Kerbey Lane Cafe - Central — Restaurant in Austin

Took care of business in Austin and wanted brunch before heading back to San Antonio - Monday about 10:30 am, so I came to the Kerby Ln restaurant. I'd eaten at the southside restaurant many years ago, but this was my 1st visit here.

I LOVE me some good Eggs Benedict - as long as they aren't the traditional Canadian bacon with hollandaise version. I was fortunate to visit while the Fall Menu was still available, so I was delighted to see the Texas Benedict version.

In Kerby Lane Cafes version, they replace the English muffin with a heavy texture lightly sweetened cornbread. Flavor and texture were perfect combined with the rest of the dish, tho it would have been a better balance if the cornbread were only half as thick. I compensated by only eating the top half.

The Canadian bacon was replaced with a decent amount of Wagu beef cooked up tender and juicy like one would expect of filet mignon (tho the menu only said "Wagu beef," so I have no clue what cut it was) - it was that good.

The hollandaise was replaced by their "Out Of This World Queso," & it is certainly worthy of lip-smacking hunger, even craveable.

The eggs were perfectly poached. One could not produce a better poached egg than either of the 2 on my plate. Well plated!

The avocado was ripe, creamy, and deliciously creamy. The sprinkle of pico de gallo on top was a great splash of freshness. I love pico, so I asked for an extra portion with my meal, and that was perfect to my personal taste.

Certainly the Eggs Bene were the star of the show. However, the crispy hash brown potatoes added a delightfully crunchy texture to round out the mouth feel. All too often, hash browns are soft potatoes with little character. These were crispy outside and creamy inside, reminiscent of a twice cooked potato going the extra mile. And it was a pretty big pile of hash browns.

Service was from good to enthusiastic. My approach had me thinking service would be slow. The person at the front stepped away with a diner, and I took a deep breath. Before I could exhale, another person stepped behind the counter, acknowledged another customer coming in, and promptly seated me. It took the waitress a minute to get there, and I was ready to order. She was all smiles, enthusiastic about my selection, and accommodated my requests without flinching.

This was a great experience at Kerby Lane Cafe in Austin (I know 1 opened in San Antonio), I will definitely return again.

Please put your Texas Benedict on the regular menu...

What an amazing experience to eat at the Original Kerbey Lane.

We walked in and where immediately greeted and seated.

James was our server whom educated that this is the original Kerbey Lane that opened in 1980!

Love his hospitality!

The inside is so clean and has the most amazing art décor hanging all over the walls.

The menu and food is what you would expect for Vegan Gluten Free options.

I ordered: Vegan Breakfast Platter (VG) Two Dr. Praeger’s veggie patties & tofu scramble topped with green onions & fresh diced tomatoes. Served with two half size vegan vanilla swirl pancakes. Cost $12.99 I started with the Tofu scramble and veggie patties they both were full of flavors. My pallet was extremely happy with the texture to the tofu scramble. The veggie patties to me where a bit too soft and could have been cooked a bit longer so the inside was not mushy.

The two Vegan Gluten Free Vanilla Swirl Pancakes are the BEST and I mean the BEST pancakes I have ever eaten. They were fluffy moist and full of flavor. If you were not aware these are vegan and gluten free and wow I am honestly speechless at the texture the taste the way the cinnamon vanilla swirl enhanced the pancakes in a way that they were extremely sweet. To a point I had to take them home to finish. What an amazing tasting dish!!!

My friend ordered: French Toast Platter* (V) Two slices of French toast, two eggs any style & choice of all natural bacon, sausage or seasonal fresh fruit. $12.29

They advised that the French toast was cooked to perfection full fluffy and not egg tasting. They ordered over easy eggs which where cooked perfectly. The seasonal fruit however was not good. The honeydew and cantaloupe were not ripe and the strawberry's felt rubbery to a point I spat the strawberry out as soon as I took a bite of it. We both tried the fruit to ensure that they were definitely not ripe, and that the texture was off.

The cleanliness is off the charts as well as the service.

Overall this was an amazing experience and the food overall was exceptional...

I've never had a problem at this location until today. Came in on 11/9 around 8pm and the three people behind the bar seemed more interested in chatting with themselves than seating us. Our server dumped us at the 2 top table right next to the entrance without asking if we had a seating preference (the restaurant was anything but full and other seating choices were available). We never were personally welcomed by our server and unfortunately the service wasn't personal and our server never introduced himself (tall, dark hair, kinda skinny guy, early/mid 30's??) the only time he spoke with us was when taking our food/drinks order and when he came back after we finished eating if everything was still tasting good. He just didn't seem interested in serving anyone and couldn't even smile or ask how we were doing. There was zero effort in having any form of a conversation. When he brought our check he just set it down without saying a word, let alone thanking us for coming in. There were guests that came in towards the end of our meal who waited at the front door for nearly 10 minutes before a host/server got them seated. They took menus and read them over while they waited for someone to show up. I hate to complain about quality of service since so many places are struggling to hire (I work in the customer service industry so I know) but just because a place is short staffed or struggling to hire doesn't mean that the staff you do have just misses the mark completely when it comes to the guest experience. 3 stars for the fresh and tasty food and cozy evening atmosphere but wow some (only some, most of the staff is friendly and welcoming always, Ana is a sweetheart) staff members really need a refresh on providing a great guest experience. I think I'll stick to take away orders from now on from...