Sunday Brunch at the Snack Bar

We decided to try a new place for brunch yesterday, instead of our usual Sagra.  Of course we wake up no later than 7AM on a Sunday so it is really hard to wait until brunch anyway so this worked out.  We biked over to the Snack Bar after deciding against Magnolia Cafe (It was after 7AM and the waitress that calls us "sweetie" was there).  We had been reluctant to try this place because we are much to hungry to settle for snacks but it was so much more than the name suggests!  First off the little things were cute like the water was served from a beaker, the coffee cups were modular and the overall atmosphere was pretty relaxed.  The service was the type we like where there is not a bunch of fake chit chat but simply refills and silence.  Additionally, we sat outside and they offered us personal heaters and lap blankets so that was nice.  We started off with banana bread which was in Shannon's opinion, delicious, because of the lack of an egg taste and light sweetness, in Miguel's opinion, pretty good, because he loves sweet, moist, nutty bread.  The coffee was excellent, very comparable to Magnolia Cafe's #1 coffee.  The banana bread dipped in the coffee was reallly good.  Next up was the entree, Miguel ordered the tofu migas with an added egg white and a side of seitan sausage, Shannon had the Tamago Yoko with poached/scrambled egg whites and the seitan of course.  Both were amazing but the migas were the best, in fact so good they have surpassed Arturo's to earn the #1 migas in town.  The cheese was obviously sharp and of a good quality and the tofu was actually scrambled to resemble eggs rather than left in chunks as other places have done.  Even the black beans that come with the migas were amazing.  The seitan sausage was very good but a little dry.  The seitan on the Tamago Yoko was moist though and resembled a sort of thick bacon type "meat".  The Tamago Yoko is a cabbage and leek patty topped with 2 strips of seitan bacon and then topped with eggs, sriracha, nuoc cham and wasabi aioli.  They make their aioli or mayonnaise in house although we could not appreciate that since we do not like mayo.  Overall it was a great dish but by the end it is too much of the same flavor, perhaps if you were to share with someone or use the mayo it might fix this.  We happened to read the happy hour menu while we were there and it sounds pretty amazing so we will be back for sure.

UPDATE: We did go back and they seem have become less vegan and pocket friendly.  They added shrimp to the hash cake, took away the vegan gravy, got rid of the migas and our server seemed to be very confused about how to incorporate a tofu scramble.  It was like he thought it was gross but didn't know what we could add to it to fix that.. one suggestion was salt, he also said they could just grill a slab for us lol.  They do have a tofu scramble in another breakfast though, so not sure why this was so hard.  The service was pretty bad this time around.  The michelada was really good the first time but not the second, and for a $5 cocktail you'd hope for a little consistency.  They have a really good, and expensive, sounding french toast that is vegan, cooked with rice milk and has nadamoo ice cream on top.  The salad also looked a lot better than it sounded, the people next to us ordered it and the avocados and pineapples were huge.  They do have vegan things like granola and silk yogurt, etc. but since you are already getting a "snack," getting a lighter snack that is readily available at home is not all that appealing.  The sliders sounded good but were $10 with no side, this time felt more like the Snackbar was a fitting name.

Recommend
http://www.snackbaraustin.com/