After leaving the dreadful remnants of Terminal 1 in Raleigh, we landed in Nashville to change planes. Nashville has a reputation of being one of America’s cities with the most personality. However their airport is one of the blandest I’ve ever seen. The food selection exists as a 4-store food court, O’Charley’s, and the Gibson Cafe. Of course, we did the latter and it wasn’t anything to rave about.

Landing in Austin, however, one is greeted by an airy steel and glass room, a live band, and a good food selection. The Austin terminal feels like Raleigh’s Terminal 2 concourse, but isn’t as beautiful. There is one arc-shaped concourse, and the ticketing and concourse areas are essentially one big room  separated by a glass wall and a split level offset. Very unusual.

We headed straight to Uchi, one of America’s most celebrated restaurants. Chef Tyson Cole is a Top Chef, James Beard, and Nation’s Restaurant News award winner, and Uchi carries a rare “29” Zagat score. Known as the “Sushi Capital”, the understated little house on South Lamar doesn’t disappoint. We got Miso, Panko Fried Green Tomatoes, the steak special, the shag roll, and the tempra shrimp roll. (We stuck with cooked items because I have spent enough time in microbiology class that I’m not eating anything out of the world’s toilet without cooking it). What was so impressive was Cole’s blending of flavors and layering of flavors. For instance the Miso wasn’t just broth with a little green onion, it had a nice, sweet seaweed flavor to it.

The steak special was just that, special. A top quality flank steak, cherries, sunchoke, and ramps on a sunchoke purée. The blend was delicious, and the ramps added that little punch the dish needed given the understated sunchoke flavor in the purée.

The salmon roll was fantastic as well. It includes avocado, sun-dried tomato, cilantro, watercress, and sits on a mild mustard based sauce. The sauce was the notable point of excellence. Once again, flavors are blended so well, no one stands out and the dish becomes more than the sum of its parts.