El Arbol - Austin

There has been talk, talk, talk about the Latin American restaurant El Arbol since it opened last year.  I have been looking forward to exploring and seeing if I can make it work gluten-free.

It is a beautiful place with a large, old, interesting tree in the center.  Hence, the name.  The building is an interesting mix of early 60s mode and the 70s cement building it was created from.

We got a large cushy booth big enough for 4.  That was nice!

The menu was quite appetizing.  I perused it for a while finding many things that looked promising for GF.

When I told the waitress I was gluten-free, she was right on it.  The waitress knew right off the top of her head what was safe and what wasn't.  She rattled it off like a pro.  Though I could not have my top pick (I was eyeing the pork belly.  Boo gluten! ), there were many things I could.

All the appetizers except the obvious ones with bread were safe.
Half of the 6 entrees were safe : the scallops, the grouper and the short ribs.
All of the steaks were safe and all the the appetizers except the 2 with pasta were safe.
There were a lot of options, actually.




We started with drinks of course.

Italiano!

For appetizer we shared the Pulpo al la Parrilla, oak grilled octopus with charred fennel, roasted potato and salmorra (I ate that and still don't know what it is).  The dish was actually very good.  Flavorful with a little kick.

For blogging sake, I should have tried one of the entrees but the scallops came with brussel sprouts (my only hated veggie), grouper is on my "you are killing the earth if you eat this fish" list and the short ribs came with a poached egg.  Our chickens have bumped production up to 4 eggs a day recently and I just couldn't eat another egg.  So,  I went with a good, ol' steak.  The Bife de Lomo, an 8 oz tenderloin, medium.

Pay no attention to the glutinous pork belly.  I'm sure it was awful!

It came with an excellent chimichurri sauce.  I ordered purple whipped potatoes and sauteed wild Texas mushrooms on the side.  It was tasty.  The steak was cooked perfectly and the flavors went well together.

I feeling a little ill at this point but, I pushed through for the sake of research and ordered dessert.


There were many gluten free options.  It was decided that the Coconut Dulce de Leche was the one for us to share.  This was sea salt caramel gelato with a flourless chocolate cake topped with a coconut custard and toasted coconut.  There was a little cacao nib brittle that was not gluten free but, that was left on the side for my gluten consuming companion.

I was highly disappointed with this superficially sinful dessert.  My companion agreed stating that the best part was the brittle that I couldn't have.  The sea salt caramel gelato was much too salty. The flourless chocolate cake was okay but could have used a lot more chocolate, or maybe vanilla even.  The real ruin of this was the "coconut custard".  It was so bad that I didn't even realize it was supposed to be custard until I looked it up for this blog.  I am a science nerd so, I am very familiar with agar.  Do you remember this stuff from science class?  It was like hard jello you put in a clear plate to grow bacteria on.  It has a distinct odor due to the nutrients placed in it.  Well, the "custard" basically tasted and felt like agar with a little coconut oil in it.  It was on the verge of inedible.  Definitely not worth the calories or the money.

Overall, it was a successful gluten free outing.  I was impressed with the options, the service, the environment and the company.  The food was good.  Some of it very good.  The dessert was disastrous.
The meal was expensive.

The final verdict is 4/5 stars for gluten friendly but that there are a lot of places in town I would pick first before going to El Arbol.  As my companion said, it left me "uninspired".