Dai Due

Great meal!!! Very fresh! Got the beef rib! It’s was amazing! Cold meat place was great! Many local beers on tap! Loved it! Will be back!

Great food. Recently cane for brunch the biscuits are amazing. I just want to comment that service is important. Both most recent visits I have been «greeted» by a hostess who was clearly not thrilled to be there. Gives a bad impression. A genuine smile goes a long way!

Bring money. Lots of money. And be prepared for a reward. This place keeps its promises.
We should have skipped the appetizers (the main courses were more than enough) but what?! Elk ceviche, that’s what. Grilled quail stuffed with chorizo, that’s what. I love creative appetizers and Dai Due impressed me.
We went for Friday seafood (supper for 2 is their schtick) and were treated to whole pompano. Probably the best fish I’ve enjoyed at any restaurant in Austin or either coast. Vegetables were plentiful and exceptional. Dessert was not needed but included and the lemon pie was again, exceptional.
Wine and craft beer were well chosen and priced about right. Ambiance was loud, gentrified east Austin hipster. Parking was a royal pain; see previous sentence.
Overall, Dai Due was well worth the wait and I’ll definitely be back.

I love Dai Due, the menu is always interesting and changes all the time. My recent favorite dish is the sweet potatoes with chipotle sambal mayo. I have tried sambal in Indonesia and loved it. The idea of using chipotle peppers in the sambal and mixing with mayo is brilliant. Another favorite dish I had before was the pork with Mulberries. First time I ever had mulberries (local from Texas I hear), and they were devine. The service is always good and with a bottle of wine to keep me company, I have no problem waiting a bit for the food to arrive.

We wanted to try something different than the usual tartare and rare steak so we went with the venison ceviche and beef rib recommendation and it was amazing.
The ceviche opens your appetite and the beef rib is plenty for 2

I’m happy to report that our last dinner experience at Dai Due demonstrated to me that they have made some favorable changes. We made a reservation (this time earlier in the night in the hopes of avoiding a menu full of sold-​out items). We ordered several items, but the server came back a minute later and, as with our previous dinner there, they were already out of one of the few entrée options, a bone-​in dry-​aged ribeye. As with the previous visit, we asked the server if they would be replacing the item with something similar and she initially said no. We told her that this happened the last time we were here and she went to check with the kitchen. To our delight she came back and confirmed that the kitchen would take some steaks from the butcher window and offer them on the menu.
This was the right move and made everyone happy. Glad to see the kitchen staff being flexible in this fashion, especially since they’re uniquely situated to do so as a butcher shop, and happily changing my review to 5 stars.

We were impressed by the ribeye that we had heard about, and the service was excellent and so polite. Portions of the appetizers a la carte were definitely on the smaller side, but they did not lack in quality or flavor. There’s a tiny lot in back where the dining entrance technically is, but entering off Manor will put you in the butcher shop, where you can take home meats and is a great other alternative for butcher shops on the east side.
The place does cost a pretty penny (ribeye, two sides, and several glasses of wine put us over 180, but everything is local and the atmosphere is pretty great. Fun to try for a special occasion. The groups next to us were also particularly chatty, so the environment was enjoyable. I’d be interested to return to try their supper club menu!

The food here is always good, but this review is more a complaint about the service. EVERYONE has an attitude here. They act like doing their job is the biggest inconvenience in the world even when the place is totally dead.
Also, the patio is not dog friendly, just as a tip for people bringing their dogs. You’ll be asked to leave after a long explanation of why the not open kitchen on the patio means they can’t have dogs and not offered an apology. I get that’s a rule but it would be nice if there was signage, considering I’ve NEVER been on a patio that wasn’t dog friendly.

We went for dinner for the first time on a Tuesday night and were blown away. First, we didn’t have a reservation and went on a whim. I thought we would for sure end up at the bar or waiting but they had a table for us! From the outside of the little shopping strip the restaurant is located in, the shop seems like it would be much smaller. But it feels spacious due the higher ceilings and has a fun interior. The front of the store houses the butcher which I will definitely have to be back to hit up (they had a tasty looking tri tip and an aged porterhouse in the cooler case that looked good. Plus schmaltz and lard which I’ve been trying to find recently!). Our server was nice enough to explain the menu for us since it was our first time. We weren’t drinking that night, so we ordered the Cara Cara orange shrub and ginger lemonade for drinks. If their non-​alcoholics drinks were as tasty as those I can only imagine how good the cocktails are. We decided on the sweet and sour fried oysters and giant beef rib. The oysters were deliciously crisp and the accompanying sauce was flavorful without overpowering the oysters. The best thing ever was the beef rib! Holy cow that thing is massive. And delicious. Like fall off the bone tender with lots of smokey flavor. The accompanying potatoes were good too. I’m glad the server told us the beef rib easily feeds 2 – 3 people because we would’ve ordered more and the beef rib alone left us stuffed.
In summary, the beef rib is amaze-​balls. Will be back soon to try some of the other items and try the super club. The night we went the featured item was chorizo stuffed octopus which did not appeal to me, but I love a good prix fixe menu!

2.5 would be closer. This was my 3^rd trip to Dai Due. First was before it was really overrun and «hot», second was right after all of the great publicity this Summer and third was just two days ago (Fall).
The recent experience fell seriously short.
First — Excellent server. She (Tina?) was very pleasant and while of course doing her thing as a server in a cool spot, wasn’t too over the top with the foodiness schtick/​attitude that can happen all-​too-​often. Well done.
OK — Three of us for dinner. Ordered meat board for app. Very good. Two ordered the pork chop and one the dry-​aged steak ($ 65).
The steak was just plain weak. Zero taste of what you would expect from even a 20-​days aged piece and if I recall correctly, there was supposedly 45 days on this one. VERY hard to believe as it was incredibly bland, VERY little marbling and simply a HUGE disappointment. The $ 65 price tag was just painful for what this was/​is. This cast a pall over the meal for sure overall.
The pork chops were very solid flavor-​wise, but small for sure… your basic mini-​tomahawk presentation. The previous visit, I had a pork chop dish that was MUCH more substantial. This was just «OK».
Sides were unremarkable, not bad, just again «OK».
So…was disappointed for sure… sigh…

Skip the Seafood Night, y’all.
Despite much excitement and anticipation to try Dai Due, I ultimately left quite disappointed. To be fair, my husband and I did elect to start with the seafood Supper Club (only offered Fridays). In retrospect, we should have just gone for the full carnivore experience, as that is clearly their expertise, and I would be open to a revisit. That choice aside, they do offer this seafood spread EACH Friday and I would expect ANYTHING they offer to be excellent given the acclaim.
For the amount of food we were given, I found the Supper Clubs pricing for the seafood night steep. I fully appreciate smaller plates, but I found the portions served more like 1.25 people rather than 2 (perhaps they just want people ordering more food in addition to the prix fixe, but I wouldn’t be willing to throw out more than $ ¹⁰⁰⁄₂ plus drinks unless this was a special occasion). I think the Unilocal dollar signs should reflect $$$ not $$.
First «course”/appetizer: Baked Galveston Bay Oysters– this included 2 oysters per person and they were dried out, and I actually think the accompaniments (turnip top kimchi, white bean miso and fried green onion) were too powerful and masked the flavor.
Second course: «Dai Due Seafood Soup with Warsaw Grouper, Shrimp, Squid, Fennel, and Grilled Bread and Aioli.» What I had in mind was an authentic bouillabaisse, intense with flavor with healthy portions of seafood. This, however, was bland and contained SKIMPY (almost comically low) amounts of the seafood described. It was basically all broth; I counted 3 shrimp, a couple chunks of grouper and a handful of tiny squid. Keep in mind this was for 2 people. Furthermore, the aioli was too lemony for me and was poured directly on the bread which made it sloppy and difficult to eat.
Third course: «Grilled Sheepshead on the Halfshell with Sour Corn Butter, Sauteed Mei Choy and Fall Herbs.» This fish was the only saving grace of the evening– absolutely spectacular presentation and flavor. I honestly expected every course/​dish was going to blow me away like this one. This dish showed they are capable of offering amazing seafood.
Next, you choose either their «Café de Olla» (coffee with cinnamon and other spices) or a Tisane and then a choice of two desserts.
Sadly, the café, while I enjoyed the flavor, was lukewarm. Of the dessert options we went with the «Café de Olla Profiteroles with Sweet Potato Ice Cream» and the «Caprino Royale Santiago Cheese with Strawberry Jam.» Where to start… I get the desire to «re-​create» a classic like profiteroles, but this was just a disgraceful rendition. The cream puffs were so tiny and hard (as was the ice cream) and it remained difficult to eat because there was no warm sauce to soften anything up, just a swirl of room temperature caramel. As for the cheese and jam, once again laughably small portions (particularly for 2 people)! I get Dai Due is sourcing locally and that will cost more, but I’m inclined to feel the margins are pretty healthy on their end for offering such meager portion to guests.
Additionally, the service was subpar. So many different people coming by, no charisma, and we waited long intervals in between courses (it was not a particularly bustling evening either).

Dai Due was a mixed grill and a mixed bag for us. We had heard a lot about it, and it is a very lovely space tucked into the Manor Road area. Reservations and greeting went fine, and we passed on the mixed drinks to concentrate on the food, so no comments there! Our waitress was attentive and explained everything very well. She also kept our water glasses filled even though there was a bottle on the table, which was nice!
Checking out the menu, we noted that a la carte could get extremely pricey, extremely fast, so we agreed to go with the Supper Club Mixed Grill at $ 95 including dessert and coffee or tea. This choice is evidently a fixture on Saturday nights, so check other nights because the selection will be different.
Our meal started out with a lovely beef and vegetable soup with cheesy dumplings. It was savory, filling, and the dumplings were just the right touch.
Our second course was the beet, radish salad and a good sized platter of MEAT. When they say mixed grill, they aren’t kidding! The selection was wonderful, but the quality of the preparations was uneven.
Winners: Venison kabobs. Tender, really flavorful and seasoned just right. The Pork Chop. Again, tender with a little crunch on the outside and beautifully seasoned and presented. The potatoes were good but making them cheesy would have taken them over the top. My husband liked the chicken, but I found it very tasteless. The sausage was okay, but needed mustard, which we requested.
Losers: The Salad. It was fresh, but that is the only good thing I can say about it. Large pieces of lettuce and slices of watermelon radish overwhelmed it, and it was incredibly under-​dressed. I kept searching in vain for the slightest pop of acid that could redeem it. The hangar steak was cooked well, but there was very little of it and it was under seasoned. Skip it and save your stomach capacity for the other meats and leave room for the desserts!
Winners Again: Great desserts: I had a bread pudding with goat’s milk caramel sauce that had me wanting to lick the plate, and my husband went for the butternut squash empanada with a lovely vanilla sauce. They were both excellent, but the dessert experience fell down when it came to the drinks. The supper club meal comes with the choice of a coffee that sounded really good (but had caffeine) or a tisane that did not have caffeine. Dai Due, PLEASE offer a decaf coffee to your guests with this meal. The tisane was practically flavorless (kind of like really weak chamomile hot water) and in no way stood up to the excellence of the desserts. They deserve better!
Will we be back? I think so. Friends have raved about the chicken, so maybe next time…

Horrible, traumatizing and triggering experience.
I complained a lot, loudly and firmly about it, the owner refunded me which made me glad as it was bad, really bad.
Thanks to this experience I will no longer dine out in Austin Texas. I will carefully source all my foods and cook everything myself.
Thank you for reimbursing me.
Dea

Came with two friends on a Saturday morning, and it was pretty packed. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait for a table and were seated at a booth right away. The layout of this place kind of reminds me of Noble Pig. Our waitress was sweet and refilled our water pretty often for us. The décor was nice, and there was a lot of light streaming in from the big windows.
We shared the pancake with pear and bacon (forgot the names of everything) and the «hash» with meat bits and two eggs among the three of us, and it was a good amount. The pancake was sooo thick it was more like cornbread! It was pretty tasty and we all liked it. The «hash» was kind of strange. There were sweet potatoes, sunny-​side-​up eggs, some red (beet, maybe?) sauce and tiny meat chunks. More like bits than chunks. I didn’t really like the red sauce, and we felt like we were scavenging for the meat. It wasn’t very satisfying. Since both of these were recommended by the waitress, we were kind of disappointed. Although the pancake was good, it wasn’t amazing to any of us.
If I were to come here again, I would definitely try a burger since this is a butcher shop.

Extremely overrated. The appetizers were not great. Every dish we got was not flavorful at all. Almost Everything in the menu is cooked in porkfat. Burned bread. Staff is really nice however. Also don’t even think about this place if you’re vegetarian.

Went here for lunch with a food photographer for Eater, Esquire & Texas Monthly as per his suggestion, so I knew it was going to be good.
They have a ton of breakfast-​inspired items, sandwiches, and charcuterie platters for the lunch menu. The atmosphere is a weird mix of «high-​class hipster» and «butchershop,» and I mean that in a good way. I’ve been to a ton of butchershops for grassfed dry-​aged ribeyes in NYC but they’re usually much more humble than this particular establishment.
I got the smoked meat hash. The hash itself was a bit on the greasier side, BUT the smoked meat was perfection and the two eggs were beautifully runny. The beet ketchup was perfection and something I hope to recreate at home.
I’ll be back for the charcuterie for sure, and maybe a slab of meat from their butcher-​boards.

As soon as Bön Appetit released their Top 50 list, I had made a reservation to try this place meant for meat lovers. Homey and humble it wasn’t a problem booking a table for Thursday night dinner.
1. Shrimp Salad: served on toast with corn (my favorite app)
2. Beef Carpacio: a bit bland for me, I could taste the quality of the meat but I didn’t enjoy the raw mushrooms that came shaved on top with the meat, what I ended up doing was putting the beef on the shrimp salad toast
3. Summer Squash: meh, least favorite
4. Pork Chop: I love pork chop and this one ranks pretty high
5. Wild Boar Confit: A surprise, it doesn’t look like much but it is very tasty. Definitely my favorite on the menu
6. Mango Sorbet: big fan of mango and I’m glad I didn’t get that «fake» mango taste with this desseert
7. Peach Upside Down Cake: nothing too special
8. Stone Fruit Pit Custard w/​Oatmeal: yummy and good texture, light for a custard
9. Bottle of Gruet Sparkling from New Mexico: just because it isn’t made in Cali or France doesn’t mean it can’t be a spectacular sparkling wine. This bottle is a great value so maybe its good to keep it a secret
If this made the top 50 best restaurants and then into the top 10, I expect a lot more. Perhaps I expected to be blown away and walked away not being completely wow-​ed. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was good but not truly worthy of the high ranking.

It’s all good and could be great.
This place sells out the reservations. Several days in advance and only 5:30 available, no problem since that is my dinner time.
A lot of promise but a bit short on the meat dream. Expected a plethora of meat choices but it was pretty thin not even a beef steak.
It is admittedly a small operation not really capable of feast offerings for all. Hard to imagine they were a food truck.
On this night pork was the way to go. Incredible neck chop all perfect in every way of Red Waddle, could not ask for more.
A bit of a kitchen slip up caused a small disruption but it was quickly amended and generously taken care of.
I love the whole concept. Smokey meat cooking over open flame. I think they have another notch left in their belt and should hit that next gear in the future.
All good, coming back. 4+ Unilocal

Dai Due’s restaurant entrance is at the back, while the front leads you into the butcher shop.
We get seated upon arrival of our reservation time. It probably took a good 25 minutes before our waitress finally came and greeted us. When she arrived, she informed us how to read the menu… which was already easy to read.
The food menu is on one side with the back menu of non-​alcoholic and alcoholic drinks. Our waitress enlightened us about Texas beers and wine they carried. The menu is pretty limited, based on seasonal ingredients. Therefore, keep in mind the menu changes.
Dai Due will cut to order and adjust the prices reasonably. My friend ordered the 12 oz. 28 (or 32, cannot recall) day aged steak (⁵⁄₅), and that was one of the best steaks I have tried in my life. Such flavor and texture… I probably ate 3 bites of my friend’s before I decided to try my «small» 12 oz. pork neck chop (²⁄₅). My first bite of the pork was simple and tasty, no sauce and sides were needed. After the first 2 bites of my pork, I was cutting each section, trying to avoid fat. Apparently, pork neck chop usually has that much fat according to the manager. It may be your cup of tea but wasn’t mine.
Daily Specials:
**Tuesday=Ladies Steak Night, 6 oz cuts, $ 10 each a la carte.
**Wednesdays=Crawfish Night
**Thursdays=Grilled chicken and various sides on the Supper Club menu
**Fridays=Seafood Night
**Saturday=Supper Club is an impressive mixed grill
**Sunday=Fried chicken Night
My back was to the kitchen, but you can see the chefs brewing up meals! Place is tiny and can get packed, so I recommend reservations for weekends just to be safe. Due to its size, I don’t like how the center tables are an arm away from the next table. One of those «yep, you’re in my bubble.» This place is not great for large tables, probably 4 to a group or under is ideal. Service was decent. It greatly improved from the wait we had in the beginning.
Definitely try this place in Eastside. I liked the look and homey feel of this place. Would I come back? If I’m in the mood to eat some meat and just to try the supper club pre fixe menu for $ 33.

Let me start off by saying the meat in this joint is fantastic! I want to get that out there, because I do appreciate good meat. They have some slightly exotic meats and I love that. My issues on the two times I’ve been (once for dinner, once for breakfast) is that there is always something unimpressive in the meal.
On my first visit, I had the pork chop. It was slightly charred and seasoned well. If I was solely judging that one item, it would have been about 4.5 stars. I also ordered a couple of sides that were so nondescript and boring, that I can’t recall what I ordered. I do remember not finishing it. I also had the persimmon cake. The cake was somewhat dry and bland. The wine list is strictly Texas and while I can appreciate that, I’m not a fan of Texas grown wines.
I decided to give them another go as I was running very early for a work meeting. I had the apple French toast with boar sausage. The sausage was awesome. Very flavorful. The French toast was a little too sweet in my opinion, but that’s purely a matter of preference so I won’t fault them for that. The problem was that the bread was dry in some places, like it hadn’t been dipped fully or allowed to absorb the batter.
I wouldn’t rule out a 3^rd visit. Like I said, I love meat and restaurants can improve with time. It just might not be my first pick.