Found in
Austin,
Texas, Magnolia Cafe manages to stand out even amidst a city filled with great
restaurants. You may have noticed I compare it to
restaurants: that is because despite the name, Magnolia Cafe, or simply "The Mag", in addition to being a great place to sit and drink
coffee, is also an excellent restaurant. It is one of the cheaper restaurants in
Austin, typically in the $5-10 range.
Their food is wonderful and varied, and fits almost any taste. Items include giant pancakes (
gingerbread,
buttermilk,
wheat, and more), great
omelettes,
hamburgers,
enchiladas,
fajitas , and a tremendous amount of
vegetarian items. For example, it is one of the few places one can get
portobello mushroom fajitas. Magnolia Cafe stands out, however, by the fact that it is open "24 hours a day, 8 days a week" and during that time serves every single item on the menu. This has led to countless mid-morning trips to grab
food,
coffee, or the wonderful "Mag Queso" (a bowl of
cheese with
avacado in it).
A great location near
downtown, and more importantly, my
house, The Mag will always have a place in my
heart. A wonderful place to
hang out, it now has two locations open in Austin. I just recently tried the south location; the food is great but the atmosphere is noticeably different. If you're trying to impress a girl, I'd go with the South location, or another restaurant entirely, but for general time-wasting I'm gonna stick with the original.