February was a month for revisiting a neighborhood staple that is in great new/old hands, taking a trip to Mexico via a plate of pastries at a new breakfast spot from a celebrated name, sharing a favorite dish with a friend, researching some great values and more.
These are the 10 best dishes I ate during the year’s shortest month. For more great restaurants, broken down by cuisine, location, category and more, visit statesman.com/best-restaurants.
Filet mignon and frites at Hopfields
Hopfields is one of those restaurants/bars that I long to have in my neighborhood every time I visit. It makes me wish I was getting a PhD in comparative lit at the University of Texas and had an excuse to walk over and drink a few beers or red wine with some bistro food once a week. It’s hard to believe the French gastropub will celebrate 15 years this fall, but it also makes perfect sense: It’s hospitable, inviting and serves some of the best French-inspired cuisine in Austin. And with Thomas Reeh — a veteran of Wink, Mars, Fino and more — running the kitchen for most of the past year, Hopfields is as strong as ever.
I’ve had a run of pretty mediocre steaks in Austin lately and, friends, they have not been cheap. The most maddening thing about an underwhelming steak (besides the value proposition) is the fact that you usually feel you could’ve made a better one at home. I felt no such disappointment with a recent filet mignon served with perfect fries. The salt-and-pepper-crusted cut, seared evenly in tallow on a French top, was bigger than my fist. It jiggled like Santa’s belly when I carved into it and blushed with the same red as Old Saint Nick’s cheeks…