Gina's on Congress - Austin, Texas

Nicholas C.

A great little bistro tucked away on Congress Ave near 3rd Street. It has a charming interior. The staff was all very friendly. The food was good. We had the bolognese and lamb shank, both were excellent. We finished with vanilla gelato. They have specials on different nights of the week. Tuesday is date night where you get 50% off bottles of sparkling wine. We took advantage of that and got a bottle of prosecco. The menu is limited but I understand it changes over time. Everything is made in house.

Karina M.

Had a lovely lunch at Gina's. A cozy place for a delicious lunch. There wasn't a wait to get in and we didn't have a reservation. Waitress was great, great recommendations, offered us tap or sparkling water and kept us filled up. Started off with a the stake tartare and it was delicious. Once you mix in the little quail egg it gives it a delicious flavor that went perfectly with the crunchy waffle chips. The Mafaldine pasta is a must if you love mushrooms. It was a very heart dish full of flavor I will definitely be ordering that again. Ended with the sherbert that had hidden granola at the bottom. Great lunch overall.

Nida A.

Gina’s Hapy Hour Review: VQS 9
A romantic & chic French bistro serving modern French Cocktails and Bites.

Value-9: All menu Cocktails and Snacks were half off which allowed us to try a variety of their offerings for half the price. Their Happy Hour also runs everyday unlike most other restaurants with similar offerings.

Quality-9: Their food was so incredibly fresh and high quality. Everything including the chips and bread was house made from scratch. Everything seemed simple, yet incredibly on point. The best part about the salmon dip was the incredibly delicate house made chips it was served with. They were cut so thin to the point of looking translucent. The gougeres was our personal favorite and we both concluded we could eat it all day every day.
The drinks on the other hand were a miss for us. 3 out of 10 cocktails were sparkling wine based and the rest were also on the dry side. They could have used some variation of mixed drinks with more creative mixers on the menu. I bit the bullet and ordered the ’It’s raining in my Champagne’ which was supposed to be mixed with Limonchello and Lemon and it seemed like I received a glass of straight champagne with a few drops of lemon in it. Quite painful to digest for anyone who isn't a hardcore Dry Champagne drinker. For someone with a stronger flavor palette these drinks would be a winner considering they are going for the French Champagne bar vibes ✨ Keeping the strong flavors aside, I’d still value their drinks at high quality due to their menu creativity.

Service-9: Our server was absolutely amazing. She was friendly yet professional. She was so patient with me as I presented to her my picky taste in drinks while she explored the entire cocktail menu to see if she could find something that fit my choice. Most servers lose steam and leave it up to me to make a decision after pointing out the obvious answers. She was also very diligent about checking on us. The only reason I didn't give them a full 10 was because the hostess who checked us in could have been more polite. She looked visibly agitated due to a slight bit of confusion around whether we had a reservation or not. Still not rude in any way at all.

David L.

Super cute bistro-ish wine bar with limited Italian menu. Brisket bolognese was very good as was the mushroom pasta. Burger was ok and the fries looked cool. Excellent drinks but took my cocktail before it was finished. Otherwise impeccable service. Chocolate cake dessert was not cake.

Josh

Enjoyed their happy hour 3-6 with 50% off snacks and cocktails. Loved their French old fashioned and gougeres.
Located just down Congress from the Capitol toward the river.

David P.

Nut allergy friendly: I only came for happy hour, but the servers seemed to be pretty aware of anything!

Possibly one of the best weekend happy hours in downtown Austin! We stopped in with a group of 7 at 3:30PM and were seated with no wait. Drinks came out in about 10 minutes. They have their own twist on many classic cocktails. For example, the French Old Fashioned was much more fruity than a standard old fashioned. I didn't have any particular highlights, but the drinks were well crafted and very reasonably priced on happy hour.

Paid via inKind with no issues.

Andrew P.

Very enjoyable overall experience. The food was great. Our favorites were the rabbit rillettes, con chiglie pasta, and braised lamb shank.

The steak tartare and Gina’s Caesar were also good.

The bone marrow in the bone marrow and sourdough dish was a slimy texture, which we weren’t a fan of, but that was a personal preference that I don’t think reflected the quality of the dish.

The service was good. Our server and the staff were very attentive and kind.

We’ve recommended the restaurant to friends and will be back.

Vu N.

Beef tartar was served with very thin wafers chips. It had a good flavor but the chips were too brittle to eat the tartar with (if that was the intention).

Bone marrow was great, tons of marrow on the bones we got. It was served with buttery sourdough toast, and I think baguette would have been more on point for a French place.

Lastly the moules frites, flavor was good but putting the ultra thin crispy fries on top of a saucy dishe is not great. We ended up with a bath of soggy potatoes.