Eastside Cafe

This place is a rare treat. I’ve yet to be disappointed with any dish I’ve tried from the menu. Alma was our server tonight & did a fantastic job (the service here is usually dependable & expedient).
My friend ordered the meatloaf, and I had the panko/​pecan chicken, topped with gravy with a little kick to it. Our salads were brought out almost immediately, and we didn’t have to wait long for our delicious & freshly-​prepared main dishes. Alma continuously checked on us to make sure all was ok (it was).
Our white wines were perfect, and then Alma gifted us with a glass of chardonnay, which was a perfect end to the meal, pairing well with our chocolate dessert. We talked for a little while & never felt rushed to get out of the way. It was an extremely pleasant experience. It was my friend’s first time at Eastside, and I am sure she will go back.

For tonight’s episode of adventures in mediocrity, we’ll travel to the Eastside Café. Enjoy the quaint atmosphere and pleasant service. As you peer over the menu, envision their backyard garden of herbs and vegetables, eagerly waiting to be plucked and put on your plate. Then, order your food and marvel at the extent to which you are underwhelmed.
Seriously, how is anyone giving this place 5 stars? The food isn’t bad. In fact, every last bite of it was acceptably good. But is that really where the bar is set for Austin? I hope not.
Eating at Eastside Café was like being invited to a lovely dinner at a friend’s house. Only the friend doesn’t have particularly incredible culinary skills and at the end you get to pay them a pretty penny for your meal.
I just needed more. I expected more, Austin, Texas.

The food here is absolutely delightful. My man and I went here for brunch on a Sunday on a quick trip to Austin. I had the chicken club and my man had the enchiladas. Both dishes were very well prepared and had excellent flavor. We would definitely come back!

So I returned to east side café after years had passed since my last visit. I had fond memories of this restaurant so my expectations were pretty high! They take reservations, which is always a plus. We were sat right away, but the catch is that we were sat in this back section of the restaurant. It’s a separate «garden room» which has absolutely no character at all– dim lighting and some salsa music playing. It took our server about 10 – 15 minutes to come to our table to get our drink orders. She slightly made up for this by bringing out some jalapeño cornbread and butter. It was warm and delicious!
I ordered the salmon and shrimp cakes over a bed of green and my brother ordered catfish and Mac and cheese. I enjoyed the salmon and shrimp cakes, but the consistency was a bit too mushy for my liking. I feel that they could have been grilled for maybe a couple more minutes to have more of a toasted consistency. The catfish was just bland in my opinion, but I have pretty high seafood standards considering I grew up on the coast.
All in all, I really enjoyed my plate. The service could have been WAY better. The restaurant was clearly understaffed and it was evident by the lack of attention given to us by our server. The atmosphere is cozy and unique, unless you sit in the garden room. Then it’s nothing special to write home about. In fact, it feels sort of stale and secluded. I’ll probably be back here to try another plate, but I’m not in a hurry.

4 stars for service, but 2 stars for food. Most other reviewers rave about the food at Eastside, but everything we ordered just seemed to lack something.
We started with the beet salad. The salad was small for $ 7.50, there was very little cheese on it, and the beets didn’t seem fresh roasted. Worst of all, there was such a scant amount of dressing that it left us wanting. The beets really needed a little acid from the dressing to bring them to life.
I had the pulled pork goat cheese enchiladas. They arrived with black beans and rice. Again, all three items were lacking something. The enchiladas had a decent amount of meat but limited cheese. The green sauce was okay, but it didn’t have any zip to it. The beans and rice were both bland. None of the items had any complexity.
My MIL ordered the shrimp tacos from the daily specials. She enjoyed the tacos, but thought that they were missing a little something. She agreed that the beans & rice were blah.
My hubby ordered the chicken club. He said his fries were the best thing on the plate. While the sandwich had poblano a on it, he said it was lacking overall. The aioli (or whatever the sauce was) was oily and bland.
We were really excited to try Eastside, but we were left wanting. There wasn’t anything that made us want to come back.

For real though… amazing! The future hubs and I were looking for a new place to try out before seeing Book of Mormon a few weeks back. After mulling over a couple of restaurants, Eastside Café won. The restaurant itself is really warm and inviting. We ordered the Baked Brie & Apple Chutney for appetizer — SO good! I’m obsessed with Brie, so that was a quick win. The only thing I would change is it’s served with homemade bread, which is delicious, but a little heavy with the Brie as a starter. For my entrée, I ordered the Artichoke Manicotti which I thought was going to be extremely rich but was perfect. The other half is easy to please and ordered the Chicken Club Sandwich and fries. Really tasty with a healthy serving of bacon. All in all we had a fantastic experience and can’t wait for another excuse to go back!
P. s. Order a Lemosa to drink — frozen lemonade, sparkling wine & raspberry purée — a fancy girl’s dream!

2 stars for the food and 4 for atmosphere and staff. This place reminds me of that woman you have been flirting with and finally get a date to only find she is shallow or mean spirited. I had been trying to come here for a while as I heard good things and liked the homey atmosphere here. The staff were all friendly so I really wanted to like this place. I had the Rosemary pork tenderloin and beet salad. While it can be difficult to cook pork right (I’ve had a lot of dry pork chops in this city) and this was tender, it was way too salty. I’m not sure why it was that salty so this was unfortunate. The beet salad would have been a hit if it was either fresh roasted beets or pickled beets but the version I got seemed like they were canned. Besides that the service was great and the back room light and open. Maybe I might try again and see if it was just a bad day.

Food: ⁵⁄₅
Service: ⁴⁄₅
Atmosphere: ⁵⁄₅
Probably one of my new favorite places in Austin. Located on Manor Rd on the east side of town, I passed by it accidentally on account of it being an adorable little house. The atmosphere of the place was perfectly comfortable and homey. Well… it’s a house.
Anyway, this place has to be my favorite brunch spot in in town. Simple, yet wonderful classic brunch options. To start off, we got the Baked Brie with Apple Chutney. Let me tell ya, I love brie, and this dish is the epitome of brie. Must try. For the main course, I got the quintessential Salmon Eggs Benedict. Simple and no fuss, delicious. My friend got a very nice looking Apple Almond Belgian Waffle, which I didn’t get to try because my food was distracting.
Until I find someplace better in Austin, I think this’ll be my first recommendation, especially for brunch. ⁵⁄₅

My favorite restaurant. Absolutely the best. I had the artichoke manicotti and hubby had the chicken enchiladas. We were both please. My second time here, his first. Worth strip to Austin.

5 stars for impressing my folks so much that they are still talking about our brunch!
Great service, excellent thoughtful food, pristine atmosphere, edible flowers on every dish, vegetable garden, chicken coop. Just some of the things that sealed the 5 star deal for us.

Eastside Café is Elaine Martin’s restaurant of 27 years. On the same property as Elaine’s (Martin’s pie shop), the two are a match made in heaven. Eastside Café is situated inside an old reclaimed Austin house, where you dine in each of the many rooms of the home. There is a garden on the property where Elaine and her team harvest local produce and edible flowers for their dishes, creating this beautiful space where garden to table come together in a serendipitous way.
Eastside Café is perfect for brunch, lunch, and dinner with rotating chef’s specials daily.
Eastside Café features rotating chef’s specials daily. We ordered the «made from scratch» jalapeño cornbread, split the brie and apple chutney, shrimp tacos, and the Classic grilled meatloaf with Shiner Bock beer tomato sauce. And order the acorn squash, or you’re missing out! The portions were hearty, the food was flavorful and comforting.
– Dine With Shayda Review

I was in Austin last night and had dinner with my sister & brother-​in-​law. They are both die hard foodies and mentioned they wanted to try Eastside Café with me. It’s in a quaint little house in East Austin, and the food is American comfort food. We had a phenomenal meal and shared our entrees almost family-​style so we could try other entrees on the menu.
Highlights: EVERYTHING! I had the house salad with Dijon vinegarette, cornmeal muffins, and my entrée was Crab Cake Stuffed Shrimp and garlic mashed potatoes. Perfect portion size, and very flavorful from start to finish. Come hungry!
Lowlights: Parking is tight. No complaints on the food!
Tip: Make a reservation! Even on a Wednesday night, it is packed!

We randomly popped in here to avoid traffic driving home one evening, and it was really great. Had a nice veggie crêpe filled with spinach. It was very quiet, as we were eating basically a blue plate special, and I appreciate how much parking is available. I think this is an adorable brunch spot, as one of the few craftsman-​style homes I’ve seen.

Everybody else seemed to like this American farm to fork fable. It left me cold. Cramped and overpriced it was. Don’t go near the gringo enchiladas. Kind of like grandma’s place if you can remember those bland pork loins and tasteless buttermilk pie. Oh, a kind efficient server
So, either everyone was too polite to say anything or they really enjoyed it. I doubt it.

The exterior of this place is so unassuming. Looks like any old Austin house around the neighborhood. The interior was basic and simple. The menu was easy to read and I enjoyed that they had lots of vegetarian and gluten free options for my friends. Our server was really nice and knew I was hungry because the kitchen made a mistake and she gave me the extra food. Major props for that.
The dishes made my taste buds dance with joy. The items on the menu just like the exterior of the restaurant were all so unassuming. But man they packed a nice punch of flavor and the portions were perfect in my opinion. The food was fairly priced for what you got.
Plating was spot on and charming. I left this place feeling very satisfied and happy I came. I was also having a really good day so maybe this review is a little biased.
Parking lot is a little weird but whatever, what can you do about it. The bathrooms is the reason why this place only gets 4 stars and not 5. I did not enjoy them at all. Tiny, and cramped, and the water smelled weird.

Manager/​hostess or whoever she was is a snob. She was rude and was not welcoming. My boyfriend parked perpendicular when it was supposed to be parallel. Instead of politely asking him to repark she was snotty about it.
Anyway, our waitress quickly changed our mood with her attentive/​friendly service. The jalapeño cornbread snack was warm and delicious. As an appetizer, we ordered the baked Brie with apple chutney on yeast rolls. IT WAS BOMB!!! I got a Bellini as well, and it was very good. For my entrée I got the grilled chicken club sandwich with fries. It was excellent as well! The grilled chicken was sort of like a fresh chicken patty. It was very well seasoned and their fries are my favorite type — crispy, not to thick/​thin. My boyfriend got a blueberry blintze and some sort of egg dish. (Sorry wasn’t paying attention to his food, because I was inhaling/​drooling over mine.)
Absolutely great service, excellent/​fresh food, good atmosphere. Just beware of the manager/​hostess! ;)

We were blown away at how good this place was!
As you’re driving down Manor street, keep an eye out for a cute little house where you’ll find this restaurant.
We started off with the baked brie with apple chutney as an appetizer. The rolls were toasted perfectly and I enjoyed the pairing of the warm brie with the sweetness of the apple chutney. This is definitely too much to share between 2 people. I should have stopped at 2 but I ended up eating much more than that. Don’t judge me!
I also had a Limosa. It was refreshing but a little too tart for me so I wasn’t able to finish it. And yes. the jalapeño cornbread is as good as everyone raves them to be.
My friend and I shared Smoked Salmon Ravioli and Grilled Meatloaf. We paired it with double sides of the acorn squash (we each wanted our own), mashed sweet potatoes, and chicken soup.
The soup was flavorful and comforting with big chunks of chicken. The meatloaf was the best both my friend and I had ever had. Highly highly recommend this dish. We both liked the salmon ravioli but not as much as the meatloaf. Unfortunately for me, I thought the salmon was too fishy for me.
I do agree the acorn squash is a must! The sweet mashed potatoes were yummy but I’ll try something else next time.
Service was good. I can see how uncomfortable it can be eating with other parties in the same room. The room echoes so you can hear other conversations. We came late in the day in between lunch and dinner so thankfully we had the room to ourselves.

UN-​BELIEVE-​ABLE. I’m a native Austinite and I remember these structures being there all my life. What a treat it was to step into one of these time machines and walk across real wood floors and look through big windows. The service was delightful and waitress had perfect timing during our meal and kept our glasses full.
I had the pulled pork and goat cheese, verde sauce enchiladas with black beans and brown rice. My compliments to the chef! The enchiladas were perfectly balanced and the verde sauce was not too mild but had just the right «bite» to it.
This was my first time so I had no expectations but I do now. Great atmosphere, hospitality inspired wait-​staff and food you won’t soon forget. The best part is that this wonderful dining experience was VERY affordable.

I have zero negative words for Eastside Café. I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner here last night and can easily say it was the best meal I’ve had in ages.
The restaurant itself is full of charm being an older house off Manor in which they converted. It’s fun to sit and think about who lived in the house and what the particular dining room you are in used to be. A family room, a bedroom? It’s very cool. At night they go for a more romantic setting by dimming the lights.
My friend Terri recommended we eat here and told me that I had to try their amazing garden burger. I first started by ordering a Lemosa which they make with lemonade, fresh raspberry purée, and sparkling wine for under $ 4. It was presented beautifully with a tiny red flower and was delicious.
After the waitress took our orders (we both got the garden burger), she brought out complimentary cornbread muffins with a side of softened butter. Yum! It was the perfect way to start the meal.
The burgers come with fries but you can substitute a different vegetable side if you prefer which is what my friend did. She got the garlic mashed potatoes which looked divine. I stuck with the fries and they were okay, but I think I will choose a different side next time.
The burger though? Perfection! Everything about it was on point. It came on a soft wheat bun and was served open faced with a side of lemon basil mayo. I just want to hug whoever came up with the recipe. It is truly the best veggie burger that I have ever had.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, my friend mentioned how phenomenal their buttermilk pie is too. Up until a few years ago I had never heard of buttermilk pie, and rarely do I see it on menus, so it feels like finding treasure when you go somewhere that has it. Especially when you order it here because they make it themselves, serve it warm with slices of fresh strawberries, and it’s completely out of this world.
I cannot wait to come back and would love to try their brunch. My husband is a total meat and potatoes guy and when he saw the pictures I took of the food, even he said he wants to try it. That’s a big deal coming from him! Two thumbs way up :-)

We have enjoyed brunch here at Eastside Café for either Easter or Mother’s Day ever year for the past 4 years. When we dine here I feel like we transported to a charming small town like Fredericksburg or Salado. We always arrive early to stroll through their beautiful garden. The charming restaurant is situated in a converted home. During the holidays parking can be tricky but there is street parking.
I love that their menu is seasonal and most of the ingredients are locally sourced with some coming straight from the garden. They adorn their dishes, sparking wines and mimosas with a delicate flower.
I usually order off the seasonal specials menu. This past Easter I had their beet salad which was delicious as it was beautiful. The salad went well with their sparking rose. Jesse usually gets his migas fix while we dine here and this past Easter the MIL started off with a beautiful salad and went with mushroom crepes for her entrée. The ingredients are always fresh and the straightforward (not foamy fluffy stuff but real whole food ingredients). I almost forgot their cornbread! Upon ordering they bring out their homemade corn bread served nice and warm with a side of butter.