on the happiness that can be Kerbey Lane. Yes it's closer, but the queso doesnt taste right, the service takes forever, the atmosphere is too flashy... a real Kerbey has softer yellow light, a laid back atmosphere where you can take your time, but the food doesn't! and the service is friendly.. local artwork on the walls... (incidentally there was a very "emo" picture on the wall near where we were sitting that I was actually considering purchasing... o.O)

I digress. The dish!. So this seasonal offering (I tend to enjoy their seasonal offerings for some reason) is a grilled chicken breast covered with bacon, avocado, and a melted slice of pepper jack (i think) cheese. It comes with two sides of your choice, although they recommend the loaded mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. I ordered it as recommended.

The portions of the chicken that did not fall underneath the cheese and avocado was a bit dry, but when covered with its advertised toppings, the dish tasted quite delicious. The cheese was a bit heavy, but not overbearing. All in all, it was a pretty dang good piece of chicken! The broccoli was very fresh, and simply steamed; honestly at first glance I wasn't quite sure if they had actually cooked it or not. This, however, did result in the broccoli being essentially flavorless. I had to add a significant amount of pepper to it to get some taste. Not horrible, but I guess my Asian palate is used to more flavor, even with steamed vegetables.

The true gem with this dish was the loaded mashed potatoes. This side order is essentially a basked potato removed from its potato skin. It consisted of light, fluffy, buttered mashed potatoes topped with shredded cheese (a mix of American and Swiss, I think), bacon, and green onions. It was... delicious is the only word I can really think of. But yeah, I most definitely recommend this side dish to anyone who gets a dinner-type entrée at Kerbey. The chicken's good too!

Overall Conclusion: Two Thumbs Up to the loaded mashed potatoes, One Thumb Up to the rest.

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