The Monte Christo
Breakfast is my favorite meal, but sadly I don’t often eat it (barring the soul-cleansing smoothies the bride makes me during the work week). So my heart beats aflutter at the four most beautiful words in the world: “Breakfast Served All Day.” Ooga Booga sizzles up stuffed waffles, so breakfast is literally baked into every meal. Nonetheless, the owner initially only served breakfast-themed fillings in the morning hours until clientele demanded all-day morning fare.
An order at Ooga Booga consists of two stacked waffles that, through the miracle of Pflugerville cast-iron engineering, are miraculously held together with side waffle leaving an ample gap for your desired filling. The final product is quartered and delivered to your trailer-side table with maple syrup or a house-made dipping sauce.
The Ooga Boogians perfectly cook the waffles with crunchy exteriors and soft warm interiors. The Egg and Bacon Waffle (buttermilk waffle stuffed with egg, bacon, and cheddar cheese; $9) served with a side of what appeared to be real maple syrup tasted as expected: egg and bacon with waffle, but conveniently fingerfooded between the waffle. The much more ambitious Monte Cristo Waffle (turkey, ham, cheese and blueberry jam; $9 served with blueberry sauce) was a delightful fusion of savory and sweet with a purplish-blue hue. Other offerings include the Breakfast Waffle Taco, Sausage Tomato Waffle, Chicken In Waffles, and a Waffle Relleno, among others, including dessert waffles.
On one visit, a customer asked what the worst thing they had tried to stuff a waffle with. The answer? Mac and cheese. We all agreed that a mac-n-cheese stuffed waffle actually sounded ratty good, but the thermodynamics of waffle roasting pulled the cheese into the breading leaving unsavory naked noodles in the middle.
Ooga Booga, conceived by Samara Green, Lizzy Markman, Micah Green, and Logan Trussell, started as a pop-up concept at Kitty Cohen’s, an eastside bar, before debuting at 5000 Burnet as a trailer. The name purportedly sources from an ancestor (Ooga Booga Estes) who, family legend has it, invented the bow and arrow (we will take that with a grain of buttermilk…). Because Ooga Booga uses fresh ingredients (I saw Logan working a giant bowl of blueberries on one visit), fillings are similarly fresh and seasonal. If you wanna get stuffed and pay homage to the inventor of the bow and arrow, Ooga Booga is the trailer to hunt for. And watch out when you type their name into a search engine: my checker insists that the correct spelling is Olga Boogaloos.
I wrote this review for the Allandale Neighbor
web&where: interwebs; 5000 Burnet Road
what’s the deal? waffles stuffed with savory goodness; trailer
overall: *** (food***; drink*; atmosphere**; service***; instagrammability***)
cost: $$
our scale:
– meh [think twice]
* OK [it’ll get the job done]
** good [solid neighborhood joint]
*** damn good [we’ll definitely be back]
**** yippity-yikes that was amazeballs [fantastic; one of the best]
***** holy sh!t [transcendental; best of the best]
The Egg and Bacon Waffle
austin wanderlist 