Snack Bar - 1224 S Congress, Austin, TX 78704

I grabbed a Living Social deal here; $15 for $30 worth of food, and Quani C., Yolanda G. and I checked it out for lunch one day.

The staff was very nice and helpful on the way in, seating us on the patio, but our waitress, although nice and completely educated on the menu, wasn't quite attentive enough.  Yolanda wanted some ketchup with her meal but never got it, and we had to wait a while longer for the check than we wanted to.

I got the SoCo Benny (spinach, salmon, Hollandaise sauce and poached eggs on two buttermilk waffles), which was decent.  Honestly, though, the bites that I couldn't drown in Hollandaise sauce weren't very good, and my eggs were overcooked.  I expect poached eggs to have runny yolks, but these yolks fell asleep at the starting line.

Quani got the Medi Frittata (baked eggs with shrimp, feta and roasted red pepper with mixed greens and homemade lavash).  I tried a bit and thought it tasted pretty good.  It had a nice kick.  I actually don't remember tasting any shrimp, though.

Yolanda got the Bocadillo sammich (grilled squash, zucchini, mushroom, onion, halloumi, and Moroccan sweet-savory spread on toasted baguette, with a side of veggie fries).  I didn't try the sammich, but I did have a veggie fry.  It didn't have much taste at all.

We all enjoyed our food enough, and I think we all agreed on a three-star rating.  The traffic noise from Congress was hard to hear over, but that's obviously not Snack Bar's fault.

I think Snack Bar's main problem is what a lot of other people have mentioned in their reviews:  The fact that Snack Bar concentrates on so many different types of cuisine means that they'll never excel in any one cuisine.  Every restaurant I've ever been to that follows this practice excels only in mediocrity, so I was a bit worried going in.  I don't regret having bought the Living Social deal, but I don't see myself going back to Snack Bar.