Rabbitz are in Texas for the Christmas holidays - and it’s been very good eating… Lambert’s describes itself as “fancy barbecue.” We met Mr. Rabbit’s sister and her husband for early dinner. Lambert’s is a pretty space, organized on two levels. We sat downstairs but by end of evening (and it was really hopping by the time we left) we could hear the music from upstairs and it looked like it was shaping up to be a pretty fun and lively night. At Lambert’s we got our first taste of real Texas bbq — and it was a total hit.

We started with some great cocktails, including a hard-to-find Old Fashioned that was not as good as the Royal York, Toronto (the benchmark for OFs, but still well done). Mr. Rab’s sister put back a couple of the beer of the week, and her husband had a mint julep. We started with the fried green tomatoes, prepared with a very meaty crab salad served on top of said tomatoes with a green goddess dressing. The overall effect was light and flavourful, although we did not let ourselves get lulled into thinking that anything at Lambert’s approaches actually approached “lite.” We also sampled some great wild boar ribs — tiny, meaty little bones presented in a charming Jenga-like stack and prepared with a sauce that had serious bite. Lambert’s house-made charcuterie plate was also a total winner. The foie-gras was presented like a finely-mixed traditional chicken liver pate with a sweet glaze, and it was nothing less than excellent. Also in the mix were some house-made sausages, a head-cheese that was good, but an acquired taste in the way that head-cheese is, and a slice of country pate (also superb). The meats were accompanied by four local cheeses, all wonderful, the highlight of which was a brie with a blue streak, creamy and excellent. I’d never really thought of Texas as cheese country, but we sampled several local cheeses and were consistently impressed. I guess where there are cows, good cheese shouldn’t be a surprise.

After this warm-up we moved on to the mains, all of which we passed around family-style so that we could get maximum sampling advantage. The highlights were the brisket and the dry ribs, both smoke-y, tender, and wonderfully flavourful. At $14 and $12 these items are a total steal. The hanger steak ($24) was also satisfying, but a dry aged rib-eye ($30-something), the evening special was a disappoint — not particularly interesting and especially given the relatively high price-point. The meat wasn’t that succulent, and the cut seemed more just-plain fatty rather than satisfyingly marbled. Sides are ordered a la carte, and we split some mashed potatoes, good enough that I could have eaten the whole bowl (mashed might sound boring, but enough cheese and sour cream will quickly fix that). The mac-and cheese was baked and crusty-crunchy on top (in the right way), almost ridiculously rich and creamy inside. Collard greens with bacon were a hit with Mr. Rab, but I found them a little too bitter. Cornbread muffins were also tasty but not mind-blowing.

After this gigantic feed, we did order four desserts for sampling, although most were just sampled and left unfinished. Most of said desserts would have been challenging at any time due to their enormous size, which I found actually off-putting, sometimes bordering on grotesque. If anything disappointed at Lamberts, the desserts lacked any real “wow!” In fact, three of the four had very similar flavour (cinnamon-y with vanilla ice cream), but we also concede that we could have ordered better to maximize greater variety of flavour. Plus, we were stuffed by the end of this meal, so anything was apt to seem de trop. The apple and ginger pie presented as a calzone-type pie-pocket. It did have a nice ginger-y zing, but I thought the pie-pocket presentation put too much emphasis on the crust while the filling was the real star. The blackberry cobbler needed a few more berries, although the cake was spicy and satisfying — and the presentation definitely Texas-sized. My favourite dessert was a tapioca pudding with berries, which I found a light but just-sweet-enough finish to the heaviness of the dinner. The bread-pudding was a maple-y mass of flavourful dough, but I found it overly soft, even bordering on gelatinous, and way too sweet. The dish would also have benefited from more restraint in presentation — the huge, wiggly mass of pastry looked rather like a big plate of sweet, folding tripe. Although I concede that it tasted OK, I found it a little icky.

Overall, Lambert’s was excellent, including wonderful service at the bar and at our table, where our server’s recs were great and he handled our share-everything request with much aplomb. Wholeheartedly recommend, and look forward to returning on our next Texan trip.

www.lambertsaustin.com

Posted on January 1st, 2008 by rabbit
Filed under: Texas, Restaurant Reviews