4800 Burnet Road
Austin, TX 78756
512 458-1100
I got to check out La Sombra, a new venture on Burnet, this past Friday with my friends Lindsey and Jed. This restaurant occupies the old Sampaio location and offers up similar, Latin American fare. The space is also intended to be a bar/lounge of some sorts... I'm interested to see if the location is a good spot for such a venture.
La Sombra definitely has a sleek, if not terribly Latin American, ambiance. There is a large outdoor seating area which looks to be very pleasant. If I go back sometime in the late fall I will try to sit out there. The one weird thing about the space is the division between the lounge/bar area and the dining area. The room is split roughly evenly between the two areas - are they expecting that much bar action given the locale?
The restaurant had only opened 4 days prior, so we were unsure what to expect. We found the place to be pleasant enough, if oddly configured. I had a glass of wine from the short Spanish/Latin list - an Argentine semillon from Salta. My friends sampled their sangrias, which were ok apparently but not astounding. They also have a bar list of the expected Latin American drinks - pisco sours, caipirinhas, etc.
For food, I wanted to try as much as possible. Unfortunately, they only had a limited opening week menu. We sampled their guacamole (not unusual, but nice corn cakes accompanied) and their chicharrones for starters. The chicharrones were actually large slices of pork belly, not pork rinds, a nice surprise. For my main course, I ordered both the mushroom ceviche and the ceviche of the day, as well as two of the empanadas. I enjoyed the mushroom ceviche, which was more a medley of marinated, mixed mushrooms. Their fish ceviche was sufficient, but uninspiring. It needed some kick. The empanadas were well done with interesting flavors; I really liked the chicken (the olives in the beef were a bit much). Lindsey and Jed split the salad special of the day - grilled shrimp with candied habaneros - as well as the parilla gaucho - a grilled steak dish with two chimichurris. They really liked the steak as well as the chimichurris - I think the red ended up being the favorite.
We were too stuffed for dessert, but they have a decent menu. Apparently they are also open for brunch; maybe something to check out in the future. Overall, if this restaurant was off south first, I probably would dine there more often. As it is, it's not inspiring enough to make me want to go back often.
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