Carolyn B.
Yelp
Ok, so I'm relatively new to Austin. Lived here just a couple years now. And I might be spoiled when it comes to steak. I've had some of the best steaks (at all price points) in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, LA, South America, and Europe. I just had such high hopes for what many claim to be the best steak in Austin: Eddie V's. I haven't tried that many steak joints in Austin yet, but if this is the best Austin has to offer, I'll be making my steaks at home from now on and spending my hard earned dining-out budget elsewhere.
Eddie V's is trying to present as an upscale restaurant. Servers in tuxedo vests and all that. But it just... misses the mark. The design is super dated, with wood paneling everywhere, heavy draperies, and ornate decor. It's your grandparents' kind of fancy.
On to the experience. We arrived 9 minutes late for our reservation, and it took them about an hour to seat us. Now I know sometimes you can lose your table if you're late, maybe get placed next in line or just treated as a walk-in. If that's the case, it should be communicated by the host when you check in. They didn't say anything when we checked in except "Ok, we'll call you when your table is ready!" When my husband finally got impatient and asked what was up, all they said was some tables were taking longer than expected.
Well we stuck it out and finally were seated at a tiny table shoved in a corner under a big screen TV. What kind of upscale-tuxedoed-server restaurant has big screen TVs in their dining room? We're not here to watch a football game or something. So tacky. And that thing stuck out so far from the wall, it was inches from my husband's head and he whacked his shoulder/elbow on it several times when moving around. So did the person seated behind him.
We ordered drinks: a glass of wine and a martini. They took about 25 minutes to arrive (they came after our starters). Our server said the bar was backed up. I'm just glad I wasn't trying to pair my drinks with my courses.
My wine glass was dirty with particles of some stuff stuck to the outside. Like it felt rough and scratchy every time I picked it up. Again, not upscale. The wine also tasted like it had been opened days ago. Husband's martini was good.
Our plates had visible fingerprints all over them.
The food: the Cesar Salad was a highlight. It was crisp and fresh, and the dressing a good balance of salty, fishy, slightly creamy, vinegary goodness. The potato gratin was just ok. The potatoes were diced into chunks instead of sliced & layered, which I found a little odd, but whatever. The gratin to potato ratio was a bit too high for our taste. Very rich, overly filling.
The steaks. The biggest disappointment. We both got filet minion. We make them better at home. They weren't bad, just not awesome. And when we pay a nice restaurant a lot of money to cook our steaks for us, we expect awesome. The temperature was good, the sear was good. But the seasoning was boring, they could have used more butter and herbs, and somehow their fillets were kind of dry and grainy. Not the cut-like-butter, juicy, delectableness we were anticipating.
Our server Charlie was attentive, courteous, and funny. This probably would be a 2 star review but for Charlie.
