Friday, March 11, 2011

Lion and Rose - 701 S Capital of Texas Hwy, Austin, TX 78749

I have to tell you that I was frustrated before even setting foot in the place.  This is because Google Maps steered me completely wrong, and I ended up three miles north of Lion and Rose in some residential neighborhood.  Thanks, Google Maps!  How very helpful of you!  I finally found the correct location on Google Maps as I was parked in the incorrect neighborhood, but as I set out again, my car beeped to tell me I was low on gas.  I looked down and saw the gas needle was below the red danger line.  Below E.  Since this restaurant and I were on 360, I figured I would run completely out of gas and have to call a tow truck, being that there just aren't really any gas stations on 360.  Luckily, I was only a couple of miles away from Bee Caves Rd (and that's where the restaurant is, by the way), and I thankfully found a gas station right there at the intersection.  No turn in for the gas station, of course, so I had to go up and make a u-turn.  Oh-so convenient.

So I finally found the place and was only a few minutes late for my group brunch.  The waitress came over right away and got me some coffee, which I desperately needed.  The coffee didn't taste that great.  I then ordered the Eggs Newcastle, which is Eggs Benedict with crab cakes instead of Canadian bacon/ham.  It started out good, but then I found green peppers in the crab cakes.  I admit I've never been to Britain, but putting green peppers in crab cakes doesn't sound very British to me.  Is that a normal crab cake ingredient?  I was very disappointed with that.  After removing all traces of green pepper, I finally ate my meal.  It was pretty good for what it was, but I think I simply don't like crab cakes as well as I thought I did.  I can't fault Lion and Rose for that.  The poached eggs were awesome, actually.  The breakfast potatoes (home potatoes) that came with it were not very good.  They were the first things on the plate that I tried, and they were cold already.  The strawberries that came with it were very good, so at least there was that.  The gal sitting next to me got the Fish & Chips with mac and cheese (made with a Guinness cheese sauce), and that looked excellent.

It took a while to get my check.  I don't completely blame Lion and Rose for that since we had two tables of about ten people each, but it seemed the waitress ignored my table for a good 15 minutes while she tended to the other table.

The only reason I wanted my check at that early point was because the socially inept moron sitting on my other side was annoying the hell out of me.  I'd met him one night at J Black's and mentioned that I'd taken the bus there, so at Lion and Rose he asked me no less than three times if I took the bus to that location.  I answered no twice and finally got so annoyed that I didn't answer him the third time and tried to involve myself in some other conversation.  The guy didn't seem to notice that I had stopped paying attention to him, as he started asking me when I'm buying a new house.  Um, what?  I didn't remember mentioning anything about buying a new house at any point, seeing as how I'm not in the market for a house right now.  Another table mate then asked if he was in real estate, to which he obviously replied yes, so then he started trying to sell her his services.  Oh okay, so you come to a strictly social brunch and start plugging your real estate business to people who couldn't care less?  Not cool.  He later talked in length and detail to anyone within ear shot about the food poisoning he'd had a couple of weeks earlier.    Where is the waitress with my bill?!  Okay, okay, I'm getting way off topic.

The waitresses seemed nice enough, and the food was decent.  I do want to go back and try the Fish & Chips with mac and cheese.  It really did look and smell wonderful.  The English Chips with Guinness Cheese and Bacon Dip sounds good, too.  I came close to ordering Scotch Eggs.  I've heard those are good.  Lion and Rose has a lot to choose from on their lunch/dinner menu, but the brunch menu is not nearly as impressive.

And like I alluded to earlier, don't trust the Google Maps location you see here.  Google Maps either puts the place in the Wild Basin Wilderness Park, or further north in a residential neighborhood off of Waymaker Way.  Lion and Rose is located in the Village at West Lake, which is in the SE quadrant of 360 and Bee Caves Rd (2244).  Turn right at the first light once you get into that quadrant.

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