David W.
Yelp
First stop at this location in some time and it's hard not to overweight COVID effects to it, but I'll try.
Baby A's is always a good pick for Mexican food in Austin. Is it the best? Probably not. Are there worse? Absolutely. It balances quality with price and a great atmosphere to enjoy Mexican food with groups small or large.
This one is located near the Arboretum area near the confluence of Capitol of TX Hwy (360), MoPac (1) and US-183. Not very visible from any of the major roads so you will need to know the turns or use your preferred navigation approach. That being said, it puts the location away from other establishments and so it has its own parking lot and doesn't have that feeling like you'd have if you go to a restaurant in a mall or large shopping center. Easy in and out and plenty of parking.
The restaurant is large. Sprawling indoor and outdoor seating. For COVID, limited capacity so lots of empty tables with even a 20 minute wait (advertised at 30 minutes, always over-estimate to your customers, pro tip). Good indoor atmosphere in terms of decor (kitsch or not, you can call). Very open with high ceilings, large and small tables, and more intimate areas where you don't feel you're in a large restaurant. Booths or tables, your preference.
For COVID, limited menu (one page front and back no including separate drink menu). A few items in each of the main categories (enchiladas, tacos, fajitas, mixed plates, etc). No problem finding what you like if you like this type of food. That being said, my dad got a hamburger. Because he wanted a hamburger. It looked good and he liked it. I got the nachos appetizer as a meal and wasn't disappointed. Instead of a large mound of chips with everything piled on, they were thicker chips about the size of half a crispy taco with the main ingredients on each, then a dallop of guacamole, sour cream, pico, and pile of jalapenos to flavor each. Was perfect and tasted good. I got the ground beef, they also had, chicken, fajita meat or veggie.
The service was a bit slow. My feeling was they were short staffed. In fact we were seated and after some time of nobody taking our drink order, our hostess jumped in to get us drinks...and by then we were ready to order so she took that too. Drinks came out medium to slow (maybe 5 minutes for waters and a draft beer). Later the server came flying in to introduce herself and ask if we needed anything, then got reasonably attentive service thereafter. I wouldn't deduce a star because of this and the busyness of the Friday night, but just noteworthy. I feel like anytime you go out to eat in COVID times, additional patience is cumpulsory. Everyone is working hard, no indication our server wasn't she just didn't get to us very quickly
So all in all, a good experience. I wouldn't put this at the top of my Austin Mexican food list but certainly would drop in here again if convenient. Which is about my definition for 3 stars.