Central Market Cafe

Gotta say… Very expensive for what it is. $ 9 for dried, flavorless chicken and soggy Brussels sprouts. Next to the office and fast, but you will pay to be underwhelmed. Kind staff so stars for that.

A great place to shop and eat. Quality and freshness! The meat and seafood selections are best and the holistic/​vitamin area is a plus.

Interesting people watching place. There was a man in the booth next to us that had a cut off denim skirt on circa 1995. Which isn’t exactly strange for Austin, but it was a bit questionable due to the fact that most men who wear women’s clothing usually put together the whole ensemble… but I digress. The food is good here, and reasonably affordable. I had the turkey fontina panini which was delicious. The fries could have been a bit crispier. There are lots of choices and they have daily specials which looked really yummy. I would come back again.

CM Café sucked this morning. I got two breakfast tacos, and waffles. I had finished my capp and my boyfriend finished his OJ before we got our ice cold food. It took over 25 minutes to get that order. I spoke to the manager and he was the employee that looked least like he was working. Constantly on his phone. Really horrible experience especially since CM is so great at everything else.

I started going to the café in Central Market back in 2000, and since it was a fairly convenient location (I lived in West Campus for 3 years and Hyde Park for two years) with a variety of good and reasonably-​priced food, I visited pretty often until I moved away in 2005 to go to graduate school. The café has prettymuch slipped my mind in the ensuing half-​decade, until last night.
My husband and I were planning to go to Blue Star Cafeteria, but weren’t all that jazzed about the prospect of their prices or the possibility of a wait. We were at Central Market anyway to buy some bulk spices (really the only way to buy your exotic spices, folks), and finally remembered the existence of their café.
I was craving shrimp, and one of the daily specials was a tortellini dish with shrimp, tomato-​alfredo sauce, and veggies, so I ordered that. My husband ordered the chicken-​fried steak.
We did have to wait on our food for awhile, but of course the place was crowded on a Saturday night. We had ordered sodas with our meals, and I was happy to see that they still had Stewart’s «Orange n’ Cream» soda at the fountain.
My husband went up to get our food and when I saw that there was no bread, I asked him if they no longer had it, or what. He said he hadn’t been offered any bread. I went up to ask about it, and got a roll for each of us. Maybe the bread is now request-​only rather than automatically being included with most meals as it was before? Who knows.
My food was very good. Some of the tortellini were a bit al dente for me, but that’s a personal preference thing. The shrimp were plentiful and obviously pretty fresh (I don’t like ordering a shrimp dish and only getting like 5 shrimp … who does?). The vegetables (zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, and small halved tomatoes) and sauce were good too.
My husband’s food was great. It was literally the best chicken fried steak either of us have had in years! Not tough, good flavor, perfect amount of/​texture of breading, etc. It came with ample portions of green beans and mashed potatoes, and those were also great. I’m ordering that next time for sure … I’ve been so disappointed the past few times I’ve ordered chicken fried steak, even at places that are famous for it.
I eat a lot, but I had so much food that I was able to take home leftovers. Now I’ll have a nice pasta lunch at work on Monday.
This meal was less than $ 30, and I’m sure that it would’ve cost more at most other places. I’m thinking we’ll be back much sooner this time … after that good of a meal I don’t think we’ll be waiting another 5 years.

Central Market has made some key changes to their menu, and I am very happy with them! Some of the former daily special items are now a part of the anchor menu. Many of the items are more reasonably priced, and a few items got a face-​lift. The new veggie burger is some kind of high powered veggie mutant with awesome sprouts and flavors galore. Also, the new portabello and veggie sandwich is excellent (and huge!). I recommend trying all the new menu items for yourself! Bön apetit!

This is a 4 star review for my dessert. Chocolate mousse in a cup, similar to a chocolate pots de crème. This dessert has blown my g.d. mind. I’m uploading a photo.
I assume they have these at the regular Central Markets and or the cafes in the Central Markets. I hope, for your sake, that they do. Please, go to CM Café and get one. NOW!!!

I was really excited when I drove up to my new account at The Terrace and saw the Central Market Café on the Run sign. This CM on the Run location is in a business center on the N bound frontage road of Mopac the first road past 360.
The café itself is a lovely place — the east side of the space is solid windows with a patio overlooking Barton Springs greenbelt. The food is served deli style order at the counter. Not sure what they serve at breakfast time; but, for lunch they offer grilled chicken and salmon, prepared salads, baked potatoes, sandwiches and daily specials. I have had the salmon and potato salad and turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes on separate occasions and both were tasty.
They are open from 8AM — 3PM if you happen to work in the area I recommend it.

Underrated, in my opinion. This is one of those places that tends to be forgotten about by virtue of the fact that it’s an extension of the grocery store that bears its name. Nevertheless, they regularly book decent acts to play while you gnosh on some delectable and often somewhat gourmet fare.
I took out after a giant bowl of yellow curry with vermicelli noodles, and it was picture perfect: warm without overwhelming the senses, a marriage of peppers, spices, chicken (though you have options on what they fold in), bok choi and snap peas as I recall. It hit the spot in the best way, and the service was relatively quick, even with a packed house on vacay. I don’t regularly seek out this place, but that may be about to change. At the very least, if there’s any justice they should.