Hestia — Restaurant in Austin

To preface this review, I feel like this may be a one time experience and not a total reflection of the restaurant. My experience happened on 8/18/24 at 6pm.

Table was not ready, despite having a reservation and the table had been empty. We had to wait at the bar for the table to be set. While this was not their fault, two screaming toddlers were sat at the table within arm distance. Not the restaurants fault, but it did contributed to the poor, romantic experience.

We ordered bread with butter and a seasonal jam to start. It was fantastic. Very crunchy, yet soft in the middle. My main issue from this course was the silverware. The silverware had a black coating on it that was chipping away, revealing the silver under it. If you are going to choose to use silverware that’s coated, at least rotate those out that are worn.

My wife ordered the halibut and I ordered the Berkshire sirloin. I chose this over the coulotte because I thought the squash sounded better than the okra.

He then repeated back to us and said, “one halibut and one sirloin” and we said yes. When our food came out, I was brought the coulotte with the okra that I didn’t necessarily want. There was obviously some kind of confusion as I asked why does this have okra instead of squash. He went and grabbed the menu and said, “you said sirloin so I assumed you wanted the coulotte. I see the confusion now because the pork chop says ‘sirloin’ in the description”. I guess I just don’t understand how you could arrive that I wanted an entree that didn’t say “sirloin” in its name when one of the things on the 6 item entree menu does says “sirloin”. Also I even said Berkshire sirloin when ordering so there really shouldn’t have been any confusion.

After looking at the pictures of the menus on the reviews, there must have been a name change on their menu recently, maybe that was the first day. That could explain the confusion by the server. Previously the menu stated “Berkshire pork chop” instead of “Berkshire sirloin”, according to the reviews.

To be fair to the restaurant, they did offer to take back my dish and bring out the correct dish. I understand why they asked this, but my wife already had her dish. So if I wanted the correct dish, my wife would have to eat without me. I just agreed to go with this more expensive option that was provided instead of waiting a minimum of 15 additional minutes for the correct entree to come out.

Overall, the coulotte was fairly good. The cook on it was probably medium rare which is usually how I would order it, if I was ever asked. My main gripe was the sauce. The okra was actually fairly pleasant but there was just something off about the sauce. I want to say it tasted like I was eating pure liquid smoke. I tried eating the steak with it but the flavor was just so dominant that I couldn’t taste anything else. I ended up eating the steak and the okra, leaving the sauce behind. The portion was also extremely small for the price. The same price steak at Perry’s would net you a meal for 2 days.

Overall, just a lot of small things, in and out of the restaurant’s control, really contributed to a poor experience. The table being ready when it’s empty, the intimate seating, the damaged silverware, portion size, and the incorrect order are all things the restaurant could fix. It’s hard to spend this kind of money and have such a bad environment. We walked away honestly feeling really bad.

I feel like all of this justifies my rating. As I mentioned, my visit may be an isolated incident so feel free to go. If people ask me if I would recommend this place, I would say everything I said here. It could be an amazing experience if I visited again, but there are just too many restaurants in Austin for me to give it...

Unforgettable dining experience at Hestia, made reservations on OpenTable and seated easily. Went with group 4 which allowed us to see and taste a variety of dishes.

First, this place is not for those on a budget. My total meal cost $100 and I left feeling like I would have wanted to eat more, because one- taste, and two- the portions are small. Would not go here if you have a medium to big size appetite and are on a budget.

Hestia = goddess of Hearth (floor of a fireplace) aka it smells like the inside of a Smokey fireplace. We went at 6:30 and the place was dark inside. It was a bit difficult to see. Definitely added to the grey black allure of feeling like I was in the midst of smoke and burning warm wood. If you go to the bathroom, there's a recording explaining the history of the goddess playing while you try and relieve yourself.

Smoked crab tart ($8): a single bite sized cracker a little bigger than a quarter that's topped with crab meat. This was surprisingly delicious and the flavors really lingered in a delightful way. It was just for the taste, definitely didn't satisfy any part of my hunger. Would get again because it tasted great.

Oysters ($24) came with 6. This was good. "Shareable" in the sense there are 6 but again one slurp and bite and it's gone.

I'm not sure which small plate it is, but my friend got a charred Smokey bread with fruit butter spread. She said she enjoyed but also didn't finish it. The bread makes a mess (they encourage making a mess) due to it being.. charred and Smokey.

Beef tartare ($22) the cracker was massive, like half a dinner plate. The meat was cooked perfectly. The combination was stellar. Shareable.

Scallop ($28) 100% get this, it was a perfect buttery, well cooked seafood dish that absolutely made me in want of more, this is not shareable. They come in single or double single scallops.

Halibut ($46) the STAR of the night. Wow! I'm still dreaming of how perfect this dish was. If you enjoy fish, this is dish you need to try. I wouldn't change a thing. It's on the saltier side but was perfectly placed with the overall meal. Phenomenal.

8 oz wagyu sirloin ($65) well prepared, but they wish they got the halibut!

Bunuelo ($14) fabulous dish. The gold leaf is pretty but zero taste and added nothing but flash to a dish that absolutely needed none of it. The pairing of flavors was so enjoyable and refreshing. I would get again.

Sourdough ice cream ($14) single scoop of ice cream that tasted of Smokey bread. Also, there are tomatos in it.

Kakigori ($20) stunning dessert. Think of Hawaiian shaved ice but on steroids. I couldn't believe how mouth watering this was while it was IN my mouth. They recommended sharing for 6 people with this dish. Tasted like the best apple sauce ive ever had in my life mixed with shaved ice, delicious cream poured over and the best horchata ice cream I have ever had in my life. This is a must!!

Overall, a dining experience I'll never forget. Every dish had its own unique flavor that made you want to think and savor before swallowing.

Would go again (on a not so empty stomach or when I'm rolling in cash).

Location: there is no sign indicating the restaurant from the street. It's next door to Kalimotxo on the ground floor. There is a parking garage that you have to pay by phone (no tickets) that is attached to the building Hestia is in.

Service was definitely top notch. My water was never more than 2/3s empty. Waiter was very knowledgeable across food and drinks and made appropriate recommendations. They prefer bringing food all at once, which means everyone has to finish their small plates all at once before they bring out the mains. Just something to...

In general, we expected a smoky-forward/fire-forward menu considering the restaurant theme and the description of most of the dishes included smoking techniques, however we didn’t really get any essence of smoke in the first FIVE dishes although they were supposed to be smoked, or in one case grilled, with the fifth course being charred which was OK. The only dish I personally liked was a cold smoked salmon dish, which didn’t really give me much smoke, but it was just a well done salmon dish.

HUUUUUUUUGE WAIT between FIVE and SIX with no check-in/explanation to what was going on.

Finally, dish SIX comes out and it was a good warm bread dish with smoky tea, which “felt” like it was meant to come from this restaurant. Dish SEVEN gave us a scallop dish, which was cooked well, however the components of the dish seemingly were not meant to be tasted separately, but we did notice from here on out that the seasoning really starts to ramp up in terms of saltiness. EIGHT was a guanchiale dish that seemed fine with a grilled skewer and then there were some pieces to be used in a lettuce wrap of sorts. It came with a salty fish sauce based sauce with radish pickles, which were also quite salty for a pickle. The NINTH dish was a halibut served on a shiro dashi beurre monte and caviar which was by far the saltiest dish we ate all night. We had already been drinking quite a bit of water between all the waiting and the increasing salt levels in the second half of this menu, but we had to stop a few times trying to take water breaks eating this dish. For the TENTH dish we were served a Texas wagyu dish with mushrooms, and a grape and onion type relish. Like the bread dish, very smoky, and on brand for the restaurant, however the seasoning of the steak was quite a bit inconsistent where there would be large pockets of pure salt cooked into the crust of the steak and some other sections fine. Lastly, for the ELEVENTH course, we were supposed to just get the dessert dish, but somehow a panna cotta arrived at our table, which was OK. The actual dessert course followed which was an interesting persimmon dish, also well done thematically with the smoky elements.

We were given ANOTHER dessert to end the night, which we were told was due to the long wait during the dinner service. At this point we probably would have liked maybe another round of drinks, or our choice of one of the dishes we liked from the menu instead of a third dessert in a row. At the time, I am sure the sourdough ice cream dessert maybe tasted differently eating an a la carte menu, but in our case, it was just somehow too overwhelmingly salty/smoky for our tastes.

Overall, just a very middling to poor experience for us given the time (3 hours from the time we told the server that we would be doing the tasting menu), the value ($195 per person, all in with 2x cocktails + tax + tip = $500 range), and the expectations (seemingly highly rated for “big occasion” dinners and of course, winning their Michelin star). I personally drank about 10-12 glasses of water and had to go to the bathroom about THREE times during the whole dinner service, and the service was just OK considering we had a handful of different people bringing dishes as well as the dish/utensil placement being semi-inconsistent due to having so many different people serve us (right- and left-hand placements).

TL;DR – An expensive barely average experience with the tasting menu. Go the a la carte route if you do come here. Not totally sure how Michelin stars are given by what metrics exactly, but nothing really to speak of to why they really...