El Chilito

“You are going to LOVE living in this neighborhood.” Slightly biased coming from the listing agent for our apartment, as he’s handing over the keys on that very first move-in evening. But then he continued, “I live a few blocks away and there is this GREAT taco place right around the corner.” Tacos? Hmmmm…now you’re talking.

And it turned out the listing agent was right – the tacos at El Chilito on Manor Road taste great with a great price. This one room shop, staffed by an “only in Austin” combo of Latino chefs and hipster cashiers, reminds me of a 1950s ice cream shop – walk-up ordering and pick-up windows, umbrella’d outside seating, and a section of covered patio seating for Austin’s “winter.” Each foil-wrapped taco is small enough to fit in one hand, so that the other hand can hold a glass-bottled Mexican Coke (no corn syrup – yay!). But two tacos later, both JP and I are usually full – and at under $3 each, that’s one cheap meal!

Tinga de Pollo

I can’t eat red meat, so I tend to stick with their Tinga de Pollo or Pollo Asado tacos…with guacamole (but of course!). Their chicken is so well-spiced that even my carnivorous JP usually has one chicken and one red meat taco, like their Carne Guisada taco. My all-time favorite is the shrimp taco that makes it occasionally on their list of daily specials. Being originally from the Seattle area, I tend to be a seafood snob and, let’s face it, seafood does not grow in Austin. But these shrimp tacos are the perfect blend of Seattle-quality seafood with Texas-Mexican flavor.

Shrimp taco!

If we’re really hungry, we’ll also take home some of their freshly made chips and queso. It has a little bit of a spicy kick, but with chunks of fresh peppers and onions in the dip – I know that kick comes honestly. And lucky us, we’re within walking distance of this Austin gem.

Date Night – Vivo

Vivo, loosely translated, means alive. And there is nothing like a night out after almost a month of “pack, move, drive, move, clean, unpack, clean some more” to make you feel alive…especially when that night out means sitting on the garden patio at Vivo Tex-Mex with one of their cucumber margaritas in hand. One sip of that icy green goodness and yes folks, she’s back in action!

Vivo’s Manor location just happens to be right around the corner from our new home in Austin and, after passing by every other day musing “we should really check that place out,” a Groupon deal took away any and all excuse for not going.  5pm on a Saturday night and we only had a 20 minute wait for a table on the patio, which was amazing considering it was game day and many a Longhorn fan was getting their pre-game dinner on at the Vivo patio.  While we waited for our table, we enjoyed a cocktail in their patio-bar section.  Enter – THE Cucumber Margarita.

Something about that cucumber made me feel refreshed from the inside out – like putting a slice of cucumber on the tired puffiness that had become my post-move body.  I ordered it with top shelf tequila, which meant the margarita came with fresh lime juice.  And as my professional mixologist friend says, a margarita isn’t a margarita unless it’s made with fresh lime juice.  The Hawaiian black sea salt gave it a uniquely balanced finish.

The food was good, but couldn’t compare to that first drink.  I like seafood, so the shrimp enchiladas (recommended by our server) were fantastic – with a spicy kick in the sauce.  The El Trio (queso, guacamole, and bean dip) was good, but honestly, the complementary chips and salsa had a better flavor all on their own.  JP tried the Emma Special with a beef puffy taco and a chile enchilada, and he was also satisfied with his food.

In short – much needed night out, wonderful environment, great drinks, and food tasty enough that we forgot about taking photos until we were almost finished with our meal.  Next time we need a little “life” back in our day-to-day, Vivo will on our list 🙂