Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Ngon Quá Foodie Blog: Ema & CARVE (19th Anniversary Edition)

We will be traveling quite a bit over the next few months so we decided to focus of food for our 19th wedding anniversary.

My wife decided she wanted Mediterranean food and picked Ema. Ema is located at Domain Northside across from Culinary Dropout. The wait-staff wore white shirts and khakis so I immediately felt like I was on vacation somewhere. The interior decor was a little "busy" for me but it was a pleasant atmosphere nevertheless.

For our meal, we started with the Roasted Walnut Hummus and it was delightful. We both enjoyed the kumquat chutney and thought that it really elevated the hummus. For our meal, we shared the Braised Short Rib Sandwich with fries and the Grilled Oishii Shrimp (pictured below). They were DELICIOUS! For dessert, we had the Vegan Coconut Cremeux and, of course, I had to have drip coffee with my dessert.

Braised Short Rib Sandwich - the meat so do tender and the beef ju went gave it so much flavor.

Grilled Oishii Shrimp was amazing! There was A LOT of red pepper flakes on the shrimps!

We really enjoyed Ema and would definitely come back again. Alternatively, we might check out Abba, which is the "father" restaurant to Ema. Ema means "mother" in Hebrew and Abba  means "father" in Hebrew. Although, our waitress did warn us that Abba is located on South Congress (a.k.a., SoCo) so parking will be a challenge. . . CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

For me, I gluttoned for meat so we went to CARVE American Grille, a part of the Perry's Restaurant group. We have been to Perry's at the downtown Austin and Domain Northside locations for pork chop Fridays. CARVE was a whole other level of delicious meats! Also, we like The Grove area. It is like the Domain but much quieter. Another restaurant that we have eaten at in The Grove is Ling, which is an elevated dim sum restaurant.

As we entered CARVE, we see this. . . mouth-watering cuts of meats on full display for all to admire! It was certainly a sight to behold. 


For our meal, since neither of us ate lunch that day, we went all in with the CARVE Board. This meat-chuterie board included the following cooked to perfection! Look at the masterpiece of meats!

14 oz. CARVE Smoked Sliced NY Strip, 14 oz. Sliced Caramelized Prime Rib, 10 oz. Center-cut Filet Mignon; 4 Hog Heavens, 4 Shrimp Brochettes, and 4 Lobster Corn Dog Balls. Served with au jus and Truffle Merlot sauce and steaks topped with CARVE Steak Butter.

We also added a side of their Sweet Sriracha Brussels Sprouts because, well, we have to eat our vegetables, right?

It was an amazing experience and our waiter was very attentive to our needs. I particularly liked they were cautious about my wife's food allergy because not only did our waitress made sure but the head person in the kitchen also came and talked to us.

We has a memorable foodie celebration of our 19th anniversary! Cheers!
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Ngon Quá Foodie Blog: Ema & CARVE (19th Anniversary Edition)

We will be traveling quite a bit over the next few months so we decided to focus of food for our 19th wedding anniversary. My wife decided s...