Verbena Food & Drink — Restaurant in Austin

Made a last minute reservation for Verbena and was really glad that we did. My wife and I had a tapas style approach to dinner and glad that we did. We ate later than we normally do and over ordered a little bit, but our bellies rose to the occasion and left very little behind.

We ordered the roasted pork flatbread, which was very large for a dish that I thought would be appetizer portion. It could very easily be a main course for some. It came as the first dish out and could honestly be smaller or not positioned as an appetizer. It may have been the placement on the menu before the appetizers that led us to believe it would be a smaller aperitif. The dish comes with a lot of different elements and while overall the flavor was good, it came dressed with hot honey and too much of it. I felt that the sweetness of the honey really outshined all of the other flavors on the dish.

We also ordered the mushroom roti, the Moroccan meatballs, a salad, and ricotta tortellini. The mushroom and potato roti was absolutely amazing. The potatoes were very crispy on the bottom, creamy in the middle, with a very good level of salt and butteriness. It comes topped with maitake mushrooms and a cheese of some sort. I couldn’t get enough of it. I got a ton of umami flavor, and tasted some undertones of fish sauce, which was really delicious. The mushrooms by themselves are under seasoned, but when eaten with the potatoes, it’s truly divine. Def contender for best dish of the night.

The Moroccan meatballs with pita were def a miss for me. Texture of the meatballs was nice, but nothing screamed Moroccan at me. The sauce that they came in reminded me immediately of Texas chili or Mexican mole sauce with the cinnamon. I would have appreciated maybe the meatballs being made with lamb, maybe the addition of nuts of some sort, maybe more North African spices. This def missed the mark for me.

The Grows Together salad was a fine salad. Nothing really stood out about it. Sort of typical greens, roasted beets, pecans, feta kind of thing you find in most modern-American ish restaurants. I did get some hints of dill, which I imagine came in the buttermilk dressing. The dill was a really nice pop of distinct flavor. A good way to get your greens in, but nothing to write home about.

The ricotta tortellini are amazing. So damn delicious. The filling inside is incredibly smooth and unctuous, while the light sauce comes with a hint if black truffle that really plays well with the sauce. The dish comes with 8 tortellini, which is the perfect number for sharing. It’s a heavier dish, but if left to my own devices, I would probably eat 1.5 portions. Really the star of the show. You can tell the tortellini are handmade, which is not exactly a speedy task. Kudos did handmade pasta. All of the dishes except the flat bread landed at once, which I was sort of annoyed at first, but really liked being able to switch up things. Keep the palette from getting too bored with just one dish.

My wife had a glass of wine and I had a dirty martini, both of which were fine. No martini glasses, but not a big deal. We did sit outside, which is a big courtyard of a hotel and really nice, especially with the nice weather. Wait staff was very good and nice. Everyone wore masks and it felt very safe.

Would def come back to try a few other dishes and eat my weight worth of...

Went to Verbena to get out of the rut of the same 5-6 places we usually go. Been past this place a million times and never realized it. Also didn't realize it was part of the Canopy hotel, but it wasn't a big deal. The space was beautiful, with an open and airy feeling throughout; white subway tiles peppered with hardwood tables and other accents throughout to create a chic juxtaposition. The decanter wall was our favorite feature, but the open kitchen was the star. We weren't greeted by anyone at the host stand for awhile until the bartender came over and seated us. Service took awhile to get going, but our eventual server greeted us quickly and told us he'd be with us shortly. He later admitted to us that a large portion of the staff went to a birthday party and were potentially exposed to COVID so they were all quarantined. That erased any odd feelings we had with the lack of host and slower than expected pace of service. We ordered all over the menu and by and large were pleased with our choices. The Beau Soliel oysters were clean tasting, but small. The filet I had was fantastic--expertly prepared and mouth-watering! The broccolini and potato pave sides we ordered were spot-on and brought our other dishes together perfectly. The only miss was the lobster tortellini was ice cold. With our server already stretched thin we decided to not say anything--the flavors were definitely there...the temperature was not. We would definitely order it again. All in all, we were super happy we came and will come back after their staff is back to full strength. A big shout-out to the bartender who was everywhere back-filling for everyone. Always appreciated to see a rock...

Very terrible experience. I recently visited Verbena for brunch with a bachelorette party. We arrived and initially our server was nice and took our drink order, once our server delivered the drinks she took our order. One person in our party began giving her order and was told by the server that what she was ordering was not good and would she like to change it... she stuck with her order. After taking the order she did not return to refill or replace drinks. We attempted to get her attention which she ignored, as there were several servers and only 3 tables inside and around 3 outside this is unacceptable. Our server finally came to the table with some of the food, as we were sitting right in front of the kitchen we new how long certain items had been sitting but since we waited at least 1.5 hours for the meal we didn't want to wait longer. Everyone received their food except the bride. The brides dish remained on the counter while our server went to do something else, she returned and finally brought her dish with the wrong side so needed to take it to replace. The server was rude to everyone in the party. She also didn't appear to be very kind to her own co-workers as we witnessed the same with them. After needing to go to the bar to get another drink our server finally brought the check so we could leave and put the experience behind us. This was a very disappointing experience for a time that was supposed to be very fun especially for the bride of our party. I have to suggest if you are trying to do something special for someone you strongly consider...