Customer Reviews

The Fearless Critic Austin Restaurant Guide 3rd Edition

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

this is something austin has needed for a long time. these writers don't just list restaurants -- they review them really seriously. some of the reviews are absolutely scathing ... and pretty funny. and in terms of food, they're spot on. why has everybody else been afraid to come out and say it: guero's isn't that good! also the review for mansion at judges hill is hilarious -- it's written as a long limerick.

Have lived in Austin almost 20 years - picked this book up to keep for out-of-town guests to use, ended up reading it like a novel and tabbing many, many pages of new places I want to eat. Better than a Zagat's-style guide, it's witty, intelligent, and dead-on accurate (so far). Have now given it as a gift to numerous people - here's a great gift idea: buy this book and insert a gift card to a highly-rated restaurant on the page where it's reviewed.

Neat little book. Very honest opinions and we have found that the authors views pretty much mirror our own. Not in all cases though, we have restaurants that we love that they rated poorly and vice-versa.

That said, it's a very useful book and has brought several restaurants to our attention that we didn't know about or didn't know enough about.

Obviously, you have to live in one of the cities that they publish but if you live in one of the target rich environments like Austin, it's a handy guide.

I'd also reccommend their other book, "The Wine Trials". These same authors did blind taste tests with 507 testers in a variety of cities, testing wines that ranged in price from under $10 to over $200. They then tabulated the results and published a list of cheap wines that beat the big boys. VERY INFORMATIVE. Fool your wine snob friends by decanting some of the top ranked cheap wines and telling them you paid a wad for them.

fearless critic is pretty much the only reliable restaurant guide to austin. this is because the critics are almost always spot-on, the writing is clever, and they don't take restaurant ads or identify themselves at restaurants.

if there's a bias, you could say they favor the hidden ethnic value restaurants--ethiopian, korean, vietnamese--but i think that's right. we could all stand to read fewer reviews that overrate overpriced celebrity chef restaurants.

there are more than 100 new restaurants since the first edition, i think, and a lot of them fall into the hidden-value category (cupcake and taco trucks and such). there's also more coverage in dripping springs and other suburbs, and a lot more texas hill country bbq reviews. of course they cover all the trendy/hot new places as well, and they do it as carefully as ever.

if you live in austin or visit the city frequently it's a no-brainer.

I gave this as a gift to my dissertation supervisor at the Texas Department of State Health Services. She loved it, and now keeps it in the front near the administrative assistant's desk so everyone on the team can refer to it when choosing restaurants.

Austin has a huge problem with all the food critics pandering to the "Austin Institutions". Because of this it's REALLY hard to get a good idea about a place before you eat. I've already found a new place I like to eat from this book, and all the reviews are pretty spot on (they agree with my opinion that Casino El Camino has the best burgers in town.) So if you like food and plan on ever being in austin, this book is worth it's weight in gold. Willis Approved!

this is a great book for all austinites - the reviews are really funny, and there are also a lot of really helpful lists of restaurants by cuisine and by neighborhood. they also have a really cool section where they pick the best of austin. i totally agree about trudy's having some of the best migas in the city!

Well-written, entertaining--and based on my personal experience with Austin restaurants (two kids still in college)accurate. If you are going to spend time in Austin, this is a helpful book.

The first edition of The Fearless Critic was a truly exceptional work. Here was a book that was not afraid to look at restaurants objectively and at times give some much required criticism. It was a book that could be looked upon and trusted; a book that could give you a new favorite restaurant that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.

Unfortunately, the third edition adds almost nothing and has eliminated whatever good the first edition of the book possesses.

This stems from what I believe is an effort to try too hard to appeal to the conventional wisdom of the "Keep Austin Weird" slogan. The fact of the matter is that in this edition the writers have ceased to be bold and instead have adopted a vision of pure profit motive. While I understand that the writers are in the business of making money, this goes contrary to what originally made the book so wonderful in the first place. There is also evidence in a number of places of them hopping on the bandwagon of popular trends. This is most evident in their treatment of Torchy's Tacos-an abysmal chain of restaurants that make Taco Bell look like the epitome of fine Mexican Cuisine. The Third Edition raves about it-something that the First Edition would have never done.

In keeping with appealing to hipster mentality, restaurants that the First Edition raved about have in the Third Edition earned demerits for no reason other than success and to be contrary. Some of the reasons are truly bizarre. For both Malaga and Mirabelle's, two thoroughly reliable and excellent restaurants, the Third Edition is unfairly critical. Instead of judging the food for its worth (which has actually changed very little, if not improved since the First Edition) they criticize the two restaurants for becoming more popular and therefore the food can't possibly be as good as it was years ago. Once again, the criticisms have nothing to do with the food, but rather because the atmosphere of the establishment has changed.

And that's not even the worst of it. At some points the Third Edition is just plain wrong. Take their review of Whataburger. Now before it can be analyzed, I do have a positive thing to say-the addition of fast food establishments is a plus. However, this positive is negated if the information provided is not only misleading, but false as well. In the guide, they critique the chain for forcing you to wait for 30 minutes to receive a hamburger. Folks, this is completely untrue; I have been going to Whataburger for years and have never ever had to wait longer than ten minutes to receive my food. And that doesn't just apply to one location, but to every single one that I have been to.

So in conclusion I would advise you to avoid the Third Edition like the plague and seek out the First Edition.

This book is so helpful! Since I've gotten it, I have already tried so many new restaurants in Austin - and I must say that I have agreed with the Fearless Critic so far! This book is a really fun way to break out of your routine and try some new places.