Azul

This is a very rare place where I have multiple favorite things on the menu and I don’t know what I am going to order until I get there. Some outstanding things: Pork tenderloin and apple sandwich, Azul poboy, Portobella spinach tapenade sandwich, lemon waffle fold, and the spinach feta egg breakfast sandwich. I have yet to have something I didn’t like.
There is great outdoor seating for nice days. Indoor seating is limited. Overall atmosphere is hip and modern. There are no high chairs which is my biggest complaint. They are now open on Sundays! Yay!

I’ve never had anything but breakfast at Azul, but that was mostly because I could never figure out their afternoon or weekend hours. I used to smoke a lot of pot though, so go figure.
Anyway, their egg sandwiches rule, whether you smoke pot or not. I also like the iced horchata latte if I’m feeling like something sweet. Still not sold on the Coca Cola latte.
My only complaint about Azul is that they can be a little slow at times. I have seen some roosters running around the neighborhood, so who knows, maybe they have to wait for the hen to lay my eggs. Luckily no one cares what time I show up at work, so I don’t mind the leisurely pace.

Azul’s sandwiches are what first sold me on this sweet little east side gem, but what keeps me coming back are their great savory breakfast items and amazing album collection.
also, for all you guys that have a special place in your heart for cutes girls with glasses, this is a good place to spot one.

Everything at Azul is carefully considered — from the design of the menus to the listing of latte flavors to the slighty shabby interior and exterior. It all works, and the food and drinks are fantastic. My favorite coffee beverage is the Nutella Latte — whodathunk? Its amazing. I also adore the sandwiches, my favorite so far being a grilled ham and havarti concoction. If I lived closer to it, I’d be there daily.

Let me start with the good news. Azul has really great sandwiches. Not your typical ham or turkey. I had pork tenderloin with goat cheese and sliced apples on baguette bread.
I was surprised that the food was so good, because my experience leading up to the eating was just so-​so. Azul is in an old house on East Caesar Chavez. It has a cute vibe, but the staff wasn’t super helpful or happy. I really didn’t think the food was going to be all that, because the inside seating area seemed dirty to me. There were flies everywhere! I understand that flies get inside and they don’t have much control over that, but this seemed like an abnormal amount to me. Also, the sandwiches were served to us in these cute old metal trays. I appreciated the kitsch factor, but I felt like I needed to wash my hands after picking up the tray. It was all old and rusty. Thankfully, the sandwiches were wrapped up in butcher paper.
Before I got my food, I really didn’t picture myself coming back to Azul, but once I bit into my sandwich, I thought, I want to come back and try everything on the menu!
2 stars: service, cleanliness
4 stars: food

Azul turned out to be a really good version of, basically, exactly what I thought it was going to be. It is East Austin Hipster. Oh, and they have food and beer. It turns out, actually, that they have pretty good food, and typical East Austin Hipster beer. The ham and cheese sandwich I had was served with aged gruyère swiss (it turns out gruyère is NOT the new Primi Minister of France, which was my first thought), and toasted bread that was yummy, if a bit crunchy. The Recycle bin I walked past in the back was full of empty bottles of Grolsch and Stella Artois, and Lone Star Tall Boy cans. Like I said, East Austin Hipster. The Patio looks and feels just as comfortable as all the patio’s my friends and I cobbled together out of other peoples left over furniture when we were in college, with a nice ring of trees for shade and a pretty impressive shoot of bamboo (for atmosphere?) There’s also a mannequin head in one of the trees that’ll freak you out if you aren’t ready for it. The service was the typical East Austin Hipster level of service, meaning friendly but slow with a lot of sideways looks that seem to say «Man, I don’t have time for this, I need to dread out my beard.» If you live on the East Side, like me, you are used to this by now. However, if you’ve made the service industry your career, like me, then this irks you a little no matter what part of town you are in. Hence only a three star review. This isn’t an in and out, back to work in a hurry lunch spot. Of course, it doesn’t really want to be.
Plus, good lemonade, and cool bike racks.

You guys, they will smear cream cheese on a waffle and wrap it up in a cone for you! Also, they have Mexican coke– yummy. I love Azul. It’s one of my breakfast favorites.

One of my favorite lunch and brunch spots in Austin. They have a great vinyl collection inside that they play from, the seating indoors and especially outdoors is stellar — perfect to sit outside and read the Times or a book. The sandwiches are amazing, my favorites are probably the Italian Po Boy and the PLT. The breakfast selection is good as well, but the waffle we had was a bit soggy.

For some reason, I always want to compare this place to FoodHeads, probably because it’s a battle between these two places when my Saturday morning posse is in the mood for sandwiches.
I personally think the sandwiches at FoodHeads have a slight edge. But Azul isn’t far behind, and beats out FoodHeads in the atmosphere category. Great outdoor seating, cool store dog, best transition between two paint colors I have ever seen on the walls inside. It’s a very hip, Austin-​y place.
I recommend the pork tenderloin sandwich with goat cheese and apples. It is soooooo delicious, although I would personally prefer that the filling-​to-​bread proportion were a little higher. Also, sometimes they run out of this (I guess everyone else knows this is amazing, too), so be prepared with a second choice.

AZUL IS NOW OPEN ON SUNDAYS!!!
On weekends, I want a breakfast place where
I don’t have to groom (so anywhere on South Congress is out)
quiet and low stress (take out Whole Foods)
no wait ever for a table (take out Kerbey Lane)
with plentiful «free» leftover papers (New York Times, Wall Street Jounal, Statesman, Chronicle, The Onion)
AND delicious.
Azul hits the spot with their $ 4.95 waffle with proscuitto & poached egg. I go alone so I can eat the proscuitto with my fingers and nurse my hangover in peace. Many interesting flavors of lattes, cajeta is my favorite. Because you order and pay for the food first, I never have to wait for a check, and can slink out as soon as I’ve read all the scrounged newspaper sections.
The only real risk is I run into coworkers or guys I dated twice doing the same thing. Also across the street East Cesar Chavez gas usually has super low prices.

i just bought a house really close to azul. if my backyard was bigger, i’d make it look just like the backyard at azul. fire pit… clumped bamboo. it feels nice just to be there. try the mediterranean tuna with a side of their homemade slaw!

I must say that I have heard a lot of good things about Azul, however I was a bit disappointed with what I ended up with. I had the egg salad sandwich and my friend had the chicken on cranberry english muffin. Over all I would say that the taste was bland, I was expecting much more interesting flavor for the cost of the food. My friend agreed that her sandwich was rather bland and unimpressive. We both just didn’t feel like we got what we were wanting from our $ 9. I’ll probably go back to check out a different sandwich to figure out if I like anything better.
Aside from the food it is a lovely shop and the people were very friendly. There are a bunch of vinyl records along the counter and they play cool and interesting music while you eat. The outside porch looks nice but it was raining so we didn’t really check it out too thoroughly.
I’ll give it another try some other time but I’m not sure that this will make it on my regular rotation of eating establishments.

The first time I heard about Azul, it was from a friend who’d gotten kicked out for overspending his time on their Wi-​Fi connection. Out of loyalty to my friend, I decided I’d never patronize the place. But one day, I was meeting some friends there, and well, I’m sorry, friend: Azul is just too cool.
When I started going there about a year ago, their bottled beer selection was exquisite — a fine sampling of Belgian ales, stouts, and local brews. For $ 1.50 each! And a whole bottle of French wine. For $ 10!
I also became addicted to their appetizers — eating there had that «tapas bar» feel because you got to taste a little bit of everything. My favorites were the grilled sweet potatoes, the roasted garlic with goat cheese, and the mini grilled cheese sandwiches. Two people could easily walk away with a bill no more than $ 20-​$ 25 and still feel they’d had a gourmet experience.
Then, a sad thing happened a few months ago. Their beer selections became more mediocre — instead of a dozen great beers, there would only maybe be three, and the rest were Shiner, Lone Star, and the like. Also, it seemed they’d be closed every time we tried to go there! It turns out, they close early on Saturdays and they don’t open on Sundays at all.
It’s still one of my favorite spots, however, and my writing group meets there every other Thursday. Their lush garden is a nice oasis to relax in after a hectic day. Parking’s easy. Their food remains delicious. And the beer is still $ 1.50 a bottle.

Azul’s sandwiches ROCK. I always get the pork tenderloin, goat cheese and apple sandwich — YUM. If it’s been too long since I’ve eaten there, I start dreaming about it. The other sandwiches are excellent too — I have had bites :) Good coffee, yummy unusual sodas (e.g. Topo Chico, etc.). The inside seating area is cozy, and the outside is surrounded by tropical plants, providing a nice little oasis. Friendly and efficient service. Yay, Azul!

real good coffee. A great place to hear records and eat too! Their baked goods are made fresh everyday in limited batches.
Did I mention the coffee’s great? Outdoor seating is lovely and tropical.