VIVO — Restaurant in Austin

Perhaps you remember the "Friends" episode where Chandler proposes to Monica -- you know, the one with sixteen thousand lit candles around the apartment? Walking into Vivo might remind you of this for no other reason than the sixteen thousand candles. They have this table with lots and lots of large lit pillar candles. I cannot imagine that the fire marshal is ok with this, but this is not the point.

Vivo is one of the first new tenants of the The Linc - which, for many decades, was an upscale shopping center known as Lincoln Center right next to Highland Mall. #AncientAustin. It's pretty good and you should go.

Their salsa is top notch, and this is important. Their margaritas (they have the standards and lots of fun take, e.g. cucumber) are delicious and not overly sweet or fake tasting. The service is friendly, if slightly slow. The staff always seems to be a tad bit nervous which creates some hiccups.

The food is delicious, fresh, and a fresh take on typically greasy and fake-cheese-loaded Tex-Mex. They use brown rice for their Mexican rice, and it's delicious (and healthy-ish). They have tofu as an option to fill in your choice of taco, tostado, enchilada, etc ... I'm nowhere near vegetarian, but the tofu is really good and you should try it. They don't use the pasteurized/processed cheese like most Tex-Mex spots, so you're getting a much more fresh, less greasy product. When you bit into your food (perhaps enchiladas covered with poblano cream sauce), it's evident that the food is carefully prepared to order with great care and expertise.

I hope you like Vivo as...

Vivo was a great find for my first Tex-Mex night out in Austin.

They have lots of vegetarian choices which are helpfully labeled as such on the menu, which includes crispy tacos enchiladas and more. At least three of the tacos were vegetarian as were some of the happy hour specials.

They also brought chips to the table with satisfyingly hot salsa. The chips were kind of puffy which I am not used to, but they definitely filled me up.

I ordered the “Emma’s Choice” where you get to choose tier favorite “puffy” taco (I chose the poblano mushroom from the happy hour menu served puffy style with cheese) and your choice of an enchilada (I chose the spinach). It’s all served with rice and beans. It definitely tasted super good, but it was a pretty heavy meal. The taco on its own was very filling albeit a bit oily. (ahh the sacrifices we make for the satisfying crunch) The enchilada had spinach and mushrooms in it. It was also definitely good but fairly heavy.

I loved the beans and rice! These were both spot-on and gave the plate a classic Mexican dish feel to it. (Versus Tex-Mex. [It’s also possible I don’t really know what Tex-Mex is.])

Service was very quick and friendly

Vivo is an upscale restaurant with reasonable prices. I was there fairly early in the dinner hour and the place was completely packed.

This is definitely a place where vegetarian can get a great, very filling meal, and have lots to...

Me and my family came in at 12:00 , usually a time for lunch rushes but this pace was a ghost town, I should have just taken that as a sighn to find somewhere better. We ordered the queso and I could tell from the moment the waiter hesitated in her response that something was wrong. The queso came and I'm grabbing some out of the bowl and the 1st thing I notice is the texture, it's not fully melted and still clumped together in some parts. It wasnt a big issue for me until I tried it, the mixture of loop warm queso and obviously canned chease was horrifying. I started gagging and it took all the strength in me to not to throw up. The queso was nothing but processed chease and a tiny dollop of chili in the middle. I repeat it was NOTHING but processed chease, no tomato no seasoning. After that my stomach was so unsettled that I couldn't even enjoy my meal, which they got wrong. They asked me what meat I wanted twice and still managed to do the opposite of what I asked. The sour cream added to my meal tasted The table was uneven and kept rocking back and forth which wouldn't be a big isssue if the rocking wasn't so drastic. My father picked this place hoping for an authentic Mexican meal but this was just not it. I'm never allowing myself to come here again this was...