Location: Downtown
Price: $$
Reviewed: Dinner
Attire: Very Casual
Intimate setting (for better or for worse) with wood burning grill makes the backspace seem Austin’s best kept secret. Unfortunately, the food leaves you a little unimpressed and a lot more broke.
octopus antipasti: **
CAT: Let’s start with the positive. The octopus itself lacked the SUPER rubbery consistency that poorly, overcooked octopus tends to have. It was well-seasoned and tasty. THAT SAID, there were too many components whose flavors just didn’t mesh well. While combining the chili, blood orange, octopus, and parsley may have started off as a wonderful, flavorful (beneful...j/k) idea, the execution was...meh. Perhaps because the dish arrived cold, or perhaps because every bite tasted differently, or perhaps because I was thoroughly annoyed with the general manager’s indifference towards our table...and only our table, I was just. Not. Impressed.
baked ricotta antipasti: **
JENN: This appetizer came out looking like a dream (so much so, I made it the first picture in this post). Baked ricotta with poached tomatoes, olive oil and lemon sounds great, right? But those little tomatoes were harboring major heat. And the appetizer never cooled down. Also, the ricotta cheese had the consistency of scrambled eggs and was way too watery. The focaccia that came with somewhat saved the dish. Still, I ended up with 2nd degree burns on the roof of my mouth for like two days!
margherita pizza: ***
CAT: You have to be a seriously, impressively terrible chef to wreck a margherita pizza. And while this pizza wasn’t...wrecked...it definitely wasn’t great. It may have been “good” if I’d been starving. But I wasn’t. The crust was dry and a little too chewy. The taste of the tomato sauce was a bit overpowering, and there wasn’t enough cheese. However, it was baked in the shape of a heart! I love hearts. And it looked simply delicious upon arrival. But...yea...well...it wasn’t.
fennel sausage pizza: ***
JENN: It was a sausage pizza. It reheated well. Yeah, that’s about it.
negroamaro wine: ****
JENN: This wine was the saving grace of the meal. So maybe you should only stop in to the backspace for a great glass of red...
inama vin soave, veneto: ***
CAT: It’s described as a “well-rounded nose of fresh fruit, fresh acidity, taut, and nutty.” It was all of those things, and very good. However, because this wine was so dry, it did not pair well with my meal. I blame the waitress. She recommended it with my meal. It would have paired wonderfully with a poultry dish, or a pasta with a heavy cream or butter base. Just NOT WITH OCTOPUS. Or a tomato slathered pizza.
ambiance: ***
JENN: the backspace wants to be romantic – a small space with dim lighting. But the place has such a rustic feeling that it lends itself to being too casual. The seats and booths were WAY too close together. At one point, a dinner patron at the next table kept flicking her hair and I was scared that I was going to have to build a fort around my dinner.
service: ***
JENN: Our waitress was really nice, brought us wine tastings, was very knowledgeable how everything on the menu was made, etc. What wasn’t so great was the manager. The only reason that we knew that Parkside and the backspace were owned by the same chef, was because of the ill-mannered general manager that we’ve bumped into twice now. Last time at Parkside, we asked to speak to him (to get an idea of what was best for us to try) and he didn’t come by, kept looking at our table, and…nothing. This time at the backspace, he spoke to everyone else’s table…except ours. Weird.
Price: $$
Reviewed: Dinner
Attire: Very Casual
Intimate setting (for better or for worse) with wood burning grill makes the backspace seem Austin’s best kept secret. Unfortunately, the food leaves you a little unimpressed and a lot more broke.
octopus antipasti: **
CAT: Let’s start with the positive. The octopus itself lacked the SUPER rubbery consistency that poorly, overcooked octopus tends to have. It was well-seasoned and tasty. THAT SAID, there were too many components whose flavors just didn’t mesh well. While combining the chili, blood orange, octopus, and parsley may have started off as a wonderful, flavorful (beneful...j/k) idea, the execution was...meh. Perhaps because the dish arrived cold, or perhaps because every bite tasted differently, or perhaps because I was thoroughly annoyed with the general manager’s indifference towards our table...and only our table, I was just. Not. Impressed.
baked ricotta antipasti: **
JENN: This appetizer came out looking like a dream (so much so, I made it the first picture in this post). Baked ricotta with poached tomatoes, olive oil and lemon sounds great, right? But those little tomatoes were harboring major heat. And the appetizer never cooled down. Also, the ricotta cheese had the consistency of scrambled eggs and was way too watery. The focaccia that came with somewhat saved the dish. Still, I ended up with 2nd degree burns on the roof of my mouth for like two days!
CAT: You have to be a seriously, impressively terrible chef to wreck a margherita pizza. And while this pizza wasn’t...wrecked...it definitely wasn’t great. It may have been “good” if I’d been starving. But I wasn’t. The crust was dry and a little too chewy. The taste of the tomato sauce was a bit overpowering, and there wasn’t enough cheese. However, it was baked in the shape of a heart! I love hearts. And it looked simply delicious upon arrival. But...yea...well...it wasn’t.
JENN: It was a sausage pizza. It reheated well. Yeah, that’s about it.
negroamaro wine: ****
JENN: This wine was the saving grace of the meal. So maybe you should only stop in to the backspace for a great glass of red...
inama vin soave, veneto: ***
CAT: It’s described as a “well-rounded nose of fresh fruit, fresh acidity, taut, and nutty.” It was all of those things, and very good. However, because this wine was so dry, it did not pair well with my meal. I blame the waitress. She recommended it with my meal. It would have paired wonderfully with a poultry dish, or a pasta with a heavy cream or butter base. Just NOT WITH OCTOPUS. Or a tomato slathered pizza.
ambiance: ***
JENN: the backspace wants to be romantic – a small space with dim lighting. But the place has such a rustic feeling that it lends itself to being too casual. The seats and booths were WAY too close together. At one point, a dinner patron at the next table kept flicking her hair and I was scared that I was going to have to build a fort around my dinner.
service: ***
JENN: Our waitress was really nice, brought us wine tastings, was very knowledgeable how everything on the menu was made, etc. What wasn’t so great was the manager. The only reason that we knew that Parkside and the backspace were owned by the same chef, was because of the ill-mannered general manager that we’ve bumped into twice now. Last time at Parkside, we asked to speak to him (to get an idea of what was best for us to try) and he didn’t come by, kept looking at our table, and…nothing. This time at the backspace, he spoke to everyone else’s table…except ours. Weird.
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