Banderas

The mojitos are excellent!

There are good points and bad points about Banderas.
Banderas is the dine-​in restaurant at the Renaissance Austin Hotel.
There can be superlative eating at hotels.
(David Bull used to cook at the Driskill Grill. The Four Seasons in Austin used to be magnificent before its morph into a steak house named Trio.)
I am actually big on Ancho at the Omni — which had a brief moment of being an in-​place before unjustly disappearing into obscurity.
However, often what you are getting at hotels is overpriced freezer food. When I travel I avoid eating at the hotel whenever possible.
When I do eat in the hotel — it is often because the view and ambience are fantastic.
(Atria can be beautiful places to become lubricated and mellow.)
Banderas gives off lots of warning signals about being all pain no gain. The menu is limited and with items that are easy to «pre-​make in the freezer».
The Renaissance Hotel shows signs of both bad original design and aging poorly.
(Mildew and rain stains defacing the once beautiful white stone.
A boxy unimaginative atrium with gym ceiling support work on top.)
However, Banderas is in a special room in the back which is magnificent.
Every table features a panoramic view of the park at the Arboretum — and the decorating is lovely.
This would be a lovely place to drink wine and watch the sun … rise I guess … since the view faces East. But it is still a beautiful room.
Prices are stiff — But they do their best to make the food look beautiful. Potato chips are hand fried and served in a cute little potato chip cup. Fish tacos come as sliders on an adorable little tray — with a colorful selection of garnishes. A survey of what my neighbors were having showed photo ops on every table.
The fish tacos are lovely indeed. The tortilla soup … is average but servicable.
This is a meal I would have happily paid $ 10 for.
Of course, this being a hotel charging hotel prices — the price is $ 20.
And of course Banderas is stepping up to fight the obesity crisis in America.
Portion sizes are small enough to guarantee that no one who ever eats at their establishment will ever get fat.
(I am watching my weight so I could work with small portions easily.)
Is this place the greatest food or the greatest value in Austin? Clearly not.
However, if you were at the hotel and did not want to go out — and cost wasn’t an issue — much of it is quite pleasant .-The view does justifies staying close to your room — which is just as well since you won’t get much out of their atrium.

The food here is very good and I have never been disappointed. I am especially pleased that they have now added red snapper to the selections… my fav seafood!
If I was only reviewing the food and the service, it would be 5 stars, but I’m also reviewing their
redemption procedure. NOWHERE on the
certificate does it state that the entrees themselves have to be $ 50. It states $ 50 min. Two entrée minimum. Everything is a la carte, so the entrees I want to order are $ 23 each (and the sides are obviously separate), so it’s a bit of a rip-​off if you want to order two fish entrees. Luckily my friend will order the steak to be able to satisfly their figment of their imagination $ 50 entrée minimum. But it’s a bummer when you really want the fish. If they just let us add the sides and dessert to our fish the total would still be way over $ 50, but they don’t…so we only go there rarely… we would go there more often if they didn’t have this bogus rule. Even after three years, the certificates still don’t state what they state in the restaurant… some consistency here please???

Great steak, great service! Fried avocado appetizer was different but very good.

WARNING for
users: This restaurant does not honor
gift certificates correctly.
I had a certificate for $ 25 off. Minimum purchase $ 50. Minimum two entrees.
I went there with two other people, thinking we’d have no problem making the $ 50 limit and then get to split the remainder three ways. Problem was, when the waiter arrived, he said, «Nooo… the certificate really means that two entrees should add up to $ 50.»
My friends both had to change their order so that their entrees would add up to $ 50, and we ended up spending much more than I intended to.
The food is good, but not mind-​blowing. They provide jalapeño corn bread as an appetizer, and it was pretty yummy. I had the pecan-​crusted chicken and really enjoyed it, but wished it came with some veggies.
I liked sitting next to one of the huge windows and taking in the view. There was only one other group there when we arrived, so it was rather quiet and peaceful.
I wouldn’t return, simply because of the price, but I will say that our waiter (though confused about the gift certificate) was very courteous.

Banderas is located inside the Renaissance Hotel. It was hard to find because there wasn’t even a sign that even showed the restaurant existed?! My fiancé and I and another couple went here for a celebration dinner around 7:30 PM. It was oddly quiet, really awkward — barely could hear any music and there were maybe two other tables that were in there besides ours. Anyhow, our server came over. He was pretty chipper. We got a bottle of wine and my friend got a margarita and ordered the quesadillas as an appetizer. We also ordered our meals shortly after. Our waiter said that we needed to try the steaks — they were comparable to Ruth Chris Steakhouse. I was like «What? No way! Don’t believe it. MUST. TRY.» Three of us ordered steaks, and my friend ordered a pasta dish. My steak was $ 25, no sides included. So I upgraded my meal another $ 7 to get a side of asparagus and mashed potatoes. It took 15 minutes to get our drinks out … WHY?!? As mentioned before, there were only TWO other tables in the restaurant. And mind you, at this point our quesadillas weren’t even out yet, WTF. We all work in the restaurant industry so we bit our tounges and decided to tolerate the service. When our quesadillas did come out, they weren’t half bad. But when the steaks came out, OH LAWD. Ruth Chris my BUTT. We ordered our steaks medium rare… uhhh yeah, came out well done. I ate what I could of mine but after chewing 98 275 654 397 times, my mouth got a little tired. Our server came around ONCE after we got our food at the table — no more drinks, refills, «how is everything?», nothing. And then finally he came around with our bill, without asking for dessert (not that we wanted any anyway). We ended up giving him a $ 40 tip that he didn’t deserve AT ALL. And we will never go back there again! One and done!
The only good part about the night? We met and talked to David Cook in the hotel’s bar/​lounging area!

Ah, another
adventure.
Since they were having a sale we purchased a flurry of gift certificates, and Banderas was among them. After reading the other reviews here, I was skeptical, to say the least. Banderas is located inside the Renaissance Hotel at the Arboretum. There are no signs outside advertising it’s presence – hence the completely empty restaurant on a Friday night. No, really… we were the ONLY people there. I imagine it’s extremely challenging in Austin for a hotel restaurant to attract business, never mind a hotel at the Arboretum, with Z Tejas, Eddie V’s, PF Changs and more just around the corner. Banderas is at quite a disadvantage.
The inside of the restaurant is, I will admit, slightly outdated hotel chic. It is very clean, however, and the tables are set nicely. We were offered a seat by the windows looking out over the treetops and the hills beyond 360 – kinda nice, actually. Our server was extremely pleasant and very knowledgable both about the wine list and the menu. He told us that the executive chef is preparing to roll out the fall menu and actually seemed excited about some of the new selections. I like this in a server – someone who is actually invested in the restaurant!
We ordered calamari and crab fritters to start, along with a glass of wine for me and a beer for hubby. They only have Fireman’s 4 and Bud Light on tap, but F4 happens to be one of his favorites, so it turned out fine. I will say that I think $ 12 for a glass of so-​so wine was way overpriced. Before our appetizers we were served a small skillet of jalapeño corn bread. The presentation is so cute, we were really thinking this was going to be tasty… but it was just ‘aight. It wasn’t as warm as you would expect, having come out in a skillet, and while the taste was good, it wasn’t anything special. So close to being great… but not quite. The calamari was very much the same: good, so close to great, but not quite. The seasoning on the calamari was actually delicious, but it was the tiniest bit soggy, which is so unappealing, but the marinara sauce was pretty good and kind of picked up the slack. The crab fritters were much better, I would say those were delicious with a cute presentation and yummy creamy dipping sauce. No filler, all lump crab meat, red and green bell pepper, onion and a hint of cayenne.
Hubbs ordered the burger for dinner (any restaurant’s burger is his measurement of whether he will return). I was torn between the pecan-​crusted chicken with potatoes au gratin and the fish of the day, which was grouper. The waiter recommended the chicken, saying that it was their signature item (but was quick to qualify that it wasn’t because he felt the fish wasn’t good). While my husband thought the burger was, again, just alright, my pecan-​crusted chicken was very good. The au gratin potatoes, though, were just weird. The server told me when the meal arrived that he ‘forgot’ to mention that the potatoes were sweet potatoes, which is fine for me, but the dish was actually more like a potato quiche than traditional au gratin. There was no discernible cheese in the dish, just super-​thin layers of sweet potato (again, A for effort, C for execution) in a puffy, triangle-​shaped egg wedge. Weird. I can’t really say if I liked it, honestly… I just had a hard time getting around the texture of it.
Anyway, overall I would give this place a solid 3 stars for server friendliness, presentation and effort. I don’t think I’d go out of my way to go back to Banderas, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d feared.

NOT A FAN! Stayed at the hotel, went for dinner. Restaurant was so dark it was hard to see the menu.
Ordered Calamari and Pasta at 8:30. Calamari was like RUBBER and partnered with what tasted like a canned spaghetti sauce. Dinner arrived at 9:40 and was COLD! I ordered Pasta with Shrimp. first of all, if you are going to toss shrimp in pasta, I believe the tails and shells of the shrimp should be removed. NOPE — tossed in the pasta so I could pick out the shrimp (which were over cooked).
This had to be one of the worst meals I have had in a while! My bill was over $ 30…STAY AWAY!

I’m going to have to disagree the first reviewer on a lot of things. It was if not the worst, nearly the worst restaurant experience I’ve had in Austin. The fact that there was a bucket in the entry way to catch water leaking from the roof should have clued us in to the experience we were going to have here.
After finally finding the hostess, we were shown to our table. There was only one other party in the restaurant. This was at 7pm on a Saturday night.
The restaurant was decently lit, but cold. The room was decorated like a pretentious country club room. Big chairs and booths that could swallow small children.
It seems since then the menu has changed quite a bit. There’s no more basil frutini and the menu is not the same as it’s listed on the
website. Example: there was no halibut and there is now chicken and waffles.
The waiter (there was only one for the whole restaurant, was aloof and uninformed. He was unable to give any helpful description about items on the menu. His description of the vinaigrette sauce: «it’s not that bad». Guy, you’re paid to know if something is salty, spicy or at least to use better adjectives.
So we order. Food comes. The peach iced tea is a pleasing combo that’s not too sweet. The jalapeño cornbread is better than expected. Or perhaps we are just so happy for something warm. Chicken and waffles are just inedible; they are so sweet they might have well been dessert. Steak is good, but nothing special.
When we finally get the check we notice that the peach iced tea is more than we thought. A check of the menu revealed that the amount on the check is more than listed on the menu. Eventually this is fixed, and we can finally leave.
Summary: If you are dragged to this restaurant for a business function, you won’t starve. But it’s not worth exploring even if using discounts (
), unless they bring back their old menu and get new waitstaff.

Banderas is an upscale Texas Bistro serving a savory fusion of Spanish, French, Mexican and Southern cuisine — located in the Renaissance Hotel in the Arboretum.
I met a friend there who was staying at the Renaissance last night and had a fabulous evening in a beautiful restaurant eating beautifully plated food while sipping on one of the most fantastic adult cocktails I have ever had the pleasure of wrapping my lips around. Thirty-​five hours later and I am still thinking about this amazing drink and food. I started the evening with a Basil Fruitini and finished the night with another one — imagine Vodka, simple syrup, crushed grapes, muddled basil, lime juice and a splash of soda served over ice — Yummo! We started our meal with the Lump Crab Cake — Deelish! combined with a Celery Root, Pear Salad. I chose the Roasted Pork Loin with caramelized apples and braised cabbage labeled «Low Fat» — it did not taste «low fat» in any way but thanks for the option. There are a few items on the menu that are labeled «low fat» and I do appreciate that so I can indulge in Warm Sweet Pecan Pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream without feeling too guilty. Not that I was thinking about calorie consumption after another Basil Fruitini:)
I recommend The Bandera whether you are staying at the hotel or not — just expect to shell out a bunch of money that Basil Fruitini alone is more than I usually spend on lunch…