When a new restaurant opened  in the neighborhood, all of us were excited to check it out. Black walnut is a chain restaurant which has a new location on 2222 near 620. Located between couple of neighborhoods and near a high school, it is very convenient to the locals of four point’s area.

The restaurant has a great look & feel and ambiance with loft ceilings, open spaces, modern décor, lot of wood work giving it elegance. The dining hall has a lot of seating in booths and tables and has an interesting diner like look with the tin crafted ceiling.  Besides dining area, they also have a bar seating.

When you enter the restaurant, you have to take a menu, stand in the line and make an order and pay for it.  They then give you a ticker which you take and wait on any of the tables you have picked, and   when it buzzes on , you go  to the main reception area again  and pick your food.  This may look like a convenient concept to the restaurant, but I strongly suggest they change the practice.  To start with in a family style restaurant where you expect people to come with families and kids, it’s inconvenient to stand in the line with kids and expect them to go through the menu and pick their order quickly and get it all ordered and paid for, then go and find a table to seat the family. Secondly when the ticker buzzes, we all have to go and get our food and drinks from the reception area, on this long walk one has to juggle  plates and sides balancing and preventing getting tripped by kids who are running around since after all it’s a family restaurant.  If the practice cannot be changed, at least modify it by delivering the food to the table. The balancing act with food from reception to dining hall is definitely not convenient in a larger setting like this restaurant. We barely escaped a mishap ourselves.

We went to this restaurant as a family with our out-of-town guest for weekend brunch. The good part about this place is the wide choice and menu options which cater to brunch, lunch or dinner.  When we entered, the kids went over to pick a booth of their choice, while the adults went back and forth to decided  the menu choices  for everybody and stood in the line to order and pay ahead.  We  ordered beef fajita tacos,   Philly Cheese steak omelet , Bison Burger and sweet potato fries,  waffle and chicken, French toast and  eggs, Orange juice and coffee.

The waiting time for the food to arrive was not much and we were pleased because we had to go to the airport after brunch.  The food was pretty good but not great, I guess the ambiance had hyped up our expectations, besides the excitement to have a new restaurant in the neighborhood.  The Beef Fajita Tacos were decent, but would have preferred the option of ordering wheat tortillas over corn tortillas, and  the pico de gallo could do with some jalapenos, it sure needed some spice; the Philly Cheese Steak Omelet would be more tastier if the steak was chopped up and mixed in the omelet like its normally done instead of Philly steak pieces in the omelet. The  Tatonka Bison Burger was good so were the sweet potato fries. The southern style  Chicken and Waffle  was an  interesting combo. The  Frenchie-French toast , over easy eggs  and potatoes were pretty fine too.

It’s a decent diner to brunch in sometimes, but I hope the management takes some hints about the delivery of food to the table and fine tunes some details with some taste testing. Then the place could become a popular hangout for the four pointers!

Cuisine: Diner
Price Range: Average
Rating: ***
Website: http://blackwalnutcafe.com
Location: 10817 Ranch To Market Road 2222, Austin, TX  -78730

Dishes Reviewed: 

•  Philly Cheese Steak Omelet, with roast beef, onions,  mushrooms, cheddar, mozzarella, sour cream, potatoes, scallions.
• North of the Border Beef Fajita Tacos- marinated and grilled Fajita steak,  grilled onions, Guacamole, Pico De gallo,lettuce, cilantro, feta and corn tortillas
• Totonka Burger-Seasoned natural bison, chedar, red onions, lettuce, mustard on wheat bun with sweet potato fries.
• Chicken and Waffle – Belgian waffle with fried chicken tenders, powdered sugar, maple syrup.
• Frenchie-Texas cut challah French toast, Two Eggs, house potatoes, Turkey Sausage.