Flower Child — Restaurant in Austin

If you are in Downtown Austin, this is a great spot for fresh food, lots of gluten free offerings, and excellent service in a fun atmosphere.

We tried several different things across the menu. All of them were good.

The chicken entree was enjoyed with a side of gluten free mac and cheese and the smashed golden potatoes. The chicken was cooked to perfection but a little lacking on spice. The mac and cheese GF noodles were perfect and didn’t fall apart like most corn or rice pasta. The aged cheddar sauce was a little thin to my preference but had good flavor notes. The smashed potatoes were smooth and silky. Aesthetically it was decent but the most boring of our dishes.

The Enchilada Bowl was a great success! The way it was dressed and finished was the best of the day. Tons of flavors and spices argued for attention and together made a great ensemble. Definitely having this again.

The Yakisoba Noodles with Chicken was pretty successful. The only complaint with this dish was the large chunks of celery. We will probably order it without the celery stalk next time. Despite that, another well cooked and sauced dish that will be on the repeat order list.

The only other knock is that if you are driving in, parking can be a bit of a problem so plan to walk a couple of blocks or plan to pay to...

I paid $15 for a strawberry and beet salad and a chocolate cashew cookie and I started getting hungry only a couple of hours later. The service was great, it was just the menu I have issues with. I don't like spicy food or avocado. The menu was pretty limited for me because of that. Chicken is almost $5 on top of the base salad and Shrimp $6.75 on top of the salad. I decided I'd be fine with just the salad and a cookie, which was only $3 and unique-sounding since it's chocolate cashew instead of the normal chocolate chip. The poppyseed dressing was not enough for how much arugula and salad leaves they give you. I should have asked for an extra dressing, but I'm kind of worried that would be an extra $2 based on the price of everything else. I find it hard to find beets on things and I like them, so that was nice. Also, the cookie was pretty good!

This is also kind of random but if you eat outside or anywhere near outside, watch out for the fruit flies! Two of them kept bothering me even after I quickly ate all the strawberries and beets on my salad. I could just be abnormally really distracted by fruit flies, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to...

Parking: side streets, city hall parallel street, new library parking garage, elsewhere. Atmosphere: beautiful downtown(!) for optional walking, optional outside seating, casual, healthy options (organic, vegetarian, vegan, and meat-friendly). Beautiful Parisian style seating, super clean and pretty. Food: order and seat yourself. I ordered a vegan and gluten-free bowl (Thai Cashew Quinoa) with added protein (tofu). It has jalapeño but isn't spicy. I order any sauces on the side, and often ask if a different would pair well with my dish. In my case, the cashew vinagraitte was absolutely perfect. Also, they have a convenient side stand for drinks and snacks. I ordered a fresh pomegranate juice for my friend and a cold, Mango Sencha green tea for myself (unsweetened and of course Sencha green tea is a healthy and wonderful caffeine option). On a different occasion I could have ordered wine and/or hot tea. I was there for about two+ very relaxed hours. Check out their google...