10/03/09

Great food, but braille menus were terrible.

by BrailleKing

Pancakes were still the best, but the problem: the braille menu for the visually impaired was the worst I've ever come across. Imagine reading about a Caesar salad and not being able to find out what grilled toppings could be added because the word grilled was at the bottom of one page and the word shrimp was somewhere on the next page. Worse yet, many descriptions of the items were split between pages, formatting which would never be on a print menu. And aside from the fact that the table of contents was not accurate and that all the section names like Beverages, Desserts etc. were not centered, (in braille they looked like part of the rest of the menu), some of the lines began so close to the edge of the page that the dots were unreadable. And most important, no braille menus were available for the Bar - what a major disappointment! Both myself an my wife, have read the very high quality braille menus that Kerbey Lane had purchased from a Austin-based, home-grown, company and were looking forward to the same great experience. The ADA mandates that braille menus etc. are supposed to be of the same quality and readability as printed menus. The braille menus Kerbey Lane Cafe had in the past met these standards admirably, and included extras like the Seasonal Menu, the Catering Menu and most importantly, the Bar Menu. However, after spending over 30 minutes trying to navigate through a braille menu provided by the Braille Corner, an out-of-state company, known for its poor quality, miss-spellings and inaccurate formatting, we gave up. Out of frustration, we just asked our very nice waitress to read the specials to us. The food was great, 5 stars, but the ordering experience was zero stars. We cannot recommend Kerbey Lane to the many visually impaired patrons in Austin Texas unless they provide higher quality braille menus.

• Pros: Great pancakes, (though the omelet was small), great service
• Cons: Unusable braille menus, Key Lime Pie smaller than usual

07/16/09

Hit-or-miss

by youarewhatyoueat

I'd been to this location once before for lunch, where I'd had the Kerbey Queso and a cob sandwich, both of which where very tasty. So, my husband and I wanted breakfast last week and I'd seen on their website they'd been voted Best Breakfast in Austin, so I suggested we try it out.

I had the french toast with a side of migas. We both really liked the migas, which I'd ordered with queso. My french toast was disappointing. It didn't seem like it was made in house, more like it was out of a freezer box. It didn't even come with butter, just a gross fake tasting margarine. And the syrup was even more gross and fake tasting.

My husband ordered biscuits and gravy. The biscuits, too, seemed of the freezer variety. The gravy was cold and tasteless. The only partially saving grace were the sausage patties, but even those weren't fantastic.

I really want to like this place, because it supports local farms. But we left just perplexed at how this could possibly be the best breakfast in Austin!

• Pros: Atmosphere, locally raised food
• Cons: Horrible biscuits and gravy

03/20/09

Quaint Old Austin

by dave_perryman

My wife and I eat here every time that we come back to Austin. We don't do the other locations because this is the original and the other outposts (except South Congress?) don't seem to be the same. I haven't been here at 2:00 AM in years, but the food is always fresh and often creative in the mornings. You have to be able to appreciate the ambiance, or the lack of personal space and the parking can be a distraction.

• Pros: food, food, and the food
• Cons: parking (but get over it)