La Condesa, Austin, TX
Last week, I was in Austin, TX for a business trip and I was fortunate enough to have dinner with six fabulous colleagues at a restaurant our vendor had recommended - La Condesa. I had never been to Austin before, so I clearly had never visited this restaurant either. I opened the menu and immediately saw a guacamole sampler which I ordered for the table. Guac is one of my favorite appetizers!That's as far as I got in reading the menu though. I put my menu down, and my dinner companions presumed I had made a quick decision on dinner - and I had. I was going to have our server choose for me and bring me a surprise.Imagine six faces simultaneously looking right at me in the most quizzical manner! I was riddled with questions: Aren't you afraid you won't like it? How can you trust the server? What if he brings the $70 Carne Asada? And so on.Then, my coworker asked the server to bring his three personal favorite Ceviche dishes to the table. Was my coworker the pot, or the kettle? :)The server brought me the Chile Relleno, which was stuffed with quinoa, butternut squash, manchego cheese, tomato broth, and salsa pepita, and served over rosemary rice. It was excellent!Here's a shot of a few of the aforementioned coworkers. Thanks to Dave Morse for taking the photos.