Homestead Café in Waco, Texas

 While stopping for the previous posted cupcake adventure in Waco, I wanted to go to a café that wasn't far. There is a place in Waco called Homestead Heritage. It is a communal Christian place where they have their own little community and businesses that are open to the public. 

You can purchase handmade pottery, handmade quilts, woodworking items, blacksmithing, other homemade goods, etc. They even have their own Gristmill where you can by biscuit mixes, cookie mixes, etc. If you like that type of crafty type place and shops, then you should definitely check this place out. You can also pay to take classes here if you want to learn a trade, or make something by hand.

Part of this community business area is the Homestead Café. It has some shorter hours as it is a local café that the community runs, but the food is usually fresh and quite good. Justin had never eaten there, and since we were in that part of the area we decided to stop in for lunch.

This is a busy place at lunchtime, so there may be a wait. But the staff is nice, and if there is a long wait you can wonder through all their shops to kill some time.

For lunch Justin got a chicken fried steak and an iced tea. He is very picky about the iced tea. He loved theirs, claiming it was fresh brewed and not instant. He even took some to go. The chicken fried steak was really good, served with homemade French fries. He is also really picky about chicken fried steak, and claimed the breading was done right (I'm not a connoisseur of chicken fried stead so I couldn't say what the correct breading for chicken fired steak is. But mister particular here was loving it, claiming he'd definitely come back for it). The only downside was that he wished the portion had been bigger. While he was full, he thought for the price it should have been a little bigger. Or maybe it was just so good and he wanted more of it. 

I wanted something a bit lighter, so got a turkey vegetable wrap with a fruit bowl. I found it really tasty and satisfying, with a good flavor to it. The fruit was also fresh and ripe.

We were too full from cupcakes to try their desserts, which looked amazing. I do remember years and years ago having a piece of carrot cake here, topped with cream cheese frosting, and thinking it was pretty fantastic. I couldn't say if that is still the case as it's been a long time since I've tried it. But I'd like to think it's still as good as I can remember.

Lunch was probably about $30 for the two of us, so not an unreasonably priced place by any means.

All in all we gave this place a 4.5 out of 5 stars. So good.

Magnolia Market Bakery in Waco, Texas

Waco is about an hour and a half north of the Austin/ Round Rock area. While this is definitely out of the realm of a local Austin restaurant, I still wanted to try out a few places up there that I hear a lot about.

We took a trip up to the Joanna and Chip Gaines Magnolia Market Place at the Silos. I'm not a huge fan of their aesthetic, but I can appreciate what they do and they're style. Just not for me.

I've been hearing over and over again that their bakery is pretty fantastic and worth the drive up. I wanted to get out of town for a minute, so we took a drive up to the Magnolia Market.

They opened at 9am, and while we got there right at 9am, we still had to wait in line about 30 minutes. It's certainly a busy place.

The main reason to go here is the cupcakes. They have a few other items at the bakery as well, but the largest selection is for the cupcakes. 

We got three cupcakes, a chocolate chip cookie, and a cinnamon roll.

For the cupcakes, we got a strawberries and cream, a strawberry lemonade, and a chocolate one. The cupcakes look beautiful. They are simple, pretty, and very enticing. The cake part of the cupcake was so moist. As in I've never had a cupcake so moist in my life. I don't know how they do it, but it's pretty magical. 

The frosting was very smooth, creamy, and full of flavor. I'm not a big frosting person. I need just enough to cover the cake and I'm good. So for me, it was way too much frosting. But for you frosting lovers, the ones who take the frosting from those like me who don't want so much, you will be in pure blissful heaven. The cupcakes are definitely worth the hype.

The next thing we tried was a chocolate chip cookie. They had a few different cookies options, but I just went with a classic. 

I don't usually get chocolate chip cookies from bakeries. I'm always disappointed. But understand, I am VERY picky about my chocolate chip cookies. My sister makes the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. Nothing lives up to those cookies, so I just don't ever get them from a bakery.

This chocolate chip cookie was pretty good. It was very big, and better than most bakery cookies I've had. For me I could still taste a bit of the oil, but again I'm hypersensitive when it comes to these kind of cookies. It was better than expected, but my sister's recipe is still better.

The cinnamon roll. Most of the time when I get a cinnamon roll from a bakery there is an element of disappointment. Usually they are a bit dry, or over baked, or stale once you get passed the frosting that is there trying to disguise the stale aspect of it. 

This cinnamon roll was amazing. I can see why they sell out of these daily. It was so rich, moist, and wonderful. So so so so good. Not at all overbaked or style, but not gooey in an under-baked kind of way. Definitely not at all a disappointment in any way.

Overall the bakery was worth the drive to Waco. I think it lives up to the hype it gets, based on the flavors I got to try. Definitely not a waste of time to wait in line for these beauties.

We gave them an average rating of 4.75 stars out of 5.

Tony C's Pizza and Beer Garden

My partner in crime and I have been frustrated that there are no good, trust worthy food reviews in the Austin area. We want to try new places, but when you can't trust the food reviews out there, or you can find no food reviews, it can get frustrating. 

We made a very long list of restaurants to try in the Austin and surrounding areas that we haven't been to yet. Right now our list is at 80 places. We'll be busy for a while. But that is just a list we came up with of places we've never tried. New and old haunts come into our cravings all the time as well, so it will take us a long time to get through all the food.

That being said, he and I are both foodies. We love food. But we love good quality food. Chilis, Applebee's, Olive Garden, those type of places are not what I'm talking about. I don't willingly choose to go to those kind of restaurants as I don't find them very good. And I'm always disappointed and sick to my stomach the rest of the night after eating there. So if you are a lover of these type of big chain restaurants, that's great. Enjoy what you love. 

You may not like my opinions or the restaurants I choose to go to. And that is absolutely fine. We all have our preferences. I prefer real food as opposed to frozen and re-heated food. 

Since we've found it difficult to find any real, reliable food reviews of places, we've decided to do our own. Food is always subjective to what a person likes, but maybe we aren't the only ones frustrated at the lack of trustworthy and honest personal opinions.

So here we go at the beginning of our search for the best foods in Austin and the surrounding areas.

Our first stop is Tony C's Pizza out by Dell Diamond in Round Rock.

Concerning pizza - something you have to understand. I love Italy, and have been lucky enough to travel a lot. I consider real pizza to be authentic Italian pizza. It is very different than America's version of pizza. When I say pizza, what I mean is the real Italian version, as it is the real version of pizza. I consider American pizza to be trash pizza. Don't get me wrong, I do love a good trash pizza full of cholesterol and all the cheese you can get out of a cow. I don't mean trash pizza in a derogatory way, just in a way that distinguishes the difference between the American version and the real stuff. I absolutely love me some Domino's on occasion.

Justin heard good things about Tony C's and wanted to try it out. A new place is always a gamble. Is it going to be good? Disappointing? Do the positive reviews match up with the quality of the food? You never know until you try.

I was fully aware that Tony C's was going to be the American, trash pizza style. Totally fine with that. A good trash pizza hits the spot on occasion. 

I like the way the restaurant is set up. It's a sports bar, which is great. Everyone loves a good sports bar where you can get a pizza, have a beer, and enjoy the sporting game of your choice. We're off to a good start. 

They had a good size menu with lots of options, which are mostly carbs, drowning in cheese. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. I LOVE carbs and cheese. They even had some salad options if you didn't want the typical greasy bar food.

We ended up getting some Mozzarella Sticks, an Italian meat sandwich, and a fully loaded pizza for carnivores.

The mozzarella sticks were really good. They were big, crispy, and very cheesy. I didn't care for there marinara dipping sauce, but I'm not a big marinara sauce dipping fan anyway. They were however really good in ranch dressing (everything is good with ranch dressing). Well done on the sticks.

Then we moved onto the sandwich. It wasn't quite what I was expecting from the menu, but it was essentially a French Dip sandwich. It came with a side, and we got the garlic fries. The sandwich was fine. It tasted fresh, the bread was big and fluffy, all in all a fine sandwich. It's something I wouldn't crave, or think about later, and it didn't leave me wanting more. But it was pretty average for a French Dip sandwich. 

The fries - not so good. They were cold, limp, and no flavor to them. Very disappointing and need some work. We didn't eat those. No one likes a cold soggy french fry.

Then came the pizza. First impression was that it was a lot of grease. The sauce on the pizza was pretty weak, not really giving the pizza much flavor. The pizza was to come with Italian sausage and meatballs. I didn't realize the meatballs would be sliced into thin layers. Same with the sausage - I was expecting ground sausage, not thinly sliced sausage. The sausage had some flavor to it, but the rest of the pizza was fairly bland. The crust was crunchy and the pizza came out nice and hot. But over all it was lacking flavor.

Needless to say we left the restaurant full, but not really satisfied. As the evening went on, we felt sicker and sicker. I cannot eat like that anymore. I sometimes need to be reminded I don't have the stomach of a 21 year old.

This is a spots bar. I'm well aware that it's not going to be 5 star dining. I also don't drink alcohol. I'm sure the more you drink, the better the food tastes. And we did fill up on bar food - heavy in carbs and dairy and grease. Of course we aren't going to feel amazing after this kind of food, but being physically nauseous for the rest of the night? That I have issue with.

If you want to have a fun night out with some friends, enjoy some beer and sports, and don't really care about the food, then this is a great fun spot to be. The food was edible, the place was clean, and it had a good vibe. But if you are a foodie, and want some good quality pizza, I wouldn't go back here. The pizza was a bit pricey, and had no real flavor to it. It was all very forgettable. Stick with some Dominoes delivered to your door. Or just come here for the mozzarella sticks. But Justin and I won't be coming back 

For all this food we paid about $50. No drinks, just tap water to go with the food. 

We rated this 3.25 stars out of 5.