Joann's Fine Foods — Restaurant in Austin

What a wonderful, delicious place to relax and soak in the atmosphere of SoCo on a Saturday night. We were out on the patio at a table floor two with a comfy bench seat where we could hear people passing by on the nearby sidewalk, but felt nicely secluded by the plantings.

Our server Donovan was delightfully energetic and exuding happiness and helpfulness. He knew exactly when to be available and when to leave us to enjoy our dinner.

I started with the Lolita Sunrise and hubby had a Retro Margarita. Both were tasty and original. The chile salt on one edge of the margarita gave a nice bite.

We couldn't decide between the Chile Relleño and the T-bone, so we ordered both and split them. When the order arrived the staff noticed we couldn't fit everything on the small table for two and sit side by side, so they moved us to a larger table nearby so we could cuddle and eat. It is a romantic place. Several couples of various gender combinations were enjoying the evening there.

The Chile Relleño was quite large, wrapped in a thin omelette rather than fried and greasy. It looked a bit like a large, thick lasagna. The pepper and sauce were delightful, with a good bit of kick. The cilantro rice was tasty and had a nice texture.

The T- bone was much thinner than we expected, only 1/4 inch thick. However what it lacked in mass it made up in flavor. It was perfectly cooked to medium rare. My husband raved about the baked potato, it may have been the best he has ever had. It was soft in the middle, not needing to be mashed down and slathered. The condiments for the potato included sour cream, grated cheese, and scallions.

We had a bit of room left over for dessert. The lemon chess pie was sold out, so Donovan recommended the coconut tres leches. It was a delicious moist cake surrounded by ripe berries and mango topped with toasted coconut shavings. A lovely way to end a superb meal.

My husband was ready to move to Austin to experience this more often, though given the price tag, it would only be for...

Not a fan of writing bad reviews but figured it would be good to warn others of our experience. (Long wait even with reservation, food left me hungry)

Made a reservation for 12:45 PM today 2/25/24. After rushing to not be late as instructed, we were instead told the table was not ready because the guests had “overstayed” their reservation and had not left yet. We were told it would be another 15 mins but our table ended up not being ready until 1:10 PM (25 mins after our reservation)

Figured okay it wasn’t fully the restaurants fault, it’s a busy Saturday, maybe the guests lost track of time, or it was a one time thing.

When we got to our table the hostesses apologized for the wait and the waitress took our order in an appropriate time maybe 10 mins after. We ordered and after waiting a normal amount our pancakes arrived. Maybe this is a special thing they do here? But we wrongly assumed our meals would arrive with the pancakes but we were wrong. Maybe we should’ve asked for everything to together? Our meals didn’t arrive until well after our pancakes got cold maybe 25 mins later.

Noticed there was a large amount of waiters and from what I could see only 2 cooks. Seemed like a lot of waiters did not have much to do also because most were waiting by the kitchen. Hopefully this was a one time thing…

Pancakes were great but DO NOT ORDER the chilaquiles. I was expecting a good size portion but it was mostly old chips and small eggs. Lacked a lot of flavor and I was still hungry when I got home :(

By the time we ate and left it was almost 1 hour and 45 mins which explains the mess when we were waiting for our initial reservation. Seems a lot of other tables must’ve been getting pushed back and delayed because of the food coming out slowly.

Overall food could be worth it but I wouldn’t risk coming here again if you can. I’d prefer more efficiently run places that have better tasting food options like Phoebe’s Diner on south Lamar / downtown or Cafe no se / Mattie’s...

So the food was great, as were the cocktails. The cotija fries were lovely, the fajita was juicy and tender. That part of the experience was lovely. Wife really loved her margarita.

But, we almost didn't even get that far. Just getting a table was a strange experience. We entered through the patio and stood next to a sign that said to see the hostess for seating. We were at what sure looked like a hostess station, and so we waited for the hostess, but eventually a busboy directed us to go inside. Several servers almost ran into us as we went to what was apparently the actual hostess station. And then we waited there while everyone on staff tried hard not to make eye contact with us. Finally as we were preparing to give up and leave someone actually acknowledged us.

Upon being seated, a dour and miserable seeming man in glasses took our drink order before seemingly handing us off to a woman who was at least friendly and who took our order. And again, the food was delicious, but we ended up taking most of it to go because we couldn't really enjoy it with the staff standing a few feet away by the outdoor bar, staring directly at us and whispering to each other.

We also watched other patrons walk up to the hostess sign and then stand around totally ignored until once again, the busboy would send them inside. I had to laugh too at the dour waiter guy with the glasses and the yellow shirt. Apparently it wasn't just us he didn't like. A table nearby was apparently celebrating a birthday and we watched him put down the birthday dessert and stalk sourly off right in the middle of the patrons singing happy birthday.

I can't remember ever feeling so uncomfortable with a wait staff. I'd say that next time we'll just do a takeout order, but I can't even begin to guess where we'd need to go to place the order or how bizarrely the staff would behave while we waited for it.

Delicious food but we likely...