Hubby and I had a rare day the other day when he wasn’t at work, and both kids were at a friends house. With an entire day on our hands to do what we wanted, we decided that it ought to consider lunch at the kind of place you really don’t want to take the kids.
The thing with this city is that most of the fancy schmancy restaurants do NOT serve lunch! They’re open only for dinner and as a result this seriously hampered our choices. I didn’t want to just go someplace that had sandwiches no matter how fancy, I wanted a real lunch.
I had heard of this particular restaurant before but never had the chance to go for several reasons. The main reason is that it is at the other end of town. On this day however, we had time and so decided to give it a whirl.
Green Pastures is located in an older part of town that once, when the city was very young, would have been considered the countryside. Today it has been engulfed by a residential community but it stands out like an emerald in a sea of shabby chic homes that Austin has perfected. The meticulously groomed lawns greet you with a vista of green as you drive in but the eye is drawn first to the the magnificent and stately manor house that sits at the end of this short drive. I mustn’t forget to mention the peacocks even if they did elicit a sardonic chuckle from me; of course there had to be peacocks.
I was not overawed by the oozing pretention from this turn of the century home but rather climbed the few steps to the winding whitewashed porch than ran the length of the building and reached for the door knob.
Reached, and missed. Some elegantly dressed young man saw me coming and opened the door for me and welcomed us to Green Pastures and ushered us through and into a wood paneled foyer where we gave our name and party number and we were shown to the music room.
The music room is aptly named for the large, ornate and obviously antique piano that stood along a wall, but I was more interested in the cheery fire that burned therein and chose the seat with my back to it to ward off the chill.
The lunch menu was not the largest I’d ever seen but there were many options on there that I was seriously interested in. You can see the menu in its entirety here: Green Pastures Restaurant Menu
I decided to go with the Sauteed Chicken with Mushrooms, Blue Crab, Avocado and Jarlsburg. It was served perfectly cooked; the chicken was tender and NOT one of those disgusting spongy ‘marinated’ breasts that is full of sodium. It was sitting on top of a small disc of saffron basmati rice that absorbed all the wonderful buttery juice from the chicken. The Mushrooms were scattered over the top, as was the crab and avocado. Then jarlsburg to cover all and a brief foray under the Salamader to melt it and lightly brown the whole concoction. A delicate sauce was also on the plate.
A fairly simple dish yes, but it was executed perfectly. It was accompanied by a tossed baby greens salad that had no real stand out feature except for the cayenne shortbread cookie that adorned the plate in place of chunky and cumbersome croutons. The subtle flavor of the cookie was a perfect foil to the sweet greens and delightfully tangy dressing.
My husband ordered the Yukon Gnocchi with Grilled chicken, Blue Cheese, Artichokes, Sun-dried Tomatoes, Spinach, Walnuts and Vermouth with Cream. If my dish was good then his was heaven on a plate. Soft and fluffy gnocchi were perfectly cooked and had a pleasant bite of roasted garlic to them but not enough to over-power the potato. The artichokes were fresh and wonderful, the sauce creamy and divine without being heavy and every single bite of his dish blended the flavors beautifully. It was also a LARGE plate of food and well worth the $15.00 charged for it. My only potential complaint with his dish was that it wasn’t very pretty to look at…but hey, have a bite and shut up.
We were too full for dessert but out of professional interest I looked over the menu and was pleased to see a variety of offerings that weren’t the usual dessert trappings a la Sysco. Sure there was the stock cheesecake but Bananas Foster tableside, or Pots de Creme, or bread pudding…these things are made in house not from some stock food service company.
Our meal was delightful, relaxing and filling. Our waiter was pleasant and proficient without being stuffy or amateur, asking us once if everything was to our liking rather than the 3000 times as is the usual custom around here. All in all I would highly recommend this restaurant to anybody be it for business or pleasure, and I am eager to go back the next time (several years from now I’m sure) that I have a chance to lunch with my husband without kids.
