We first moved here to Austin in 2001, and maybe a week after arriving, discovered Trudy's. Not that it took that much work - the three locations of this restaurant are some of the most popular places in town, especially with college students and young twentysomethings. Once a month or so, there we'd be, waiting an hour or more for a table so we could eat huge fried chiles rellenos stuffed with mushroom fajitas or softball-sized fried avocados stuffed with chicken or plates overflowing with enchiladas in cream sauce, and wash everything down with Austin's signature drink - a martini shaker full of margaritas called a Mexican martini (limit two).
I like to think I put on my mid-twenties twenty-five pounds when I quit smoking and got a desk job, but in hindsight, Trudy's just may have had something to do with it.
When we moved out of that early twentysomething demographic, Trudy's started to lose its luster. The drinks tasted sweeter every time we went. The menu never changed. The place was loud, and cavernous, and it started to become more and more difficult to overlook the ridiculous unhealthiness of 90% of the menu.
But it's been a stressful few weeks for the hubs around here with this new movie he's working on, and he came home on Friday craving a bowl of cheese and a Mexican martini, perhaps not in that order. So, off we went!
We were seated significantly less than a half-hour later and scanned the menu, noting that very little had changed about the place since we were last there in August of 2007. Oh, now they have some kind of barbecue on the menu... but I think that's about it.
We ordered a small queso, and it came out with a bowl of fresh tortilla chips and Trudy's two salsas, a spicy red and a spicier green.
Yes, this is the small queso. It's basically a bowl of processed, warm, melty cheese, with crunchy bits of onion, smooth cool guacamole, soft tomatoes, and bits of fresh cilantro. It's good, but you can't escape the fact that it is, at its base, a bowl of cheese you eat with fried corn chips. YUM!
We split an entree, though I honestly think Husbear would have been happy sticking to his alcohol and cheese. Yes, THAT kind of stressful week. These are the vegetarian fajitas, a sliced portobello mushroom served with onion and red bell pepper on a sizzling plate. You get your choice of tortilla (flour or corn), refried beans and rice, and a plate of fixin's with guacamole, sour cream, lettuce, pico de gallo, and some silly and unnecessary shredded cheese. So, three plates and a tortilla container. One entree.
I liked putting the savory mushrooms in the tortilla with pico and guacamole; it made for a tasty combination of hot and cool, grilled and fresh. I think if you go easy on the guacamole and sour cream (and of course, the refried beans) this is about the healthiest thing you can get on their menu, and it's full of flavor.
The two of us got out of there for $30 before tip - two drinks each, one appetizer, and one entree. Not a bad price for some pretty good food.
Trudy's North Star, 8820 Burnet Road, Austin TX. Their kitchen is open until 2 AM on weekdays and midnight during the week, so it's one of the few late-night options around here.
