Bud's Po-Boys

[TroyTempest]

Was driving down Burnet road the other day, and saw a sign for this place. I remembered it from a review (or maybe just an announcement) in the Statesman. This is a trailer in the back of the Travis Connty Farmer's market on Burnet.
I didn't want to eat a whole lot, so i only had a half shrimp Po-Boy with some Zappp's potato chips. The Po-boy came with perfectly fried shrimp. about medium size, crispy, but not overcooked. The french bread it was served on was very good as well, with just enough crust, but not so crusty as to be difficult to bite. The kind i like on a perfect Bahn Mi. I didn't specify tartar or or red sauce, so it came with both on the side. It was served with lettuce, red onion, and what tasted like a homegrown slice of tomato. they also had catfish, crawfish and roast beef po-boys. The roast beef Po-boys are the kind served with gravy (supposedly authentic) that people seem to want. I've yet to try this anywhere, so i really can't comment, but i think that's what i'm going to try next time.
The theme of the place was definitely Louisiana with red beans and rice, muffaletas, gumbo and etoufee also being on the menu.
So, for a relatively inexpensive seafood po-boy, i'd rate this as good or better than any i've had in town.
Food places never seem to last long in this location, so hopefully this one will.

[TroyTempest]

I went back again for lunch today. This was the first time since my original review. Had a Shrimp Po-Boy, with Tartar sauce. I stand by my first review. It was very good. Just like my first time.
Minor quibble, I took the tomatoes off, they were out of season, and not great.

[rubyleiner]

I went with several co-workers the other day and everyone found the food to be awesome! we ate at the picnic area, we dropped below 100 that day ! bud is such a nice guy and spent some time talking with us. bud uses Phoenica bread ( local) for the po boys, he goes way back with Malik, the owner of Phoenica, I had the 1/2 catfish po boy, quartered filet pieces of perfectly seasoned catfish and the crust was crispy good, i guess it's the organic cornmeal mix that made the difference. some of the other folks raved about the shrimp po boy and thought it was one of the best they had in austin . some folks split a muffeletta, loaded with meats and cheese, he makes his own olive mix and gets the bread from Gambino's bakery in NO. the crawfish etoufee was another hit. Bud gave us samples of the shrimp gumbo and red beans with sausage, very tasty. we will be back soon! Bud's Louisiana roots and his love of food come through. Very affordable too.

[ieathereforeiam]

wow. food so good it moved you to sign up and write a detailed positive review. must have been the organic cornmeal.

[rudeboy]

I understand your comment.....

I went there on Saturday with my daughter. I was shopping for produce, but stopped by beforehand to look at their wares to figure out what I was going to order on the way out. I knew that I wanted to order the shrimp po-boy, but couldn't decide b/w the shrimp gumbo and the crawfish etouffee. They gave me a generous sampling of both, with a couple of pices of french bread. I thought that was nice, as we had a little snack before shopping.

I ordered the shrimp pobouy and the crawfish etouffee. The po-boy had a bahn-mi like baguette - crunchy on the outside and soft, but toothsome in the middle, and was excellent (pickles, onions, tomatoes were included). The etouffee was well above average, with lots of crawfish swimming around. There's no way that this place should be berated in any way. The prices were reasonable to me.

[TroyTempest]

I'm glad my positive Po-Boy experience wasn't an aberration. If the french bread is from Phoenicia, that sounds about right.

[rudeboy]

No aberration - mine was great. The insider post above (rubyleiner) indicates that the bread is from New Orleans - Gambino's. I didn't think to look inside of the trailer to verify.

[drdelicious]

It seems like Gambino's has a softer crust than Phoenicia... but reading that review is making my stomach growl. I know the guy at Cypress Grill says they use Gambino's for poboys. That would be an easy way to compare the two.

-----
Cypress Grill
4404 W William Cannon Dr, Austin, TX 78749

[ChrisStein]

the bread on the Bud's Po Boy's is from Phoenicia. That is a fact

[TroyTempest]

yeah, if you read ruby's review, she says the muffaleta bread is from Gambino's, the PO-Boy bread is from Phoenicia

[foodiegal71]

A few years back, I had a shrimp po boy at Cypress that tasted as close to anything I ever ate growing up in NO. It was so close that I had flashbacks to Gambino's in Slidell as an elementary school kid.

I've been back a few times and it hasn't even been close to that experience. I don't know if I got one on a fluke one day or what, but I'm dying to recreate that experience at some point.

[amysuehere]

Because it's you, I'll go back for a straight up po-boy...

[rudeboy]

I found their website, y'all.

http://sites.google.com/site/budspobo...

I can't imagine that beans in gumbo wasn't a mistake of some sort.

[amysuehere]

It's my fault. The person who ordered it/ate it said it was gumbo (I even asked twice). $10 says it was the beans and rice.

[rudeboy]

Hey Amy - what were the prices like?

[amysuehere]

Okay, I deserved that...LOL

I'll eat crow.

[rudeboy]

Huh? No, I was really wondering what the prices are like at Bud's. Prices are not listed on their online menu?

[amysuehere]

$5 for a quarter muffaletta that was the size of a dinner plate. Friend said he ordered the half po boy and it was humongus, also, as I remember about $5.50ish.

[amysuehere]

hmm. Sounds tempting. My family's all from NO, so I'm hoping...

[ieathereforeiam]

you will be disappointed. I tried it a couple weeks ago. the shrimp po-boy was just ok. The roast beef pretty bad. the jumbalaya reminded me of shoal creek.

best po-boy in town is still at the flying f on guadalupe.

[popvulture]

Enlighten me on what the Flying F is...

My family's all from Louisiana (yet I'm from MS, admittedly) and I've never had a good poboy anywhere outside of the state. If you find anywhere good (aka ordering a whole shrimp poboy and getting more than six shrimp on the whole thing, for starters), I'd love to hear about it.

And Shoal Creek is great for Saints fans and crawfish daytrippers, but anybody who's ever had even the tiniest taste of what real LA food will admit that it's a pretty horrible attempt.

[popvulture]

After writing that little blurb, I might venture to say that the poboy is quite possibly the most unreproduceable (I know, spell check didn't like that) foods, aside from maybe NY pizza.

[ieathereforeiam]

flaying falafel and po-boy. small family run joint. They came here after Katrina I believe. Lebanese family. they also have a nice lamb mansaf and schwarma.

The po-boys aren't as good as the best i've had in NO, but they get the job done. I really like their roast beef and fried oyster po-boys.

[popvulture]

Well jesus, so they have poboys plus trad lebanese food? That's one of the biggest things I miss about living in MS/LA; Lebanese has consistently been my favorite out of all of the Middle Eastern varieties, but it's not so present here. I'll give Tarbouch 2.5 stars... still looking for a real deal place.

[popvulture]

I should've clarified further... Lebanese is probably my favorite food ever.

[drdelicious]

Oh NO... we might be related ;) I'm from Vicksburg, but I lived in LA for almost a decade ... thankfully, the decade where I was poor and learned to cook. I miss the true Lebanese food we had there. People here are so surprised at the diverse culture of MS and LA... I try to get them converted to believers of diverse Southern cuisine.

I haven't found a satisfying poboy here. I refuse to order gumbo, so I make a mean duck and andoiulle one when I have time.

Best of luck with the poboy. The closest I can find to bread is the Phoenecia (sp?) greek bakery here on S Lamar. I just make a spicy beef roast and slice it for the poboy and use the drippings for au jus. My friend from Franklin LA that lives here says Which Wich has a good one.

[amysuehere]

Yup. Dissapointing. REALLY nice people, but the food was bland and well, poor quality.

Muffaletta had the square "ham" you put in kids' lunches. Roast beef wasn't how I remember them from my many summers at gra-ma's. Gumbo was the most individualized (i.e.; beans were seperate from the meat, which was seperate from the bay leaf, which was seperate from the rice - not cohesive) I've had.

Not their fault, but just like San Francisco sourdough, even if you have the recipe, you can't seem to duplicate the bread...

Really nice people, but I'm afraid they won't make it.

[TroyTempest]

Sorry you had a bad experience. Admittedly the bar is low for shrimp Po-boys in Austin, which is all I've had there, but i liked mine. Better than Quality seafood, Evangeline and what i remember about Sambet's. Not as good as Perla's (also not as expensive).
The gumbo had beans in it? That sounds different.

[amysuehere]

Yes, it had beans, but it wasn't saucy/soupy like I"m used to. Best I can describe is everything was seperate from each other; dryish.

[TroyTempest]

i know to avoid the gumbo, then. I've never heard of beans in gumbo.
So, did they just throw some of the red beans from the red beans and rice in there?

[popvulture]

Hahah I was just about to type that... beans in gumbo? Definitely wrong!

[LakeLBJ]

Troy - have you tried Cover 3's shrimp po-boy? It was a lunch special a few months back so you might call first. Excellent Parmesan fries, too.

I haven't had many in Austin but I liked it and it was better than turf and surf on Congress, and cheaper to boot.

[TroyTempest]

i'll put it on my list, thanks