[Austin] Moonshine

[claire797]

We're having a long awaited date-night this evening and I've chosen Moonshine. Any reviews? I haven't heard much buzz about it, save for the fact that the Bush's ate their for Jenna's graduation. The menu looks great. They even have Red Velvet Cake. Woo Hoo.

http://www.diningoutwithrobbalon.com/revie...nshine/menu.pdf

[NewYorkTexan]

I really like Moonshine. Their web site

I have been there a few times and the food has been consistently good and the prices are reasonable.

Service is solid. They make their share of mistakes, but the waitstaff tries hard and are attentive. They also have the most attractive waitresses in Austin, but no need to go into that....

The corn dog shrimp is a fun appetizer to start the meal with. Usually the shrimp come out perfectly done, moist and succulent with the batter adding a nice crunch.

The pork chops were ok, the Flat Iron steak was very good and Sharon really likes the trout. The Mac and Cheese side dish is excellent.

The only downside to Moonshine is the noise. On weekends it can be hard to hear your dinner companions.

Never had the deserts, so I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Have fun!

Edited June 3, 2004 by NewYorkTexan (log)

[claire797]

They also have the most attractive waitresses in Austin, but no need to go into that....

More attractive than The Yellow Rose? I thought Don King "laid down the gauntlet" on that one ;).

Sounds great, save for the noise. I still have one bum ear, so hopefully that won't be an issue. That's one reason we opted not to go to Vespaio this evening -- noise level.

At least I know not to order the pork chop. It was between that and the flat iron steak.

[claire797]

I am so disappointed this morning. Last night's Moonshine experience was dismal. It was a lesson in why it's better to save money and eat at home.

We pulled up to the place around 7:20 and it was busy. I had a bad vibe that the reservation I'd made was going to be useless. I was right. The hostess, who was very friendly, informed us that "due to bad weather, the patio eaters had to move inside and there would be a wait". Fine. No biggie. But then a manager came over and asked us if we would like to be seated on the now rain-free patio. He and the hostess did a good job accommodating us in a tight situation.

From there, it went downhill. Our waiter greeted us with a grunt and left. He came back to ask us if we needed a drink and seemed shocked that we didn't know right off the bat what we wanted. Gee. Some people actually read the wine list, dude! Usually, things like that don't bother me. But this guy just had a major chip on his shoulder from the get-go. Obviously, he was doing us a HUGE favor by waiting on us. We weren't asking him to pull up a chair and chat or tell us his name or any of that jazz, but maybe crack half a smile? *Pretend" not to be miserable?

After taking our orders (which were straightforward and simple), he darted off and left us to soak in the fresh Austin patio air. It was a nice evening and people all around us were having fun. Lots of loud fun. Great people watching, save for our chairs being bumped repeatedly by one of the waiters trying to get to the party having so much fun. It wouldn't have been a big deal had he apologized.

Gets worse from there. First class of wine was corked. Our waiter promptly took it back and returned with another. Fine. We've had corked wine at other place and it's no big deal. It happens. We still had lots of hope.

The menu looks incredible. Check out the link above to see all the offerings, but I'm sad to say everything we ordered was terrible. My husband ordered a molasses-honey glazed chicken. He is not picky about chicken, but he said his was rubbery, tasteless and gamey. I ordered the chipotle orange pork tenderloin. The sauce tasted like Kraft mixed with Hunts, mixed with orange juice, which is not necessarily a bad thing, as I like Kraft, but I was hoping for something a little more special -- like maybe some chipotle flavor. But the worst of it was the pork. It was cooked perfectly, but the meat itself had a dirty socks taste. Gamey pretty much describes it too. The vegetables (Broccoli and carrots) tasted off too. I couldn't pinpoit what it was with the carrots, but maybe they'd soaked in some fish fumes? They were just off. And finally, the polenta was soggy.

Red Velvet cake, my favorite silly dessert of all-time was on the menu, but by this point, I was so sure it would be terrible so I opted to just eat some ice cream later at home.

The good points about Moonshine? It's relatively inexpensive and they had a terrific list of mixed drinks. It would be a fun place for a girls night or just a place to relax after work for drinks. Hopefully, they'll improve the food.

[NapaValleyPhil]

Should have gone with NYT to the Yellow Rose. I've never been, of course. I only know about it from hearing others talking about it.

[claire797]

Should have gone with NYT to the Yellow Rose. I've never been, of course. I only know about it from hearing others talking about it.

BTW. Have you ever seen this? Don King knows his restaurants, that's for sure.

http://www.dkaustin.com/eatin.htm

Yup. We would have had better food at The Yellow Rose. The sad thing is, we passed Applebees on the way home and both of us were thinking we would have done better eating there! We definitely would have had a better meal at Houston's. And MOST definitely would have had better service.

[sdj3]

To bad you guys had a bad experience. I've been to Moonshine a few times, once for lunch, and have never had anything that I would rate as unacceptable. Nothing incredible here, simply old-time comfort food favorites made with quality ingredients in an upscale setting. The flat-iron steak is my favorite, but I also liked the pork chop. All of the fried appetizers are delicious. The standout dish for me will always be the mac & cheese. The desserts are good, not great. Beware, the skillet apple pie is HUMONGOUS. Try the hard lemonade cocktail, it's divine on a hot Austin evening. I do agree that the service leaves something to be desired. My advice would be to try it out during happy hour during the week- less crowded and great prices!

[claire797]

I don't know. There are too many other restaurants in Austin I want to try before returning to a place like that. One place I DO want to revisit is Crimson. I was slightly underwhelmed with that place too, but it's doing extremely well. Also, we'd gone right after they'd opened. That AND the service was very friendly despite the glitches. That's the kind of place you give a second chance. As for Moonshine, I think I'll pass.

[NewYorkTexan]

I feel awful that you had a bad experience.

There is no excuse for rude service any restaurant from Moonshine to places like the Yellow Rose (for the record, I have never been to that adult club/restaurant).

For a similar southern comfort food menu, you can try the Roaring Fork. The prices are a little higher but the service is better and the kitchen is more consistent. The bar menu still offers best value in town but I really like the main restaurant also. I have been there twice in the past 2 weeks.

[claire797]

For a similar southern comfort food menu, you can try the Roaring Fork. The prices are a little higher but the service is better and the kitchen is more consistent. The bar menu still offers best value in town but I really like the main restaurant also. I have been there twice in the past 2 weeks.

NYT, don't feel bad. Everyone else I talked to raved about Moonshine. My husband went back to work and told everyone about his experience and they were incredulous. So everyone loves it but us . Gosh, even the President ate there.

I've been to the Roaring Fork and can't remember if I reviewed. Now THAT was an interesting experience. In fact, I think I didn't review it because I wasn't sure what to say.

The atmosphere was outstanding -- comfortable booths, not too loud, excellent service. The only problem (again) was the food. My dish was tasty (I had chicken, so I'm not going to bother reviewing it. Cooked it right. 'nuf said), but my girlfriend ordered a beef filet. The first time they sent it out, it was well-done to the point of grist. The waiter asked why she was picking at it and she showed him (she's shy, and wouldn't automatically send something back). He promptly ordered her a new one. She cut into it (the waiter had left) and it was completely raw on the inside. Waiter came by to check, looked at the steak and was humiliated. He took it back to the kitchen. Finally, he brought back a new plate of food. The waiter and a manager came by, apologized profusely, COMPED her whole meat (a $30 entree) and all of our desserts and coffee.

The comping was totally unexpected. We were enjoying ourselves immensely despite the fact that the grill cook was having an off-night. However, the waiter and the manager's attitude was exemplary and they handled the situation beautifully. My husband thinks I'm crazy for wanting to go back, but this is a situation where everything was excellent and someone (grill guy) just wasn't at his best. Moonshine, on the other hand, just failed on all accounts.

[LonghornGal]

Went this evening for a local "gourmet" group event. After reading these comments I was watching service pretty closely. We had about 30-35 people (? didn't count) and were seated in the "Sunday House" which is a smallish outbuilding off the patio. Service was attentive and we even got a brief history of the building (the 2nd oldest in Austin). But I have no idea what life was like out on the patio or in the main restaurant.

Appetizers: Sadly we were not offered the famed corn dog shrimp.

Fried Asparagus - Dipped in some sort of batter - not a corn dog texture, more just fluffy and crispy. Tasty way to sneak asparagus into your kid's diet.

Potato Chips with dipping sauce - The sauce was some creamy white dressing - not ranch, maybe blue cheese? I was too enamored of the seasonings on the thin, crispy, perfectly fried chips to bother much with the dip. This was a big hit with all.

Kabobs - button mushrooms, teensy grape tomatoes, and beef chunks, alol bite sized and grilled, served over corn salsa. With the same sauce as above. Tasty, but no competition for the potato chips.

Main Course: We had choice of four items

Jalapeno Corn Bread Muffins These were the winner of the night. Sweet, buttery, with a bit of zip. And warm from the oven. So delicious!

I had the Pan Seared Drum with Pecan Butter Sauce - oh yeah, this was good. The fish had a perfect amount of spice and the pecans added a touch of sweetness. Served wiith veggies, corn relish, and garlic mashed potatoes.

My neighbor got the pork Claire797 discussed above. He cleaned his plate. I did not try so cannot vouch for the Heinz-Kraftyness of the dish, but he ate it all.

Other choices were Vegetable Lasagna which looked fine but you can get that at the Olive Garden, or Chicken with Macaroni and Cheese which was a HUGE dish - it must have contained 2000 calories on it's own - easily would have fed a family of 4.

Dessert - the real reason anyone goes out to eat! Again, we were offered a choice. I, through my ESP influence powers, was able to try all 3.

Bread Pudding - My personal selection, and pretty decent. It was a very firm bread pudding - held its shape in a nice triangle. Personally, I prefer a less rigid bread pudding - more of a smooshy texture without actually being mushy in the bread chunks. I like it to require a bowl to prevent accidents. I also like to drown it in whiskey sauce. They used a ladylike drizzle and topped with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - I am a frosting gal and I loved this frosting. The cake was 6 layers (well, 3 cut in half for those that are bakers) and a beautiful red color. It won the dessert category beauty contest. The cake layers themselves were adequate but not earth-shattering. They served their purpose as a delivery vehicle for frosting.

Chocolate Brownie with Malt Ice Cream - Now, I love chocolate. But I'm glad I didn't order this. Pretty much your typical brownie wedge, with nuts, and with some ice cream on top. Doesn't Dairy Queen do this one already? It was very sugary and rich and lacked frosting. The amount of ice cream was not sufficient to properly balance the richness. I prefer Chili's Molten Chocolate sugar bomb to this one.

I am willing to return to Moonshine as a regular guest based on the quality of the food I received. But there's so many places to try (still!) that it will probably have to be someone else's suggestion or a Southern-food craving attack. It's desserts that usually get me to come back, and nothing I tried was a "wow gotta have it" item.

--LG

Edited July 29, 2004 by LonghornGal (log)

[claire797]

Thanks for the review!

I'd like to give them another try since we were obviously there on a bad night, but like you said, there are so many other places.

I don't know what it was about the pork. I eat pork tenderloin all the time and it usually doesn't taste gamey like this one did, so maybe we just got a bad cut. Who knows. If and when I go back, I'd like to try the flat-iron steak.

BTW. This may have been posted already, but I think that Crimson is closed for good. We walked by it one evening and they said "closed for remodeling". Someone else that the "for remodeling" part was a ruse and it was going out of business. Is this truth or rumor? Last I heard, they were doing well.

[foodie52]

Crimson shut down...

[LonghornGal]

So sad, I loved Crimson. Hopefully something cool goes in there.