The Peacock Mediterranean Grill

The Peacock Mediterranean Grill is an all-day spot in the Austin Proper Hotel downtown, but while a lot of hotel restaurants fall into a generic formula of burgers, steaks, and grilled chicken breasts, The Peacock offers a kind-of-healthy menu of Mediterranean dishes from morning until night—with fantastic execution.

If you’re here for dinner, start with some crispy shallot hummus and an order of curried cauliflower with castelvetrano olives—a spicy, salty start to the meal—but your focus should be the tajines and anything coming off the wood-fired grill. Rich and gamey lamb meatballs come swimming in a shallow pool of spicy tomato sauce, full of barberry, peas, and pine nuts, and grilled lamb kefta and yogurt-marinated chicken thighs arrive on a sizzling skewer, ready to be assembled into bite-sized pockets with pita and an assortment of spicy, tangy, and creamy sauces. And if you’re here for lunch, we’ve found that lighter entrees like the grilled chicken shawarma make for a memorable quick meal between meetings. 

You certainly don’t have to be a hotel guest to enjoy The Peacock at The Austin Proper downtown, and if you did, we’d consider booking a room just for a meal here. At least until we saw the price of a room.

photo credit: Nicolai McCrary

photo credit: Nicolai McCrary

photo credit: Nicolai McCrary

photo credit: Nicolai McCrary

photo credit: Nicolai McCrary