Hill's Cafe

Week 4
Matchup 2
Texas Chili Parlor VS Hill's Cafe

Brian:

Hill's Cafe steps in to take on the Chili Parlour, and the bar is set fairly low for Hill's Cafe to succeed given TCP's relatively lackluster scores. We roll up to Hill's Cafe and it feels like apart from Austin as we pull in the elongated old-school parking lot and scope the throwback edifice. This is a family restaraunt and that's cool with me. Lots of wood or fake wood is used in the interior. We are seated in a not-unpleasantly-full dining room. They took our drink orders and I had sweet tea because that felt right for the type of place we were at plus I could use the caffeine to help stay up for the movie later. Anyway they asked us if we wanted some bread or rolls and we said "no" but a different guy brought us a hot basket (one for the Urban Dictionary right there) so I had one of their hot rolls with some butter and boy was it good. I opted for a good ol' cheeseburger and we split an appetizer basket of their homemade onion rings. The rings took a little bit to come out but they were tasty. They were hand-cut and hand-battered in a nice breading that was not overly crunchy, nor overly soft. It had a pleasing texture and a good kick to it. They were awesome. The burgers came out and I was excited about the fries on the side. Nice potato wedge looking jawns. They were good. Good sides here. The main thing..the main feature about the burger at Hill's Cafe is that it is served on a kolache-type bun, that has a bit of sweetness. It is a delicious bun but it is quite hefty. The flavor dominates the burger. Nevertheless I could still taste the meat which was well seasoned, if not expertly so. Once again the plague known as "lack of burger cheesiness" had swept over Hill's Cafe. Places just need to come with two slices already. The burger was chargrilled and well-constructed. Not amazing, and now worth driving a long distance for, but very solid overall and worthy of contention. And yes, Hill's Cafe vanquished TCP on this night. Later on we watched "Vigilante" by William Lustig and it featured Fred "The Hammer" Williamson's best role that I've seen.
Dre Review

Zach:

Had not been here in a really long time. Probably when I came it was with friends who had heard about it and probably we had chicken fried steaks or something. Their burger did have a pretty good reputation and made the cut to be in the bracket, so we made the journey down south to find out.

The good thing about this burger is that is has excellent meat and fresh toppings. The bad thing about this burger is the bread completly smothers everything and hurts the balance. The bun is super thick and of the sweet/soft variety. I do like this type of bun at Phil's Ice House but there it is smaller relative to the meat and in perfect balance. The burger received mediocre scores from all including myself. I had the regular burger that has just the standard toppings with mayo and mustard on the side.

The sides were much better. We tried the onion rings and fries. The onion rings were some of the better we had had, although they were not nearly as good as Frisco which I hold as the reigning champ of rings. The fries were also good, wedge cut with a lot of seasoning.

Hill's did defeat Chili Parlor, which was too bad, as Chili Parlor is typically better I think but just seemed to drop the ball that night. Also, while the burgers account for most of the points, Hill's fries and rings were much better than the weak side options of TCP which are chips and potato salad.

While Hill's claims to have a best burger title from some unknown year bestowed by the Austin American Statesman, I couldn't really see this being top 20 even in it's current configuration. Still, it was solid burger with great sides.

Dre:

Hill’s Café was a nice place with a real old Austin feel, family friendly but I thought the burger was not quite up to par. I got the Tex-Mex Burger cause it’s my style with the bacon strips and roasted jalapenos. The bun tasted fine but there was way too much of it – overpowered the whole burger. I found the meat to be on the bland side; nothing to set it apart from the typical chargrill. Toppings were the biggest letdown – the jalapenos didn’t have any bite and the bacon was mad soggy. That big ass bun did hold it all together well. It was an okay burger but standards have to be high to get a true winner of this thing. Sides is where Hill’s really shined with some tasty wedge style fries that were good and crispy on the outside. And those onion rings were fantastic! Best I’ve had in a minute. Service was really good. My bet is that they make some really good food at this place but the burgers just aren’t at the top of that list.

Box Score: Texas Chili Parlor VS Hill's Cafe

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Texas Chili Parlor				VS	Hill's Café
	Andre	Brian	Zach			Andre	Brian	Zach
Bread	7	7	6.5		Bread	7	7.5	7
Meat	7.5	7.5	7		Meat	6.5	7.5	7
Toppings	7.5	7	6.5		Toppings	6.5	7	7.5
Construction	7	8	7		Construction	7	7	6.5
Overall	7.5	7	6.5		Overall	6.5	7.5	6.75
Total Burger	55.00	54.38	50.00		Total Burger	50.00	55.00	51.88
Sides	5	6	5		Sides	8.5	9	8
Atmosphere	7	8	6.5		Atmosphere	7.5	7.5	7
Value	7	6.5	7		Value	6.5	7	7
Non Burger	15.5	17.25	15		Non Burger	19.25	20	18.5
Totals	70.50	71.63	65.00		Totals	69.25	75.00	70.38
Combined		69			Combined		72