This past weekend a group of friends and I started Project Austin Food Trailer Tour, where we’ll attempt to sample as many things as we can at a food trailer we have chosen. We hope to do this every week or every other week- depending on the weather, of course. The idea behind this is to help promote one of the great things about Austin; being able to find good food from not so ideal locations. I’ll provide reviews from each of the establishments we visit and also try to recreate some of their signature dishes.
This week we visited the Mighty Cone- located at 1600 S. Congress Ave. My friends in the group had been here before and wanted me to start the tour off with a bang. At first glance, of the not so extensive menu, I knew it would be easy for us to make our choice. We ordered two variations of the Hot & Crunchy Cone (chicken with avocado and shrimp with avocado), a beef slider, chili-dusted fries, and an order of fried pickles. There were three and a half of us (three adults and one toddler) eating, so it’s not as much food as it sounds.
I started off with the Hot & Crunchy Cones; both were prepared the same way- shrimp or chicken covered with corn flakes and sesame seed breading topped with a spicy aioli sauce. The avocado was breaded in the same fashion and deep-fried, as well. These ingredients sat on top of your standard coleslaw wrapped in a flour tortilla and served in a paper cone.
Sounds delicious right?
That’s what I thought until I took my first bite- I paused- and took a second bite. Maybe my palette wasn’t fooling me, could it be true that this wonderfully textured meal wrapped in a tortilla could be so bland?
So, I started to deconstruct my “cone” (it’s really just a taco) to taste each element individually. I came to this conclusion:
The super crunchy texture was great on both the chicken and shrimp but lacked any flavor whatsoever; this is a case where a little salt and pepper was really needed. However, both proteins were not over cooked so that was a good thing.
The spicy aioli really disappointed me; this could have been the one thing that brought the dish together. Instead, the aioli was a bit watery and lacked any garlic or chili flavor. It was just a very pretty orange sauce that served no other purpose than to add color to the dish.
The deep fried avocado was an over kill when it came to using the corn flake and sesame breading. It didn’t add anything constructive or flavorful to this dish. If anything, the large chunk of avocado was a bit hard to eat just because of the size.
The use of the coleslaw was a bit confusing to me. It was pretty much your standard coleslaw that you can get anywhere in town. Its place at the bottom of the cone conflicted with the use of the aioli on top. They’re both mayonnaise-based sauces; one with garlic and the other with sugar. There was one good thing about the coleslaw- it wasn’t bland like all of the other components of this dish.
All-in-all, the texture was nice but the flavor was non-existent.
Next, we moved on to the beef slider which consisted of all natural beef, red onions, and tomatoes squeezed between a dinner roll. Yes! I was so excited because there is now way you can mess up a simple beef slider, right?
Wrong again.
First, let me complain about the cost which is way over-priced for the amount being served. You get one slider- and it really is a slider- not a hamburger for just under six dollars. I’ve had Kobe burgers that tasted a hundred times better and were cheaper than this slider.
I took a bite and the first thing I noticed was that the meat was a little dry, as if someone was really pressing on this patty to get it to cook faster. The second thing I noticed was that, once again, the food was bland.
As I sigh in disappointment, my internal thoughts keep reverting back to, “How do you screw up a slider, an expensive one at that?”
I moved on to the sides and the fried pickles were okay. They were breaded in the same corn flake and sesame breading and at this point I can’t help but feel like the breading is getting to be a little bit of overkill.
The chili-dusted fries were the highlight of the meal and not because they had tons of flavor, but because you could drench them in ketchup.
Our tour started off with a bust instead of a bang, but that’s ok because there are still a lot of other places to eat in Austin and I’m going to try to find them. I’m sure I’ll find a dish that I love and give the ultimate compliment of recreating rather than trying to find a way to improve on their dish, concept, or flavors.Click here for the Bistro 331 Version of "Hot and Crunchy Shrimp and Chicken with Avocado Cone"
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