Jefe's Mexican Restaurant (N. Lamar)

The dive bar of Mexican Restaurants. I suggest you bring your pocket dictionary, because most of the servers only speak Spanish.

This little place is tucked in a strip behind the bright yellow Texas Market gas station. Inside the restaurant the owner also operates his automobile insurance company. I'm sure there's some other stuff going on behind closed doors, but the mystery makes it appealing. Once again, I love bootleg operations.

We split a plate of breakfast tacos. They were $1.25 each. You just don't find food that cheap many places. The bacon was good and crispy and the tacos were rolled in fresh made tortillas. My only complaint is that the chips and salsa were extra...only $1.25, but still.

I give Jefe's a 3.5 for convenient locations, low prices and free Spanish tutoring.

Hill's Cafe (South Congress)

Located in the former Travis County Courthouse, this restaurant is a tribute to Texas. Famous Texans are featured in nearly every picture hung on the wall and if you're lucky yoy might catch a true Texas celebrity on the patio. Each booth is named after a Texas Legend, so you can enjoy your BBQ next to the likeness of Rick Perry or Kevin Fowler.

To a lot of folks, Hill's Cafe is the home of the best burger in town. The buns are made from a sweet roll, kinda like kolache bread and they are delectable. The fries, a mix of regular and sweet potatoes, brighten up your plate with a bit of orange color. Who doesn't love a fred sweet potatoes?!?

The menu features texas classics like big ol' steaks, and chicken fried steak along with southern style sides (mashed potatoes and okra, etc). Hill's is also the "Home of the Sizzler" - the meanest steak in town. But they throw in some quesadillas and salads to keep the menu diverse.

They have a full bar and I suggest sippin' on a Wild Cheri Kool-Aid. It's a blend of Midori, Peach Schnaps, Malibu, Razmatazz and Vodka. Yee-Ha!

La Mexicana Bakery (South 1st)

Viva Mexico! I love the character of this panaderia (bakery). The white exterior is lined with arches similar to aquaducts in Spain. They use the traditional Mexican colors red, white and green to splash the exterior with color. The interior is brightened with a colorful mural. The TV is always playing on a Spanish station. This is a true bakery and they offer everything from wedding cakes to cookies. My #1 favorite is the tres leches (three milks) cake. They've perfected their take on this classic right down to the container. Each serving comes in a plastic bowl that contains all the wonderful, heavenly juiciness of love...um, cake. La Mexicana offers cheap breakfast tacos too. And I'm pretty sure they're open 24/7. Order the tres leches. It's soooo good!

76th Annual Mediterranean Festival (St. Elias Church, 11th St.)

Opa! This post is not about a restaurant, but in my opinion, it is impossible to go without mentioning this 76 year old festival, which is known for it's food.

If you find yourself in Austin during October, I recommend checking this fest out. It's held at the St. Elias Greek Orthodox church, which is an orthodox Christian church. In Christianity there are basically a million sects, but two of the original ones are Roman Catholic, which most Americans are, and Eastern Orthodox. This church is the latter. Many Greeks and Russians are Eastern Orthodox.

If you've ever wanted to have a big wedding and you want to have a practice run, this festival may be good practice. I felt like I had stepped into My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Long tables ran all the way down the streets and huge families hunkered down in their spots to taste all of the delicious treats.

Each tent offered a unique mediterranean treat and I wanted to sample them all. We started with spanokopita, a fillo dough filled with cheese and spinach and it quickly became our favorite treat because we could easily mumble and call it "spankypita" to delight our company. Next we sampled the pita bread and hummus and then moved on to a chicken shish-ka-bob. After the kabobs, we headed over to the dessert tent and sampled one of everything. We had candied dates, a bunch of stuff that I can't remember the name of, a shell filled with cream cheese and the bestest baklava ever. Never tried it? You must! Now! I mean immediately! Go now!

Then we headed over to the first stage to listen to a sampling of some mediterranean music. Large groups joined hands and danced in circles holding hands. I mean, if you've ever seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding it was just like it. Everyone was screaming "Opa!"

I almost forgot to mention the most unique aspect of the festival. In Austin, most festivals only serve beer and wine, but this one is different. Vox Vodka set up a tent with Pama pomegranite liquer. They were whipping up some super duper martinis. Also, Bacardi, Tuaca and Frangelico set up tents. We scored some really cool swag at the liquor tents, like Vox baseball caps, pint glasses, Pama Martini glasses, Bacardi T-Shirts and shot glasses. You could purchase beer and wine too. You could actually purchase whole bottles of wine and take them around the festival with you. Booze Fest!

Last, we stopped off at the coffee tent where we sampled American and Imported coffees and a little marshmallowy treat.

For it's affordability ($2-$20), priests in full garb drinking wine, and fun family feeling, I give the 76th Annual Mediterranean Festival a 4.

Arpeggio Grill/Ya Hala (Airport Blvd.)

Food and Fun.

Food for everyone and fun for 18+. We happened upon Arpeggion Grill after receiving a flyer in our weekly mail. I can describe it in one word - Yummy!

I wasn't sure I'd like it when I first saw the menu, because I didn't recognize most of the fare, but the pizza smelled so good I knew I could get that if I wasn't able to find anything else. I read over the menu a few time and I decided to get the Chicken Shawerma. It was super deelish! Basically they sautee some chicken with squash and delicous seasoning, then throw it on top of some white rice. It comes served with a salad.

They were just pulling some baklava out of the oven, so we split a piece and it was perfect, I'd even say heavenly.

When we were done, we stepped next door to Ya Hala, a hookah bar. We sampled the lemon sheesha and sipped on some sodas. The hookah bar is open late, (5 a.m.?) basically they close when all the customers leave.

I haven't figured out how they are getting around the "No Smoking" laws, but I assume it's all illegal. I love scandal, so this place is perfect for me.

I give Arpeggio and Ya Hala a 4.8 out of 5 because they are owned by cousins and they are bootleg.

Bess (500 West 6th)

It's Sandra Bullock's restaurant!
I never would have found this place if I hadn't been strolling around West 6th Street looking for my next place to blog about. I guess you could say the entrance is quaint.
I heard the music and saw the upstairs patio and it seemed so romantic that I practically drug Jesse in whether he was willing or not. We sat on the candlelit patio and started with the dip sampler. It featured tabouleh, and three other dips.
I realized soon that this restaurant would be hard to classify by genre. A back waiter quickly brought us a basket of fresh made breads (so I was like, it must be french), but the dips were mediterranean...hmmm.
Then we ordered the Friday Special, Fish and Chips (Irish???, English???). Jesse had a bowl of Lentil soup (Italian) and when we asked our server what Sandra orders, she told us she gets the macaroni and cheese (American?) After that I was too confused to pick a genre by which to catergorize this restaurant.
Inside the restaurant the booths are tucked away and seem private. There is one super cool table (see pic) that is the one I would choose if it were a special occassion. I alway like to pick what I call the "celebrity booth". It's tucked away from the main traffic and allows you to get a sense of seclusion and importance.
Each booth is adorned by a crystal chandelier and a colorful array of fish brighten the view near the cool booth.
It's a bit pricey and it the food we had was only decent. I give Bess a 3 out of 5.

Vivo (Manor Rd.)

Love, love, love it.

From the main thoroughfare this restaurant resembles an underpass in Long Beach, but once you've parked and begin walking toward the entrance, you are greeted by the tropical oasis like setting of the plants and waterfalls.

Inside the restaurant, you'll encounter a collection of glowing candles reminiscent of a catholic church. But the artwork is stronly juxtaposed to the religious feelings left by the candles. The walls of this eatery are adorned with artwork that at times reminded me of a super sexy pin-up, pre-crack phase Amy Winehouse. My favorite is an oil painting of a Longhorn adorned with real horns that burst out of the edges of the frame. I've actually been considering getting a tattoo to match the one in the picture above. Hook 'Em!

We sat in the bar while we waited for a table outside. The bar has a private booth area, which is so exciting to me. I love a place that has an "exclusive" seating area. They are great for birthdays or special occassions and make you feel like a celebrity.

Anyways, we had a liter (caraf) of the prickly pear margaritas on the rocks. Yum, yum, yum. I'm loving it even more at this point. And the kicker is that they trim each margarita glass with an exotic flower. I felt like I was in Hawaii and I got "lai"ed.

When our buzzer vibrated to alert us that the table was ready, we went back to the hostes stand to be seated. The hostes was super cute and was wearing her "Palin"esque glasses and the best vintage orange morning jacket I've ever seen.

The salse is good and hot and super fresh. I had the enchiladas verdes, which were good. The rice and beans were top notch. The chicken could have used some more spice, but if you like mild food it was good. I think that out-of-towners and people who aren't into spicy mexican flavors would like this dish. Jesse had the namesake Pollo Vivo and he wasn't really impressed. He thought the chicken was too bland also. Eventually he ordered some flour tortillas and made his chicken into tacos to try to spice it up a bit.

I have a keen feeling this restaurant was designed to appeal to both sexes. Jesse informed me that the men's restroom was tagged with the best grafitti he'd seen in a while. Being curious, I checked out the women's room and it was so elegant. No grafitti, but the sinks were filled with rose petals and the black and white artwork that adorned the walls was fit for a magazine.

And to top it all off, I think the best part is that every lady receives a rose when she leaves. Perfect, right?

I give Vivo a 4 out of 5 for hitting the nail on the head with the fresh flowers.