Lonesome Dove Austin — Restaurant in Austin

To say I was excited to come here was an understatement. I have been waiting to try this restaurant since I first found out about this place. Their unique dining style, their exotic meats all piqued my interest, and my taste. My wife and I are not one to shy away from throwing down serious cash for a lush meal, so when she took me here for my birthday, I was beyond pleased!

The place is decorated with a suitable ambiance that feels casual, modern, and high-class (characteristic of Austin high-end dining). The server was excellent and extremely attentive to the new customer's needs and the restaurant chef's serving style.

As I stated earlier, my wife and I are not shy about fine dining and are happy to try new foods in a unique style for a few $$$$ without batting an eye. That said, these dishes were not particularly astounding and left quite a lot to be desired. At least for this season's menu, the food pairing seemed just barely at par, if not subpar, similar to that of a more traditional steakhouse restaurant.

The evening started with The Wild Game Fettine Trio; this was a fun and tasty start to the evening allowing the customers to experience and palate some of the different wild game flavors from the menu: boar, venison, and rabbit/duck.

The starter course began an initial pairing consisting of the TX Quail Leg, Bacon, Waffle with Guajillo jam, and the Elk Sliders. In theory, the salty/sweet mixture of the quail/waffle should work, but the significantly over-salted breading of the quail (also stilled boned, making it challenging to eat the leg and waffle together) matched with the drastically under sweetened waffle and missing smoky bacon flavor was just a total blunder. The elk slider was slightly overcooked and oddly bland but simultaneously being overpowered by the bun's sweetness, reducing the elk's meatiness flavoring.

For the second course, we were served the Fideos with grilled baby octopus, which had an excellent smoky flavor and was fairly decent. My wife had a specialty salad made, and they did very well at meeting her needs, and we very much appreciate their patience with that.

I ordered the Montana Bison Ribeye for the entrée, which I was advised had excellent marbling and was a perfect choice for the night. I am a ribeye man, and I understand the differences with bison, as I frequently order this meat; however, this was just a disappointing cut and cook. It was a little tough, not nearly as succulent as it should have been, and had none of the flavorings I would have expected. My wife has the Roasted Stuffed Garlic Tenderloin, and hers was better, but at nowhere near, again, the quality we were hoping for the prices. There was zero garlic flavoring, which was a little surprising considering that it was the selling point for this particular cut. It was very tender and cooked to specification.

The LD Mac & Cheese is interesting orzo rice (not macaroni, which we were aware of prior), making more of a congealed mass than a side dish. We split the Ancho Chile Chocolate Cake for dessert, which I found far too sweet and dense.

In the end, this was just a huge let down to what we were expecting from the glowing reviews and word...

My boyfriend chose the place based on the menu and ambiance. The food was forgettable and the price was so inflated that it didn't seem worth it. They had things on the menu that were unique but not well executed. The service was great though. The ambiance was rustic and with dark swag.

This is Tara's boyfriend who decided to take her here for a monumental welcome to Texas, a place she'd never been and for her first night I looked forward to spoiling the love of my life to a meal that highlighted the diversity of Austin and this sounded like the place! I'm all about new menus that excentuate the variety of ones palette using authentic local resources to tell a story that builds romance and awe as to the different flavors that can be expected when serving rearity like rattle snake and rabbit! In light of a diverse menu, the service was mediocre, the serve staff was youthful in their knowledge of the menu and allowed us to walk down the three courses with no absolute definition of what represented the lonesome dove as a staple to the Austin market. We had to start the rabbit, rattlesnake and lamb thin cut meat that to me was dry and met with no sauce to accomplish the overall satisfaction while developing tastes with hard cognitive challenges as to what its like to eat a snake! Next we had lobster balls and blue crab! The lobster fritters were good, I was definitely enjoying the one I got that we spilt the order in half, one for Tara and one for me. The serving size was minimal and while good, at $20 bucks for two you would wonder if your frugal lifestyle had just gone out the window to branding and footprint. Next.... the Blue Crab! This dish literally tasted like stove top stuffing with a sprinkle of seafood seasonings. At this point, I was certain I'd chosen the wrong place and was highly disappointed for making this our evening. The last dish was Waygu beef that was bought at 12ozs at $9 an Oz. The meat was ok, not as fatty as well marbled Wagyu should be and there was no specific taste that would define thus restaurant from a Wagyu steak I could toss on my own grill and do myself. All in all, the end bill was $350 and I would have been just as satisfied, if not more going to a local steak house that ended with a bill that was $100 bucks and I did not feel as though I was bamboozled by a marketing gimmick that forced my realization of what it means to be able to eat at a restaurant...

Great Atmosphere, Innovative Apps, Main Dishes Fall Short!

The seating was comfortable, the lighting soft, however the music was not as gentle and did not fit the atmosphere. We were promptly attended by our waiter, where he explained the menu and some of the apps in detail. The app menu (1st course) is confusing because the price is I believe for every 2 pieces (still unsure...it needs to be clearer). We received our appetizers: the rabbit-rattlesnake sausage, oyster with machego and Serrano, wild boar ribs, and the elk sausage topped with fois gras. Everything was succulent, delicious, familiar flavors with a twist...oyster with melted machego and a sliver of Serrano. I do like that most items have a mesquite wood fire hint except the fois gras. It was charred to a point that ruined the fois gras making the tongue wanting something else to take its flavor(such a waste of fois gras!). For the main dishes we had the elk loin and the pork belly. First of all, the waiter never told me the elk was going to be served as medallions ( for me the meat is drier typically and cools down quickly). The elk was delicious, perfectly cooked, however only 2 medallions had red pepper flakes. The overall dish was dry due to the mushrooms...we later soaked the mushrooms in the sauce of the brussel sprouts which transformed the mushrooms. The fried greenery was a nice contrast, however the overall entree was a bit dry and unsatisfying (especially since the waiter said it was a singnature item). The pork belly was beautifully grilled and crispy on the outside, however the middle needed to be a little more succulent (with a little longer cooking time it would melt in your mouth). The beet and watermelon radish salad was asthetically beautiful, however the beets were cut too thick and irregular. It could have been pickled or cut into thinner slices to make it easier to eat. The service was good overall however, the waiter served us a second bottle of pellegrino without asking us...so we paid $12 for water. Do waiters bring a second bottle of wine without asking?

Overall, the appetizers make me want to come back for more...and I wish I ordered a buffalo ribeye. For the cost, overpriced but if I can write it off on my taxes...