by Claudio Bax on Really... my rating is between 3-4 stars. It depends what you're here for. Are you here for a classy dinner? Or a night out? Classy dinner=4 stars (can't give it 5 just because I came here for a night out.. but it does seem very nice for a dinner. I definitely would come back here to eat) Night out=3 stars. I came here for my 21st birthday celebration. I might have been mistaken (I don't know how or why) but I expected more of a lounge-y type of feeling. It's not to say that made my experience any worse. From the outside view, I was a little thrown off (partially because I expected 'The Park' to be a lounge). It looked more like a restaurant... and I came here to drink... for my 21st birthday. I thought "shoot" ... but my friends and I entered in and a worker lead us to the cocktail area. As I was walking past the diners, I thought "Oh wow, I would love to try here for dinner." The place was a pretty dim setting, and from what I remember, there could have been a lot of bright candle lights (don't take my word for it because I was more concentrated on thinking what I was going to do if this place wasn't suitable for drinking. This place, I have to say, is very pretty and almost felt like we were dining (or drinking) outside near Rockefeller enter. They made the area look like outside (with mini trees, plants, christmas lights, etc) but if you look above, you'll see skylights (so the whole area is protected from the cold outside weather). I loved the fact that I was able to be in this kind of environment in a dress during winter time. Drink-wise, there's only a moderate amount of variety. I was planning to have a 151, but they didn't have it, so I settled for Bombay. My girlfriends and I waited until midnight, since we knew that was when the dance floor was going to open upstairs. When we went, it was.... so dead. The music was definitely not loud enough to get the party started. Therefore, we all decided to head down to another club. I would say, come here for a dinner date. :) Note: The service was pretty good. My waitress always kept checking up on us to see if we needed anything else.
by Frederic Collison on After waiting months for a name I recognized to appear on the calendar (granted most of the names I recognize in jazz are dead now), finally got to come and see Al Dimeola (one of the giants of 70's fusion) put on a phenomenal show with a very Latin feel (especially thanks to the accordion player) -- and on a Friday Night in San Francisco, no less;) As for Yoshi's itself, let's get the obvious "con" out of the way first: for all the hubbub about resurrecting the Fillmore Jazz District, the modern, museum-esque splendor of Yoshi's is about as antithetical to the original sweaty, smoky, boppin' spirit of the place as you can get. The historic photos on the wall only emphasize this fact. But then, the museification of jazz itself is as much to blame for that as anything. And taken on its own terms, Yoshi's is a big, bold gamble (seriously, the gentrification of this neighborhood is far from a sure thing) that has to impress you at least a little. For starters, it's got to be the most glamorous-looking sushi restaurant in the city (though we didn't eat here), complete with two levels of trendy lounge-bars. The curved auditorium is well-designed too, and every seat is at a mini-table to put your sleek and sexy (and well-made) cocktail on (note the 1-drink minimum) , and food too if you want it. My one complaint? For some reason, everybody but us seemed to have reserved seats, so we wound up rather awkwardly spread across two tables. I'm not sure how the seating works exactly but I know a dysfunctional system when I see it.
by Kevin N. on Popped in here recently on the way to what the airlines might term "my final destination" (which sounds morbid, but whatever). I've always had a soft spot for elevated bars, be those the outside patio variety (a number of which seem to be popping up around town), or, in the case of Shiner's, and enclosed but lofty spot with a requisite amount of local flavor. Or, more accurately, locally themed accoutrements. So as you might imagine from the lead in here, Shiner's is a little linear in its approach to being a downtown Austin beer joint. First of all, it's not really a joint: more the beer-themed longhorn wall art-ed leather chair adorned space that would seem at first glance to be aimed a somewhat fratty clientele. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the spot for me rang a little, well, sterile. There are as you might think a full cadre of Shiner beers here (thank heavens that they make several now), and other cold ones both on tap and in bottles, and the staff seemed reasonably friendly if not particularly gregarious. I'd give 'em another whirl, but I may wait a bit. Just to see if the vision gets a little clearer. Likely theirs and / or mine.
