The Oasis - Blown away, but not by the food
Written: Jul 21 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The view is spectacular
Cons: The food is only so-so, and if the wind is blowing, hold on to your hat
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| halfsweet's Full Review: Austin Restaurants |
I don't know whether I'm getting older and lazier, or just old and smarter. Whatever the cause, the Easter holiday that used to mean 12 to 14 people for a five-course sit-down dinner now means that Mom, (that would be me...) instead of spending nerve-wracking days obsessively cleaning and cooking, now spends a leisurely few minutes calling around for reservations.
Part of it is the change in my family; my parents have both passed away, so my role-reversal years, when I was the child parenting the parent, are now over. I have moved from my home town of New Orleans, so celebrations with my siblings are limited to e-mail and phone calls. My children are both young adults; even though they still insist on an Easter basket (their mother taught them well...) they don't care if I cook for a holiday or we eat out.
Hey, I know a good thing when I see it. We eat out.
On Easter Sunday, my son and I drove to Austin to spend the day with my daughter who is a sophomore at the University of Texas there. I had told her to pick out a nice restaurant for lunch, and she was ready with a great suggestion. She said there was a restaurant called The Oasis that was built into the side of a high cliff overlooking Lake Travis. The view, she assured me, was spectacular. It sounded like a great idea, so we got directions for the place and took off.
Despite the fact that the restaurant was really busy, we were seated immediately, out on the edge of one of the 32 decks that hang from the cliff. I walked through the door out to the deck and caught my breath. There before me was the most spectacular view I'd ever seen in Texas, limestone cliffs encircling a pristine aquamarine lake with sailboats and jet skis dotting its surface like tiny sparkling jewels, all underneath a blue sky hung with cotton candy clouds and a benevolent sun that lent light, but only modest heat to the day.
Then I stepped outside. Bad idea.
The one little weather feature on that raw cliff face that wasn't immediately apparent either from inside the restaurant or outside in front of the restaurant was a 30-knot wind, and lots of it. The second I went out onto the deck, my hair flew straight up, and there it stayed for the next two hours.
Now, to have my hair doing the lambada in front of my eyes while I was trying to read the menu was not exactly my idea of fun, but I tried to be cool and go with the flow. I decided I could put my menu down on the table and hold my hair back from my face with my hands so I could read it. Another bad idea. I put the menu down, but before I could even grab my wildly gyrating hair, the menu had flown up from the table and whapped my daughter in the face. I reached up with one hand, grabbed the menu, anchored it to the table with one elbow, and grabbed my hair with my other hand just in time to see my son's napkin, which he had just carefully arranged on his lap, take graceful flight. While he was busy chasing his napkin, and trying not to run into the other diners who were also chasing their napkins, my daughter decided to order some chips and nacho cheese to get the meal started.
Very shortly, the chips came, and just as quickly, they went. No sooner had the waiter put the little plastic basket down on the table than the chips starting flying. Gracefully, sometimes one by one, sometimes in pairs or larger groups, the chips came up out of the basket, danced through the air in front of us for a tantalizing moment and went sailing away. I took my hand that had been holding my hair, yanked at my napkin which was anchored under the corner of my purse, and threw the napkin over the chip basket before the entire thing went airborne.
I smiled at my daughter, who'd had the foresight to wear her hair in a ponytail.
"Do you want a rubber band for your hair, mom?" she asked sweetly.
I sure did.
Having thus secured my locks, I was finally free to really look around and enjoy the scenery. It really was a beautiful sight, with the lake and the sky both so blue, and the stark white cliffs tumbling down to the water. I relaxed and began to enjoy the day.
We ordered our meal, and between the three of us, figured out how to keep most of our food anchored to the table. I had my purse hooked around one of my ankles so it wouldn't go flying off the deck with all my money, forcing us to wash dishes for our dinner.
Since this is a restaurant review, I guess I'd better get around to talking about the food. Sad to say, it was pretty lousy. When I surveyed the menu, I could tell immediately that we were not exactly in for a gourmet treat, but nonetheless, I figured if I ordered something safe, I might get by. So, I ordered steak, along with my son, figuring they couldn't screw that up too badly.
I was wrong.
My son's sirloin steak was so thin you could practically read type through it, yet it was still bloody and tough. It might have spent three seconds on the grill before they decided to serve it. My steak was full of big, disgusting blobs of fat, not on the edge of the sirloin, but right in the middle. I've heard of well-marbled, and even seen it used as an excuse, pretending a marginal cut is premium if it is "well-marbled," (English translation: full of fat...) My translation: grade Z meat rejects from some unnamed Third World country.
The dinner salads were your standard iceberg lettuce, one wedge of soggy tomato type with yucky bottled dressings, and the baked potatoes were the size of creamers, those very small, round tubers used to make mashed potatoes, and hardly big enough to butter.
My daughter's pasta with shrimp and vegetables had some awful cream sauce with a very off taste to it, sort of a rancid garlic flavor. Needless to say, she took two bites and was done.
Normally, paying almost $60 for a meal like that would have made me mad. At The Oasis it didn't. We didn't go there for the food. We went there for the view, and it is well worth it just for that. So please note the four star award is based strictly on the scenery and the ambience at The Oasis, and not on the food, which is pedestrian at best.
As we finished our repast, a particularly strong gust of wind came along and shook the entire deck, and not just a little shake, but a big, up and down, hey, we might be having an earthquake, shake. I looked over the edge of the railing at the long, 450-foot drop to the lakeshore. I looked at my children. They looked at me, more meaningfully than they have in a long time.
"Check!" I called out in a wavering voice, more than happy to skip dessert.
It was a lovely day, but next year, my daughter has promised to pick a restaurant that actually has a floor that's connected to bedrock and not suspended out in the ether. Call me old-fashioned, but some things should never be changed. Like putting your chips and nacho cheese in your mouth, and not on your nose. I am definitely in favor of upholding that tradition.
Travel information
The Oasis is located northwest of Austin off Highway 620 at 6500 Commanche Trail. Call 512-266-2442 for reservations and directions.
Gift Shop
Following the current trend, The Oasis has a fairly large gift shop located in a building in front of the restaurant. We just poked our heads in briefly, but they had the usual stuff, t-shirts, mugs, etc., along with a selection of Texas hot sauces and chili mixes. Nothing to write home to mother about, but nice if you are the sort who collects souvenirs.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
halfsweet
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Member: Patricia Smith
Location: Temporarily in Texas
Reviews written: 125
Trusted by: 188 members
About Me:
Engage my brain...the rest of me will follow.
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