08/07/09

Gross

by youdontknowfood

Watched them drop a piece of fish on the floor, wash it off and then serve it. Unclean, disgusting, also, is this an Asian fusion restaurant or a Mediterranean restaurant? There are plenty or great Mediterranean tuna recipes, you don't have to honey miso glaze it. If you say you are Mediterranean and a tapas bar act like it. Stop trying to be like every other crappy fusion restaurant that misses the target. The most important part of cooking is what you don't put in.

• Cons: Sanitation

03/12/09

Embarassing

by SocraticMethodMan

I went here last night, enticed by the Austin Restaurant Week Menu offering a three course meal for $35. This was a Wednesday night so we didn't expect it to be hugely busy, so where slightly disappointed to be sat on table halfway into the stairwell with every waiter and bathroom patron brushing past my jacket. Why did no one take our jackets?!? To be fair I asked to be moved, and was moved to a great table, that certainly cheered me up.

The menu is amazing. A little bit pricey, but some very interesting selections. I decided to ignore the set menu and go a la carte, the other 3 went for the menu. We began, of course, with the wine list, and started to get disappointed. A Mediterranean grill / tapas bar with 0 Spanish wines ?!? Interesting.

A wrong starter was brought out for one of us, but our great waiter left it for us on the house, which was nice. It would be generous to describe the actual food as such. A tuna tartar had an extremely bitter aftertaste that none of us where able to place, and not much else. My softshell crab with a crunchy batter turned out to be more deep fried fish finger than anything else. That's fine though, I love fish fingers. Both the ladies went for a creamy pasta dish who's name I forget, but it was rather good.

Ah, the mains. My duck was tough, my side order forgotten. My wife, who had specifically requested her r*ck of lamb to be at least medium rare due to her being pregnant was dismayed to find it rarer than the two steaks we had ordered as well, and I found myself eating lamb instead of my duck. The steaks were unimpressive cuts of meat, averagely prepared, nothing to write home about. The ladies ordered Creme Brulee for desert, and I am somewhat of an aficionado. I rarely order it in restaurants as a disappointing creme brulee makes me very sad, but I have never come across one that I didn't finish anyway. Imagine slightly runny scrambled eggs, flavoured with vanilla. Disgusting.

Overall, poor poor poor.

• Pros: Ambience
• Cons: Food

12/27/08

An Underwhelming Dining Experience

by mce777

For a "fine dining" experience, Louie's 106 is sadly lacking. While the food wasn't terrible, the service was just horrible.......servers were slow, clueless and sometimes verging on rude. Most of our food was acceptable, some of it a little bland, but even if the food had been great it would have been overshadowed by annoyingly bad service. All in all, underwhelming, and we won't be rushing back to Louie's 106.

• Pros: Location, Menu
• Cons: Service

12/19/08

Great Food, Relaxing Atmosphere, Attentive Waitstaff

by devls24

It's hard for me to believe all the recent negative reviews for this place, after experiencing Louis 106 recently and being impressed with all that they had to offer. When my father and I visited, we were instantly acknowledged and seated. Our waitress was at our table within a few minutes, giving us menus and reciting the specials. I ordered a steak, while my father ordered a fish dish, which was one of the specials. The waitress provided additional assistance in helping us choose both complimentary sides and wine for our dishes.

Our food came out within a reasonable time (15-20 min) and tasted excellent. The steak came just as ordered and the fish was prepared perfectly, too.

The atmosphere lends itself to a laissez faire attitude, with the intent of not to over serve. Given this atmosphere, it would make sense that waitstaff would take a little bit longer to come take your order and not ask you a million times if your food tastes right.

The highlight of the evening was the piano player who started at 9:30pm (on weekdays, I think). He played any requests, in addition to his set lists. The music was just right in volume, as Dad and I could still hold a conversation.

I would go back here again and again. In fact, I'm buying a gift certificate to Louis' for a rather finicky friend of mine and am willing to put it to the test. Definitely worth the drive downtown.

• Pros: Live Piano Music, Excellent & Creative Dishes, Not Over Serving
• Cons: Some may characterize service as lazy, A little on the expensive side

12/18/08

Unimpressive

by freeman5673

Wait staff miscommunicated. Ravioli was no better than what I buy at Costco. I had always heard good things about this place, too, but I doubt I will go back. For the price and the reputation, I was very disappointed.

• Pros: nice place
• Cons: food and service are disappointing

12/03/08

Incredibly rude service & management, medicore food

by wolfheart

Everyone in my downtown firm used to patronize this place, dined there frequently, took clients there, etc. Then we had a taste of the unbelievably rude service, which unfortunately starts from the top down. In planning a 40-head luncheon, we ordered some entrees to sample, sent our young, Hispanic, casually- dressed assistant administrator to pick up. One entree was wrong (restaurant's screw-up). When called, restaurant promised to replace, our colleague went back over. Upon arrival, manager insisted he pay for the replacement since he hadn't brought the "used" one back (as if they could serve it to someone else!). Although the mistake was her fault, the manager was snotty, rude, snide, and disrespectful to our employee, pointing and gesturing as if he needed to be schooled. Two followup calls from us to owner/manager Joe went unanswered. Joe was evasive and unhelpful in a face-to-face visit. Though he promised to get to the bottom of the incident and call us back, he did not. Give this joint a pass - - - there are plenty of places in downtown Austin with better food that are happy to have your business.

07/04/08

Terrible service, Unimpressive food

by jp25

I went here with a party of 10 for a graduation dinner. Everything was going fine until the waitress served my mother's plate upside down right in front of her. I wasn't really upset about this, accidents happen. When she finally brought out the replacement plate, the fish was tough and dry, probably from being cooked too quickly. From that point on, we didn't see our waitress again until the check came. The busboys cleared our entire table and we were just sitting there--no one to refill drinks, ask us if we needed anything, or offer a dessert menu. My brother had to go downstairs to speak to the manager who said he would take my mother's meal off the bill, but no one even apologized for what happened. At the prices they charge, I expect much better service. The food was okay, very rich, nothing special. I definitely would not recommend this place.

• Pros: Can't think of any
• Cons: Lack of service

07/23/07

First Rate Food Fifth Rate Service

by paki0972

My fiance and I went here on a Sat. night on the recommendation of the hotel that we were staying at. We were seated right away but it took our waitress about 5 minutes to greet us. After she finally showed up she must have taken another 5-7 mins to come back with our drinks. As usual my fiance hadn't made up her mind on what to get on the menu which turned out being a 15 min smoke break for our waitress. I exaggerate on the smoke break part but not at all the time that it took for her to get back to us to take our order. The food however made up for the lackluster service. For the appetizer we had the tuna tartar which was exceptional. For our entrees I had the flounder special which was heavenly while my fiance had the halibut which was also good, but not nearly as good as the flounder. I would go back, but perhaps next time I'll get it to take back to our room.

This downtown hot spot boasts a marriage of Mediterranean casual and continental refinement.

by Contributor

In Short
Well-heeled dot-commers rub elbows with politicos among Old World-style decor. Arrive early for prime seating, as this restaurant fills up for both lunch and dinner. Tapas are a specialty, with more than 20 varieties available. The rainbow trout amandine is bathed in lemon butter, with tender sides of sauteed vegetables and garlic potatoes. Penne pasta with sauteed chicken breast slices comes in a whole-grain mustard cream sauce and a side of julienned vegetables.

01/22/07

Great restaurant

by hm2

A few months ago my husband and I decided to give this restaurant a try. We were very pleased that we chose to do so, our experience was perfect in every respect. Our waitress was gracious and attentive, we went with her suggestion and tried the sea bass and the roasted duck. Their wine list is extensive with reasonable prices. The only complaint we had was that the music was a little loud, but as soon as we mentioned this to our server it was taken care of as well. We returned a few weeks later with some friends and again everything was fantastic. We highly recommend this restaurant to friends and will definitely be back.