NO VA Kitchen & Bar

I visited during a Friday night and I was impressed by the service and food. There is some nice outdoor seating overlooking Rainey street but there is also a few tables inside as well as a private dining area – enough to fit 10 or so people.
The hostess was quick in getting us a table on a busy night. I personally enjoyed the drink I ordered – get the Paloma if you like grapefruit juice. Appetizers were delicious as well – personal recommendations include the fried cauliflower and the hand-​cut fries. I would avoid the beignets. Coming from Baton Rouge, their beignets aren’t the traditional kind that are large, fluffy and square with ample coating of sugar. Instead, they are bite-​sized with a somewhat gooey center and chocolate dipping sauce on the side.
Not sure why the owners named it «no va» as I believe it means «don’t go». On the contrary, it’s a place I’d likely return to try something new from their cocktail menu.

I don’t like leaving negative reviews however I find it necessary to do so in this case. My boyfriend and I ordered the burger/​fries and the roasted chicken. it took 50 minutes for the burger to arrive. It took an additional 10 minutes for the chicken to b served. The burger was ver good and the chicken was good.
When our server cleared our plates, he asked us if we wanted dessert. We said no, that we just wanted the check. He said he would get it and come right back. 15 minutes later he was still not back. When I got up and found him (he was talking to another employee) he said «oh, you want the check. Ok I’ll get it for u».
We spent 15 minutes eating and almost 1 ¼ hrs waiting.
It is EXTREMELY noisy so we had a very difficult time having a conversation during our long wait. There are many wonderful restaurants in Austin with excellent food. There is no reason to put up with this type of service and atmosphere.

5 stars because the beef short ribs are THAT good. Otherwise, good ambiance, and good service.

This was my first time to visit this restaurant. It wasn’t actually our first choice for dinner but we stumbled in. We ordered two Dutch Mules to start. Pretty decent drinks. They were very refreshing. Our server was very helpful guiding us through the menu. She went above & beyond to make sure our experience was great. The food was good but she made the experience. If you go, get the short rib & be sure to ask for Cristen!

I’d say five stars for service, three stars for food.
My friends and I arrived on a Sunday night, so the restaurant was not crowded at all. Despite this, they put us upstairs (where no one else was eating???), but our hostess was more than happy to oblige when we requested to change tables to the more populated bar area downstairs.
Our server was friendly, helpful, and attentive — perhaps the other reviewers came on a bad day.
The food, however, while decent, didn’t make me want to come back. I had the gnocchi, which looked promising (salsa verde, cotija, cilantro, pickled onion), but the consistency was very mushy. My friend pointed out that it tasted like corn mash, and I’m inclined to agree. The taste was alright, but the texture was just weird.
I also sampled their Bixby drink. A bit too heavy on the grapefruit, but it was strong (points!).
Overall: Good if you’re hungry and in a fix, but there are better places on Rainey, like Bangers (fantastic outdoor space, live band, and scrumptious smelling sausages and poutine).

Under normal circumstances I try to give the benefit of the doubt to people that are serving me at restaurants, however, the atrocious service I received at No Va was the worst I’ve had in the city. I could go into a laundry list of why it was bad, basically every aspect of the meal — time before being acknowledge, to getting my order right, to the tables all around us being not being bussed for the duration of our meal, to getting the check right, went wrong … On a slow night.
Also I hate to leave a review on just service so let’s get to the food. The food was one notch below decent. Ordered cauliflower which was oversalted (didn’t finish it), salmon ceviche (a sold C– didn’t finish it), Mac and cheese (B), and the beef short rib which was the best dish we were served. However the short rib wasn’t good enough to match the $ 29.00 price tag. In all, for the price point there are plenty of better restaurants all around in this city to enjoy. Take your business elsewhere.

Truly terrible service here the other night. Took 10 minutes to even be greeted, drinks took another 15 minutes for just wine and beer, and then the server took our order without writing anything down. This is a pet peeve of mine from the days of waiting tables myself because you’re bound to miss something. He even came back to ask again if we wanted mac and cheese (yes we had ordered that), and then still forgot.
The cauliflower was far too salty, and when the Mac and cheese took another 20 min to come after the rest of our food (with it never having been ordered), they offered to give us a free dessert, then basically reneged on this when the bill came. Not to mention they charged us the wrong amount, which we had to then correct.
All in all, the food was just decent, but the way the manager handled the service issues was less than professional. She even had the audacity to disagree about the final bill when our server charged our card incorrectly. We won’t be back.

NO VA was just what I needed after exploring the bars on Rainey Street on a little solo Sunday-​Funday. Because I’d done nothing but eat BBQ and tacos and drink for several days, I unfortunately didn’t order the Sunday dinner option (meatloaf) or mac and cheese, which both sounded amazing. But I had a lovely, fresh kale salad with goat cheese sitting at the bar with a glass of red and a great conversation with the bartender about Brooklyn vs. Austin. NO VA seems like a great spot for a date night with the sparse, tranquil interior and multi-​level seating options — I’d love to go back for more of the menu one day!

Food — Excellent quality simple preparations. Gotta love that. Fair price if maybe $ 2 high. But again, really tasty. Roast chicken was top notch.
Service — Not sure how to put this. Weak and lame. This girl was either new to being a server or just a very meek person… probably both. Just not a great experience from a service perspective.
Cool bar area — If I come back, I’d hang at the bar for sure and grab a snack there. Skip the «dining room».
BTW — 3 of the 5 tables up there had completely stumbling drunk patrons at them. Two 2-​tops and a 4-​top that I watched try to walk out and at least one person were beyond wasted. Dropping purse, leaning sideways etc. Sweet.

No Va is easily one of my favorite restaurants in Austin. The food is delicious and the location is perfect.
Food: everything was fantastic
1. Kale salad — perfectly dressed fresh kale salad wonderful blended with delicious sweet potatoes
2. Atlantic salmon entrée: this might be the best salmon I’ve ever had. It was cooked to perfection, and briefly soaked in grapefruit juice to give it a wonderful texture. The best part of this dish is the butternut squash risotto — it’s sublime. If you don’t like salmon, you should still ask if you can order a side of this risotto
3. Doughnuts: the doughnuts were served fresh and hot. The best part is the delicious lavender dipping sauce! It comes with 5 small doughnut holes, which was the perfect amount to share with my dinner companion
Environment:
I love Rainey Street, and No Va is centrally located in this amazing neighborhood. There’s wonderful outdoor seating that’s very well lit. We also lucked out by being able to listen to the live music being performed at Blackheart.

Such a fantastic place!
Location: on Rainey street in an old house. The weather was perfect so we sat outside.
Food: amazing! We had the salmon ceviche, short ribs, and salmon with risotto — all clearly marked gluten free on the menu and all WONDERFUL!
Drinks: get a Dutch Mule or Palomo
Staff: everyone was so nice and attentive
We will definitely be back on our next trip to Austin!

Was visiting family this weekend and looking for a new spot in Austin to eat. Thanks to my fellow Unilocalers NO VA came up on the list.
It was a quaint and cute place on Rainey. It sat in the middle of all the bars and nightlife. I felt like I was people watching on fraternity row with all the different restaurants and bars made from old bungalow houses.
The food was delicious. We tried the pork belly mac and cheese, meatballs (can’t remember the name now), Brussels sprouts, and salmon ceviche. Yum! They were all full of flavor, the quality and presentation of food was great.
Definitely a happening spot in a bustling part of town.

NO VA, the quietly not so hidden gem on Rainey Street. I mean it’s right there smack dab on Rainey but do I see crowds looming around the building… no (which is a good thing).
Take advantage of their Sunday Supper special ($ 30/​person). All their dishes are rich which will guarantee that you walk out full. I would say my favorite dish was the whipped potatoes, rich and creamy (that’s all you need in life).
Interior décor is spot on. Great for dates and small groups.

Like they all say you pay for what you get. This place was pricey but it was worth it. I came here on a Saturday, which was easy to grab a table. We sat outside under a tree with the moonlight shining upon us, which was cute. The ambience was on point for a cozy, comfortable dinner for two. We started off with their divine pear salad, soooo good! Then for the main course, both got the roasted chicken. The chicken was no joke, it was moist and tender with wild rice and mushrooms. All in all, definitely recommend this place! De-​licsss! BTW we got 2 drinks which I don’t remember their names.

I have been wanting to try this place for quite some time. It’s a lovely 2-​story house on Rainey Street. We sat outside in the upstairs patio for dinner.
NOVA has an extensive drink menu. The wine and beer list though is just ok. Lots of mediocre choices, thrown in with the typical high-​end champagnes or wines.
The food is where it is at! NoVa has interesting and wonderful dishes and a nice late night menu.
We had the NoVa Mac N Cheese. This is a wonderful dish with cheddar, local noodles, jalapeños and pork belly. So fantastic!
We also had the fried cauliflower, also fantastic!!!
After those dishes we were so full we had to turn in our forks! We will be back another time to try main courses!

My friend talked me into trying this place out. Despite trying out of peer pressure I really enjoyed myself. I went on a Thursday and they had some great live music which made the experience that much better. As far as food, I loved my friends mac and cheese. That was the winner of the table, and will be what I order next time. I had the gnocchi with pork belly and it was a big potion size. My drink was the best, check out my tip for the name and how to order.

With great drink/​food deals and a beautiful patio, NOVA is one of my favorite happy hours in Austin. Happy hour is from 6−7pm Tuesday through Saturday. I wish it were longer than 1 hour, but at least it doesn’t start at an unreasonably difficult time to get to like 4pm.
Happy hour is $ 2 off beer and cocktails, $ 6 tap cocktails, and $ 6 glasses of wine. I ordered the Lo’Daddy cocktail with rye whiskey, bacon bitters, maple syrup, and a cherry. It’s as delicious as it sounds! The other draft cocktails include a white sangria, moscow mule, and tequila/​apple drink and I want to try them all.
We came to NOVA on a Tuesday, which is Taco Tuesday of course. They offer 2 tacos for $ 6 and change the tacos each week. When I came I ordered the corn taco and pork mole taco. Both were good, but my favorite was the corn taco because it had a creamy aoli sauce.
And it gets better because they also offer $ 1 bar bites during happy hour. We ordered the brussel sprouts, meat balls, and roasted cauliflower. They were all very tasty and nice portions for only $ 1!
I highly recommend visiting NOVA on your next visit to Rainey St, espeically during their happy hour!

I came here a few weeks ago with a friend and we had a great time in a classy cool atmosphere with nice service.
We ordered their Kale salad, Chicken Confit taco, Pork Mole taco and the
Mac N Cheese with Pork Belly. The kale salad was great as were the tacos. The mac n cheese was solid. The best part of it was the pork belly. It was crispy yet soft, while also being smokey yet smooth. Well done.
For drinks I got the Old Mick and my friend got their sangria. Mine was tasty and my friend enjoyed her drink too.
I would definitely return.

The Mac and cheese alone would have made my trip to Texas worthwhile. It’s on the bar menu (look in the back of the spirits book), but you can still order it with table service. I added bacon, a friend added chicken confit, and we were both in heaven.
Cocktails were also excellent. I had a cucumber one and a lemon one (both of whose names escape me), and both were great — although if you’re only in the market for one, get the cucumber one.

This was just one of those cool places to go to dinner with your wife. Or well maybe my wife-​regardless we snuck in here on a cold day, we were sat immediately as we walked in with reservations.
We ordered a couple of starters and then two entrees. There was a mix up with one salad we ordered and the manager and runner that brought our food both came to our table to advise of the mistake, corrected it and took care of us. Definitely style points for this place, I have not ever had that experience from staff. Way to go!
After dinner we sat in the bar area downstairs, like I said it was a cold day. Not an Austin cold, but like really 30 degrees cold. Anyhow we sat by the fireplace just enjoying our time. Highly recommend this place, which nonetheless we discovered through Unilocal.
Cheers