Bellini’s Texas Grill - A Review
About a year ago, we had a chance meeting with a man who told us that he was opening a new restaurant in Cedar Park soon and that we should make it a point to come visit. That restaurant is Bellini’s Texas Grill, located just south of the Parmer Lane, 1431 intersection. Embarrassingly enough, it took us this long to actually check out Bellini’s. I don’t usually do reviews on restaurants, but there was not a single thing at Bellini’s with which Scotty and I were not impressed.
It’s actually a bit of a funny story as to how we ended up there Wednesday night. We wanted to go somewhere fun to watch the Cowboys kick off the NFL season, and before Scotty had left work, we’d decided on Buffalo Wild Wings for lack of a better idea. While waiting on Scotty to get home, I decided that, while I was certain the atmosphere at BWW would be fun, I really don’t like their food, and I wanted some place new and different. We don’t try new places in Austin often enough, so I turned to Google to see what I could find. I’d pretty much decided on this new place we’d passed on 183 a few times, but when Scotty got home, I also threw out Bellini’s, remembering literally at that moment that I’d seen an advertisement not long before touting their numerous televisions, fabulous foods, and great service. I also had a coupon hanging on the fridge (which turned out to be expired so I left it at home…boo!), which was a plus. Scotty laughed and said that Bellini’s had actually catered the pizza for Wednesday pizza lunch at work and praised it heavily. I asked if he wanted it again, and he said that he’d checked out some of the menus that had been left with the pizzas and thought everything sounded delicious. He was game, I was game, and there was a game we needed to see, so I threw on my team jersey (#19 - go Austin!) and off we went.
From the moment we walked through the doors, we loved the place. The restaurant is small – not overly, but enough so that it feels cozy and inviting. The restaurant was full, too, which we took to be a good sign. We waited for less than a minute at the host/hostess stand before a gentleman came to get our names. That gentleman happened to be the owner, Gerald, the very man we’d met a year ago WHO STILL REMEMBERED US FROM THAT MOMENT. Seriously… I never would have thought that he’d recall the day we met. Crazy. Anyway, he took our names and said it would be about ten to fifteen minutes before we would have a table and suggested we wait in the bar, a decently-sized room with eight or nine tables and six large televisions, five of which were broadcasting the Cowboys game. The other television was showing the Texas Rangers’ game. As we love baseball, too, that was a huge plus.
Scotty ordered a beer (Paulaner Oktoberfest) from one of the ten beers they have on tap (he was incredibly excited to learn this), and I ordered a cosmo, which happened to be, as I later discovered, one of their specialties. One sip and I knew it was special – it wasn’t too sweet, too bitter, or too strong. Score! We stood and watched the game for a while before Gerald came and told us our table was ready. We were seated in the bar, which was great because we were thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere in there. (There was a group of avid Giants fans at the table next to us who were lively and a lot of fun.)
(Please excuse the terrible quality of the pictures I took on this night. I was not in any way planning to be so impressed with my experience that I’d blog about it, so I only had my phone with me for pictures. Ooops! Next time, I’ll be better-prepared.)
When our waitress Mandy (whom I totally recommend – she was cheerful, knowledgable, friendly, and spot-on with all of her tables from my perspective) arrived to see if we needed anything else to drink or wanted to start with an appetizer, we immediately knew what we wanted. While waiting for our table, we’d watched a couple of guys order some appetizers at the bar. The fried calamari looked SO GOOD that we simply could not pass on it. That was the beginning of our evening of culinary delights. The calamari was fried to a perfection, and the dipping sauce that accompanied it was perfection in the form of a sauce. While we worked on our calamari, Gerald came by to visit with us. He actually pulled up a chair and sat down (at our invitation) as we chatted about his restaurant, how Scott’s company had catered their pizza for lunch and how good it was, and the different items on the menu. We also suggested to him that he try to get in on their Friday buffet rotation (hint, hint, Becky), and he said he would definitely do that. It was so clear to both Scotty and me that Gerald has a passion for food. He said to us, “People ask what our specialty is, what the best thing on our menu is, and I tell them that we try to make everything the best.” His genuine interest in visiting with us and making a point to come check on us, knowing it was our first time in the restaurant, meant a lot to both of us as well.
When Gerald left, Scotty and I continued to peruse the menus, trying to decide between all of the delicious offerings at what we considered to be completely reasonable prices. Scotty finally settled on the Bellini Panini, a grilled panini sandwich with meatballs, mozzarella, grilled onions, and marinara sauce. I ordered the Italian Beef (aka the Texas French Dip), a delicious sandwich of thinly-sliced beef and mozzarella cheese served with a side of au jus sauce for dipping. For sides, Scotty chose the homemade potato chips and I chose the homemade sweet potato fries. Everything was cooked to perfection and absolutely delicious.
The ONLY reason we did not finish our meals was because we’d passed the gelato bar on our way in and knew we would have to save room for some homemade gelato before we left. Once again, we picked our favorites: Scotty chose strawberry, while I chose salted caramel. I was not a huge fan of the strawberry, though don’t take that to mean it wasn’t good. I am not usually a fan of fruity desserts, and this was no exception. Scotty loved it, though. He said it was the perfect blend of tart and sweet, which he looks for in quality strawberry ice cream and gelato. The salted caramel was a bite out of heaven. It was creamy and sweet with just a hint of salt to it. Scotty praised it as well, though he said he’d stick to his strawberry after we traded bites. At least we were both happy with our selections! :) Two drinks, an appetizer, two meals, and two desserts later, our bill came out to be under $50 before tipping. That’s pretty good for an evening’s worth of entertainment.
All in all, we found Bellini’s to be a wonderful experience and look forward to visiting there again soon. On top of being impressed with the food, the service, the atmosphere, and the exceptionally clean bathrooms (this is important to me!), we were elated when the Cowboys beat the Giants. It was simply the icing on the…gelato?