by Ha T. on I've always heard great things about brunch at Lime so when Groupon offered a dinner for two with champagne for $35, we jumped on that with a quickness. I should have read the reviews on rateclubs because no one ever praises dinner - just brunch. I wanted to really like Lime but I was sorely disappointed. -1 We had a late reservation and it says on opentable that if you're 15 minutes late, they give up your table so I drove like a mad woman from the east bay to try to get there in time to find parking since it is in the Castro. Luckily we found parking two blocks away and even got there 10 minutes early. We wait at the front for a sign of the host/hostess until one finally appears. It seems like a busy Friday night so I didnt mind the wait. If you tell people to be on time or else we'll give away your table, you should seat them ON TIME. Our reservation was at 9:30 and we didnt get seated until 9:45pm. -1 So we sat down to music blasting in the background. We sit there and agree that it's a pretty cool atmosphere. There's only so much you can say about the cool white theme and pretty club like lighting until you're wondering where the h$ll is our waiter???? We sat for a good 20 minutes before we even were acknowledged. Yes, I understand they were busy and he said they were understaffed but it takes a quick second to say hi and tell people "I'm sorry we're very busy but I'll be right with you". -1 If we didnt have the groupon, I would have walked out and left a long time ago. We expected a real 3 course type dinner with appetizer, entree and dessert. Sorry groupon folks, it was like a 5 course appetizer mini dinner and a whole bottle of cheap champagne. The groupon dinner came with the deviled eggs, ceaser salad, grilled cheese sandwiches, mini sliders, and bite size desserts. They ran out of deviled eggs so he let us choose something else on the menu so we opted for the sea bass. NOTE that you share all the little plates so i suggest eating something before you come for dinner. The ceasar salad was drenched in dressing and too much cheese. They literally give you 5 leaves of butter lettuce. The grilled cheese was a whole sandwich cut into 6 little wedges served with a tomato soup you dip it in. The 3 mini cheeseburger sliders were just okay. A little on the greasy side and it didnt even come with fries. Good luck sharing the 3rd one. For the sea bass they gave you slivers of fish on top of lettuce cups and soy ginger sauce. I would never pay 13 bucks for that. We even ordered the oysters at $2 a pop and it came out as small as a dime. For dessert because the service took so long, our waiter was nice enough to let us choose 6 instead of 3 that came with the deal so we chose everything on the dessert menu. They were bitesize pieces - cheesecake dipped in chocolate, mini red velvet, mini carrot cake, mini coffee flavored creme brulee (which was the best), mini mint chocolate chip ice cream cookie sandwiches and mini brownie that was supposed to come with ice cream but they forget. DOH. Because the service was so poor, our waiter even comped the oysters. He was super nice so I give +1 STAR. -1 Star because we were there for 3 plus hours not because we were having a good dinner, but because it took a long time to get served all the miniature food. I wish i was Alice in Wonderland where I can eat a pill that will make me small then maybe the food would have been more filling. I was hoping the champagne would get me buzzed enough to enjoy the food but even that didn't work. Maybe brunch is better???
by Ethan L. on Trudy's to me is like an old friend. Trudy's is just plain reliable. I know that I can always get a good meal and good drinks here. I have eaten here literally hundreds of times, and I have never had a bad meal. Not once. Some people complain that it is cramped and noisy, and it is, so if that's not your thing, now you know. And the service is your typical Austin wait-service, which I greatly prefer to the "Hi, my name is Craig, and I'll be your server this evening. Can I start you off with some fresh-squeezed raspberry lemonade blast(tm) and an order of our mega-awesome fajita shooters(tm)" crap you get at corporate chains. But other folks have observed that Trudy's is the kind of place that you visit twice in one weekend in Austin after moving away, and they couldn't be more right. People out here in Silicon Valley rave about their Mexican food, but I just don't see it; the Mexican food out here is for the most part just awful. Would it kill them to learn how to make migas?
