Nice restaurant to celebrate a birthday

Celebrating a birthday in Austin. Where is a nice, romantic, great food restaurant? Nothing overly fancy. Interested more in atmosphere and quality than we are fluff and being seen.

Nice restaurant to celebrate a birthday

there are many places for great food - but, I think Shoreline Grill is one of the more Romantic places with good food. Others that I would recommend are too noisy to be considered romantic

Wink is good too, a bit louder than Shoreline but still romantic

Nice restaurant to celebrate a birthday

The Driskill Grill has great atmosphere and food. It%26#39;s probably the fanciest restaurant in Austin but it isn%26#39;t pretentious at all. No place in Austin is overly fancy. You can find their menu online. We recently did the six course tasting paired with wine and it was nothing short of fantastic.

Happy Birthday!!

Vespaio is one of our favorites for celebrating bdays, etc. It%26#39;s great italian food, good atmosphere, but you don%26#39;t have to get all dressed up to go, you%26#39;ll be fine in jeans and a nice shirt (although you are not overly dressed if you WANT to dress up) It%26#39;s a small place though, so you may want to go early, or call and make a reservation if they allow that.

10best.com/Austin/…

No one has recommended Jeffery%26#39;s? That%26#39;s interesting... is it too fancy? Not good anymore? Too expensive to recommend?

The hubby and I (in the pre-kid ddays) used to enjoy it; I thought it was romantic. But that%26#39;s been a dozen years or so.

www.jeffreysofaustin.com/index.php…

Consider Carmelo%26#39;s on 5th, very romantic and excellent service. Nice valet parking, too!

Shoreline Grill has good food but I%26#39;ve had poor service there and that%26#39;s not an uncommon complaint for them.

Jeffrey%26#39;s is okay - nothing special these days. Good service.

Hudson%26#39;s on the Bend scores high marks for food AND service. Great atmosphere! Only downside is it%26#39;s 15 miles out of town near Lakeway on 620. Go, eat, get back in car and drive back to town.

Mixed reviews on Driskill Grill. But be prepared to pay dearly for your seat at the table.

Castle Hill is another thought. Great value, and pleasant atmosphere.

Do you like Mexican food? Fonda San Miguel is very good interior Mexican food and the atmosphere is great. It%26#39;s just about 10 minutes north of downtown. Here%26#39;s the website:

http://www.fondasanmiguel.com/

others have made some good recommendations also... there are too many places to name - you should decide what kind of food you want to eat and we can help more.

I do need to make a few comments though:

Vespaio = decent food but way too busy and loud to be romantic

Carmelo%26#39;s = not very good Italian food at all - others are much better

Howdy! I%26#39;ve been absent awhile from the forums and derelict in my duty, so time for me to chime in again.

Someone already stole my thunder, though! But I think you are asking for a different type of restaurant than most people are recommending. I join in recommending the Castle Hill Cafe. It is not cheap, but it is much cheaper than some of the other restaurants mentioned here already, and the food and service are an excellent value. You can look at the menu at their webpage:

http://www.castlehillcafe.com/

You can make a full meal out of two or three of the appetizers. Don%26#39;t miss the fried brie or the mushroom and liver pate plates! There%26#39;s an ample wine section as well.

Good luck and happy birthday!

The absolute best meals I%26#39;ve had in Austin have been at Wink. Even though we like trying new places, I am making my husband take me back there for my birthday.

Also, for a really special occasion, I can%26#39;t recommend Biga on the Banks in San Antonio enough. Ask for Table #1.

Other great special occasion places are Jeffrey%26#39;s and Hudson%26#39;s on the Bend.

Thanks to my husband%26#39;s job, we are always taking people out to dinner. Our two favorites for romantic or special occasions:

Hudson%26#39;s on the Bend. Rustic yet classy. Unique meat dishes (rattlesnake, anoyone?) well prepared. A drive out of town but well worth it.

Jeffrey%26#39;s. Was worried when former chef left, but still very good and worth a repeat visit, although not as killer as before. The wine pairings are incredible. Fantastic wine list. Yet not as unique as Hudson%26#39;s.

Those are our top favorites. Comments about the rest:

Shoreline Grill. Very nice, but the prices shot up while the service quality went down. Outside tables romantic.

Vespaio. Good but noisy.

Fonda San Miguel. A favorite for visitors, but also noisy and not romantic.

Castle Hill. Great appetizers, but we are getting tired of tasting chiles in everything, even our caesar salad dressing.

Wink. Rude service. Tiny overpriced portions. For a good laugh, order their cheese plate.

Fino. New in the Granite Cafe space. We like this place, but usually suffer sticker shock after ordering a bunch of ';small plates.'; (Yet we still return!)

Aquarelle. Notice that no one has mentioned this place, but not surprised why. Too many reasons to list.

Chez Nous. Classic French bistro. Back to being very good after long dark period when chef left.

Bon apetit!