If you haven't tried it, you haven't been to Austin.
Written: May 12 '00 (Updated May 14 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Relaxing and casual atmosphere. Excellent BBQ.
Cons: Too much food.
|
|
|
| jdanishevsky's Full Review: Austin Restaurants |
This review is in the travel section, because there is no Austin in the restaurant review selection. This review is not for the Austin travel, but on the Salt Lick (or was it Leak) restaurant. Epinions suggests that if you can’t find your city in the restaurant section, this is where it should be.
On my business trip to Austin, this was one of the places that my wife and I decided to visit. On my client’s recommendation and everyone we met for that matter, we wanted to try the famous Salt Lick. As my client specified for this restaurant you have to bring your appetite. Well, this is one of the things I never complain about, so I did. It was my wife, four other people, and myself.
Atmosphere
It is absolutely in the middle of nowhere. It took us about an hour and a half to get there, but the scenery was worth it. If you have a chance to rent a convertible, the way we did, this is definitely a place to go. The drive had an absolutely fantastic country road view and a gorgeous sunset.
The restaurant has a huge gravel parking lot. It looks like the outside of the old western saloon and the parking lot looks like the spot where you would park your horse. There are two wooden buildings. When you enter there are large wooden tables with benches. The atmosphere is very casual and very relaxed. Why wouldn’t it be, people are concentrating on finishing all their food.
Service
Even though the waitress was very quick and courteous, I would not be able to expand on that part of our experience. There was nothing wrong and nothing that stood out of the ordinary, so this part was fine.
Food
Oh, boy! Before I begin, let me just say that it is a family style restaurant and there is more food then you can imagine. We stopped liking all you can eat style restaurants a while back, because in most cases the quality seems to deteriorate, but not in this place. The food was fantastic.
Family style means that they bring you a variety platter and everyone at your table gets to share. When you are done they bring you more and more, until you scream at the top of your lunges ‘STOOOOP!’. (Just kidding, we couldn’t scream after all that food).
The platter included:
- Ribs – I love ribs and those were fantastic. Not too much fat and tasted incredible.
- Brisket – my wife enjoyed this selection most of all. This was the best selection in the platter.
- Sausage – it was a great tasting sausage, but nothing special.
You can also include Chicken for a little extra cost. (It was nothing special and actually didn’t taste that good). It had some fat on it and even with the sauce, the taste was rather bland.
All of the items were BBQ grilled.
There were also side dishes: (if my memory serves me correctly)
Potatoes
Beans
Slaw
On the table you were also presented with a couple of choices of the house BBQ sauce, which were amazing.
Alcohol
Salt Lick, as I understood, carries no liquor license, so we brought our own. We had a variety of beers, which contributed nicely to a meal of this nature.
Desserts
This was the highlight of the whole experience. Even though we have decided not to have any after a huge meal like that, we just couldn’t resist. For desert one of the people at the table suggested Peach Cobbler and Blueberry Cobbler. They were both served hot in the deep dishes. There was also vanilla ice cream on top of each one. Cobblers tasted homemade and made your mouth water.
Price
My client insisted on picking up the tab, so I would not be able to tell you, even if I tried. As I understand it is not very expensive and reasonable for what you are getting.
Final Thought
It is definitely fantastic and very relaxing experience. There is no doubt that if you enjoy that style of cooking, you will get a great meal with the wonderful selection to choose from. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who appreciates a nice BBQ.
NOTE: there is also a Salt Lick food stand in the airport, so you can get a bit of taste on your way out of Austin. We had some time to kill before the flight and decided to get some lunch. When we saw that they have a stand, we quickly made our decision where to have our last Austin meal. The only thing, there is no all you can eat in the airport location. (Believe me what we got was more then enough.)
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
jdanishevsky
|
|
Location: Central Jersey, USA
Reviews written: 171
Trusted by: 245 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.