Screaming Goat

Alas, Screaming Goat!
Emilio, I am so sorry that I didn’t get back there sooner. I guess the condo crowd wouldn’t support a really hip local taco joint. My current life has kept me mostly off of my old turf, and when I stopped by today, I was saddened to see the for lease signs that had been hastily posted. I hope you will be able to get your TVs and personal stuff back.
I enjoyed every meal I ever had at Screaming Goat, and regret not having bought a t-​shirt.

Picture this: it’s a post-​rapture world. You’re hungover. You’re tired. You’re left here on Earth with the rest of the sinners. You scavenge the streets, unnecessarily throwing as many rocks through windows as possible. Now, all that looting and destruction has left you hungry. So what do you do? I can make only one recommendation: go to Screaming Goat for breakfast.
After my loot-​a-​thon with Erin H. on May 22, we were seeking a sinfully delicious breakfast. And we found what we were looking for at Screaming Goat: Queso, a delicious Migas taco, and a mimosa (ooooh drinking on a Sunday!). The queso was great, and the chips they have are those phenomenally fried corn tortillas you know are going straight to your spare tire. (Don’t worry, you need to fatten up for the apocalypse, anyway.)
When I was ordering, I thought I was hungry enough to eat two Migas tacos, but the recovering Catholic in me shouted in my ear that Gluttony is a sin. For once, RC Valerie did me a favor: the taco was HUGE. So big, in fact, that I couldn’t imagine eating two of them even after a fight-​for-​my-​life escape from Gomorrah. I imagine escaping fire and brimstone burns a lot of calories.
The food was delicious, the wait to order was almost nonexistent, and though the food took awhile to get there, it was worth the wait. Yum. Yum.

I think it’s time to leave the tech world and open up a taco shop. it seems all of the places to be seen lately in the taco world you can get up to $ 4 for a small flour tortilla with 4oz of meat and veggies and make a killin’
This place is no different. 5 tacos for $ 14 no drinks, sides, etc. WTF
ok they get 3 stars because they definitely didn’t suck but for the $ 3 – 4 a taco I was expecting some sort of drug laced taco that would hypnotize me and make me want to come back again and again and again. It was good it wasn’t knock my socks off phenomenal.
I will try breakfast here at least once before I scratch it off my lists of taco places I must keep high on my list.

Headed over here last night to take advantage of a coupon they put out recently.
Cute old house, more spacious inside than I expected and parking out back which is a plus for that area. It’s a little weird with a dart board in one area, then big TVs mounted in others (i.e. sports bar elements in a charming old home) but I’ll take it. woudl eb a good place to catch a baseball game and grab a drink and dinner… We actually ended up sitting outside on one of the picnic tables.
The first thing that caught my eye was the frozen margarita machine with the sign «Wine margaritas» on it. Now I have no idea what that is, nor did the gal behind the counter, but I can tell you they are tasty. Reminds me a bit of those frozen lemonade thingies at the state fair. they are on the sour side, but not in a fake way. the consistency is not bad either — larger, but uniform frozen bits that stayed frozen all the way to the end. I’m not sure you could enjoy more than one of these without food since they are strongly flavored, but the first half was nice while enjoying the evening air, and the second half complimented my food.
I ordered the Nacho Burger, sans bun, add extra patty. Yum! There were tortilla chip bits covered with queso on top, which was awesome (would come back just for the queso), and the guacamole was pretty solid, particularly with the addition of fresh jalapenos. The burger patties were smaller, and a shade overcooked for my taste — but keep in mind I have been recently spoiled by Wholly Cow, so nothing can possible compare.
Was torn between 3 and four stars, but what earned this place the extra star were the prices. My burger was 5.99 (well, and 1.50 for extra patty) but I felt it was a good value. My bf’s veggie taquitos came 6 high piled in a steaming bowl of goodness, and on Thursdays they are .89 each! Those wine margs were $ 4, BUT come in a pint glass.
If you pay attention to their specials you can get some really great deals.
PS. This is a order-​at-​the-​coutner kind of place, so if you do sit outside, remember to grab utensils and the like.

«Why is it called ‘the Screaming Goat?,’» you might ask.
To understand the answer, you’d have to take a trip back to medieval times in Ciudad Juárez. Back then, it was commonplace for each family to have several goats on hand for milk and meat.
«Okay, that explains the goats, but what about the screaming?»
You also need to know that during those times, it was customary to barter using these goats. One goat was worth 12 chickens, or 5 guns, or one child, or 3 Sega Geneses. Or any combination of the above. But, if you wanted to trade some of these items for a goat, but couldn’t afford a full goat, then the goat would have to be mechanically separated. And since Javier Bardem hadn’t yet been born, and the bolt gun wouldn’t be invented for another 800 years, the goats were usually divided alive. Hence the screaming.
While I was wandering around the quaint restaurant looking for a bolt gun to end my hangover, a cook was in the basement of the Screaming Goat burning the eggs that were to become my BE&C taco.
You’d think he would have also burnt the eggs going into the other taco, a P&E taco, but he did not. Nor did he put the charred eggs into the potato taco, which didn’t have the potential to be that great anyway, since it lacked bacon. Maybe he thought that the bacon’s wondrous medicinal powers would unburn and soften the crispy eggs. No one really knows. We just know that the taco that was supposed to flush the booze from my blood with bacon fat had burnt eggs, rendering the bacon’s healing powers useless.
Otherwise, the tacos around the entire table were good. But then again, it’s pretty hard to screw up breakfast tacos. And if you do screw up breakfast tacos, all you can really do is hope that a middle-​aged man with a bad Adam Goldberg toupee doesn’t show up asking you what’s the most you’ve ever lost in a coin toss.

A work buddy and I recently had a conversation and it went something like this:
Him: What’s up?
Me: Hey… how are you?
Him: Full
Me: Yeah?
Him: Yeah
Me: Lunch du jour?
Him: The Screaming Goat
Me: The Screaming what?
Him: Screaming Goat
Me: You ate goat and it screamed?
Him: No, I went to the restaurant
Me: I’m scared
Him: Don’t be. Go.
Me: Ok.
So a few days later, I grabbed another one of my work peeps and off we went… in pursuit of something known as «drowning flautas.» I’d seen this place before. A charming old house with wood floors, a chalkboard advertising cheap beer and smells that were making me dizzy. I’m up to 3 stars and I haven’t started eating yet. We decided to get the flautas, tacos and queso and share. Truth be told, the flautas didn’t make me want to sing (and a good thing too for anyone within ear shot). They weren’t bad, mind you, just not my thing really. However, the queso kind of grabbed me. I’m not sure what was in it, but I think onions and cilantro were involved. The tacos were decent too. I’m going back in the future to try everything else on their menu… I hear their burgers can compete with the best of ‘em.

The Goat is screaming, in a sorta cute way, at a perfect location for the folks who live in that ‘hood. Or the people stopping at 7 – 11, Cheapo, or the big guns who work in real estate acquisitions up on the hill directly to the west in that castle
.
But the food was just so-​so, which made me sad. I had the veggie tacos, which tasted like veggie tacos you’d expect to get at a place that only has veggie tacos because they know this is Austin and they’re probably going to have veggie people coming in so they have to have veggie something. (Monica O says this is oft signified by the telltale piles of iceberg lettuce you can see in exhibit A, which I uploaded to the photo section here).
They did have Mexican (sugar not hfcs) Coke, which personally I can’t taste the difference in, like I can with Dublin Dr. Pepper vs. regular Dr. Pepper, and they also have cervezas and a frozen margarita machine, and a fun cartoony logo out by their sort of ‘grog-pub-here!’-like sign.
S.G. is also larger on the inside than I expected, and newer looking, with 3 or 4 big lcd screen t.v.‘s that were playing football, instead of what they should have been playing, like El espinazo del Diablo or Machete.
Gabriel H said it better, and shorter, in his review. Good idea, S.G., but meh on the execution.

Positives:
— Everything is delicious. I’ve never been disappointed at The Screaming Goat. Highlights of the menu are the drowned flautas (I like the veggie with the green sauce) and the burgers. Seriously, way cheaper and tastier than Hut’s. But no matter what you order you can’t really go wrong.
— Cheap beer! (daily $ 2 beer specials) And frozen margaritas!
— Friendly staff
— Plenty of tables. There are even a couple picnic tables outside.
— Comfortable temperature and clean bathroom
— Private parking lot behind the restaurant so you don’t have to pay at the meters across the street. (And the lot is shaded! Great in the summer.)
— They take the GoLocal card!!! You get a free fountain soda with any purchase. I’ll take that any day!
There are no negatives; I love The Screaming Goat.

As with many great ideas of the early 21^st century, it all started with a simple enough question: «What do I do with these old flautas?». And bang, you get Twitter, and…
The resulting «drowned falutas» are inspired. Crisp and sitting in a mild tomatillo based broth, they are a new «twist» to tortilla soup and one I would certainly return to.
The red salsa is a bit vinegary, but to good effect.
The queso, a bit too «whizzy» but not bad.
Another great place on the banks of the mighty Shoal.
Tostadas, Tacos and quesidillas are fresh but seem to be basic tex-​mex, nothing extraordinary, So, I sum it up with: Drowned Flautas, baby!

After a second time, I started craving this place almost daily. After a third time, I had to re-​review. YES! This place is as good as it gets. It’s now my favorite place to get tacos in Austin!

Let’s compare Torchy’s and Angry Goat shall we?
Torchy’s likes listening to Agent Orange and Fear. Goat likes Sebadoh and Spoon. Torchy’s rides a low rider bmx bike meant for 12 year olds but Torch is 29. Goat rides a fancy yet easy rider Peugeot. Torchy’s drinks Lonestar or Tecate only. Goats more into Stella and Corona. Torchy’s really fun to party with but tires easily. Goat talks about boring things sometimes, but is usually a pretty reliable time.
As you can see, Goat the restaurant is über mellow in so many ways — it’s approach, flavor, décor, setting (tiny old house of 10^th street), atmosphere, menu (read: no fried avocados here, no sir). Far be it from me to deduct points for being mild mannered, however. It’s just a manner of moods. Which do you feel like? If you want something simple, fun, low key, yet kinda different (I’ve never seen the flautas ahogadas anywhere else), swing on by El Goat.
That’s not to say Goat doesn’t like to tie one on. I’m totally looking forward for $ 2 Texas beer Tuesday, and $ 2 Corona Friday, both 4pm-​9pm I believe. Beers.
As I mentioned, the flautas ahogadas looks insane — flautas in a sort of puddle of chicken broth topped with cheese and their delicious tomatillo salsa — and on top of this I don’t really like flautas. Also, as I don’t do burritos ever ever never, I recommend the adobado chicken tacos — great melt-​in-​your-​mouth flavor that’s perfectly seasoned. The tilapia tacos were pretty dull. Still, I praise them for great service and great atmosphere.

I had no idea what the expect here. Screaming goats in South Texas set rumors of a chupacabra ablaze. This place — tiny on the outside, decently sized on the inside — has well priced tacos, really friendly staff and a delicious salsa.
I had a potato and bacon burrito with the verde sauce. A little spicy, a little vinegary and a lot of damn flavor, i ended up buying a to go mason jar full of it. The inside is clean, all wood with some TVs.
Apparently they’ve got incredible specials (75 cent flautas on Sunday) but what really sold me was the bathroom quip. The bathroom is very small… and above this tiny doll sized sink it says «Size doesn’t matter». Anyplace that can effectively employ bathroom humor is alright in my book.

If you’re looking for a great deal on lunch or dinner, be sure to check out The Screaming Goat. Went here for lunch last Saturday, and with their daily specials on tacos (and beers), my wife and I were able to have 5 tacos, a beer, and a coke for only $ 15.
There is a nice outside picnic table area in the parking lot next to a creek — it’s a very relaxing place to sit and eat. They are kind enough to put napkins, a trash can, and a place to put the baskets. No need to go back inside when you’re done to clean up!
The only problem with this place is you order at a counter right inside the front door. It’s a problem because there is room for approximately 3 people to be in that little area, and the area also has the doors for the bathrooms — it creates traffic jams. I’d recommend sending one person to order and everyone else to go sit outside or somewhere in the beautiful interior of the restaurant.

I cant believe I’ve never heard of this place all throughout my college years in Austin, but this place is worth checking out.
*Fish (tilapia) tacos = delicious!
*Nacho burger = definitely a must try! Where else can you get a nacho style burger from?
Downside:
Parking sucks!

I was driving around trying to find a new place to eat, and I happened to catch the name on the sign out of the corner of my eye. Any place with that kind of name has to be tried at least once.
When you walk in the order counter is right in front of you. I asked the employee what he had the last time, and he said try the flautas with chicken filling ahogadas style. Done.
It came in an oval shaped boat, and the flautas were sitting in the sauce. I took a bite of the corn tortilla, and didn’t think much of it. Took a moment to check my email on my phone, and tried the tortilla again. To my delight, it was excellent after soaking in the sauce. So that’s it, the trick is to let the fried corn tortillas ‘marry’ with the broth. It tasted like a pureed tamale.
I was still hungry and ordered the chicken and ground beef tacos. By themselves, they were nothing special. However, add their ‘mexicana’ medium hot sauce, and they take on another dimension.
Fast and satisfying.

Blah. I have not had their breakfast tacos, but after my lunch experience here today, I don’t even care to bother. I’m actually really surprised this place has so many good reviews because it definitely doesn’t deserve them.
I remember coming here before the name change, and I thought I remembered it as good. But it’s not. I got the adobado chicken taco on corn and the tilapia taco on wheat. The wheat tortilla did not taste right, almost rubbery. The tacos were stuffed with iceberg lettuce (WHY!?), the chicken had absolutely no flavor (the antithesis of adobado), and the tilapia taco was utterly boring. The tilapia honestly tasted like it was marinated in water. The red salsa I had was good, but it was the only part of the food I liked. And for $ 2.50 each, these tacos are way overpriced for this town. If I’m going to pay a premium for a taco, it better be UH-​MAZING a la Torchy’s. When I left I actually considered going somewhere else to satiate my taco addiction properly.
This place gets 2 stars because I liked the salsa and the restaurant is cute. But in a town with so many fantastic taco options, this one goes on my «never again» list. I don’t care if the breakfast tacos are the best on the planet — if you can’t get lunch tacos right, then don’t serve them. I don’t see this place lasting.

You have to appreciate life’s little moments.
I popped by here for breakfast tacos Thursday morning, because I had just read an amusing review about this place. It was also amusing for me to discover I proposed to my first wife here, when it was a different establishment without goats, a long time ago. As I gazed at my tacos, it occurred to me that I may have just completed the Circle of Life, and it was drawn by my left foot.
The migas tacos here are cheap and tasty, the salsas are killer, and there’s Coke Zero on tap. If I ever need a place to go and grab a quick bite and fuck with my psyche, Screaming Goat will make the list.

I spent my first wedding anniversary in this space, back when it was the far-​more-​romantic Basil’s. I remember barely making our dinner reservation, then having to go back to the office afterwards, because the federal habeas corpus petition of the death row inmate whose case my boss had been appointed to was due the following day. Despite my crazy mindset that evening, the food, atmosphere, and impeccable service at Basil’s did me right, and offered an oasis of indulgence in an otherwise utterly stressful day.
I think my fond memories of what was once here make it more difficult to swallow this rather contrived incarnation of this space. From the Screaming Goat name (please tell me what a screaming goat has to do with tacos and hamburgers — and no, they do not serve cabrito here) to the gratuitously-​suggestive saying painted in the bathroom («It’s not the size that matters» — what?), I just didn’t get it. The very young-​seeming patrons in front of us in line didn’t help, either («Oh. Mah. Gawd. I’m so going to overdraw my checking account this month!»).
My tilapia taco was fine, really, but unmemorable. I’m accustomed to fish tacos being served with an aioli; this one came with just fish, iceberg lettuce, tomato, cilantro, and a lime, on my choice of corn, wheat, or flour tortilla. I chose the wheat, and it tasted a bit stale; surprising, since the guy working the counter told me that all the tortillas were purchased from someplace that made them the night before. My request for salsa was met with a tinge of annoyance, then I was presented with a plastic cup of their «hot» green salsa, which was anything but hot.
I did have a great time here, but it had everything to do with the juicy stories told by my day’s co-​conspirator for spontaneous fun and really nothing at all to do with the size — or lack thereof — of any screaming goats.

This is a nice, small, quaint little place. Kinda reminds me of the original Kerby Lane on Kerby Lane, just a lot smaller and compact. When you walk in the register, menu, and drinks are right there. Just put in your order and pay right away. I’m not a fan of paying up front at places that have waitstaff, but I’ll just deal with it since the world doesn’t revolve around moi.
They had a burger special going on (Tuesdays) — — $ 2 Regular Burgers (normally $ 4) and $ 3 for the other burgers (Bacon & Cheese, Nacho Burger, Salsa Verde Burger — normally $ 4.89). Since I love choices and can sometimes be a pig (cut me some slack here — I just swam 50 laps on an empty stomach) I got the Regular and Nacho Burger. The basket of fries ($ 1.89) looked good, but I opted to pass on the fried carbs.
You put your order in, pay the man, get a number, then find a seat. Several plasma TVs in this place to help keep you company. My burgers came out pretty fast — I was impressed. The Nacho Burger has jalapenos, queso, guacamole, and tortilla strips — a little messy but extremely tasty. The Regular Burger comes with all the fixings, including mayo + mustard. They’re a bit smaller in size compared to what I’m used to — in fact, they actually fit in the palm of my hand (…I got big hands and size 11+ feet!!!). If I had to compare them to another burger I’d say they’re a little more than half the size of The Jackalope’s burgers (fu*k yeah!!).
The buns must be homemade because they tasted damn good — a hint of sweetness and they were toasted. My friend got the chips + queso + salsa which was superb and could easily make this a 5-​star place. The queso is some of the best I’ve ever had, and that verde salsa was awesome — a hint of lime w/​a relish-​like consistency and a bit smokey too. You definitely gotta try them, and I love the thick corn tortilla chips — served warm, similar to Matt’s El Rancho but smaller in size.
I’ll definitely go back — for that awesome queso + salsa, and the burger special is worth the discounted price regardless of the smaller size. The service was good, they were nice and fast w/​the food and thanked us as we walked out the door.

4 stars
Location: very convenient, just off Lamar on 10^th.
Great: Wheat tortillas are available. The chicken (I believe the «chicken adobado» but not 100% sure) is not greasy at all. Extremely low prices (a little over $ 2/​taco).
Good: A lot of tomatoes and lettuce, and the ingredients seem fresh.
Bad: Sometimes, you have to wait for a table.
Terrible: Sometimes, you have to clear your own table. I think there are a few too many tables in the small building, so some are really «no-​gos.» Good restaurants minimize «no-​go» tables; great ones eliminate them.
Bottom line: If you consider yourself a «healthy eater,» this is the Tex-​Mex place to try in Central Austin.