Jack & Nellie’s
“The ambiance is super cozy and intimate – great for a date night, or a catch up session with a friend.”
“The food is simple, fresh and great (recommend lamb meatballs) and the beer and wine selection is comprehensive.”
“Now if you're lucky to get there early enough you MUST order the candied bacon-your taste buds will thank you!”
Jack & Nellie’s
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Came here last sunday for brunch with my friend Anna H.
I had the eggs benedict which was cooked perfectly. My friend Anna H had the breakfast burger which she enjoyed.
The waitress was very friendly and helpful.
I stopped by for dinner one night after the wait at 5 burros was over an hour long.
The place is cute and the ambiance is very romantic. My boyfriend's sister (sister-in-lav) joined us for dinner and she definitely was not into all the romantic-ness.
Whenever my sister-in-lav and I are together we always have a little more fun than usual because my boyfriend always has so much fun babysitting us…not. With that being said, she and I shared a bottle of Pinot Grigio. For food, I ordered Mac and cheese and a grilled chicken sandwich with a side of salad. The food was good but nothing to rave about, but I had full faith in them that they wouldn't screw up mac and cheese and a piece of chicken on bread.
I wanted to order a second bottle of wine but as I was searching for our waitress I observed her outside playing with someone's dogs. She seemed to be having a lot of fun with them but then I watched her run inside and start serving food without washing her hands. I was highly repulsed and I did not order that second bottle because I wanted to get out of there ASAP.
I am incredibly impressed with this lovely restaurant for brunch. Being in the mood for corned beef hash, it was recommended that this is one of the best you can get & it sure is! The corned beef was so flavorful & cut up in little pieces that were well done & incredibly lean, by far the best I've ever had. We also had a cheddar cheese omelette with the most amazing hash browns & a side of candied bacon. The candied bacon was ridiculously delicious & their coffee that they serve is by far some of the best around. Whether you choose a small or a large, the coffee is served to you in a French press, so you can make it a little stronger if you'd like by waiting a little longer to plunge the grinds to the bottom. The service was friendly, but I wish I could have schooled her a tad on how to actually run your station & treat all of your tables as one. There is no reason why after taking another table's order she couldn't have first stopped by & grabbed our credit card this way she could have ran the credit card & punched in their order at the same time…just saying.
Saturday brunch for two in a modern, quiet, casual atmosphere in my former nabe, Forest Hills was a reunion with a good old friend and Yelper, Angel R. The hostess/waitress is welcoming and friendly to seat us. Price is reasonable. No alcohol intake for either of us. Our entrees are:
Cheddar Omelet with hash brown, wheat bread and slab of bacon
French Toast with bananas (no fresh strawberries and no blueberries) and hash brown as a side. Here us where disappointment lies- no fresh strawberries and/or no fresh blueberries.
2 Pineapple Juice
Food portions are indeed small and quality is mediocre for New American. The hash brown were a burnt blob of mash potatoes in a mole hill. Background music is, thankfully, not boisterously loud. Facilities is microscopic small but clean.
My and I friend arrive at Jack & Nellie's about 30 minutes early due to the reviews saying that there's usually a line. This past Sunday it was raining so the line wasn't too long, about 10-12 people on line at 10:55AM(5 minutes before open).
Small tables, good brunch and friendly service. The brunch menu is good, not too much but just enough to have a variety of things to choose from. I had French toast which was excellent and a glass of mimosa. My had had the Egg special which came with eggs, cucumbers, small salad, toast. The food came out quickly and it went into our tummies even quicker. This is my new brunch spot in the forest hills area.
I also ate here for dinner in October 2015 – I had a burger which tastes pretty good and Pinot Grigio to wash it down. Very low light wine bar at night
** 2.5 stars **
The dilemma with a restaurant like Jack & Nellie's is reconciling potential with what it is. For all that it is a great neighborhood to live in, Forest Hills has a shortage of good restaurants. That void is something that Jack & Nellie's looks on first impression to be able to fill, but falls short.
Located on Ascan, at the western end of the commercial stretch of Austin, in a leafy, quiet area away from the hubbub a couple blocks away. The restaurant is good-looking, a handsome space dominated by dark, warm woods, wine bottles strategically lined up as part of the decor. There are tables up front and along one wall, but also plenty of seats at the comfortable bar to enjoy their beverages.
Their wine list is probably the best in this section is Forest Hills. Station House easily does better for craft beers, but Jack & Nellie's has a respectable list of bottles and drafts.
Food is where this restaurant sits alongside much of the mediocrity in Forest Hills. Offering an appealing New American menu on paper, execution is uneven. Slices of steak, requested medium rare, were dry, and strangely left attached at one end. The same good arugula salad that accompanied the steak formed the base for a beet salad with a scant few pieces of beets, so few that I thought someone ordered a side salad. Lamb meatballs were decent but neither as tender not as flavorful as they could be; the bed of pureed cauliflower was addictive though. Grilled salmon was decent, but cooked just past the point of tenderness. Brussels sprouts were slightly undercooked, the bacon chunks overcooked. Hangar steak, cut into chunks and served in sauce, was unmemorable.
Their popular brunch has a similar, classic American menu gone upscale but both a veggie egg scramble and an omelette were limp and dry.
Warmed olives and cheese selection were excellent.
Various minor issues mar the experience. Table service is courteous but somewhat absent and hard to flag down, resulting in far fewer beverages ordered, and finished plates and glasses lingering. Food plating can use some polish. During a recent steamy evening, only ceiling fans were in operation.
Admittedly I wonder if I'm expecting too much from this restaurant. But expectations are based on what a restaurant seems to want to be, and I'm used to adjusting my expectations toward everything from careworn hole-in-the-wall ethnic eateries to white tablecloth fine restaurants. Jack & Nellie's should be a fantastic neighborhood restaurant, with food that doesn't need to be good enough to draw people from elsewhere, but good enough for locals to want to dine there regularly, with welcoming, approachable environs. It succeeds in atmosphere and offerings, but food execution persistently underachieves, with assorted solvable issues affecting the experience.
I'll be back for a seat at the bar to have a beverage, and some olives, cheese, and charcuterie. Maybe some pureed cauliflower too.
Went here with a good friend of mine a little less than a month ago for breakfast. Let's just say when the plates arrived, we gave each other a very pleased look. We hadn't even touched our food and yet we knew it was going to be good. We were absolutely correct!
I can't recall the exact items we had, but I know we both got eggs, toast, and hash browns. Out of this world for a diner experience. Since we both got mimosas as well to cure partial hangovers, our total came out to about $35 excluding tip. The mimosas were a tad weak, but nothing to gripe about.
Like other's have said, the ambience is very casual and intimate, offering a booth along the wall and chairs on the other side.
This is a place that just speaks for itself, so I'm gonna stop right here. The next time you want a dang good (and beautiful looking) breakfast, Jack & Nellie's won't disappoint! Yum!
A solid brunch choice in Forest Hills.
The restaurant is cozy but not cramped.
The staff is friendly.
I ordered the omelet tickler which was very nice with a side of bacon and my guest ordered a side of sausage.
The omlet was fluffy and just what i wanted! We also had mimosas which were good as well.
The side of bacon was not nearly as good as the side of sausage and the coffee which was served in a mini french press was not good at all – luckily that wasn't my first cup of coffee.
Would come back for brunch again (will have coffee before i get there)!