Pampell's - Kerrville Texas

Pampell's Restaurant (category Italian)

701 Water Street
Kerrville, TX 78028-5319
(830) 896-2000

Open Tue-Wed 11am-9pm; Thu-Fri 11am-2am; Sat 5pm-2am; also open Sun

This is a restaurant seated in an old building off of Water St in Kerrville dated back into the early 1900's. My husband and I decided to simply drop in to sample it as we had passed it by so often as it has the character of what looks like a slash of an old Italian Food location with the outside hinting almost as though it surrounded itself with an Irish looking pub straight out of the Boondock Saints. The whole setting for this restaurant, at the intersection of Water St and Sidney Baker, traveling down this small little block you get a strange feeling of nostalgia hinting at you as you wonder at the age of the boutiques traveling past the old 1901 restaurant.

Lots of energy of those who joyously walked before you lingering, reminding you of a time where quality mattered. My husband and I are assuming we arrived on an immensely off time, late night on a Tuesday. Besides a bartender, and one waiter there was us and only one person at the bar. The old adage came to mind that the food is only as good as the crowd that surrounds it, and we were apprehensive that for such an old and established restaurant with so much character it was worrisome that only a total of three diners including ourselves were there.

The menu is obviously intricately planned, which is important because it's also a limited menu. Perhaps it's just limited in the late evenings; I would have to go back for an early lunch and dinner to determine if we simply had received the "late" menu.

However, late night, limited service and anemic atmosphere aside we ultimately fell away into a world of food and the quaintness of the environment helped us to feel as though we had somehow reserved the whole restaurant for ourselves. We could hear ourselves speak; the one waiter was always available. I ordered the Crab Cakes which the waiter was logical and enthusiastic enough about his own restaurant’s menu to make suggestions to make a meal out of the Crab Cake appetizer. Everything was prepared to perfection. Complexities in the sauce and the special little salad greens offered a fresh contradiction to the deliciously warm Cakes that were seasoned in such a way that you felt you were eating fresh off the beach after gathering the freshest of ingredients.

The service was excellent, immensely attentive. Never once did we need to ask the waiter to back away, nor did we have to ever ask for a refill on anything. This is what I call the perfect Yin/Yang of service. Not so much 'help" that you feel the waiter waits until you take a bite to assault you just so you can't answer, not so little service that you wonder if the waiter got locked outside smoking a ciggy.

His care and attention to detail made the feeling of us being VIP all the more real.

This is definitely a restaurant I would suggest and is thus far the closest to 5/5 one could get. My complaints, immensely minor, perhaps a little more to offer on the menu. There is nothing wrong with specializing is a few dishes so perfectly done that a customer base can easily come back for that one dish that's made perfectly and simply cannot be made anywhere else.

If you are wanting to get away as a couple, with the feeling of VIP without having to make the trouble of setting up a reservation or extra cost I would suggest visiting during the mid week, after 7 PM. There is no slacking on the service or the food preparation and the chances that you will be able to hear that special loved quest with you speak over such a lovely ambience is greatly amplified.

Sans my petty quibbles, I give this a 5/5 as they did what they did with excellent service, food, perfect ambience and it obviously doesn't matter what time you do....the water is always fine.

Pasta Bella - Fredericksburg TX

Pasta Bella Restaurant and Bakery
103 S Llano St,
Fredericksburg, TX 78624-4112
830-990-9778


http://www.urbanspoon.com/u/menu/1273923?p=0  The writers at Urban Spoon have a scanned and uploaded menu for Pasta Bella, which giving credit where credit is due, appears to have been posted on this website by Jay Hicks. An excellent job by this attentive person and I felt it important as they did, to allow you to see what your menu options would be in advance.

1.   This is a small hole in the wall restaurant that if you blink traveling down Llano street there will be a good chance that you will miss it. It is hard to describe the decor and ambience unless you have been there. Pictures of the Class Michelangelo’s David now re-vamped with cooking accoutrements.

 and random vibrant colors spread upon his body. It appears that many of the portraits and paintings in the store are meant to metaphorically show a hint of madness added to the traditional, which sort of applies to the restaurants atmosphere itself. Traditional dishes you would think to see and their taste expectant, but madness with the bustling and phobic compactness of the place. Many of the chairs and tables are wobbly and sardined together but the food and staff is great so it is always packed, encouraging you to feel that claustrophobic sardine can. It seems as though they were trying to do the best they could with a very limited location, but they are definitely doing something right because day or evening, week or weekend, the restaurant is almost always packed and that should say more than anything I can write.
I have heard some people complain about the service, and at times you might think it seems slow, however, my theory to this as opposed to most slow service restaurants is the physical limitations that the staff has to work around. It's a little hard bustling through a crammed service crowd with burning hot plates of food, almost working through a jigsaw labyrinth. I have never once encountered missing out on an item I have asked the staff for, but I think there is a flustering they have to deal with as you see storage of food along the walls of the restaurant that surrounds the very visible and loud kitchen each consumer sits beside. It's a tiny, rather cramped location but the service and food are both excellent. No reservation is needed, although the hours do break during the day so be careful to call and schedule your visit during their opening hours. Although bear in mind that there generally has two sets of opening hours, with a break in the early afternoon that can cause a miss out of a lunch date if you don't pay attention to the time.

If you feel that the portions are too large you can request for a half serving, which also minimizes the cost. As for desserts, they are disappointing if you are looking for something that follows a pure Italian menu. I know when I think Italian I prefer a Tiramisu not three types of cheesecake. The menu for entree and appetizers is specifically Italian with divine cream and wine sauce reductions as well as classic Italian marinara dishes such as Manicotti.
I would give this restaurant a 4.5/5 for both the food and the service combined discounting for the cramp feeling and the consistent closure of the patio every time I have been there. If you find that you want to avoid such a cramped location, I promise, the food is just as good in my experience as an order in advance for a takeout. With the number provided above, and a link to the menus this makes you easily equipped to manage a dining 'out' experience from home.

My favorite dish and suggestion, the flash fried tender artichokes in the lemon spinach herb sauce at the half portion. This is the #5 option under the PASTA BELLA SPECIALTIES, and worth it!  And trust me, even the half order is filling but you must ask this of your server, they do not list the option of half orders on the menu and it doesn't apply to every meal.

Monday: 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Tuesday: 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Wednesday: 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Thursday: 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Friday: 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Saturday: 11:30 AM - 9:00 PM

Sunday: Closed

Closed from 2pm-5:30pm, Monday-Friday and 3pm-5:30pm on Saturday.

BONZAI SUSHI & SAKE INC - Kerrville Texas

BONZAI SUSHI & SAKE INC

218 Sidney Baker St S
Kerrville, TX  78028

830-315-6888

kerrvillebonzai@gmail.com

http://www.facebook.com/BonzaiKerr?v=wall&viewas=0

 

Tonight was the third night I have eaten at Bonzai and this is the first time that the service was excellent, the food hot, and the atmosphere relaxing.

One out of three dining attempts isn't such a great ratio. My first night eating there with a group of friends, the food was warm, late, and the waitress was hard to find and as such the service was immensely slow.

The second time was by far the most atrocious of the three. Half of the food we ordered from appetizers to entrees was forgotten and never delivered or if they were delivered they were cold and the dish flavor greatly compromised. The waitress forgot to bring us drinks and utensils even after we had received our cold food.

I ultimately had to speak with the manager and demand that the food be taken off of my ticket because for most entrees ranging from $15 - $20 one expects it to be hot after waiting 30 minutes for it.

As before mentioned, tonight was my third night giving the restaurant one more chance. It seems the key to fantastic food and fantastic service happens rarely only if you go in to eat during their down hours. Tonight the food and the service were superb.

The fried calamari as well as soft shell crab, two dishes that can easily become chewy and rough when overcooked was absolutely succulent.

Their scallops are always tender, never rough, with just the slightest of spice added to them.

Each entree comes with a clear soup and salad with a ginger dressing. The ginger dressing can be too much and it has drowned out the flavor of the greens every time I have eaten it. A tip for future diners, get the salad dressing on the side.

The restaurant also has a variety of hibachi grills and a sushi bar for people who wish for a show with their food.

The food, in my opinion, I would give a 5 out of 5, the service on average causing an overwhelmingly anxious and frustrating atmosphere bring the restaurant experience down to a 3 out of 5 which is being kind considering on a couple of occasions I refused to pay for my food due to the tardiness of the staff..  Perhaps when this is no longer a new and budding restaurant the service will get better, for now their food alone is carrying them.

If you decide to go to this restaurant, do your best to go on off hours. In addition, if you happen to go during a "rush hour" be prepared for much frustration, and crowding as well as horrid service from the wait staff.  The restaurant has absolute potential but simply needs to get better organization by their management and staff.

Eventually, Bonzai has the ability to become a top rated foodie haven but it will take months of organization and management to get there.

For now, eat there at your own risk and only on off hours. And by all means...MAKE RESERVATIONS AND DO NOT GO FOR ANY SPECIAL OCCASSIONS! I will review this restaurant again in a few months to see if any of the kinks get ironed out and hopefully their progress report will make the wait all the worth it.

As for the ambience of this restaurant. It appears to be elegant, the food exquisitely prepared and a visual work of art in every bite and one would expect that you should dress up....at least a little. I feel that the lack of dress code, a constant sea of blue jeans and tattered shirts sitting down in a restaurant that offers a rare cuisine and excellently prepared cuisine at that for this area simply ruins the atmosphere.
I have yet to eat at the restaurant where children and adults alike seem to be unable to refrain from touching the frosted glass images of the tea house geishas, which is embarrassing to me. This is not a steak house, it's a rare dining experience for any Texan town and one that you wouldn't normally see unless you were in a more populated and refined area of say, Austin or Dallas. Yet in this lovely atmosphere, pristine ornaments are treated like the Long John Silvers children’s coloring menus from across the street. The lack of dining etiquette is immensely distasteful and given how rare the service is good, and the food on time, the restaurants ambience would have given it a better rating...had the people decided to not act barbaric.
If you go to this restaurant, even if you and your friends are the only one I implore to at least make the attempt to wear some heels and a dress, or something even business casual. Men, for goodness sakes...wear some slacks! Make this restaurant what it should be, a lovely, dining experience with a surrounding of elegance. Maybe the more people decide to slowly change, hopefully, it will catch on and grow an atmosphere the restaurant was originally meant to cultivate.