Café No Sé — Restaurant in Austin

This South Congress Hotel eatery has been on my list for a long time to check out. The beautiful, minimal, neon sign draws my attention every time I'm in SoCo after dark. Walking into Café No Sé, you're met with a beautiful, bright, modern ambiance that is lined with birchwood planks on the walls and ceiling.

The staff in the front was very nice, recognized that it was my birthday dinner and sat us down right next to the window in front of Congress Avenue, which I really appreciated. The gentleman who took our order, was soft spoken and was lacking in emotion or warmth... it really seemed like he was having a bad day but after talking to him a bit, he warmed up.

Libations - I tried the Sangria that was made with white wine, mathilde pear liqueur, and sage. [$10] It wasn't a classic sangria, it was a little off, with a very acidic aftertaste.

Food - We started the meal with The Grilled Laffa Bread with dukkah, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, lemon [$4] which tasted very similar to grilled pita bread and was very, very good. I ordered the Seafood "Paella" which included crab, crawfish, shrimp, crisped carnaroli rice, fennel, grapefruit, orange [$27]. It wasn't typical paella, which I really enjoy, but it was definitely delicious.

English Pea Mezzelune - My fiancé ordered the English Pea Mezzelune that included house made pasta, whipped goat cheese, tomatoes, arugula [$18] which was incredible, but know that there weren't any peas in the dish like we expected. Additionally, my fiance's parents ordered the Crisp Cauliflower, charred eggplant, tahini, spinach, mini sweet peppers, pine nuts, golden raisins [$17] and the Grilled Hanger Steak which accompanies ponzu labneh, wild mushrooms, fresno, and asparagus [$17]. They were both pleased with their meals and I got to try the Crisp Cauliflower and was thoroughly impressed. For my birthday, a waitress brought over two adorable macarons with a candle lit on the plate, they were birthday cake and very, very tasty!! They tasted like they had some sort of a raspberry jam of some sort.

I loved the ambiance of the restaurant, the food was amazing, but I do wish that the portions were much larger.

Café No Sé also has a brunch you can try any day between 7AM and 3PM with delicious options like Avocado Toast with soft boiled egg, crème fraîche, arugula, and aleppo carrots [$13], Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit, house made breakfast sausage, aged cheddar, buttermilk biscuit, potato, and arugula salad [$12], which all sound great and I'll definitely be back to experience the brunch. Hope you get a chance to check out this delicious, beautiful, SoCo...

I sent the below email to the Service Manager Melanie (twice) but never heard back…wanted to post here to warn people considering booking this place for a large group.

I wanted to share our experience from this past Saturday of our 13 woman party at 11:30 AM.

The food & table were great but other than that the service and flow of everything was less than positive.

When we arrived I checked in to the host stand and we were immediately seated. There were no coffee, juices, or pastries upon our arrival as promised.

It took over 40+ minutes just to get the pastries, fruit on the table. Coffee was also not received for over 30 minutes and when we did have coffee on the table the cream/sugar didn’t come for an additional 10 minutes. We were practically begging to have our drink orders taken and were very simple (carafes of mimosas and bottles of Rosé), we were pretty empty the entire meal. I had to order a second Rosé bottle minutes before paying for the Meal. I discussed with the server the “All Day Rosé” special at the start of the meal and the 20% off bottles (that was somehow forgotten to be added at the end) and I had to wander around to find her to get the check updated (she was nowhere to be found).

We were never greeted by a manager our entire 2.5+ hour meal to thank us for choosing Cafe Nosè or even check in to see how things were going.

To have one server for a party of 13 that was not even designated for just our table was appalling . She was overwhelmed and underexperienced. We feel that since we had a 20% gratuity added in (which is standard) we were forgotten about. It’s not like we were a random group from off the street, we signed a contract weeks in advance.

The bathrooms reminded us of McDonalds bathrooms there were literally 5+ paper towel rolls on the ground in both stalls and the trashcans were full.

My family lives 4 blocks behind the South Congress Hotel and we visit your restaurant monthly, sometimes biweekly. I had never had a bad experience before in my 30+ times coming to your establishment. It was embarrassing to say the least as I was the planner and chose your restaurant for brunch out of the entire city. We signed many other contracts for meals out and had over the top incredible experiences where the restaurants did not only deliver they went above and beyond.

Original Review before booking the event below.

My go to restaurant in Austin for Brunch, Lunch and dinner! The food is always fresh, the staff is always friendly! We absolutely love the burger and believe it’s one of the best in Austin! Also love the modern farmhouse vibes ❤️! Keep up the good...

Brunch, in its current cultural form, is less about sustenance and more about the performance of leisure, an orchestrated dance of aesthetics, social positioning, and a tacit understanding that this—this—is where one goes to feel like the protagonist of a well-lit, soft-focus lifestyle shoot. Café No Sé understands this on a molecular level.

You walk in and are immediately enveloped by an atmosphere that is, for lack of a better word, considered. The front café area—blonde wood, hexagonal tiles in shades of curated blue, a La Marzocco espresso machine that, in its soft seafoam hue, looks like something an architecture student in Copenhagen would describe as “aspirational”—radiates a kind of clean, airy charm that suggests, in no uncertain terms, that you should be having an excellent day. Even if you are not.

The dining area is an exercise in designed coziness. Bookshelves, lined with a mix of decorative objects and plants, create an environment that implies intellectual engagement without requiring it. The seating, a mix of communal tables and plush booths, is engineered to make you feel relaxed but also aware that people around you are likely discussing topics like “scaling their startup” or “where they summer.” Light filters in at an angle that makes everything—your plate, your face, your entire existence—look slightly better than it does in real life.

And the food. The food arrives, plated with an aesthetic sensibility that acknowledges, without irony, that it will be photographed before it is eaten. The smoked salmon, arranged with a precision that suggests it was placed by tweezers, the microgreens not simply a garnish but a statement. The breakfast sandwich—its layers of egg, avocado, and perfectly toasted bread—less a meal and more an argument for balance in all things. The flavors are clean, intentional, enjoyable in the way that suggests someone in the kitchen has spent time thinking about the interplay of texture and acidity and color theory.

Service is effortless, almost eerily so, the kind that anticipates your needs before you are fully conscious of having them. Your coffee cup is refilled before you can glance at it. The check appears at the exact moment when you begin wondering if it is time to leave.

Would I return? Yes, though I suspect that in doing so, I would also return to the broader existential question of whether I am eating brunch or being eaten by it. Café No Sé is not just a restaurant. It is an experience, a carefully constructed moment in the ever-expanding universe of...