Their homemade rolls are amazingly outstanding! It’s a MUST to visit the Lakeside Cafe, just to experience the rolls. They are so fresh, homemade daily, and extremely unique.

The dinner meals are tasty with generous portions. As far as pricing goes, it’s average pricing similar to a Denny’s restaurant.

The hostess and servers are happy, beautiful, and very pleasant each time I’ve visited.
So it’s a “High Five” from me to you. Go visit the Lakeside Cafe as soon as you get a chance and let me know what you think about them.

Well, Fleming’s came through for us again. Fleming’s is a prime steakhouse & wine bar. The one we dined at was in the heart of Austin, Texas. It’s truly a fine dining experience, with casual or dressy attire accepted and treated the same. I love the way they make you feel, they’ve captured the true customer value in their restaurant. Fleming’s has quite a large chain of restaurants, they’ve spread into 27 states across the USA.

I called up to make a reservation, they took my name, and asked if we’ve dined with them before. I mentioned it was our 2nd time and we couldn’t break our tradition of celebrating our anniversary again this year with them. The gal on the phone ended the conversation telling me how they look forward to seeing us soon.

As soon as we walked in the door and mentioned our reservation, the Host greeted us with a sincere “Happy Anniversary”. That was a nice touch…I don’t remember that happening last year. So our dinner started off on a great foot as she led us to our table.

All Russ and I really remembered from last year was how we were overstuffed, because we over ordered. I didn’t eat much all day, in preparation to really enjoy their cuisine to its fullness.

They start you out with a special tray of two specially prepared cheese spreads (one a brie mixture and the other Italian Gorgonzola mix) served with thinly sliced toasted garlic bread, celery sticks and radishes for decor. Ummm! That’s worth it just there.

They offer some Discovery meals that range anywhere from $75-$150 per person. What it gives you is a 4-course meal with a special paired glass of wine with each course to enhance all the flavors. We found out that the pricing is extremely reasonable for what is all included in the Discovery meals and is quite comparable to ordering specific items from the menu anyway. So if you want an adventure that excites the pallette…try a discovery dinner. I think I’ll try to talk Russ into it if we go there again next year.

This visit we decided to order their lobster tails, a salad, and a side. Russ ordered “The Wedge” salad and I had the Caesar salad, with anchovies on the side. “The Wedge” is exactly how it sounds. Imagine a large head of iceburg lettuce cut into quarters, one of the quarters is placed on a plate with garnishments around and dressing on top of it. I’ve never tried anchovies before, so I decided to cut them up and put a few in my Caesar salad. To my surprise I liked it. It gave it a little extra caesarykick.

After our salads, they brought out our special butter warmers and shortly after the lobsters and side. The waiter de-shelled the lobsters for us and carried on an enjoyable conversation too. They also served their signature bread roll alongside it. The lobster was cooked to perfection, so tender each bite just melted in your mouth.

When we neared completion of our main course, the Manager came to our table to personally acknowledge us and make sure the dinner met our expectations. He looked like he could be my brother Mark’s twin, but slightly shorter than Mark. So I felt comfortable with him right off the bat. He offered us a dessert of our choice, on the house, to acknowledge our special occassion. We tried the creme brulee. Excellent way to end the culinary experience at Fleming’s.

If you ever get a chance to go to Fleming’s in Austin, Texas, it’s a must do experience. We found out there are two Fleming’s in our local home area. We may just have to plan a special night out throughout the year and try one of them out.

Okay, I’ve just had the best “Lobster Bisque” ever, tonight. Ed & Gail took Russ and I to Finn & Porter at the Hilton here in Austin, Texas. After they all had a long day at the SXSW interactive sessions, we all met up to enjoy dinner together at this unique place. They had some really reasonably priced gourmet meals to select from. It’s a Sushi, Seafood, Steakhouse type restaurant. Every day they print up unique menu entree’s, but with some constants like the french onion soup and lobster bisque.

We chose to sit in the lounge area instead of the restaurant, because it was more of a casually relaxed setting. The ambiance was relaxing, peaceful, and yet exciting and interesting. An upscale starbucks decor, just kidding. I loved how the place just made you feel comfortable being there.

The food was definitely prepared by an extremely skilled and talented chef. The presentation of the meals alone, created the feeling of excitement and that “can’t wait” desire to eat. The unique tastes and flavors were awesomely blissful and satisfyingly enjoyable to the pallette, that’s for sure.

Russ had gourmet crab cakes (2 cakes), it was served on an oblong white plate. Each cake placed on diagnol corners with a creative streak of seafood sauce curved between the cakes. Ed & Gail ate Tasmainian King Salmon–Hong Kong Style. The greenish colored wheat noodles that the salmon was served upon seemed like a unique experience in itself.

I had the Lobster Bisque, which was worth every drop. It’s a must try, if you stop into Finn & Porter. To my surprise, there were actually a few good sized chunks of lobster in the bisque with an herb sprig in the center for the tempting presentation. It is rich, so don’t let it fool you to think you’d still be hungry after eating it. I did order a dinner salad with it and it helped ease the richness. I have to say I am satisfied and quite full with eating the bisque and salad. Okay…Russ did tempt me into sharing the creme brulee trio that was served on a long narrow oblong white dish with 3 little tiny expresso sized cups. Each cup contained a unique version of creme brulee: a traditional one, a mocha flavored one with a round brownie type cookie on top, and one that had gran marnier inside it.

I really enjoyed our dinner here. The whole experience was a relaxing pleasure.

At the end though, I felt bad for the server. When she picked up the bill, I guess when she glanced at it she didn’t see the tip noted. She agressively rushed over to us as if she was going to bite our heads off– asking if we thought the tip was included in the meal or something. Ed kindly explained to her how he added the tip into the total and figured that she’d do the calculation, since he rounded it up. He was really nonchalant about it, I was impressed. She clearly felt humiliated, once she realized what he did. One anxious tip-monger, for sure. So be sure you write in the tip clearly to avoid it happening to you. Just kidding! Whew we got out of there with our heads still attached, wasn’t sure for a moment.

Excellent place….gotta ask for “Warren” if you really want to get treated great. He was one of the best servers we’ve had so far this trip. Very accommodating and informational about the local area too.