San Antonio

(From January 2011) Across from the Alamo, dining choices are unfortunately limited to fast food, burgers, and pizza, so if you want something a bit more locally sourced, stop into the casual dining room of the new Hotel Indigo, a restoration of the old Gibbs Building on the site of the Maverick homestead. Living up to that heritage is a challenge, but the light, and lighthearted, menu and clever kitchen seem up to it. Witness hand-cut potato chips with Texas blue cheese, smoked chicken and Gulf shrimp salad served in avocado halves, and even pan dulce “imported” from Mi Tierra. As old Sam (Maverick) himself might have said, “Bring it on!” Bar.

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(From May 2012)

Dining at Bruce Auden’s outpost on the river is kind of like dining in a luxury ocean liner: the narrow balcony, the floaty fabrics, the glimmer and glint, the excellent service. But the food, we know, is far better than most seafaring kitchens can manage, and the local-food ethic is apparent in such dishes as warm spinach salad topped with quail and tender yet densely flavored Texas axis venison. Then there are the imaginative vegetarian specials, this time, a freshly made pasta with Rebecca Creek goat cheese, an English pea sauce, and tiny grilled yellow tomatoes. Bar.

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011, 1:03 pm
Jenny says:
Biga on the Banks showcases chef Bruce Auden’s signature New American cuisine. Biga’s main dining room welcomes the discerning traveler, convention-goer and downtown entertainment crowd in a relaxed upscale ambience. Floor to ceiling glass windows offer gorgeous views of the River, upstream from the hard-partying noise of the busier blocks. Menu standouts include Close-to-Bouillabaisse, fish and shellfish in tomato saffron broth; and the Eleven Spiced Axis Venison with Grilled Quail, crowned with juniper sauce. Perennial favorites Radiccio & Bibb Game Packets and Salmon Nachos get your party started, and be sure to conclude your meal with the eponymous Sticky Toffee Pudding, a little piece of English heaven.

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(From January 2011) Whether it be the sandwiches (especially the Reuben on pumpernickel, instead of the more traditional rye) or the wonderful heavy soups (white chili with chicken, beans, and cheese is a delight), Cap-pyccino’s has nailed the art of the quick, substantial American meal. Add the cool potato salad and maybe the dense chocolate cake, and there’s no way you’ll leave less than satisfied. The small booths hold only two, and even the tables are small (go elsewhere if you’ve got a big group), but for good service and good food in a little spot, this is just the place. Bar.

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(From June 2011)

As much as we enjoy the dignified and ornate dining room, we decided to forgo its swank (and more attentive) service for one of the tables on a little ledge just above the River Walk proper. The menu, though short, is studded with standouts like appetizers of Meyer lemon risotto with crab and spinach salad with duck confit, both of which are exotic and inventive. Main courses, similarly fetching, include striped Texas bass with crab and Marcona almonds and savory grilled scallops with mushrooms. Bar.

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Photograph by Michael Sohocki

(From May 2012)

Even with just two choices per course, you can eat remarkably well here, where traditional cooking methods (no motors in the kitchen, according to our waiter) meet locavore sensibility and deft imagination. Appetizers were a green salad with a poached farm egg or very crisply sautéed lamb kidneys with aioli (okay, the menu called them “offal,” not kidneys). Main courses offered a choice between startlingly tender pork loin with savory, not sweet, bread pudding and a spicy quail with a fiercely hot (temperature, not pepper) sweet potato empanada. The elegance of the setting and napery and the civilized service make this a truly classy dining room. Beer & wine.

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(From June 2012)

Silo’s chicken-fried oysters might as well anchor the menu here. Served as an appetizer or a main course, they’re never cloying, with their crisp coating, rich bacon-and-mustard-inflected hollandaise, and nest of spinach, and we never tire of them. The kitchen reached for the stars with its moist salmon but struck out with five-spice duck, which proved lamentably dry and overcooked. A dependable favorite is the shrimp with grits, which now seems to be a permanent (and welcome) feature of the menu. The subdued dining room, well tended by solicitous servers, was almost full one recent weeknight, yet there was no more noise than a pleasant background buzz of conversation. Bar.

Monday, February 15th, 2010, 10:40 am
Coral says:
Outstanding food and service! Not a cheap night, but worth EVERY penny! Dress ranged from casual to semi-formal. We recommend the Oysters and Pearls, Petit Filet Mignon, Lobster Bisque, and Coconut Cream Pie (the best I’ve ever had, by far!). Loved the optional four course meal arrangement. Come hungry, generous portions!

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(From March 2012)

Those looking for a good dinner north of 410 but south of 1604 on San Antonio’s north side will find that pickings are kind of slim, but Tost is a good bet. Our appetizers included a fine crab cake with poblano aioli and of fried slabs of tender calamari with cocktail sauce. Nicely browned scallops served on a bed of spiced corn (resembling unusually flavorful creamed corn) made a successful main course, but in the truffled  lobster risotto, good though the lobster was, the rice seemed to have been cooked far longer than was justified. Service, always amiable and responsive in the past, was curt and perfunctory this time. Bar.

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