The Peacock — Restaurant in Austin

Our first time at The Peacock and most certainly we will be back! The bar area is pretty lively and seems like a fun place to come with a group for a drink and some appetizers after work. We came for dinner and had an early reservation so we were seated right away. Be aware, the place does fill up pretty quickly.

We started off with drinks; they have a pretty extensive wine and cocktail selection. I had an old fashioned and it was very good. For an appetizer we had the Crispy Shallot Hummus and Manti Dumplings. The hummus was epic! It was SO good, at the end of the evening, we ordered another Shallot Hummus to take home and it was still amazing the next day.

Although the dumplings were okay, they only had one option of Spiced Beef; there were no other options for the dumplings which was a bit disappointing. For our main courses we had the Yogurt Marinated Chicken Thigh Kebabs and the Atlantic Salmon. The salmon was very delicious. The chicken kebabs were also very tasty, but far too salty. And after all of my years traveling throughout the Mediterranean and living in the Middle East for a time, I have never had chicken kebabs with thigh meat. I've only had chicken breast so although the thigh meat was tasty, but not as delicious chicken breast. And although they were marinated in a yogurt sauce, it was missing some flavor from lime, turmeric and paprika.

For some sides, we had the Saffron Rice, Spiced French Fries and Asparagus with Parmesan and Hollandaise. All sides were amazing! The rice is fabulous but surprising the the kebabs didn't come on a bed of the saffron rice. The French Fries were hot and fresh but they were spicy at all. Although they weren't spicy, I do recommend them. Again, very hot and fresh! Lastly, the asparagus was SO fresh! I would have preferred the asparagus with either the parmesan or hollandaise but not both. I'm sure you can ask them to hold one. But the asparagus was so fresh and cooked to perfection!

To round the evening out, we shared an Orange Blossom Crème Brûlée with Almonds. The Crème Brûlée is amazing and the almonds were a nice addition. But I would ask them to hold the orange blossom. The two tastes do not go well together.

Overall, great atmosphere, very good food and excellent service. We will certainly be back again. Make sure you have Crispy...

First, I’m giving this place 3 stars because of these three things, and I will expand on each of them:

It took 10 minutes for the server to greet us. The food overall was the best part. Customers get charged a 4% “wellness charge on every check.

We were greeted by a pleasant hostess who sat us promptly. Once we sat, it took over 10 minutes to be greeted by our server. We ordered a bottle of wine. The server presented the wine to me and asked if I wanted to try it first. FYI - the person who orders a good bottle of wine ALWAYS tries it first, then gets served it last. The server really needed training on proper wine service, she spilled wine on every pour.

We ordered the Walnut Muhammara and the Crudo for apps. Both were presented well with good flavor. We weren’t blown away by them but still very good. For entrees we did the Mixed Grill for the 3 of us. There was more than enough food. We ordered the meats MR, the lamb chops came out well done but the steak was cooked perfectly, clearly the stand out! The carrots were really different and had amazing flavor. The lamb kabob was dry and over cooked.

We did not order desserts. I got the check and I always review it before paying, glad I did! I was surprised to see a “4% wellness charge”. I asked the server what that was. She was not sure but told me since this hotel is California based, they charge all guests this to help pay for employee health benefits. She asked me if I wanted it taken off by her manager. Umm, this should be an “option” for the customer, not automatically billed. How many customers are not looking at there bill and paying this ridiculous charge?? Something needs to be done about this and I will keep this conversation going until something is done about it!

I recommend trying out Zou Zou’s in NYC, they have Mediterranean...

This restaurant is great for small groups or a date. However, I recently hosted my birthday dinner there and it was terrible. Firstly, they force you to have a pre fixe menu that is served family style to the table. This means you have zero say in what you will actually eat and explicitly exclude most of their best items. So you're paying $100 per person and have no choice in what that includes. Despite stating that I'm allergic to seafood and fish they served us octupus and grouper. SMH. They brought me and my vegan friend potato lakhes and falafel instead but I don't eat fried food so those were real misses and must be some of their cheapest and least delicious food items on the menu. Additionally, the main courses were not good. The kebabs were burnt (usually one of my menu favorites) and the room is so dark that you can't see your food to even recognize burned food before you try eating it. We asked for candles to be placed on our table since they only placed 2 ...one at each end of a 10 person table. They must have forgotten about our ask as candles were never brought over. This meant those of us sitting in the middle could literally not see our food at all before eating it. If I could see the burned kebabs I would have likely sent them back. Additionally, there was a lot of leftovers (especially the appetizer round) that was just taken away without asking if we wanted to pack it up. The server packed up some of my food but everything else was simply tossed. This was expensive and very wasteful. I will be choosing my large group dinners elsewhere in the future. What a disappointment, given that The Peacock has been my favorite date spot in the city before...