A $26 Monday Night Dinner in Austin — Two Courses, Four Roman Pastas
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 14 hours ago
There's a reason Austin has kept coming back to Siena for 26 years. On Monday nights, you can test that theory for $26.
Every Monday, all evening, we run the $26 Dinner for 26 Years — a two-course Roman pasta menu available at the bar, the patio, the cocktail area, and the dining room. No time limit. No fine print. Twenty-six dollars, two courses.
If you've never been to Siena, this is a good night to come for the first time. If you're looking for an affordable date night in Austin that doesn't feel like a compromise, this is worth knowing about.
The Classics: What Roman Pasta Actually Means
Roman pasta doesn't get the attention that Bolognese or Neapolitan cooking does, but it probably should. The four dishes on this menu — Cacio e Pepe, Carbonara, Amatriciana, and Pasta alla Gricia — are considered foundational Italian classics. They're what you find in the old trattorias in Rome, made with very few ingredients and a lot of technique.
What makes them work isn't complexity. It's restraint and the quality of what's in them. There's nowhere to hide in a dish with three ingredients.
The Four Dishes
Cacio e Pepe — Two ingredients: aged Pecorino Romano and black pepper. The pasta is handmade in-house. Getting the sauce to emulsify without breaking is the whole challenge, and there's a reason most versions fall short. Done right, it's one of the most satisfying things on a plate.
Carbonara — Eggs, Pecorino, guanciale, black pepper. No cream. The pasta is handmade. The heat of the pasta cooks the egg sauce, which means timing is everything. This is the dish Roman cooks argue about — we serve the traditional version.
Amatriciana — A tomato-based sauce built around guanciale and Pecorino. It comes from the town of Amatrice, just outside Rome, and it's been a fixture of Roman cooking for centuries. This is the one to order if you want something with a little more weight to it.
Pasta alla Gricia — Guanciale, Pecorino, black pepper. Think of it as Amatriciana before tomatoes arrived in Italy. Some food historians call it the ancestor of all four dishes on this menu. It's quiet and rich and worth trying if you haven't.
A Word About Guanciale
Guanciale is cured pork cheek — not bacon, not pancetta, though both get substituted when guanciale isn't available. It has a higher fat content and a softer texture that changes how a sauce behaves. In Carbonara, Amatriciana, and Pasta alla Gricia, guanciale isn't a garnish — it renders into the dish and becomes the fat the sauce is built on. It's one of those ingredients where the substitution matters more than most people realize.
A Good First Night
If you've been thinking about trying Siena but haven't found the right moment, Monday is a good one. The menu is focused, the format is simple, and $26 for two courses at an Italian restaurant in Austin that's been in the same spot for 26 years is a low-pressure way to find out what the regulars already know.
Bring someone. The two-course format is made for a table.
The Details
$26 Dinner for 26 Years — every Monday, all evening.
Available in the dining room, bar, patio, and cocktail area. No reservations required for bar seating; OpenTable for the dining room.
6203 N Capital of Texas Hwy, Austin, TX 78731 · (512) 349-7667 · sienaaustin.com
Monday–Thursday: 4:30–9:00 PM · Friday–Saturday: 4:30–9:30 PM · Closed Sundays
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