Gabriel's Cafe — Restaurant in Austin

In my ever-continuing quest to find the perfect Reuben, I found myself here per some trusted sources, after a show at Bass Hall. I made it in just under the wire (thanks to GoogleMaps and finding adjacent street parking) as the kitchen closes @11pm sharp to have their pretty epic reuben and house chips (w/an amazing dipping sauce!) and for $10, it was well worth it!

It should be said that this place is kind of hidden in that it is on University Dr. in the AT&T Conference Center w/the hotel and the super fancypants Carillon restaurant. There is valet parking, but I don't know how much it costs.

The Cafe itself is a kind of surprising fancy, dim-lit swank type decor and atmo, which was almost initially off-putting as my friend and I walked in super-casual in jeans and sweaters, but we were immediately put at ease when the hostess/waitress sat us immediately and put my reuben order in with literally just a minute to spare. The place was a ghost town when we entered on a Sat night, but it might have been off peak day/hours.

The Reuben was magnificent and close to the best I have had in Austin, the house chips were perfectly cooked and the dipping sauce they came with has given me yet another addiction. The service was solid and we were in and out in under 40mins.

That being said, I will definitely try this place again during the day as the view from the huge windows would probably be fantastic of...

Good, not great. I ordered the steak with potatoes and greens and because I was starving, I asked if they had any bread. I was brought charred toast and ended up eating three of the four slices because my food took so long. When the steak finally got here, it tasted like it had not been marinated at all but just encrusted with some very heavy spices on the outside. So it was over seasoned on the edges, and under seasoned in the middle. The potatoes had a nice crust but no flavor/not enough salt and finally the wilted greens on the side were extremely bitter and just tasted like they were thrown on a skillet with a little bit of oil. Not to mention I am one of three tables and have been waiting for almost 30 minutes for a waiter to come check on me. I am about to get up and walk up to him to ask for the check... he’s waiting on the busiest table here on a Wednesday night... a party of 4... please go somewhere else there are so many great places in Austin. This place...

Had lunch here with 2 others on a Saturday afternoon. The server was friendly & attentive, initially, but after our food was served he spent too much time talking with his buddies at the bar. My wife had the mushroom soup to start, deep mushroom flavor, but too thick, more like a gravy than a soup. She then had the superfood salad, which was very good. My son had a Caesar salad, which he enjoyed. I had a mushroom banh mi, which was very tasty & substantial. Only downside was the garlic aioli, which was just too strong with garlic, which I like, but the garlic in this case was a bit over the top. The iced tea was strong & freshly brewed, so quite good, not the watered down variety that is all too common. So overall we liked Gabriel's Cafe. With a few easy adjustments they could be...