Austin Java



I'm a fan of Austin Java. I've lived in Austin a little over two years now, and have only been there a handful of times, but I've never been disappointed with their quality and service. They have a few locations across town, and they serve breakfast all day! So when Sunday came around and I was craving an awesome omelette, only one place came to mind.




1608 Barton Springs Rd, Austin
Photo: Citysearch

 

We decided to hit the Barton Springs location. I like this location due to the fact that you actually get waited on instead of ordering at a counter. Call me lazy but I hate to get up to refill my own drinks. Another plus is you can park in the garage in the back and have your parking validated by your server. We got there and after a short wait we were seated and ready to grub! We looked through the menu while we were waiting so we ordered right away. We started off by ordering some chips and queso as an appetizer. I decided on The Hippie Hollow omelette, which is filled with spinach, tomatoes, mushroom, onions, and red bell peppers. Awesome, but I requested no mushrooms. My girlfriend chose the Spinach and Artichoke Eggs Benedict, which is two poached eggs over and english muffin topped with spinach artichoke dip and hollandaise sauce. Nice! All breakfast dishes are served with your choice of wheat toast and jam, English muffin, taters, black beans, or a cup of fresh fruit. I decided on black beans, the girlfriend decided on the taters.



Chips and Queso

Our chips and queso arrived and we commenced to chow down. Their version is made with white cheese and was super tasty. My only complaint was that it was not as warm as I would've liked, but I soon forgot about that as we sat there and killed the bowl clean. A little later our plates arrived. The waitress asked my girfirend to cut into her eggs to make sure they weren't runny, since she had asked for them to be cooked hard. Still runny. She apologized and took her plate and said she would take care of it right away. My omelette looked perfect, and just like I imagined it. My girlfriend's plate returned, eggs fully cooked, and we began to grub. My omelette had the perfect amount of sauteed veggies and the eggs were cooked just right. My black beans came topped with melted cheese, a definite plus. My girlfriend's eggs benedict were super good as well and complimented the homemade taters.

The Hippie Hollow Omelette

Spinach and Artichoke Eggs Benedict

Overall, Austin Java is a winner in my book. Great food, quality ingredients, and excellent service always makes for an awesome Brunch experience!

Sazón

1816 South Lamar, Austin

I love South Austin. The food, the people, the vibe. So today I thought I'd take a trip down past the river for some brunch. After some deliberating, the girlfriend and I decided on Sazon on South Lamar. This wasn't our first visit, I had their dinner once and was pretty impressed, so thought I'd give the breakfast a try.

Sazon has a small breakfast menu featuring some standard Mexican dishes as well as some more adventurous ones. I had the Envuelto De Huitlacoche, which is an omelet with queso fresco and corn truffle. For those who don't know, corn truffle is basically a fungus that grows on corn. While most american farmers hate the thing, it is considered a delicacy in Mexico and other parts of the world. Personally, I'm not a fungus type of guy, I really don't do mushrooms - but I thought I'd give this dish a try. The plate came with my choice of beans and a side of potatoes.  My girlfriend had the migas, a standard dish at any Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant, but I was curious to see what Sazon would do with them.

Envuelto De Huitlacoche

My dish arrived and it looked appealing to the eye. But after taking a bite I realized one thing...I just couldn't get past the taste of the truffles. The omelet was prepared well and the queso fresco was excellent. And I gotta give Sazon kudos for using fresh ingredients, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I also felt that the omelet could of used a little more queso fresco and less truffles. But then again I'm a huge cheese fan and that's just a matter of opinion. I really did enjoy the side of refried black beans and the breakfast potatoes were also pretty good served with sauteed onions. I do have to say that while my truffle eating experience wasn't a great one, my girlfriend enjoyed taking them off my plate and adding them to her migas. Which gets me to her plate. Now I enjoy a good plate of migas, but I have to say I wasn't too impressed with Sazon's version. Again, the ingredients were fresh - diced veggies and corn tortilla chips, and it's really hard to mess up a plate of migas. But at the end I have to say they were just ok. Definitely not the best I've tried, but not the worst either.

Migas

Overall, the service was good and I'd like to visit again and try some of their more adventurous dinner items. But I think I'll pass on the breakfast.