LENOIR — Restaurant in Austin

Lenoir is such a beautiful spot - cozy, intimate, and thoughtfully designed. The staff was kind, patient, and clearly working hard to make everyone feel welcome. We visited on a Monday evening for a birthday dinner and it was quite busy - some folks we overheard had been there multiple times. It’s easy to see why people love this place. That said, there were enough issues with both the pacing and execution of the meal that I’d be hesitant to return. Even knowing that every restaurant can have an off night, our table wasn’t the only one who had issues and the couple next to us had it a bit worse by the sound of it.

What we loved: The restaurant itself is gorgeous - warm, charming, and casual but elegant The staff was wonderful throughout our visit, especially our waitress, who handled everything with such grace. Like seriously - I didn’t catch your name but you crushed it You can tell the ingredients are high-quality, and the menu has a lot of creativity and potential The crab finger curry sauce was absolutely incredible- rich, flavorful, and balanced. I could’ve happily had it as a soup on its own. The lion’s mane bierock was fantastic - so rich and unique Cocktails were excellent, and our server made them herself while balancing all the tables she had!

Where it missed the mark: The biggest disappointment was the mezzi rigatoni, which was unfortunately cold and overcooked - mushy, falling apart, and waterlogged. We did let our waitress know (it was just not edible), and she handled it so kindly and professionally, which we really appreciated. Our steak dish had wonderful flavor and was perfectly cooked in terms of doneness, but it arrived lukewarm. After waiting quite a while between courses, we were hoping for something hot and fresh, so that was a little disheartening. We didn’t mention this because overall the flavor was really good The wait between our appetizer and main course was over an hour (we stayed from 7pm til almost 9pm) and we weren’t checked on for additional drinks during that time. The table next to us even decided to cancel their steak because of the delay, so I imagine the kitchen was having a tough night. Lastly, since we mentioned it was a birthday when we made the reservation, it would’ve been lovely to have even a small acknowledgment - not expected, but it’s one of those thoughtful touches that can make an evening feel special. I think the disappointment more so is coming from the quality of the meal than the acknowledgment though since it was meant to be a special occasion and the food overall was just not great overall given the issues with our entrees

Overall: Lenoir has a lot of charm and clear potential, but the long wait times and uneven food quality made what should’ve been a special night feel disappointing. Between the pacing, bad textures, and temperature issues, it just didn’t live up to what we hoped for on a celebration dinner, and that makes me cautious about trying it again...

I WISH I could give 5 stars.

Really looking forward to take advantage of the 1/2 off a la carte menu that is offered every Thursday evenings. We called around 4:40pm to confirm about this happy hour (it seemed too good to be true!), and were informed that the entire bar was open at that time, but nothing is guaranteed upon our arrival (as expected).

We arrived shortly before 5pm and were surprised to be informed that some people were just seated and the bar is currently full. We thought to ourselves “wow! How unlucky” but proceeded to grab a bottle of wine in the dining area to wait for a bar seat anyway.

The biggest disappointment as we sat across the bar was witnessing 2 parties hold off a total of 4 seats right before our eyes as we sat and waited for over 30 minutes. As first time customers, I felt extremely disregarded. I have to say, allowing people to hold off multiple seated was very unmindful based on the fact that the happy hour special occurs on a “first come, first serve” basis - and we arrived significantly earlier than the other 4 people who had the privilege of having their seats held.

For this reason, Lenoir should strongly consider only seating when a FULL party is present, and not permit individuals to literally hoard seats. It is even more disappointing as we had planned our entire week around this dinner and even anticipated the possibility of having to wait given the bar was ACTUALLY full.

Just to provide some additional insight, the bar is not big. It includes a total of 10 seats. So the fact that 4 seats were being held by other individuals for such a long period of time while my partner and I had to sit, watch, and wait, simply seemed unfair. This left us with quite a feeling of distain.

On the brighter side, once we were seated, we experienced a fantastic meal. The menu at hand was creative and well thought out. We ordered the crab fingers and had to get another - it was so tasty. Our steak was cooked a perfect medium rare with a delicious crust on the edges. I was skeptical about the crudo (blueberry ponzu - very interesting), but it came out fresh, bright, acidic (but not too acidic) and overall well balanced.

We couldn’t have asked for a better menu - the food is what is preventing me from providing anything lower than 3 stars but if we felt that the first come first serve rule was respected, Lenoir would undoubted score a full 5 stars based on food alone. Unfortunately, we left feeling that our prompt arrival and time was disrespected.

I highly advise the crew to take this into serious consideration, and I would caution customers coming in for happy hour to brace themselves for this type of wait if it ever...

As I was eating, I was reminded of someone telling me once the following story. In lower class cultures, the focus is on getting enough to eat. Hence, you'll hear a lot of "did you get enough to eat?" and any communal gathering will be punctuated by an overabundance of food. As you move up into the middle class, they know there will be enough to eat, and instead the focus shifts to, "did it taste good?" As you move into the upper classes, they know the food will taste good, so they wonder "did the food look pretty?"

Let's just say that Lenoir knocks it out of the park on all accounts.

I didn't really know what to expect before I went, I didn't read the menu and I simply went by the reviews that said, in essence, "excellent." It was also the only place I could find last minute reservations a day before.

I have no idea why that was the case, because this restaurant just became one of my favorites. The menu is small, but it feels bigger than it is. It's prixe fixe, so you're going to be paying $38 a person no matter what you do. But don't worry, it's going to feel like a bargain by the time you're through. The only options are to add some bread for $5, which I highly recommend, or another serving for $10, which I don't -- because you're going to be full anyway. You can also get some wine if that's your thing.

Your three courses are going to be large and filling. I opted for three main courses (two land, one sea, make your own joke) and I could barely get started on the last one. My girlfriend mentioned that ordinarily she'd be wolfing down my vegetables (I don't eat them), but she was struggling enough with her plates.

The flavors. Oh My God, the flavors. I'm reminded a lot of Uchiko, there's a lot of really odd stuff on the menu, but somehow it all manages to work when it's paired together. One exception -- we didn't care for the blue cheese with the poundcake, though both were exceptional on their own. Which is how we ate them.

As I was saying, they hit the mark everywhere, the food was served looking like art, to the point that our very friendly bartender presented one of our dishes in a particular orientation because he thought "it looks best from this angle, though this other one is good too."

What else to mention? The wine selection was incredible, the servers extremely knowledgeable and the right kind of friendly, and the ambiance was unique, strange, and perfect for the restaurant.

This place gets five stars because I can't...