The Top 100 Places to Eat and Drink Near Daydreamer
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Rank 1. Daydreamer
Cocktail Bar
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
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Rank 2. Suerte
Mexican
Chef Fermín Núñez commands an open kitchen where masa and smoke converge in a rustic-contemporary dining room that hums with purpose. Tuna tiradito arrives in burnt habanero-apple broth, suadero tacos cradle confit brisket, and wood-grilled mushrooms on tlayuda remind you that restraint is its own kind of generosity.
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Fermín Nuñez
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 4. Canje
Guyanese Caribbean
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Tavel Bristol-Joseph
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Tavel Bristol-Joseph
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Tavel Bristol-Joseph
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- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Bar Team
- 50 Best 2026 · #96 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Bar Team
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Rank 7. papercut
Cocktail Bar
- The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 10 U.S. Nominee · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar
- Eater Best New Bar · The 2025 Eater Austin Award Winners
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Rank 8. Garrison
American
The open kitchen at Garrison channels live fire into dishes that transcend steakhouse convention: kanpachi crudo with seared avocado and Espelette pepper, leek tart with goat cheese and bacon jam, wagyu ribeye sided by hasselback potatoes in saffron rouille and Béarnaise. What could feel like hotel dining instead reads as deliberate, composed cookery.
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Rank 9. la Barbecue
Barbecue
A backyard pit built to exacting standards fuels this modest, color-filled room where brisket emerges impossibly tender and dark, its surface crackling with smoke and char. House-made sausages, ribs, and a chipotle-spiked slaw complement the beef; mac and cheese rounds out a menu shaped by restraint and respect for the meat.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Ali Clem
- Texas Monthly 2025 · The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas
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Rank 10. Franklin Barbecue
Barbecue
Smoke curls from the pit at this no-frills destination where lines stretch down the block for brisket sliced to order and weighted on a blue tray. The meat arrives tender and deeply charred, its fat rendered to silken richness, a reward for the patience required to get there. Corrugated metal and cement floors recede once you taste what barbecue tastes like when it's been perfected across decades.
- Eater The All-Time Eater 38
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Texas Monthly 2025 · The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas
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Rank 11. Joe's Bakery & Coffee Shop
Tex-Mex Mexican
A family-run East Austin institution since 1962, Joe's trades flourish for straightforward Tex-Mex served in worn booths where breakfast arrives all day. The twice-fried bacon arrives almost crackling, the migas tacos rest on house-made tortillas, and the bakery case glows with conchas—this is sustenance without apology.
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Winner · America’s Classics: Texas Region
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Austin Right Now
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Rank 13. Mercado Sin Nombre
Mexican Coffee
An alley lined with café lights leads to a window counter serving heirloom corn preparations and specialty coffee, from blue-masa twinkies to hundred-hour biscuits. The menu stays deliberately spare, letting fermented chilies and smoky jams speak louder than the restaurant's own name.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bakery
- The New York Times 2025 · Bad Honey Bunny · The Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
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Rank 14. Discada
Northern Mexican
A stationary truck on East Austin's Cesar Chavez serves only discada—Northern Mexican beef and pork with bacon and poblano, wrapped in corn tortillas and topped with pineapple slaw. The singular focus makes ordering effortless and the food speak for itself.
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Rank 15. Veracruz All Natural
Mexican
- Eater The All-Time Eater 38
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Austin Right Now
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Austin
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Rank 16. Figure 8 Coffee Purveyors
Coffee Shop
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- The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops In Austin
- Eater The Best Coffee in Austin
- Eater Best Beer Destinations in Austin
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Rank 18. APT 115
Wine Bar
A narrow wine bar where the sommelier's passion for small producers shapes the evening as much as the kitchen's discipline. Texas Ruby Red grapefruit with toasted coconut gives way to langoustine on crispy rice and duck cassoulet, each course a measured argument for restraint. The wines—old and new world, mostly under-the-radar—feel chosen for someone specific, not everyone.
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Rank 20. Cuantos Tacos
Mexico City-style Mexican
Luis Robledo works a chorizera pan at this East Austin counter, coaxing Mexico City–style tacos from suadero, cachete, and mushrooms onto paper-thin yellow masa tortillas. The suadero arrives bare except for onion and cilantro, letting the meat and the pan's char speak for themselves. A shared picnic area, other trucks nearby, the sense of finding exactly what you came for.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Austin Right Now
- Eater Best Food Trucks in Austin
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Rank 21. Comadre Panaderia
Mexican-American Bakery
- Food & Wine 2025 · Mariela Camacho · Best New Chefs
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Mariela Camacho
- The New York Times 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now
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Rank 23. Fish Shop
Seafood
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Rank 24. Kemuri Tatsu-ya
BBQ Japanese
Cowboy boots and teapots share shelf space at this East Austin izakaya-barbecue hybrid, where a grilled scallop arrives with saikyo corn brûlée and smoked brisket gets dressed in sesame-pecan rub. The menu—corn bread taiyaki, bento boxes loaded with koshihikari rice and charred salmon collar—treats the collision between two traditions as genuine culinary argument rather than novelty.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Austin Right Now
- The Infatuation #21 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Austin
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Rank 25. Desnudo Coffee
Coffee Shop
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Rank 26. Toshokan
Omakase Sushi
Behind a bookshelf inside a mini-golf bar, Chef Saine Wong's soundproof omakase counter seats just a few guests at a time. The nigiri here leans playful—hamachi dressed like a spicy margarita, wagyu arranged to evoke steak and eggs—irreverent enough to match its unlikely home.
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Rank 27. Bufalina
Pizza
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
- The Infatuation #7 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Austin
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Rank 28. Murray's Tavern
Cocktail Bar
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 10 Nominee · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar – U.S. Central
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Rank 29. Emmer & Rye
New American
A perpetually crowded corner of Rainey Street where the patio thrums with Austin's dining crowd, and the kitchen's fermentation program and milled grains anchor a tightly composed New American menu rooted in Texas farms. The house-made cacio e pepe—velvety, purposeful, unchanged since opening—exemplifies a place that knows what it does and stands by it.
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Rank 30. Ezov
Mediterranean Middle Eastern
The eastern Mediterranean spreads across tables here in the familial style of shared plates—cucumber labneh, charred eggplants bearing beef kebab, dipping sauces lined up like an argument. Tahini ice cream crowns the baklava, and the wine list knows what it's doing.
- Texas Monthly 2024 · #10 · Texas’s Best New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Austin Right Now
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Rank 31. Nixta Taqueria
Mexican
At this scrappy East Austin taqueria, Edgar Rico and Sara Mardanbigi grind heirloom corn each morning for tortillas that anchor duck carnitas and tuna tostadas alike—ancient technique meeting duck fat refried beans in a menu that rewards early arrival with quiet mastery.
- Food & Wine 2023 · Best New Chefs · Edgar Rico
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Austin Right Now
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Rank 35. Siti
South East Asian
The dining room channels Singaporean shop houses through clean lines and layered textures, grounding Laila Bazahm's pan-Southeast Asian cooking in a specific sense of place. Wagyu spring rolls with house-made chili and smoked aioli, char kway teow crowned with duck confit—each plate balances boldness with restraint.
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Rank 40. Launderette
Contemporary
Chef Rene Ortiz's converted laundromat gleams with casual refinement, its patio and bar equally primed for cocktails sharpened with mezcal and inventive turns. Beef tartare meets ash rye, grilled octopus swims in Calabrian heat—dishes that announce ambition without pretense, backed by tonka bean desserts of real craft.
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- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
- Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Austin
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Rank 42. Uptown Sports Club
New Orleans-style Cajun & Creole
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Rank 43. Fabrik
Vegetarian
In a spare East Austin room, Je Wallerstein composes seasonal vegan tasting menus where local produce becomes the primary subject: a corn and onion first course might range from sweet potato crisp to creamed polenta, while pasta folded with pumpkin puree and roasted carrot cubes topped with maple-shaped tuiles demonstrate restraint and precision in equal measure.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation #8 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Austin
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Austin
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- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. Central
- Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Austin
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Rank 45. Intero
Contemporary Italian
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Rank 50. Mexta
Mexican
Mikel Alonso Garcia and Jonatan Gómez Luna Torres elevate Mexican classics with restrained technique and layered sauces, particularly a mole manchamanteles that balances plantain and pineapple. The baked-to-order cheesecake, made with three cheeses, arrives as an intriguing blur of savory and sweet.
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Rank 51. Veracruz All Natural
Mexican
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Rank 52. Poeta
Islian
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- The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
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- Esquire 2023 · Small Victory Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Austin
- Eater Best Speakeasies in Austin
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Rank 56. Flitch Coffee
Coffee Shop
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Rank 58. Patika
Coffee Shop
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Rank 59. Birdie’s
Regional European Mediterranean
Chef Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel's East Austin counter service spot rotates its focus monthly through regional European cuisines, with France and Italy as recurring returns. Homemade pasta and soft-serve ice cream anchor a menu of unfussy, precisely executed cooking; the shaded patio fills early and often.
- Food & Wine 2023 · Restaurant of the Year
- Wine Enthusiast 2023 · Forward 50 Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service · Arjav Ezekiel
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- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
- Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
- Eater Best Speakeasies in Austin
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Rank 62. Este
Seafood Mexican
A converted bungalow on Manor Road hosts Este, where contemporary Mexican seafood cooking unfolds in a relaxed, assured setting. Ceviche arrives luminous with turmeric broth; whole fish emerges from banana leaves with hoja santa salsa; corn cake arrives studded with candied hazelnuts and brown butter. The kitchen moves with confidence between the subtle and the vivid.
- Bon Appétit 2023 · America's Best New Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service · Celia Pellegrini
- The New York Times 2023 · The Restaurant List
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Rank 64. Trippy Tacos
Mexican
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Rank 65. Hestia
Live-Fire New American
Wood smoke fills the dining room at this downtown fine-dining kitchen centered on a 20-foot live-fire hearth that chars everything from scallops to cantaloupe. Texas ingredients emerge from the flames transformed—elegant, sometimes unsettling, always marked by intentional char and smoke.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · United States' Best Restaurant
- Esquire 2021 · #4 · The Best New Restaurants in America
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Rank 66. Austin Rotisserie
French
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Rank 67. Mort Subite Belgian Beer Bar
Belgian Beer Bar
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- Punch 2025 · Frozen Mexican Martini · Our Favorite Cocktails
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar – U.S. Central
- Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Austin
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Rank 69. Dai Due
Texan American
Jesse Griffiths and Janie Ramirez run a supper club in a spare back room where Texas sourcing extends from produce to wine, and the butchery—wild boar, antelope, goat—drives plates that are comfortably strange. Cold boards of house-cured meats and smoked pork chops with sauerkraut and Bavarian mustard suggest cooks thinking beyond regional comfort toward something more curious.
- USA Today 2025 · Restaurants of the Year
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The Infatuation #3 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Austin
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Rank 71. Comedor
Modern Mexican
Comedor pairs austere industrial design with Chef Philip Speer's refined Mexican cooking in a perpetually crowded Central Business District courtyard. Bone marrow tacos with smoked butter and a chocolate tamal with house ice cream signal a kitchen that respects tradition while pushing it forward.
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Rank 73. Red Ash
Italian
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Rank 76. Olamaie
Contemporary Southern
A white-shuttered cottage north of downtown serves Southern food with contemporary edges and a cocktail list that swings from daily punch to inventive martinis spiked with basil eau de vie. The buttermilk biscuit arrives warm with whipped honey butter, and the roasted chicken, stuffed with spicy Cajun rice, settles the question of whether restraint is ever the point.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Austin Right Now
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Austin
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Rank 77. Scholz Garten
Beer Bar
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Rank 78. La Santa Barbacha
Mexican
The Landaverde siblings have transformed a taco trailer into something grander—a shaded compound with picnic tables where the barbacoa, tender and deeply seasoned, anchors everything from migas tacos layered with eggs and avocado to a quesabarbacha wrapped in beet-red tortilla. House-made salsa and careful balance of flavors elevate what could be routine into something worth seeking out.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Daniela Landaverde and Rosa Landaverde
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Eater Best Food Trucks in Austin
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- Bon Appétit 2024 · America's Best New Bars
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
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Rank 82. Parish Barbecue
Creole Barbecue
Holden Fulco mans a trailer behind a brewery, turning central Texas barbecue into something with Creole ambitions—brisket and pulled duck share a menu spiked with Tabasco and Cajun spice. The sides, from crawfish cornbread to pimento mac crowned with potato chips, suggest a cook thinking beyond smoke and salt.
- The Infatuation 2025 · #8 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Texas Monthly 2025 · Dishes We Wanted Seconds Of: Smoked Ham Sandwich · The Best Things in Texas
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Rank 83. Cockti Juicy Fried Chicken
American
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Rank 86. Odd Duck
Southern
Chef Bryce Gilmore's casual counter spot trades the food truck for a South Lamar stool where strangers eat shoulder-to-shoulder, trading bites of ceviche and wagyu. The kitchen pivots between Southern comfort and global whimsy—corn butter maltagliati, stuffed quail with dirty rice—with a dessert of sourdough ice cream and pecan streusel that feels almost obscene.
- The Infatuation Infatuation’s Highest-Rated Restaurants In America
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The Infatuation #1 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Austin
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Rank 87. Restaurant François
French
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Rank 88. Le Calamar
French
A sleek South Austin bistro wedged into a contemporary building trades French technique for Texan ingredients without apology: seared gnocchi Parisienne arrives drowsy in brown butter; the daily fish wears almond and salsa macha. Concrete floors and exposed ductwork frame leather and shadow, and even the desserts—a baked Texas cake with pecan dacquoise—have one eye on tradition, the other on home.
- Esquire 2025 · Cornstar Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation #19 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Austin
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Rank 89. KG BBQ
Middle Eastern Barbecue
A Cairo-born pitmaster works a food truck beside Oddwood Brewing, smoking meat with Middle Eastern spices—sumac, cinnamon, pomegranate—that transform Texas barbecue into something stranger and better. Lamb shoulder finished with dukkah, honey-thyme chicken thighs with yogurt, rice pudding with pistachio butter. The fusion feels lived-in, not trendy.
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Kareem El-Ghayesh
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Texas Monthly 2025 · The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas
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Rank 90. Jeffrey's
American
In a hushed corner of Clarksville, Jeffrey's wraps diners in dark woods and attentive quiet, the kind of room that rewards lingering. Steaks arrive with reinvented sides—creamed spinach laced with Fresno chili, fries dressed in horseradish aïoli—while seasonal plates like duck au poivre remind you this is refinement without pretense.
- World's 101 Best #58 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation #9 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Austin
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Rank 91. La Condesa
Mexico City Mexican
Industrial beams and amber light set the stage for a Mexico City–inflected kitchen that takes its seafood seriously. Fresh ceviche and grilled whole fish anchor a menu where a crisp tortilla topped with raw tuna and aji amarillo arrives alongside avocado and salsa macha, while huitlacoche huaraches show the care in execution. The cooking here respects the cuisine without fussiness.
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Rank 92. Justine's
French
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Rank 93. Abo Youssef
Middle Eastern
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Rank 95. Sa-Tén Coffee & Eats
Japanese-Ish
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- The New York Times 2025 · The Restaurant List
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Thai Changthong
- The Infatuation #11 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Austin
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- The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops In Austin
- The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops In Downtown Austin
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Rank 98. Texas Chili Parlor
Texan American
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Rank 100. Micklethwait Craft Meats
Barbecue
The line outside Tom Micklethwait's East Austin smokehouse draws cops and families alike, a reliable indicator of something worth the wait. Brisket and ribs emerge from the smoker yielding and dark, their surface a crust of char and spice; the jalapeño cheese grits and vinegar-bright potato salad suggest a cook thinking beyond meat. Each plate arrives complete, asking nothing more than appetite.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Austin Right Now
- The Austin Chronicle 2024 · #1 · Best of Austin - Taylor Tobin's Top 10