I have a problem with expectations. To begin with, I think I am a pretty tough critic to please, especially at high-end restaurants. When I pay a lot of money for a meal, I expect perfection. In addition, I read way too much about restaurants before I visit them and I get myself psyched up for a possible exceptional meal. Usually though, my expectations are not met. Sometimes they are, like at CityZen, Komi, Town House and Michael Mina. However, just as often, the meal falls well below my expectations, i.e. at Le Bernardin, McCrady's, Citronelle and Daniel. Thus, when Sweetmonger and I visited Wink last night to celebrate our engagement, I made sure not to expect greatness. I simply wanted a good meal to contribute to our excitement. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised by what Wink put forth.
Choosing a restaurant in a new city (We've been here just over a week) to celebrate an engagement is difficult. I didn't want to do Uchi because we had already tried it, and the Driskill Grill was out because within the last year it has lost both its Executive Chef and his sous chef. Thus, I was not convinced its astronomical prices would be a wise investment. I settled on Wink because it specializes in the type of fine dining that I have been led to believe most represents Austin: allowing fresh, local ingredients to speak for themselves.
As mentioned above, Wink is about fresh and local. The menu changes everyday and according to the restaurant, "99%" of the menu's ingredients are sourced from two local farms. If this is true, it is quite impressive. After a glass of champagne courtesy of my cousin Cakemonger (who lives about 1,500 miles away), Sweetmonger and I opted for the five course tasting menu.
The opening course was a very nicely done scallop dish. A perfectly seared, large, juicy, silky and sweet scallop was served with a celeriac puree and house made pancetta. The puree balanced out the saltiness of the pancetta and they went great with the scallop. This was a very good dish.
Second, we had a bison tartare served with truffled toast, porcini mushrooms, pickled garlic syrup and one small sliver of tomato. This was another very good dish; however, I would recommend placing four or five more tomatoes on the plate. The tomato was fresh and burst with summer flavor. I just wish I could of had more.
The third course was braised, local rabbit with house gnocchi and shaved black truffles. This was essentially a very good stew. The rabbit was tender and delicious and the truffles added some luxury to what was otherwise a "homely" dish. As tasty as this dish was, I am not sure it was the best thing to serve on a Austin August night. Nevertheless, I had no complaints with the flavors.
Our entree was seared venison with onion rings, crushed potatoes and a butternut squash puree. Outside of the crushed potatoes (which was just a basic hash brown) that tasted fine but added nothing to the dish, the entree was great. The venison was cooked as well as it can be. It was tender and so very good, and the onion rings were worthy of the Dip Dog Stand. For those of you who don't know, the Dip Dog Stand (www.dipdogs.net) is the best food stand in the country. It is located in southwestern Virginia and serves corn-dogs unlike anything you have ever seen or tasted, and their onion rings are greasy and wonderful.
Our final course was a very good cheese plate, which we opted for instead of a sweet dessert. Nothing we had at Wink wowed us, but at the same time nothing was disappointing and we had few complaints. The meal was very good. Furthermore, Cakemonger had phoned the restaurant to let them know that we were celebrating our engagement. Needless to say, we were surprised when we got there and our service was excellent. Wink is definitely a restaurant to which we would return, but perhaps only for a special occasion because it is expensive and I am now a poor law student.
Wink
http://www.winkrestaurant.com
1014 North Lamar Blvd.
Austin, TX 78703
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