Olamaie — Restaurant in Austin

My wife and I had a date here and I was pleased by the atmosphere, once inside. Parking could be a problem if your reservation isn't at start of service. Also it was a warm day and there's a dumpster in the parking area that reeked of dumpster-on-a-hot-Texas-day. The dumpster doesn't belong to the restaurant, however; so it's not their fault.

Once inside, you are surrounded by an environment decorated in muted neutrals and varying shades of gray. The hushed tones of color mirrored the social atmosphere. I like that there are still places one can dine finely that don't sound as loud as an airport or a bowling alley.

Before arriving, I was pretty sure I wanted a Gin and Tonic to start the meal, but instead ordered the Tampico Affair. It was crisp and refreshing, buy a little to sweet for my personal taste, however when judged against almost any other cocktail, it would not have been considered very sweet. My wife enjoyed her cocktail as well.

We started with the Blistered Okra & Marinated Eggplant, and the Smoky Mahi Mahi Fish Dip. The Okra was truly charred on the end, but only the end, making it a delicious gradient of flavor. The house-made soft cheese and chickpeas rounded out the flavor of the Okra and provided a balance of texture and color to the dish. The Mahi dip was memorable, especially because of the hush-puppies. The dip was creamy and flavorful and paired nicely with the soft pillowy hush puppies. It was served with a bottle of Tabasco which I don't recommend. I'd prefer the chef had added his idea of the correct heat to the dip. I ate the first half without the Tabasco sauce and tried the second half with it. I think the hot sauce overwhelmed the subtle flavors in the Mahi and in the rice-based hush-puppies.

For our entrées we had the Day Boat NC Pink Snapper (with a dry rosé) and the Wagyu Beef (with a Pilot Noir) served with a side of delicious biscuits. The biscuits are NOT on the menu - you must request them, however they are definitely good. They are cut into squares instead of traditional rounds, and thus the corners of the biscuits overbake slightly giving the pastry a rich flavor and texture gradient from crisp and toasty golden brown to soft butter yellow. Served with Texas honey butter, this is a no-miss item. The Wagyu Beef was tender and properly cooked, walking that fine line between undercooked and tough and overcooked. The beef came with a side of buttery Carolina Gold rice. The Snapper was perfect. The contrasting flavors and textures on the sauce between the creamy corn and the corn ash was memorable.

The dessert was the Zucchini Bread with iced cream and Chantilly. Good spice levels in the Zucchini bread, and mirroring the square biscuits, the Zucchini Bread also had slightly toastier corners. This crisp texture and dark flavor set-off the wonderful dark fruit in the house made ice-cream.

There are complaints about this and other restaurants as it relates to the portion sizes. I thought they were appropriate. This is the sort of place you might want to go to experience many different flavors, and you can do that if the first plate ruins your appetite.

Service...

I've been wanting to go here for a long time, but the prices of the food were higher than other restaurants and held off for a special occasion. We decided to splurge for an anniversary dinner. We know of its location when it was previously "Mars" and have actually dined in that building. However, it was much noisier than we remembered. The wait staff was very professional, but made us wait to "think about it some more" before they would come back to take our order. Also, they wouldn't allow us to order their biscuits as an appetizer. Apparently? It's only appropriate to have them with dinner? Before going further, there was some sort of bookmark that was in the menu that I ignored that my wife read.

We finally ordered and first course (not allowed to call it appetizers) was the shrimp and rice and the hushpuppies. Both were very good. The cocktail was outstanding. And then there was an unusually long lull after they cleared out plates and put out new plates for the second course. I mean it was long enough that our son, a seasoned restaurant patron, asked us if it was his imagination or was the food taking a long time.

Finaly, the food came out. Wife ordered curried lamb and my son and I ordered the blackened grouper, rice and blue crab sauce. The fish and rice were outstanding. So much so that my son ate half my rice and of course cleaned up his plate. The infusion of the crab into the rice was fairly intense and made the meal so rich I could only eat half my dish, which my son was more than happy to finish off my portion.

The meal was so rich that we couldn't find the space to have dessert.

Then comes the surprise. When the bill comes, they highlight in yellow, so you won't be caught surprised, a 20% Employee Wellness charge. My wife explained to me that it was explained in the "bookmark" that there would be a charge to cover health insurance and other employee-based benefits. But, she said how much the charge would be was not listed in the bookmark.

It was a bit of a surprise that this charge was so high. Google shows me that another high end restaurant was adding 3% for their equivalent program.

Anyway, closing out the evening, full and having a strong drink in me, it was very awkward trying to figure out what the post-20% tip should be.

If it weren't for the being told what I could order and when, the lull between servings and the 20% surprise, this would be a...

I would give this place one Michelin star if I could. What a joy of tastes. I highly recommend basically everything. But to help, I had three dishes.

The butter beans balanced the density of the beans with the creaminess of the butter. The result is an elevated take on Southern butter beans that I could have eaten all day. The sourdough was presented as a cracker much like how I would sometimes use a saltine on a bean soup. With the lighter crunch I get the right slight texture change to go with the butter beans. The tiny Tabasco bottle was an excellent touch. Normally I see hot sauce and douse the bean dish in it. By going small, the chef forces me to first and often eat the beans on their own. This I end up learning: good bean dishes you want to dash hot sauce on the spoon, not in the bowl. Excellent.

The red rice and gulf shrimp had excellent shrimp but the star to me is the sofrito. I want to learn how to make sofrito as a result of this dish as it made red rice the absolute star. Tangy, salty, garlicky, peppery, herby, my goodness. What a way to take red rice, usually the Robin to shrimp, to the level of Batman.

The third dish is the best lamb dish in Austin. The curried lamb terrine is tremendous. Like I had to finish even though I was full tremendous. The jerk came through in exactly the right amount: strong but not burning, spicy but not dominant, tasty but not deadening. As a result I could taste the lamb too and oh wow. Lamb neck confit is so tender and flavorful. Working that with curry meant the curry tasted better (b/c oil) and the meat tasted better (meaty but not gamey). To top it off with peppers and beans instead of a starch meant your pause bites were a healthy dose of texture change. The best dish I had and far and away the best lamb in Austin.

We came here after a conference and Olamaie is on a non-descript street in a gap between campus and downtown. I knew it was a restaurant because it was the only place up and down that had valet. Walking up the ramp to Olamaie is a physical transport to a wonderful place. The service was so attentive and the atmosphere so pretty. Like I said at the top, Amanda Turner and this crew deserve a Michelin star for...