Thistle Cafe

THE POETIC VERSION:
I walked in and looked around,
But no one was there to sit me down.
«Do I seat myself?» I asked the air.
I walked up to the counter and sat in a chair.
«Oh, we do counter service,» said a man in my ear.
«Come order right over here.»
I studied the menu and picked out a meal:
Penne pasta, alfredo and sausage… good deal!
Twelve bucks it cost (with tea), and I waited for the container.
Twenty minutes it took, but I’m no complainer. (yes I am)
Got back to the office and opened the bag.
They’d laid the box upright and sauce had spilled. What a drag!
The sauce was runny, and pepper ruined the taste.
The sausage was fatty. Man, what a waste!
The pasta itself was just plain blah.
Will I return to Thistle? The answer is, Nah!
THE PROSE VERSION:
I walked in but couldn’t figure out if I was supposed to seat myself. Most places have a sign saying either, «Hostess will seat you,» or «Please seat yourself.» So I walked around and finally spied a counter area. I saw counter seating off to the side, so I sat down expecting to be served there. A man approached and informed me that they are a counter-​service operation. Okay, I’m at the counter. Oh, I have to get up and go to the cash register, order, and wait for my food. Okay, then. So I went to the counter and studied the menu. They have salads, wraps, sandwiches and pastas to choose from, or you can make your own of any one of those things. I decided to make my own pasta with penne, alfredo sauce and Italian sausage.
I got it to go, which took a while longer than I thought it would. Finally got my stuff and walked the block back to the office.
When I got to the break room and opened the bag, I discovered they had placed the box in there upright. It’s the typical to-​go box, so it should have lain flat. As it was, a lot of the alfredo sauce had seeped out of the box into the bag. What a mess! And the little snippet of bread they gave me fell out of its too-​small bag and was drenched in alfredo sauce. No problem, I didn’t want the stupid bread anyway.
So I cleaned the mess and sat down to eat the pasta. Tried a piece of sausage first. It was breakfast sausage, which I wasn’t expecting. Gross with pasta. And it was fatty, and too chewy because of it. Also, there was quite a bit of pepper. I think the pepper was already on the sausage instead of having been added to the pasta. I don’t like pepper, folks. I just don’t. A tiny smidgeon goes a very long way. The pasta was bland and I wanted something to flavor it up a bit, but pepper was not the answer I was looking for. Didn’t matter anyway because somehow the tastes of the pepper and the pasta/​sauce stayed completely separate on my palate. They did not mix or complement each other, or anything. So that made the pepper taste stronger, and therefore all the worse, in my mouth. I ate around the pepper as much as I could, but the pasta and sauce were so bland it was simply not enjoyable.
The sauce was runny and thin. I soon remembered that I make much better pasta at home. Sure, it’s convenient to have someone else make it for you so you have no clean-​up about which to worry, but I’d rather have quality food and deal with the eventual clean-​up.
I kept thinking, «I’m going to stab myself with an insulin needle for THIS?!» I don’t have pasta very often because it wreaks havoc with my blood sugar, so when I do have it I want it to be deliciously sinful. This pasta was merely sinful.

Thistle Café is the closest food place to my workplace that’s not a bar, so I go there a lot to order stuff to-​go when I fail to prepare lunch. It’s a cafeteria-​style «order and then sit down» casual environment.
Lunch Menu
* Spinach Salad with Grilled Chicken — Spinach, red onion, feta, red peppers, grilled chicken, egg, bacon, served with warm honey mustard dressing — This was really good… I loved the warm dressing, but the chicken was a bit dry.
* Vegetarian Portobello Mushroom Burger — The cap of a Portobello mushroom marinated & grilled, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle on a whole-​wheat bun — Healthy, tasty, flavorful, but also really juicy! The inside of the break is toasted, which makes for a crunchy delight. Towards the end it got soggy, and I don’t like soggy bread! Don’t try to eat this while walking down the street.
Uppers: tasty food at a decent price, cute boys (sometimes)
Downers: can be slow during lunch hour

Went there for lunch with my boyfriend – we wanted to go somewhere close to where I work in order not to press the time – since I had a meeting I had to be back for.
The menu is nothing special, though the flavor is good enough. I wasn’t impressed by the fare or presentation – it was all simply mediocre. To be frank, I could only imagine this place is open because of its convenient location to the business it shares a building with. They would benefit greatly by adding a few more adventurous items to the menu, I think.
The most offensive aspect of the entire experience was the sloth-​like service. It is a counter-​service establishment – and once they deliver your food, that’s it. No biggie, right? So tell me why, with only 4 other tables in the entire place filled, would it take 30 MINUTES to receive my food?
Of course, as soon as I get back to work and discuss it with my boss, I find out it has a «reputation.» Haha! Well I doubt I will go back again. It was thoroughly unimpressive.

I was thinking about lunch and plan to go to the Thistle Café Downtown today.
I love their Prime Rib Sandwich and others in my office go for their salads and pasta.
Modest pricing for the quality food that you get.
My only problem with Thistles is that service is a bit slow during lunch time hours. This is not good when you have limited time to eat.

Food at Thistle was always great when I went. Service was a hit or miss though. I personally think their fried chicken salad on Thursdays is pretty amazing.

Bear in mind that I’m here for a sort of one day conference, and our meal, while provided by Thistle Café, may differ slightly from their usual fare. So there’s that right off the top. Nevertheless, the experience was pleasant, the food was from here, so by gawd, I’m Unilocaling it. They served a variety of wraps and giant stackable sandwiches, kettle cooked potato chips, and these chocolate chip cookies (warm ones) about the size of a baby’s head. So that was nice.
Drinks were your standard issue soda fountain variety, and the salad served showed up not quite slathered in some balsamic goodness that arrived unexpectedly sweet. Even so, my server was friendly and on point. Was this the typical Thistle Café experience? Judging by the reviews of others, the jury’s still out. We’ll know more after a repeat performance here in the snowglobe.

Finding The Thistle Café was like discovering a hidden treasure in Downtown Austin. I wanted to have a unique setting for my wedding reception and when I heard that The Thistle rents there downtown location out on the evenings and weekends for private parties, I was thrilled. It was a beautiful place to have a reception. Its modern dcor is perfect for those not wanting to spend a lot of money on large elaborate floral arrangements. I worked with Herman and Susan and they were both very helpful and accommodating, and the service was great.
Most importantly, the food was fantastic. I got so many complements on the quality of food and the unique and beautiful setting. It was as if all my guests were surprised that a wedding could encompass both elements.
I have recommended them again and again to my friends who are getting married and want something more interesting than a hotel ballroom reception.

I used to eat lunch here pretty frequently because it is convenient to where I work. I don’t anymore because (a) the food is mediocre and (b) I have had problems with their service. I have been here no less than 15 times and I have had something wrong happen on at least half of those occasions. It is easier to bullet note these:
— rice was undercooked in the chicken rice soup (I’m talking CRUNCHY)(2x)
— they forgot my side salad (1x)
— they forgot my dressing (2x)
— they lost my order (2x)
— they took my order, then told me they were closed (1x)
Um, okay. I can understand these things happening once in a while, but I had not been there enough to have all those mistakes be okay. A 50% error rate is too high. I only receive an apology ONCE for their many transgressions, when the chef came out and presented my missing salad to me, along with three free cookies.
Also, there is a woman there who says «sweetie» all the time, enough to bug me. I mean, «Hello, sweetie, how you doin’, sweetie. What’ll you have, sweetie?» It’s just bit too much for me. It seems to be more of a tic rather than an attempt at good customer service. Five less «sweeties» and she would have been gold.
What made me finally stop going there is the fact that they do not serve the make your own pizzas there anymore. Buh-​bye!

I used to frequent the Thistle quite often, as I worked downtown right across the street from it. It is a great quick place for lunch that is still a nice sitdown place. You basically go through a line to order, and then you are seated with your drink and they bring your order to you.
My favorite menu item is the Cobb Salad. It is probably the most fattening Cobb Salad you will ever have, but it is so yummy! It is loaded with chicken, bacon, hard boiled eggs, avocado, tomatoes, blue cheese, and so on. The spinach salad with chicken is also very yummy, but not nearly as good as the Cobb Salad. They also have really good chocolate chip cookies!
The only reason I don’t give this place 5 stars is that the service is spotty. The lady that owns the place is kind of cuckoo. She works the register sometimes, and I she actually threw my change at me once. But the food is too good to worry about that. ;)

I’ve been here several times, mostly for lunch and a couple of times for happy hour, and for some reason that I can’t quite put my finger on, it just kind of leaves me cold. Based on the décor and the price, I keep expecting the food to be amazing, but nothing I’ve had here was really all that memorable. A sandwich or wrap or 7″ pizza will run you $ 7-​$ 8; create-​your-​own-​pasta is $ 9.25, and the lunch menu tops out at $ 15 for a seafood cobb salad. Not totally out of line for a good lunch, but still on the high side when the food doesn’t knock your socks off and you consider that you place your order by walking through a cafeteria-​style line.
Last time I was here, the service was unusually friendly. I think the woman who waited on me (in the cafeteria line) called me «sweetheart» no less than ten times during our brief transaction.
I do love the décor here. It manages to be both modern and warm, thanks to their use of sleek, dark wood furniture; soothing color scheme; and the cool cloth banners hanging from the ceiling featuring just the kind of modern-​yet-​organic prints that I love. If I suddenly became independently wealthy, I would hire whoever decorated this place to come do my house.

OK. So maybe I’m not being fair to the thistle café.
OK, so maybe my review of the thistle café has something to do with the fact that I went there to crash a party of Ivy League alums, and so the place screamed, «I’m pretty cool, are you?»
1. I couldn’t even find the name of the restaurant to review it. I ended up asking a waiter as I was leaving, where the heck are we? Then I saw it written in tiny print outside on some hanging cloth.
2. Its beautiful inside. A little too beautiful for me. Hanging cloth decoration, high ceilings. OK, so maybe it wasn’t too beautiful, just a little intimidating. It made me feel like I should be in a cocktail dress and sipping a martini.
3. It was very bright and spacious.
Clearly this review is all about the ambiance since I only crashed the party and didn’t partake of any of the food. But, everything smelled good. Word on the street is they charged 30 bucks for the dinner, but some of that could have been going to the ivy league folks, and who knows if that included a drink.
Verdict: Good for large parties.

Ended up having our rehearsal dinner here and it turned out PERFECT! Why 4 stars? We have been before and while it’s crowded at lunch (that’s actually an understatement) it’s really slow for the dinner crowd. So slow, you would think service would be better. The food is great, but a bit pricey. They are known for their warm cookies and the bread pudding is awesome. My favorite dish there is the chicken with pesto (not too much pesto, just right).