Mother’s Cafe & Garden

I really hate to hate this place. But when you pay $ 9.00 for a salad and only get 3 cherry tomatoes and not many other vegetables either. $ 9.00 is too much for a bowl of lettuce. I think I’m done. And that makes me very sad.

Always on the lookout for good vegan food. This place has it! Excellent food, service, clean, great prices! Cannot wait to go again when I visit Austin. I had the black eyed peas with brown rice, asked for some cashew tamari to pour over the rice and yummy. Fresh carrot juice for under $ 2? Really! I loved this place for many reasons. Give it a try …

Perhaps it’s because I’m from San Antonio, but the «Tex-​Mex» aspect of this restaurant was underwhelming. I ordered the signature Artichoke Enchiladas, and found that none of the flavors in my dish seemed to synergize very well. The rice and bean sides actually might have had more flavor to them. Despite this, I felt that the prices were fair and the wait staff were very kind and quite attentive with drink refills. Probably won’t go again, but I also can’t say my experience was a bad one.

Artsy place with delicious food and a great service! I had a quiche served with a side of fruits. Even the fruits were fresh and seemed to be organic.
This place is good for family/​friends/​dates :) must visit!

Lots of choices. Lots of good food. This was my second time here in a year but that’s because we are visiting Austin. I would definitely come here more often if I could. So my absolute favorite is the Blueberry Pie. So awesome!

I went to Mothers with a friend to celebrate my move to the neighborhood. Upon first walking in I thought the space was much more open, light and airy than it seems from the exterior. I liked the feeling that you are eating in a greenhouse and was pleasantly surprised they had an acoustic musician playing during brunch (albeit slightly too loud). Unfortunately I went while I was doing the whole 30 diet so I could not eat a lot of what was on the menu (my fault not theirs). I decided on the quiche with a side dish of fruit– the quiche came with almost an inch of melted cheese on top. At first it was tasty but as it cooled it became a hard gelatinous topping to the quiche– way way way to much. I peeled the cheese layer off and enjoyed the rest of the quiche. Would definitely go back but would try a different dish.

I’m so glad there is Tex Mex vegan food so close to my apartment! I love the location, among many other cute restaurants and shops on Hyde Park. The servers are always very nice and funny and are willing to explain everything on the menu. I think their offerings have a good amount of variety. Enough to keep it interesting, but not too much as to overwhelm. Definitely a new favorite for my husband and I!

Usually a longer line but pretty good for veggies like us. Some of the flavors are very earthy and not to many spices. So if you really want a more raw food taste this is def the place to check out.

Still love Mother’s after all these years, but they need to innovate or at least rotate items on their menu more often. Weve been looking at the same menu for at least three years.
That said, we ordered soup and salad to go last night. The garden patch is just as fresh at home as it is in the store, and the broccoli cheese soup is one of the best soups I’ve had in town.
Keep it up, but let’s get some new items on the menu.

I’ve had much better vegan food. The Tex-​Mex vegan fusion just doesn’t work well. I wish Native Foods Café or Veggie Grill would open up in Austin.
We had a table of 8 seated very comfortably in a long table. Most of my friends ordered different stuff from the menu such as enchiladas, sandwiches, pasta, etc. They all taste somewhat like mush of different spices and proteins mixed together with some grains. I got a salad and at least that was decent.
I will say that I’m not vegan but I’ve had plenty of vegan places to know what good vegan food is. For flavor and taste, this place would get one star in my book.

I had the BBQ and mash dish… It was ok. I think I just expected more something– maybe the texture was too flat/​boring for me. I kept tasting a hint of cashew. My friends had the sloppy joe and it was pretty tasty. There was an issue with non vegan cheese on their food (they are strict vegans) but the waitress noticed it before she sat the plates down and had it fixed. I like the pickles. When we first arrived the place was pretty empty. By the time we left all the tables were full and it was a more lively environment. I hope the chef decides to experiment with jackfruit for the BBQ because that would really amp up that dish.

WOW what a wonderful place! First time trying any type of vegan food.

Mother’s is definitely an Austin staple. I’ve been coming here for years (…almost 10 years now?) and it’s never disappointed me. I’m so in love with their Cashew Tamari Dressing, along with the rest of the world, and was ecstatic to find it for sale in the grocery store in Dallas. As for their dishes, their lasagna with pecans is incredible. I always toss some pecans on my lasagna at home now thanks to them! The sloppy joes are also a good choice. Most recently, I tried the burrito with spicy cashew sauce. The sauce was incredible! The burrito, however, had a little too much rice stuffed in, and included some interesting vegetable choices for a burrito.

First of all, the food at Mother’s is literally always amazing. My boyfriend and I are both vegan and we took some of our non-​veg friends here and they absolutely loved it. The veggie burger, savory baked tofu, and vegan chocolate cake are some of our favorites.
Usually, the service is very nice, attentive and thoughtful, but this time it was the complete opposite. Our server was SO rude to us. She was even a little bit scary because she was so mean. She never told us her name, never smiled, never even showed any emotion, acted like everything we asked for was insane, didn’t write our order down so of course forgot things, and was just not a good server. The other tables around us that she was serving were talking about her and saying the same things that we were. When we go back, if I see her I will be requesting to sit in someone else’s section for sure.
I would give Mother’s and the food 5 stars, hands down. But as for that girl, whom I still don’t know the name of, wouldn’t even get a half star from me. She ruined our experience and if we didn’t love the food so much there is NO way we would ever be back. She needs to find another job so I can dine in peace.

Food is great. I had the Sloppy Joe sandwich & it was very tasty! Not sloppy, but the nice, creative alternative I was looking for.
Parking is limited & the service was not good. I was in a party of 10 and our waitress seemed annoyed the entire time. Even then, I’d go back for the food & sit in someone’s else section.

I mean, I’m still going to go to Mother’s, as it’s down the street and I like to support vegetarian options in town (although this one doesn’t need my help – they’re doing fine). But trying to branch out from the few things that I really like has been an exercise in diminishing returns: it’s as if I intuited or lucked into all the choices that suit me early on, and am now paying for it on the back end.
As long as the meal hits the spot, it’s easy to overlook the long wait times and occasionally indifferent service. I mean, I guess that’s what the chips and salsa (which are good) are there for. But Mother’s has, like your college pothead friend, a regrettable tendency to put good things in bad combinations, leading to dishes that in principal should work but don’t. Peas in a Southwestern stuffed pepper? Black beans with an Asian stir fry? A reuben served on a sesame bun? (It’s an unfortunate side effect, I guess, of ALL the sandwiches being served on a sesame bun.) I mean, that’s not the good kind of weird that we’re trying to keep Austin, now.
So, good enchiladas, cheapest wine this side of BYOB, cute interior, neighborhood institution: to all these charges, I concede. But I’ve been having a run of bad luck there, and I’m not sure that’s all on me.

El mejor restaurante de cómoda vejetarina, el omelet de espinacas es un pitillo único expecially y muy rico

I hadn’t been here in years, and was happy to see the expanded menu, but I have a soft spot in my heart for the veggie plate with the cashew-​tamari dressing.
My husband and I came up here for dinner and were surprised to see that a glass of wine here is super cheap (~$ 4). I’d never have thought that I’d be priced out of my east side neighborhood’s restaurants (where wine is $ 12/​glass and up) and get able to guzzle down glass after glass of wine in Hyde Park. When I moved to Austin ages ago, dinner at Mother’s was a Big Deal and I was usually too broke to spring for the wine. Now… drink up and enjoy your entrée! Then walk over to Quack’s for dessert.

I am a vegetarian, so I should love Austin’s oldest vegetarian restaurant. Except that everything is just fine. The veggie burger (which I’d heard a lot about), the tofu sandwich, and almost everything I’ve tried there is pretty bland and unexceptional. Don’t take any vegetarian naysayers here, because this food will not change their mind about vegetarian cuisine! In my opinion, the best thing on the menu is the spicy tempeh enchilada plate.

The problem with this place is that everything on the menu sounds soooo good. I wish I could eat every main dish in one sitting instead of ordering just one.
Yesterday I had the cheese enchiladas with tomatillo sauce, brown rice, and black beans. Delicious and a fair sized portion for the money. My one complaint was the use of flour tortillas instead of corn though. Dairy is high in calcium, which synthesises with magnesium and potassium in order for the body to utilize it best. Corn tortillas are rich in magnesium and potassium, hence their traditional use. While the flour tortillas are just as delicious, they added more of a junk food quality to the meal.
That won’t deter me from returning though. There were complimentary tortilla chips and salsa which I ate plenty of to balance out that very liberal dose of cheese. And the chocolate cake I had afterwards was amazing as always. My server was friendly and accommodating, as the staff always are. Thanks guys!

(Us, calling at noon on a Sunday):
Hi, Mother’s Café. This is Caitlin.
Us: Hi, what does your wait look like right now?
Caitlin: …The wait looks like a bunch of people standing around. Some of the people are tall…
Us: *click*
Seriously?!? Get your FOH together, Mother’s.