Mirabelle Sold to Former Chez Zee GM Brian O’Neill
Congratulations to long-time restauranteur Brian O’Neill on his purchase of Michael Vilim’s Mesa Dr. Bistro Mirabelle. The restaurant will close for a week and will reopen with the same Mirabelle name, but with an eye toward French cuisine. O’Neill, most recently General Manager of Chez Zee, has had a long and successful career in the […]
Final Results of Our Restaurant Wildfire Fundraiser Are In. What a Great Story!
The restaurant fundraiser that Ronald Cheng and I organized last Tuesday night for the Central Texas wildfire victims has concluded and all the checks have been sent to the Red Cross. We had a great list of restaurants and a great response from all of you restaurant patrons as well. The restaurants donated 20% of […]
Best Pork Belly, Best Dim Sum, and More: Part 3 of Rob’s Best in Austin
Our continuing series on our best dishes in Austin has drawn unprecedented traffic and has generated lots of positive agreements: okay, not all, but most have agreed with us. And that’s diversity for you. So here is Part 3 on Rob’s Best Dishes in Austin. We hope you will sample all of these and share […]
Billy Rieger, Co-Founder of Kenichi, Passes Away
Billy Rieger, co-founder of the popular downtown restaurant Kenichi, has passed away. Rieger was a larger-than-life kind of guy who lived life to the fullest. His Harley was always parked outside the restaurant when he was not in Colorado. And I honestly never heard him speak badly about anyone. He had an élan about him […]
Join Rob Tuesday Night and Dine Out to Raise Money for the Wildfire Victims
Rob and Ronald Cheng of Chinatown have enlisted the support of a number of fine Austin restaurants to raise money for the victims of the recent wildfires. We hope that the readers of Dining Out with Rob Balon will help us. On Tuesday night, September 20th, visit any of the establishments on this list and […]
Aquarelle to Close its Doors on September 3rd
I cannot count the number of lovely and intimate dinners we’ve enjoyed over the years at the lovely little French bistro Aquarelle on West behind Opal Divine’s. But owner Teresa Wilson has decided to go in a different direction and Aquarelle will close for good on September 3rd. I first tried Aquarelle when Robert Brady […]
Paul Peterson Returns to Austin at VIVO on 620
One of my very favorite chefs and people (can’t always say that in the same breath), Paul Petersen, has returned from the territories and landed at VIVO on 620 in Lake Creek Center. Petersen had the amazing Little Bistro in Buda for three years and then went out to West Texas near Big Bend. But […]
Best Chicken Pot Pie, Shrimp Enchiladas, Vietnamese Pho… Part 2 of Rob’s Best in Austin
Thank you for making the first installment of our “Best of Austin” series one of our most downloaded stories of the year. But we’re just getting started. We have a lot of favorites and we’d like to share more of them with you. Again, this is completely subjective: no polls were attempted or even contemplated. […]
Gonzo Gourmet Club has Dinner and a Movie at iPic
Our Gonzo Gourmet Club had dinner and a movie at the new iPic (formerly Gold Class Cinema) Theater at the Domain on Tuesday night. We began with cocktails and appetizers, chatted with Chef Casey, and were extended cordial and competent service from the attentive wait staff. Then it was into the theater for the screening […]
Dining at Caeser’s Palace
The word is out among foodies that Las Vegas has arrived as one of the most desirable dining destinations in the country. Red-hot chefs are falling all over each other to follow in the steps of Wolfgang Puck who hit gold with Spago and Postrio ten years ago. One of my favorite places to dine […]
Sesame Hill Ramps Up Chinese Takeout in Oak Hill
I had driven by Sesame hill, which used to be occupied, I think, by In and Out Burger, probably a dozen times. From the outside, it looked, well, unusual. But then one day I pulled over and met the owner Annie Jiang. She walked me through the menu and I sampled a number of dishes. […]
Rob Samples Apatite Café
Had my first tastes at David Sanchez’s Apatite Café at the Galleria behind Mandola’s Thursday night. This is a thoughtful, intimate and highly sensual dining experience. Sanchez, who hails from Vail, opened this with his wife. I thought the name Apatite was a play on “appétit,” but no. Apatite is actually the name of a […]
Fire at Los Pinos Causes Temporary Closing
I hate to see those breaking news stories (almost never good news) on local TV. And true to form, KVUE reported a fire at Hudson Bend favorite Los Pinos which apparently started early Tuesday morning. We don’t know the extent of the damage but apparently it was worse on the inside than the outside. Los […]
Harvard Study Pisses Off American Potato Association
One of America’s favorite vegetables, the ubiquitous potato has been dissed by a new Harvard study that essentially implies that regardless of whether it’s boiled, baked or fried, the ingestion of a spud is bad for your health on virtually all counts. The American Potato Association immediately responded by citing the American Heart Association’s finding […]
How to Get the Best Experience from Visiting DiningOutWithRobBalon.com
Our newly redesigned site has a number of features designed to make things easier for our readers to find the information they want, quickly and efficiently. The content that you’ve all come to know over the years is still the same: it’s just better laid out and easier to access. The Navigation Bar Reviews and […]
