I was invited to come and check out the relatively new
Liberty Kitchen, so I grabbed my friend Linda of
Girl Eats World because we're good at eating off each other's plates and she always makes me laugh! We had a great time learning more about Liberty Kitchen, at 507 Pressler Street, with the entrances to the parking garage and restaurant both on the West 5th Street side. They have expanded to Austin from Houston, where they are part of the FEED TX Restaurant Group. I was not monetarily compensated for a blog post, and all opinions are my own.
I immediately loved the light-filled dining room, and we had good natural light for pictures during most of the meal! The border around the ceiling spells out "The stars at night, are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas" and the design was created using custom designed rulers!
To the left is a private dining room that can seat up to 24 guests, so if you have a need for a private function, keep this in mind.
And at first glance the wall paper looks like your standard damask print, but when you get up close to it....a great representation of Texas, and this wasn't even a custom paper! (Bats instead of butterflies would have been perfect for Austin.) ;)
While looking at the drink menu, I was immediately intrigued by the first cocktail, but when I mentioned to our waiter that I was more of a vodka person than gin, he volunteered the switch, so this is the Lillie Langtry with vodka, fresh lemon juice, hibiscus syrup. And super-refreshing on a warm evening it was!
Our parade of food began with the campechana with shrimp, crab, sweet tomato sauce and a fried oyster on top.
Next was deviled eggs done four ways. From the bottom: smoked salmon, fried oyster, crab and pimiento cheese, spicy fried chicken, served with a side of bacon jam. Pure decadence!
Roasted oysters, done two ways: pork belly + bacon with apple cider butter and salt + pepper with butter. Loved the light acidity of the cider butter, and it went very well with the savory bacon.
Queso with roast chiles and chips; we are picky about our queso in Austin, and I'd say this certainly passed with flying colors!
Raw oysters from different waters. Raw ones aren't my most favorite, and there was plenty of other food, so I passed on these, but Linda was quite happy with them.
Technically these are called
gorilla-style street fish tacos with the daily catch from the Gulf, cilantro slaw, spicy crema, and grilled lime. They are only offered on Tuesdays (#tacotuesday) as part of their daily specials; not sure what make them "gorilla-style" but they were fresh and tasty and one of my favorites all night.
Mac and cheese... in the hubbub of three dishes arriving at once, I may have neglected to get a picture of JUST the mac and cheese, but I am sure you can identify it in this shot below. Linda is modeling the side of bacon jam, which we both absolutely fell in love with! The also sell it by the pint for $24, which is a wise investment.
The Heisenburg-er -- a burger "club" with all the trimmings: jalapenos, pickles, avocado, deviled eggs, cheese, bacon and bacon jam... the name is a nod to Breaking Bad. This sandwich was HUGE, and what you see pictured here is the half-order! There's no much stuff packed on here, it was decidedly a fork and knife experience.
Happy to say we did not eat all of this food! We'd eat some and then move on to the next thing. But still, by the time dessert rolled around, we were getting pretty stuffed. This is the bread pudding with cajeta (caramel sauce), and it's a huge serving, and pretty darn delicious.
Liberty Kitchen also makes cake shakes: with your choice of cake blended with frozen custard, so this was red velvet cake with vanilla
So as you can see, we had more than our fair share of food, and to reiterate, we DID NOT eat it all! Also happy to report that at an office health screening the following morning, my cholesterol was only 156. We really enjoyed our experience at Liberty Kitchen -- good company, good waitstaff, and good food! They are open seven days a week, and even open at 8 am on the weekends for brunch. As you can tell from what we ate, they are a mix of seafood, southern comfort, a touch of Tex-Mex, and burgers all rolled into one -- something for everyone!
