restaurants | austingreensqueen

Cafe Java

February 18, 2013
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Chopped Salad

If people find out I write a blog about salads, they will usually tell me about a great salad they have had. That’s how I found out about this place, Cafe Java in North Austin on Metric Blvd. This is a little spot in a strip shopping center near Austin Community College. It was recommended to me by someone I met when I was at my hairdresser’s. There were at least 8 different salads and they all sounded wonderful. My friend and I settled on the Cobb Salad and the Chopped Salad.

I just want you to notice how much bleu cheese I got on my Cobb salad. Those stripes of delicacies are the blue cheese, tomatoes, chicken and crispy bacon. What you can’t see here is the huge amount of avocado that is layered underneath. It comes with creamy Caesar dressing.

: Cobb Salad and Chopped Salad

The Chopped salad included chicken and boiled egg, bacon bits, tomatoes, parmesan cheese and sunflower seeds. My friend topped hers with blue cheese dressing. Both salads come with Texas toast.

Most of the restaurants that have moved into Austin from other cities and other states would charge $12 for these salads. It’s refreshing to know there are still locally owned restaurants with decent prices. These salads were $7. 99 each. Wow! Look at them. They’re huge.

I’m going back so I can try the Spinach salad with chicken, feta cheese, bacon bits, tomatoes and red onions with a garlic vinaigrette.

The restaurant is known for its coffee and breakfasts. The sandwiches we saw served at other tables looked really good. But remember, this blog is about salads. So you’ll have to go try the sandwiches for yourself.

I was told that the place was very busy on Sunday and lunch and that held true. In fact, we found the place by seeing a lot of people in the parking lot walking with take-home containers. We arrived at a little after 1:30 and still had to put our names on a waiting list for a table. The wait was short and we were served right away. Great place with great atmosphere and friendly service. Highly recommended.

Posted in Salads in Restaurants
Tags: creamy caesar dressing, egg bacon, garlic vinaigrette, restaurants

Maggiano’s

December 5, 2012
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Tonight my professional organization had the December meeting at Maggiano’s at the Domain on North Mopac Blvd. I had never been there before but I will definitely be going back. I have no idea what anything costs because our tab was picked up by AstraZeneca and the prices are not available on-line. There was a menu board on each table which showed what would be served during each of three courses. I thought we were going to be choosing from among several choices since they listed about four or five options for each course. However, I was so wrong. They brought it all out and put it on the table, family-style, enough for everyone at the table to sample each item. The first course was two salads, a huge plate of bruschetta with tomato topping and the most delicious crab cake I think I have ever had. It was light and not densely packed and had a very crispy coating, maybe panko crusted. The jumbo lump crab cakes came with a rich sauce that was reminiscent of remoulade. The salads were very respectable. Not dinner salads, exactly, but very respectable side salads. The menu reveals many other salad possibilities which are more filling and have chicken or salmon, as well. There are something like 9 choices on the soup and salad menu.

The first salad was made with Granny Smith apples with Iceberg lettuce, arugula, grapes, celery, chives and walnuts. Served with bleu cheese vinaigrette, it was my favorite of the two. The second one was called Maggiano’s Salad and had iceberg and romaine lettuce, crumbled bleu cheese, crispy prosciutto and red onions. That one was served with house dressing, more like a creamy Italian. That is probably the house salad. Nothing wrong with either one of them.

The main course was tender medallions of beef tenderloin, herb crusted salmon, lobster cannelloni, a vegetarian pasta dish that I didn’t even try and asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes. Dessert and coffee were served after a long pause for clearing the dirty plates and consisted of chocolate layer cake with chocolate icing and the best tiramisu I have had yet. Never have I been a big fan of the Italian dessert until tonight. Now I get why Tiramisu is so popular. The cookie part of the dish was not saturated with coffee as it usually is when I have had it before.

Maggiano’s would make a great place to have lunch and shop at Dillards and Macy’s close by. Tonight, there was a little train choo chooing around the Domain for the kids to ride. I’ll probably go back again to shop there now that I know about Maggiano’s.