Listening Room At Winflo

Intimate and memorable. That’s the Winflo Listening Room. It needs more seating or places for people to comfortably stand.
But the ambiance and intimacy makes this the my favorite and the most memorable live music spot in Austin.

This is a hard review to write. Should I start with the meh, the good, or the great?
I’ll start with the meh and leave you on a good note.
The food? Meh. I was excited about a «Chef’s Menu,» but was pretty disappointed with what came out. My friend and I both got the arugula salad. It was fine. Not spectacular, and no more than what the menu said it’d be, which if fine. She had the chicken meatloaf. It was just okay. The mashed potatoes and haricot vert made it worthwhile, but she left a lot of the meat on her plate. There were two other options and I got the pizza. It was fine. Nothing wonderful, but it was fine. Just okay. She got the mouse; I got tiramisu. Both were good, but nothing spectacular.
The good to great? The service. Our server was very friendly and helpful and offered a wonderful wine that he suggested. He answered our questions and the meal was timed out nicely.
The venue is awesome, and the type of live music that I love. Small and intimate and near perfect. Sara Hickman offered stories and anecdotes to make you smile. It’s dark and quiet and worth a listen. The seating is a bit awkward, since some of the backs of the tables face the stage, but they try to have the food done by the time the musicians perform.
I might go back if it were a super stellar performer, but I wouldn’t go back to the Listening Room for the meh food.

Okay, so first off, let me say that as a music venue, the Listening Room is fantastic. It is very intimate and we were about 7 feet from the performer, Matt the Electrician. He was great and he talked to us about his family and his life between songs, occasionally asking us questions. After the show, he hung around to talk with us and pose for pictures.
Now the food – very, very disappointing. They advertised that it would be some special items from the chef with drink pairings but no, it was very ordinary fare. The service was slow and it was a fixed price dinner with a couple of options for starters, 3 choices for a main course and two options for desert.
One option was their margherita pizza – definitely not their best pie. The other options were not on their regular menu and not very well executed. For a fixed price menu in a restaurant, the dinners were really sad. We had the lamb shank pasta that came with a rich cream sauce and 3 or 4 tiny little chunks of lamb.
I would rather had been able to order off the regular menu since I have found several pretty good dishes and pizzas in the past.
I will probably not go back unless they change how they handle the food and would not recommend it. Though the fixed price was 30 bucks, after wine and drinks, our tab was around 140 with tip and tax. It just was not worth it.

For those of you who are unaware, Winflo Osteria has a downstairs basement that they dressed up and made into a fancy pants speakeasy/​dining room complete with a stage for live music. Close to once a week they open up and host a $ 30 three-​course meal at the Listening Room and charge an extra $ 20 cover for the tickets to the concert. A fairly reasonable cost in my opinion for a swanky date night.
I had some friends road tripping across the US who were planning on being in Austin for a few nights, so after some careful coordination and expert persuasion, I managed to get my two friends, another couple, and my date to agree on Winflo. An achievement of epic proportions considering everyone’s busy schedules and dietary needs.
One of the largest issues was that one of my friends in town was a pescetarian who was also gluten and lactose intolerant. She called ahead and spoke with someone at Winflo Osteria who assured her that they would have a separate meal prepared for her that would fit her needs. With that, we went ahead and bought our tickets online (very convenient).
After we all bought our tickets I decided to call to see if I could make sure that all six of us could be seated together. After being on hold for over 10 minutes I hung up and called back and was given an email address and told to email to make my reservation. Heads up, they send out an email to everyone attending the day of the concert to arrange group seating so don’t bother going this route.
I learned in this experience that Winflo Osteria and The Listening Room at Winflo don’t work very closely together. I think they’re basically separate businesses with LiveVibe running the show and sharing a kitchen with Winflo. So, if you have questions, call the number on the Unilocal page, not the Winflo Osteria’s number because they’re not going to be able to help much.
The food at the Listening Room was good. The menu is small — there are two appetizers, three entrees and two desserts to choose from. I won’t dwell on the options much as I am sure they rotate them on a weekly basis. There was a vegetarian option, but for my pescetarian, gluten and lactose intolerant, friend, there was a bit of confusion because whomever she spoke with at the Winflo Osteria did not pass the message on to the Listening Room. The good news is the kitchen did make her a good meal that catered to her dietary needs.
Cocktails were around $ 10 each and they also had a decent beer and wine selection. They did not have a cocktail list, which I thought was odd, but they did have a single themed drink for the night on the menu. My first drink was a negroni, which they made with grapefruit juice (umm, that’s not a negroni). After that I went to an old fashioned, which was well executed.
The music was fantastic and the atmosphere was very intimate. We saw Ruby Jane, who is a great young Austin folk musician. She was taking questions from the audience and telling us stories in between songs. The acoustics were really good in there as well.
At the Listening Room they take music pretty seriously. There are signs everywhere that forbid talking, texting, photography, etc during the show. Get there when the doors open at 7pm to get your socializing out of the way (the band goes on at 9pm). The concert was about an hour, and it was fantastic. Kudos to LiveVibe for finding some great bands to play at the Listening Room. I’m sure I’ll be back again.