The 100 Best Places to Eat in Austin

Brisket exists here, but only on Fridays, which tells you something about a barbecue joint's confidence. LeRoy and Lewis is a new-school BBQ shop in Garrison Park, run by two couples who built it from a food truck into a Michelin-starred spot with glazed brick walls and a peaked roof. The menu leans into beef cheeks, rotating sausages, and whatever specials the week demands, with banana pudding tiramisu for anyone who needed proof this isn't a traditionalist operation.

The line forms before the counter opens, and it moves through a small, no-frills East Austin wine bar and restaurant where the monthly menu rotates by European region, France and Italy doing the heavy lifting. Homemade pasta anchors most visits, soft serve closes them. The team took home a James Beard Award for Outstanding Beverage, and Food & Wine named it Restaurant of the Year. Order at the counter, then fight for patio shade.

A massive, custom-built pit dominates the backyard of this East Austin BBQ shop, and the line that snakes toward it on any given afternoon is its own kind of argument. The brisket arrives at the counter still warm enough to stop you mid-sentence, and the house-made sausages and ribs don't ask permission either. Tammy Wynette on the speakers, kimchi and chipotle slaw in the case. La Barbecue holds a Michelin star.

The butcher case up front, stocked with antelope salami and wild boar terrine, gives you a fair warning about what kind of restaurant this is. Dai Due is a supper club-style Texan spot where nearly everything on the plate, from the meat to the olive oil, comes from within state lines. The chef takes that constraint as a creative challenge rather than a marketing line, and the results run pleasantly strange. The Michelin Guide awards it a Bib Gourmand.

A pink cake frosted with prickly pear buttercream and scattered with sprinkles sets the tone at this bakery from Mariela Camacho, a Food & Wine Best New Chef and James Beard semifinalist. The conchas are airy under a crackly shell, and the coffee drinks lean into the same playful register as everything else. Nothing here is as sweet as it looks, which is the whole trick.

A Michelin-starred omakase counter tucked into a Rosedale strip mall, which is exactly the kind of setup Austin enjoys pulling off. The chefs run a creative procession of nigiri and small bites that leans on Japanese product without being precious about it, folding in touches like honey yuzu vinegar or grapefruit with chili oil in ways that flatter the fish rather than bury it. Arrive a few minutes early; there's a welcome cocktail waiting.

Barley Swine collects rainwater for its garden and plates the results on dishes sourced from Goodwill, which tells you roughly everything about where it sits on the spectrum between earnest and clever. It's a tasting-menu restaurant with a Michelin star, but the room runs genuinely casual, shorts-and-sneakers casual. The kitchen leans on local ingredients filtered through Mexican and Southern traditions, then takes them somewhere unexpected every season.

The line forms before the door swings open, which tells you most of what you need to know about this BBQ shop in a strip mall off 620. Pitmaster John Bates runs brisket over post oak low and slow, and the sides, particularly the smoked scalloped potatoes and poblano creamed corn, get taken just as seriously. A Michelin star, which no one saw coming from a strip mall, arrived anyway.

Garage doors, string lights, and colorful tablecloths in a former parking lot, which tells you exactly what kind of house party this counter-service spot wants to be. The Lao-American cooking lands hard: papaya salad that makes your eyes water, chiles and fish sauce everywhere, and a smashburger spiked with lemongrass pork sausage that shouldn't work as well as it does. A James Beard semifinalist and on the New York Times Restaurant List.

A food truck that grew up and got a roof, Odd Duck on South Lamar is a casual, come-as-you-are restaurant built around shareable Southern plates with a roving global curiosity. Chicken heart satay sits near wagyu burgers and stuffed quail with dirty rice, and nobody seems troubled by the range. The Michelin Bib Gourmand recognized it, and the sourdough ice cream with pecan streusel will make you understand why the room is always full.

The line outside this Austin BBQ shop starts forming before most people have had breakfast, which tells you something. Inside, corrugated metal and cement floors keep things honest while the board above the counter does all the talking: brisket, ribs, sausage, pulled pork, turkey. The brisket comes sliced to order, weighed, wrapped in butcher paper, and set on a blue tray. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which is a polite way of saying the wait isn't the punishment it sounds like.

The corn gets roasted the day before, then ground fresh each morning for the tortillas, which tells you everything about how this East Austin taqueria operates. The menu runs on nixtamalized heirloom corn and swings between ancient technique and something like duck fat refried beans without missing a step. The chef took a James Beard Emerging Chef win and a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Come early, and come however you're dressed.

Ramen del Barrio is a counter-service ramen stall inside an Austin food court, where Mexican and Japanese cooking get blended without apology. Think carnitas tonkotsu and mole tsukemen, with paper lanterns overhead doing their best to convince you you're in Tokyo, provided you never turn around. It was a James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, which is a lot of résumé for something served in a food hall.

The pastrami gets brined, pepper-and-coriander rubbed, and smoked before it lands on house-made rye sourdough at this Mueller BBQ shop and deli. Texas Monthly and the New York Times have both taken notice, and the James Beard committee named the team a semifinalist. Concrete floors, wooden-slat booths, and a menu that wanders happily between brisket by the pound and matzoh ball soup. No fuss about it.

One seating a night, about twenty guests, and chef Ling Qi Wu cooking in front of you: that's the whole deal at this dinner party-style Chinese tasting menu tucked into a strip mall on Research Blvd. Dumplings arrive shaped like animals with fillings like steamed lobster and crawfish with XO sauce, and duck with foie gras and caviar shows up alongside a bao bun with a cutout in it, somehow both silly and serious. The Michelin Guide has it listed.

The open kitchen runs long and hot, with live fire doing most of the talking at this upscale American restaurant inside the Fairmont Austin. The menu moves between bright, acid-forward starters and serious grilled meat, so a table here tends to drift toward the Akaushi wagyu by the end of the night. The cooking holds its own well away from hotel-restaurant expectations, which is saying something in a city with no shortage of smoke and ambition.

Barbs B Q is a weekend-only BBQ shop in Lockhart that draws hours-long lines on Saturdays and Sundays, which is the only time the pitmaster opens the doors. The compact menu runs classic smoked meats with unexpected turns, like pork ribs finished with lime zest and turkey with a black pepper rub. Texas Monthly, Bon Appétit, and the New York Times have all taken notice, and the Michelin Guide awards it a Bib Gourmand.

A flower-strung alley leads to an order window in East Austin, which is a whole vibe before the coffee even arrives. Mercado Sin Nombre is a Mexican coffee shop built around heirloom corn and specialty coffee, with pastries that take the idea seriously, including a biscuit that takes 100 hours to make. A Michelin Bib Gourmand and a James Beard Outstanding Bakery semifinalist, it keeps the name deliberately small so the farmers doing the work stay front and center.

The mole negro clocks more than thirty ingredients and still manages to taste like a single coherent thing. That kind of cooking is what draws people to this Oaxacan restaurant on South Lamar, where the menu shifts daily and the mezcal cocktails are cold enough to make you forget it's Austin in summer. The chef behind it won a James Beard Award in 2022, and the food makes the case quietly, without any help from the décor.

A Creole barbecue trailer parked behind a kolache shop is either a strange detour or exactly the point, and at Parish it's the point. Cajun spice rubs and Tabasco glazes nudge central Texas classics sideways, and the menu runs past brisket into pulled duck and boudin. Sides like pimento mac topped with Zapp's chips and crawfish cornbread stuffing do their own convincing. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand.

The twice-fried bacon has its own reputation in this city, which tells you something about how long the Avila family has been getting things right on East 7th. Joe's is an all-day breakfast shop and Tex-Mex bakery, built-in booths and no pretension, with migas tacos on house-made flour tortillas and a bakery case full of conchas. A 2023 James Beard America's Classics winner, which is the kind of honor a place earns by being itself for decades.

Wood smoke hits you before the menu does, drifting from a 20-foot hearth that anchors the open kitchen at this fine dining live-fire restaurant in downtown Austin. Nearly everything on the à la carte and tasting menus passes through flame or picks up smoke along the way, with Texas produce and proteins doing the heavy lifting. It holds a Michelin star, and the room draws the kind of crowd that books months out and still looks pleased about it.

A Michelin Bib Gourmand BBQ truck parked next to Oddwood Brewing, where the line forms early and the menu swings between Texas smoke and Cairo spice. The chef traded a finance career for a pit, and the result is brisket country seasoned with sumac, cinnamon, and pomegranate. Texas Monthly named it among the state's best BBQ joints, and the crowd agrees, loudly, with their mouths full.

Tavel Bristol-Joseph built his Austin reputation on pastry, so opening a modern Caribbean restaurant rooted in his Guyanese childhood was a genuine pivot. The cooking runs tangy, smoky, and coconutty, with fermented jerk seasoning and a roti that disappears faster than you'd expect. He earned a James Beard semifinalist nod, and the New York Times put Canje on its national restaurant list the year it opened.

The handmade tortillas, corn or flour, come out warm and the salsas live in a cooler you're invited to raid freely. This beloved Austin taco shop started as a food truck and the sisters behind it still run the show, turning out breakfast tacos loaded with eggs and chorizo alongside a mole negro chicken option at lunch. The migas taco, stacked with thick crispy chips, is hard to leave without. Order a La Bomba juice and you'll feel embarrassingly virtuous about it.

A converted bungalow in East Austin doing seafood-forward Mexican in a way that makes the rest of the city look like it's still figuring things out. Ceviche, banana leaf fish, grilled mains, and a corn cake that has no business being as good as it is. The New York Times put it on their restaurant list the year it opened, and the room has had that particular hum of a place that knows it landed right.

Concrete floors and dark leather in a South Austin building that could pass for a tech lobby, except the menu is French and the martinis have made a small national name for themselves. Le Calamar is a neighborhood bistro where the food leans sharing plates, the wine list sneaks in some Texas pours, and the baked Alaska arrives with honey pecan dacquoise and torched meringue like it has something to prove.

Heirloom grains milled in-house show up across the menu at this new American restaurant on Rainey Street, which is exactly the kind of detail that sounds pretentious until you taste the cacio e pepe. The kitchen runs its own fermentation program and leans hard on Texas farms, so the menu stays tight and shifts with what's around. The patio fills fast and the dining room isn't far behind. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

A chicken rice shop on Airport Boulevard where the whole birds go through a poaching-to-ice-bath-to-hang-dry process that makes the skin pull taut and the meat collapse at the knife. The cooking traces back to Chinese immigrants who brought their techniques to Thailand and rewired them with bolder flavors. The chef landed on the 2025 New York Times Restaurant List and is a 2026 James Beard semifinalist. Seven house sauces come with; order all of them.

The suadero taco here, finished with nothing but onion and cilantro, is what draws a line to this East Austin food truck. The meat cooks in a traditional chorizera pan, and the bright yellow masa tortillas come out paper-thin and full of flavor. Mexico City-style is the whole brief, kept tight. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and a New York Times pick. Order at the window, find a spot in the shared picnic area, and don't skip the grilled onions.

Cowboy boots and whiskey bottles share shelf space with teapots and lanterns, which tells you everything about what Kemuri Tatsu-ya is trying to do. It's a casual izakaya and BBQ shop where brisket comes in a sesame-pecan rub and taiyaki gets stuffed with corn bread, and somehow none of it feels like a gimmick. Most dishes land in the middle of the table, so bring people. The Michelin Guide awards it a Bib Gourmand.

A low-lit cottage in the old Clarksville neighborhood, Jeffrey's is a fine-dining steakhouse where the beef is USDA Prime or American Wagyu, dry-aged and finished over an oak-fired grill. The room is close and quietly elegant, the wine list ranges from Napa to Burgundy with confidence, and the service moves like it has nowhere more important to be. The Michelin Guide has selected it, and it appears on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.

Masa-based dishes anchor the menu at this Mexican restaurant on East Sixth, where chef Fermín Núñez runs an open kitchen in a space that feels rustic and a little buzzy. The cooking moves between tuna tiradito, wood-grilled vegetables, and tacos built on confit wagyu brisket. A James Beard semifinalist and a Michelin Guide selection, it draws a crowd that tends to linger well past the last tortilla.

Suadero cooked in the previous day's tallow is the move at this casual taquería on North Lamar, where the Pérez family graduated from a truck to a brick-and-mortar without losing the neighborhood ease. A salsa macha built from more than seven chiles shows the kitchen's range without showing off. The New York Times named the suadero taco one of the best dishes eaten across the country in 2024, and the place made their 2026 Restaurant List.

The name is a riff on barbacoa, which tells you exactly where to focus at this East Austin taco trailer. Picnic tables sit under shade and fans, and the barbacoa itself is slow and serious, folded into tacos with pinto beans and chicharrón or wrapped in a beet-red tortilla with gooey cheese. A Michelin Bib Gourmand and a James Beard semifinalist nod confirm what the line already suggests. A second location has since opened on 6th Street.

Damien Brockway runs a BBQ truck parked at Meanwhile Brewing, and the cooking draws on African diaspora traditions in ways that make the usual brisket-and-sausage spread feel like a starting point rather than the whole story. Pecan-smoked chicken and nose-to-tail restraint sit alongside rotating sides that shift the genre somewhere new. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and Brockway is a James Beard semifinalist. Come early, bring patience, leave with extra napkins.

A vegan tasting menu in East Austin where the farmers who grew the ingredients get credited on the menu alongside the courses, which sets the tone nicely. The room is small and spare, the cooking is seasonal and quietly inventive, and focaccia arrives with caramelized garlic butter that earns its own moment. Fine dining prices, no leather, no fish.

Smashed cucumber on labneh is the opening move, and it sets the tone for this lively family-style Mediterranean and Middle Eastern restaurant from the team behind Emmer & Rye. The table fills fast with kebabs, fire-roasted eggplant, and dipping sauces nobody agrees to share, which is fine because the wine list is thoughtfully organized and keeps the peace. The New York Times put it on their Austin shortlist, and it's a Michelin Selected pick.

Two Goose is a counter-service barbecue market on North Lamar that understands Austin's two great loves, brisket and breakfast tacos, and quietly introduces them in burrito form. The Big Honkin' Burrito packs soft eggs, potatoes, cheese, and falling-apart brisket into a tortilla roughly the size of a throw pillow, with a cup of spicy Sunrise sauce on the side. Come hungry, and plan on a nap.

A BBQ truck parked on the Radio Coffee lot that builds its whole identity around biscuits, with Michelin's Bib Gourmand and a Texas Monthly top-50 BBQ spot to back it up. The menu runs from brisket on a flaky biscuit with smoked strawberry jam to pork belly with spiced apple pear preserves, plus fried chicken, wings, and pimento cheese grits. A QR code and call-ahead option keep the line honest, which you'll appreciate.

Allday is a minimalist neighborhood pizzeria on Speedway, turning out New York-style pies with a lightly charred, still-chewy crust and a tangy sauce. The Pep & Pepp stacks tiny pepperonis under diced pepperoncini, which is about as much suspense as a pizza needs. A six-slice sampler arrives on one tray for the undecided. It has turned up on The Infatuation's best pizza in America list.

Industrial bones meet low lighting at this modern Mexico City-focused restaurant on West Second, where the menu leans into seafood the way Austin leans into tacos. Ceviche, tiradito, and a grilled whole fish that arrives looking like a centerpiece keep things coastal and confident. The churros close things out with cinnamon dust. A Michelin Selected pick and a James Beard semifinalist, it draws a crowd that dressed up just enough to feel like the room.

A white clapboard house north of downtown, Olamaie holds a Michelin star for contemporary Southern cooking served prix-fixe in a room that feels like someone's very well-appointed living room. The buttermilk biscuit with whipped honey butter is the kind of thing people mention unprompted for weeks. The cocktail list is genuinely clever, which helps when you're deciding whether to linger, and the answer is usually yes.

A cheesecake baked to order from three cheeses, landing somewhere between dessert and a philosophical argument, is a fitting way to close a meal at this upscale Mexican restaurant in East Austin. The kitchen leans into complex sauces and careful technique, with moles and ceviches that clearly have something to prove. Cocktails are inventive enough to hold their own. The Michelin Guide has it listed among its selected restaurants.

The cocktail menu changes every time the gallery does, which tells you most of what you need to know about Papercut. It's a minimalist East Austin cocktail bar where the drinks are keyed to whatever paintings are currently on the walls, so ordering becomes a little like picking a favorite piece. A back bar called Konbini serves Mexican-Japanese sushi when you need something to eat. The team came up from San Francisco, and the room feels it.

A miso and brown sugar oat milk latte sounds like it was invented by a committee, but the savory-sweet balance at this tiny Austin coffee trailer makes the weekend line feel reasonable. The drip and cold brew hold their own for anyone keeping things simple. Desnudo has been named among the best coffee shops in Austin by both Eater and The Infatuation, which tracks with the crowd that keeps showing up.

A food truck in East Austin with a menu so focused the only real question is how many you want. Discada is a Northern Mexican cooking style, beef and pork cuts cooked down together with aromatic vegetables, bacon, onion, and roasted poblano, then served in yellow corn tortillas with pineapple slaw and fresh salsa. Elote and soft drinks round out the whole operation. The New York Times named it among Austin's top 25 restaurants, which is a sentence that earns its absurdity.

The dining room at this fine dining restaurant sits inside a landmark Austin estate, all green and gold with windows opening onto a fountain garden that makes you feel like someone's very wealthy aunt has invited you to dinner. The kitchen takes Texas heritage cooking seriously enough to maintain a decades-old bread starter, and the seasonal tasting menu moves between refined and genuinely rooted. The Michelin Guide has it selected.

A Honda van parked at the Highland Collective, serving drinks with names like Cause of Death alongside miso piloncillo lattes and umami mochas. Kyoko Coffee is a Japanese-inspired coffee van that runs on the premise that your cup should be at least a little surprising. The standard cortados and cappuccinos are there if you want them, but the ube milk and the oddball flavor combinations are clearly why the regulars come back.

Gruyere popovers with charred onion butter have their own devoted following here, which tells you most of what you need to know about this North Loop gastropub. Foreign & Domestic has been a neighborhood fixture long enough that regulars treat the menu like a contract. Seasonal dishes rotate, but the charcuterie and those popovers don't move, and the tasting menu leans into less common cuts for anyone feeling ambitious.

The hama chili and a milk-and-cereal dessert that somehow became an Austin institution tell you exactly where Tyson Cole's priorities are. This is a polished Japanese restaurant in Rosedale with a sushi counter, a full bar, patio, and table service, so there's no wrong way to sit. The bar draws a crowd worth watching, and happy hour makes the whole upscale operation feel a little more negotiable.

The omakase counter is tucked behind a bookshelf wall inside a mini golf bar, which tells you most of what you need to know about the vibe. Toshokan seats a handful of guests in a tiny soundproofed room for nigiri that leans playful, a spicy margarita riff on hamachi, wagyu evoking steak and eggs. It's a Michelin Guide selection that also happens to be the least self-serious omakase in Texas, possibly anywhere.

A whitewashed South Austin bungalow with just a handful of tables and a few bar seats, Lenoir is a small, romantic restaurant where the menu rotates every six weeks or so around a different global theme, French Cajun one visit, something else entirely the next. You can go à la carte or commit to a multicourse tasting served family style. The Michelin Guide has taken notice, and a reservation here books up accordingly.

A big live oak shades the patio, which tells you most of what you need to know about this all-day cafe and cocktail bar on West Fifth. Coffee in the morning, serious drinks by afternoon, and a menu of laid-back dishes that runs from breakfast sandwiches built around crispy hash brown patties to a Taiwanese-style fried chicken sandwich at dinner. The kind of Austin spot that makes parking feel like a personality trait, and means it.

Brie tempura on the same menu as otoro nigiri tells you something about the kitchen's priorities at this laid-back North Loop sushi spot: a little of everything, taken seriously. The room leans into natural wood and blue tile, calm enough that the quality of the fish can do the talking. House wine that doesn't embarrass itself and a short sake list round things out without fuss.

The pepper sauce question is your first test: they ask at the counter, you say yes, and then you find out. Twin Isle is a fast-casual Caribbean spot on Rosewood serving oxtail fries, doubles, jerk chicken, and rice and peas from a team with roots at Shirley's Trini Cuisine. The neighborhood keeps getting smoother around it, but this place stays sharp, bright, and legitimately incendiary if you're not careful with that sauce.

The brisket comes sliced on butcher paper at this East Austin BBQ shop, where the pit crew turns out central Texas smoke across ribs, sausage, pulled pork, and lamb. The sides pull their own weight, especially a potato salad dressed with cider vinegar that has no business being this good. Save room for banana pudding, or don't, it's your afternoon. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the line outside tells you everything else.

The sisters behind the beloved Veracruz All Natural truck empire opened this taco shop and bar in Mueller, keeping the signature blue color on the walls and the blue corn tortillas coming fresh off the press. The menu stays in its lane, tacos and antojitos plus a few bigger plates, and the house cocktails lean agave. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, which tracks: the food is unfussy and the check won't sting.

Texas Chili Parlor is a dark, cheap dive bar that happens to serve chili, with a Tex-Mex menu stapled to the side. Enchiladas arrive buried under a scoop of Texas-style chili, which is its own kind of confidence. The Mad Dog margarita is as strong as the name suggests, and a few barstool regulars look like they came with the building. Downtown workers pop in at lunch, then go back to their desks, mostly.

The address reads like an apartment number because it is one, a converted unit that functions as an intimate wine bar with a short, serious list leaning toward small producers from both hemispheres. You can stop in for a glass and a charcuterie board or commit to the multicourse tasting menu, where the kitchen moves through things like Hokkaido scallop with red curry and duck cassoulet. The wine and the food compete for your attention in roughly equal measure.

The courtyard seats fill first when the weather cooperates, which tells you something about how this modern Mexican restaurant in the Central Business District reads a room. Industrial materials, polished wood, and leather keep things cool without trying too hard. The menu moves between bone marrow tacos and more traditional aguachile without apology, and the tamal de chocolate at the end earns its place on the bill.

A former laundromat on Holly Street, now a bright, buzzy neighborhood restaurant where the patio fills up fast on good weather days. The menu leans creative New American, the cocktail list runs to mezcal negronis and other inventive drinks, and happy hour makes the whole thing an easy excuse to show up on a Tuesday. The Michelin Guide has it on their radar, which tracks.

Siti sits at the base of the Frances Inn in East Austin, its interior a warm mix of textures that takes Singaporean shop houses as a loose starting point. The neighborhood restaurant pulls from the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia, with a Filipino-rooted chef guiding the menu. Everything is built for sharing, and the char kway teow gets a duck confit leg dropped on top, because why not.

There's no sign on the second floor of a North Austin office building, just an attendant at the door who knows you're coming. Inside, a dark granite counter sets the stage for a kappo-style omakase built around dry-aged nigiri, fish sourced from Japan with the occasional Texas curveball, think salsa macha or chicharron in the mix. It reads like a cultural argument conducted very politely, one piece at a time.

The slow-smoked prime brisket gets sliced to order at the counter, and the bone-in beef ribs are roughly the size of a small child. This is a Central Texas BBQ shop in the classic mode, seating first-come in a well-worn roadhouse big enough to absorb the line that forms outside. Pork ribs and house sausage round out the pit, with potato salad and green beans holding their own on the side.

Habanero is an old-school Mexican cafe on Oltorf that does breakfast and lunch and then goes home, so dinner plans need to be made elsewhere. The fajitas come ranchera style, tossed with charred jalapeños, onions, and tomatoes, and the room fills with longtime Austinites and recent transplants who've learned to arrive early on weekends. The Infatuation lists it among Austin's lunch spots, and the huevos gringos are a decent consolation for the wait.

Za'atar buns and feta-filled croissants are the draws at this Middle Eastern and Mediterranean-inspired bakery on South Lamar, which started as a viral pop-up before finding a permanent home. The leap from online orders to a brick-and-mortar is a big one, and plenty of pop-ups don't make it, so the line out front tells you something. Pastries, breads, and cakes round out the case.