What I Ate: September 26, 2009 (South Congress Cafe)

Lunch: We ate at South Congress Cafe (1600 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 447-3905) for the first time today and really enjoyed the entire experienced. We arrived quite late to avoid the huge crowds that we faced last week - around 2:45pm - and got seated immediately. We knew we had to try the Carrot Cake French Toast, so we ordered a single slice of that (a normal order has three slices, I think). It was incredibly good and not overly sweet (when you don't apply the delicious but decadent cream cheese pecan sauce that it comes with).

Tina ordered the special which was a brisket hash served with eggs over easy. The eggs were perfectly cooked - a lot of places have runny whites as well as yolks when you over the eggs over easy, but South Congress Cafe got it right. The brisket in the hash was outstanding and much of it simply melted in our mouths.

I had the Eggs Benedict South Congress Style with Crab Cakes (it's crab cakes with quiche and crisped prosciutto with hollandaise sauce). This was also very well executed from the crispy salty prosciutto to the fluffy quiche to the flavorful crab cakes. Even the hollandaise was well executed (without the dreaded over lemony taste that many restaurants end up making). The smoked gouda potato pancake that comes with it was also delicious.

Since we had so much food already, I didn't order a cup of the duck and oyster gumbo, but Johanna, our server, brought us a taste of it and it was delicious. Rich, spicy, thick, and unctuous with a good balance of okra, sausage, duck, and oyster flavors.

I can't wait to go back and try some more of their menu.

Dinner: I pan fried a fillet of wild sockeye salmon and served it on orecchiette with sugar snap peas (blanched in water and sauteed briefly with a few drops of sesame oil).