Black Walnut Cafe

Today I had lunch with my mother in law at Black Walnut Café. I fell in love with this place as soon as I walked in. Since they have a counter you walk up to place your order at there’s a fantastic seating area right as you walk in so you don’t block the whole area while you look the menu over. I don’t know why more places don’t do this.

There’s 3 sitting areas to pick from, one near the drink and dessert station, one in a dining area and one outside on the patio. The décor is really nice inside with a warm and inviting feel. It’s great for a business lunch or something casual. Almost like a Starbucks where it’s attractive to all different types of people. Once you place your order and pay they had you a buzzer so when it goes off you go back to the counter and pick up your food.

I ordered a cup of Creamy Tomato Basil $3.50 or $6.50 for a bowl (pesto tomato basil soup with cheese tortellini). OMG this stuff is amazing!! I can’t wait till the Fall or Winter time to go back and have a big bowl of this. I loved the idea of adding cheese tortellini to the soup, I’ll be trying this next time I make it at home.

I also ordered the Asian Tune Salad $14 (Seared Ahi tuna, black sesame seeds, greed, red and Napa cabbage, carrots, mint, cilantro, snow peas, bean sprouts, peanuts, wasabi aioli, spicy Asian Dressing). I love a good seared Ahi tuna and this satisfied my craving. The salad wasn’t overwhelming and had just enough spice from the wasabi aioli.

My mother in law ordered Shrimp Mango Pasta Salad $12 (Sautéed shrimp, strawberries, mandarin oranges, kiwi, bowtie pasta, mango cilantro dressing, garlic bread). The salad was a perfect summer dish! The fresh fruit with cold shrimp and pasta was really nice on such a hot day. All of the flavors really worked well together.

If you still have room for dessert I recommend their Hummingbird Cake $7.50. My mom makes the best Hummingbird cake and I usually don’t like trying other ones because they are too dry, but this one is really good, it’s not overly sweet, but it’s rich and super moist. I love moist cakes. Black Walnut also makes gelato so I’ll be trying that on my next visit.

The portion sizes where really nice and they have a nice presentation with all of their dishes making you feel like you are in a nice restaurant. I can’t wait to try some of their other dishes. All of their ingredients are really fresh and you walk away feeling like you had a nice home cooked meal.

A special thank you to the General Manager Patty who stopped by and visited with us. They really go out of their way to make sure you are happy and feel welcomed.

Alicia’s Mexican Grille

Alicia’s Mexican Grille just opened up with in the past week or two. They currently have locations in Houston, Cypress and Spring, this is their 4th location to open. This place is larger then most of the Mexican restaurants in Katy. You walk in and there’s a warm richness about it. There’s wood paneling, granite, I almost felt like I was walking in a custom built home. Both of their green sauce and red salsa where really good. I wish the green sauce was a little thicker it seemed to be water downed.

They claim to have the best margaritas in town, but who doesn’t claim that? I have to admit they are pretty damn good. They use fresh lime juice and you can tell they are made fresh daily. There is a little sweetness to it so if you aren’t one of those people who like them a little sweeter you won’t like these. I would come back for sure to have one of these again. Margarita $8 (fresh or frozen)

I ordered the Puerto Vallarta $9.95 with beef fajita $10.95 (Cheese enchilada, taco al carbon, guacamole and pico de gallo). The beef fajita meat is really nice and tender and full of flavor. The rest was like any other restaurant, how can you really jazz up a cheese enchilada haha?

D ordered the Senor Burrito $8.95 substitute chicken fajita $9.95, substitute beef fajita $10.95. There seemed to be more meat then most of the restaurants that load them up with rice and beans. We would order this again.

I honestly can’t wait to go back and try some other dishes. This has to be one of the better Mexican restaurants to come to Katy.

The Dig Pub

I had read a lot of good reviews about The Dig Pub in Cedar Park, Texas so I was excited to give it a try.

While the inside is not that big there’s a big game room area with a stage for bands and an outdoor seating area.

We tried several of the local Austin brews before ordering food. The selection changes with what’s available so be sure to check the list online if there’s one you are looking for. Since we like to share we got the Pepperoni Hand Stretched Pizza $8, be sure you get the Spicy Ranch Dipping sauce for 25 cents more it’s really good to dip the crust in. The pizza is a really thin crust, it was ok nothing super special like others we have had. We also got Thor’s Hammer Grilled Sandwich $9 (Ham, roast beef, turkey, bacon, sliced jalapenos, pepper jack cheese, and spicy mustard with your choice of chips). The sandwich was really good, I just wish there was more filling. The jalapenos where super spicy! I picked mine off, but D ate them up through all the sniffling.

I would go back for sure they have a great knowledgeable wait staff and the food was ok.  The best thing they have is all the local brews if you wanna try something new.

Dee Dee’s Tacos & More

As we where heading back home we stopped at Dee Dee’s Tacos & More for lunch on the way out. We went inside to eat which if you have time do that otherwise you get served faster by calling it in or doing the drive through. I don’t know how many orders came after we came in and all of them got their food before us.

To top it off they ran out of queso and rice! They gave us chips on the house and offered potatoes or a double serving of refried beans. The salsa is home made and is one of the best ones I’ve ever had! It’s not watery and the spice level is just right. OMG I couldn’t stop eating this.

D ordered the Patricio’s Fajita Plate $8.99 (2 beef or chicken tacos, rice, beans & guacamole salad). I didn’t see any guacamole and there was not much meat in the taco. The chicken was seasoned nicely, but the beef didn’t have too much flavor. Both meats where tender.

I ordered the Rebecca’s Enchilada Plate $8.99 (3 enchiladas, rice, beans, 2 tortillas, sour cream and salad). I forgot to take a picture of the tortillas, but you can see them above in D’s tacos. They are home made and taste amazing! My plate was a basic enchilada nothing fancy I liked the sauce they topped it with which is also home made.

Would I go back? I think so, I like the home made ingredients and they seem to have better pricing for the breakfast tacos and individual items rather then the plates we got. Everyone there was really nice and went out of their way to make sure everything was perfect for you.

Torchy’s Tacos

We’ve been to the food truck for Torchy’s Tacos in Austin last year (click HERE to see more) and saw that they had one on the south side of Lake Travis so we thought we would stop in for a quick bite. The reviews on foursquare rave about a Trailer Park Taco and to be sure to get it “trashy”. Basically the Trailer Park $3.50 (Fried chicken, green chilies, lettuce, pico de gallo and cheese on a flour tortilla with poblano sauce. Get it "Trashy” – take off the lettuce and add queso). Overall it’s not bad, but I would order something different. 

We also got their most popular one which is the Green Chili Pork Taco $3.50 (Slow-roasted pork carnitas simmered with green chilies and topped with queso fresco, cilantro, onions and a wedge of lime. Served with tomatillo sauce on a corn tortilla.) Of course I was bummed to find out this was the same one we got in Austin. It’s really good and we love it, but we wanted to try some of their other ones. Get this one for sure!

I love this place and can’t wait to go back!

Stonehouse Wood Fire Grill - Food Truck

While we where driving around on the south side of Lake Travis we stopped at Stonehouse Wood Fire Grill’s food truck. I wanted to try the chicken kabob’s, but he said they where slammed today and he was out of them. Instead we ordered the Marinated Lamb Kabobs $9 (tender lamb skewered with onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini & tomato grilled over our wood fire. Served over cilantro rice.) You should have your choice of chimmichurri, tzatziki or house sauce for dipping, but he gave us tzatziki. The tzatziki sauce was out of this world good. The price was a little high, but it was really good.

Overall, their menu looks really good so be sure to check them out! On the sign it says to check them out on Facebook for special offers, but since we just stopped in I didn’t get to see if they had any.

Bam’s Roadhouse Grill

When you are on the north side of Lake Travis you don’t have a lot of options on places to eat which is fine with me, but it is nice to have a few choices. We stopped at Bam’s Roadhouse Grill for dinner on our way in town. They have a nice open patio area where there’s a band playing music. We opted for the small ac area (sitting at the bar) since the weather was on the warm side. I’m sorry my pictures are a little dark, but the lighting was dark so I didn’t want to have the flash on and draw attention to myself.

Since they are supposed to have the best burgers and are known for the stuffed burgers we each got one to try. D got the Hatch Green Chile Burger $8 (Half-pound hickory smoked beef stuffed with cheddar cheese, bacon and hatch green chilies) and beer-battered onion rings $5. While the onion rings where good, I don’t think that they are worth $5 since you don’t get very many. The burger was good, just really messy.

I got the Black Jack Burger $7 (Quarter pound burger with blackened seasoning, pepper jack cheese and grilled onions, served on a corn-dusted Kaiser). The menu says it comes with fries or chips and salsa which was a misprint so we had to pay an extra $4 for fries, which was totally worth it. They are well seasoned and there’s plenty for 2 people to share. I enjoyed my burger and would order it again for sure.

The Island On Lake Travis

We stayed this past weekend on Lake Travis on the Island of Lake Travis. It’s a resort style place where you can buy a condo or rent one when you go up there. We stayed in unit 3309. There’s several misleading things about the pictures on the site. For example the biggest complaint was this one:

 

 

They note on the picture that this is your sunset. INCORRECT!! This is the sunrise. The water shots they show are from when the lake levels where higher. Be sure you check before you go, because due to the Texas drought the cove sides are dry which is what our view was of. We knew that going into it, but if you’re not familiar then you will be surprise when you get there.

 

 

 

I didn’t like that once you make the reservation they call you the day of and let you know all the codes. There’s a code to get in the gate to drive onto the property then a code for your room and then another code if you want to use the spa elevator. I also did not like that they don’t give you a map of the property and I couldn’t find one online. Once we got on our floor it was a scavenger hunt to find the room since there’s no arrows pointing which way the room numbers go.

Overall the room served it’s purpose, expect the bare minimum so if you want to cook there’s 1 pot, 1 pan, etc. It’s best to bring your own things. Since we got in late, my pictures are not the greatest because we where ready to just sit down and have a cocktail. You can hear the neighbors if they make a lot of noise and there seemed to be a lot of dogs barking. I got the feeling like I was at a resort in Mexico, it just has that feel like everything is cheap and bare minimum. Honestly, if you are looking to buy a condo, skip this place unless you are only buying it for income purposes and renting it out. The location is great so it’s perfect for just renting when you just need a place to sleep since you’ll be on the lake all day. I was a little surprised the pool area wasn’t bigger, but we didn’t hang out there we just staying on our balcony. I will say that for $160/night on the weekend it is cheaper then a hotel and you get a full kitchen and washer/dryer so it’s not a bad deal.

 

Would I stay again, not in this unit, I would pick one on the lake side facing the pool. In the picture below you want to be on the far left side if you want to see the sunset.