The Driskill Grill
Austin, TX 78701
Phone: (512) 474-5911
Fax: (512) 391-7222
09/01/2007 Posted by graymage
We found it good, but not living up to its reputation. The nine course tasting menu was varied, ranging from superb (lamb with mint tapioca) to excellent (smoked tuna and the beef tartare dishes) to strange and awful - the chorizo-covered shrimp not only seemed out of place, but was puzzling, as the chorizo totally overpowered the shrimp, and to add injury to insult the shrimp was very overcooked. Worst of all, the Driskill seems to take the "tasting" part of the tasting menu literally, as each course was minuscule, barely a bite or two. We were barely full after dessert. On the plus side, the chef was kind enough to send out a complimentary tenth course of short ribs, without which we would have gone home hungry, a sorry state of affairs when the nine course tasting menu for two costs $400. The wine pairings also seemed not quite right at times... I'm not a big wine connoisseur, but at Zoot or Wink I'm usually impressed by how well the wines they picked go with the courses... here not so much. The atmosphere was good, excepting the fire alarms going off in the middle of dinner, which I presume is not normal. While there was no siren it was sort of distracting to have the strobes blinking; it took many minutes to get them turned off. The service was impeccable, though impersonal. This is a plus or minus, depending on whether you like your servers to have personality or not. We noticed some of the other servers seemed much more gregarious, so it was probably just our server as opposed to restaurant policy. There was one 15 minute period between courses in which we were foodless, but that may have been related to the fire alarm. All in all, a mixed bag. If you go, I'd recommend ordering something you know is good, as opposed to gambling on the tasting menu.
Pros: Ambiance, service, some dishes
Cons: Parking
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