Recent Dining Experiences

Habanero Cafe – Austin Texas

Small place, short wait. They claim it’s Tex Mex but the traditional food is some of the best I’ve had.  Lots of locals and a steady line of people waiting. Cash only.

Salsa is a bit spicy but fresh. Chips are home made.

Chili Con Queso is excellent. Creamy and flavorful.

Tacos are simple but flavorful. The fajita seasons is awesome. Skip crunchy and go soft. A bit easier to eat.

Great selection of Mexican beers. Had a Victoria.

Verde sauce with enchiladas had a good flavor.

Thumbs up to the refried beans

Though the chili con queso was of the velveeta yellow variety it had a nicely spiced flavor

Austin has interesting vintage shopping

Stopped at Gueros for a break. Strong margs, cheap happy hour, interesting beer. Chips and salsa does not compare to the earlier place.

Did a bunch of vintage shopping. Found an awesome Metallica tee.. too small. Also saw a “vintage” sun tee shirt that matched mine. Hmm.

Last stop before training it home is the Yeti store for some cooler seats and canned wine.

12/31

Went to Muse again

1/1

King Street Mexican – Juanitas

Excellent nachos with our favorite kind of cheese and toppings. We had the shrimp corn nachos. Shrimp was nicely seasoned and cooked perfectly. Corn chips had that perfect crunch and saltiness. Nachos had black beans, pico, lettuce, cheese, jalapeños and shrimp

Walked to Leon’s and took an Uber to Revelry Brewing. It was closed. Stopped at the Biergarten on East Bay Street.

Back to Muse

1/2

OK-U

1/3

167 Raw Bar

Oysters

Standish Shore MA

Rockynook MA

Thatch Island MA

East Beach Blondes RI

At the fish sandwich. Pastrami’d Swordfish

Rebe had the Oyster Poboy

I had Keylime pie

Rebe ate a hush puppy from a random street person.

It rained on us..

Happy Hours Notes..

High Cotton for some wine and cocktails then the happy hour crowd showed up and gave us 100 recommendations for happy hour. Stopped in at O-Bar for happy hour per their recommendation.

Went to Bars Tapas. Food was excellent. Service suffered

1/4

Holy City and Brewery bar crawl

1/5

Jack of Cups Saloon

Ricotta Toast

Rebe had the Saag

Mike had the Beef Curry

Aruba

1/18

Arrived after 2pm. Took the local bus to the resort. Stayed close to resort today. Had some local beer. Ate Italian pizza and cheese / meat app. Very windy roof top. Service was slow but typical for an island location. Meats weren’t special. Cheeses were nice. Pizza was good.  Warning they do not take Amex.

1/19

Breakfast at Uncle Joes Pizza. Good traditional local. Had a free voucher.

Ate lunch at pool grill for the resort across from us. Not very good. Played bingo. Terrible bar chairs.

Italian dinner at Ritz. Very good. Bit of a scene. Had fresh pasta with meat sauce. Huge cheese plate. Wine was good.

1/20

Whilamena Restaurant

A friend recommended this place. It definitely lived up to the hype. It was run very professionally with all the little services that you expect from a quality restaurant. Changing silverware between courses, cleaning crumbs off table, and all the servers working together as a team. The menu was modest with a variety of fish and meat dishes.  The appetizers had twists to traditional fare. The wine list was  a decent quality with a variety of choices at a reasonable price.

Before the meal came out the service brought us a palate cleanser (amuse Bouch) and taste of mushroom soup and a pork puff. To start we shared the tomatoes with lobster app. It was a simple clean (fish, lobster, cherry tomatoes) dish. It came with a clear broth. The dish was light and had a slight mustard flavor.

I had the fresh fish dish for the main course.  It was a Panamanian rosado fish prepared perfectly in a beat and cream sauce. The fish was white and flakey. Perfectly cooked. The sauce had a nice Smokey hit of flavor. The dish was light with just enough flavor.

Rebecca has the risotto with shrimp and cauliflower.

Desert was the chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream

The actual dinner bill was the following:

Albarino Martin Codax

Chablis William Fevre

Chardonnay MacMurray

Choco Gateau

Fish of the Day Rosada

Prosecco Villa Sandi

Sauvignon Blanc Tarant

Shrimp Risotto

Tomato & Lobster

1/21

Kalins Mexican for dinner. Average Mexican food and drinks. Fun atmosphere.

Had cocktails at the Passions on the Beach.  Good margaritas. On eagle beach. Excellent bar tender. Very quiet and relaxing.

1/22

Had Dutch cheese and crackers at airport in Aruba. Very nice.

At Mexican at the FLL airport.  Food was below average. Bar tender was great.

2/1

Yayla Bistro

Turkish Mediterranean

I had the Doner Kebab; Rebe had the Halloumi Cheese and the Falafel

Falafel was some of the best I’ve ever had.

The Kebab was over rice. Super tender lamb and beef. Awesome and not overly filling.

halloumi was pan fried. Lightly. Just firm enough. Not chewy at all. Had a marmalade with it. Good pairing.