Bar Fino
The best thing on the menu is cabbage roasted until it is fork-tender, served with butter beans cooked rich and creamy.1
Why go
It opened on Rainey Street in late 2025 and Nicolai McCrary scored it 8.0 for The Infatuation with a plain claim attached: This leafy, fenced-off oasis serves some of the best food in the neighborhood.
1 The space is about ninety percent patio with a small indoor bar behind it, and the block changed in June 2026 when Fleet Coffee Roasters opened its fourth location and La Santa Barbacha its third in the room next door.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: the beans and cabbage, which is McCrary's own favorite on the menu.1 Then the Fino burger, a thick patty cooked to pink with aged cheddar and a celeriac remoulade, and the salmon tartare sitting in a sauce of Sichuan pepper and coconut milk.
- Drink: the tomato-and-pineapple margarita or the sherry cobbler milk punch, both of which McCrary calls more refreshing than boozy.1 That is the reason to put one next to the salmon tartare: the Sichuan pepper brings a numbing heat, and a low-proof acidic drink rinses it between bites where a spirit-forward one would stack onto it.
- Avoid: asking for the steak frites rare.
Our steak has arrived a little more cooked than we prefer,
McCrary writes, though the bavette is marbled enough that it never tasted dry.1
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation, Nicolai McCrary (5 May 2026), 8.0: he writes that the cocktails
could compete with nearly any bar in town
and that the energy is controlled rather than raucous, with DJs and dancing at weekends.1 - CultureMap Austin (5 June 2026) names the neighbors. La Santa Barbacha is run by sisters Daniela and Rosa Landaverde, who jointly won Chef of the Year at CultureMap Austin's 2026 Tastemaker Awards in April, and Fleet Coffee serves pastries from Rockman Coffee + Bakeshop alongside a Key Lime Pie Latte and a Matcha Mojito.2
Good to know
- Where it is: 88 1/2 Rainey Street.
- Hours, and there are three sets of them: the bar runs Monday to Wednesday 5pm to 11pm, Thursday to midnight, Friday to 1am, Saturday 1pm to 1am and Sunday 1pm to 11pm. The kitchen runs Wednesday to Friday 5pm to 10pm and weekends 1pm to 10pm. Fleet Coffee and La Santa Barbacha next door both run 7am to 3pm daily.2
- Hygiene: no inspection record exists under this trading name, which is missing data rather than a finding.3
Verdict
should-visit — An Infatuation 8.0 on a street where that is rare, and the reviewer's line is that it serves some of the best food in the neighborhood. The best plate by his account is the cheapest one: cabbage roasted until fork-tender with rich butter beans. The Fino burger is a thick patty cooked pink with aged cheddar and celeriac remoulade, and the cocktails run to a tomato-and-pineapple margarita and a sherry cobbler milk punch that come out more refreshing than boozy. Since June 2026 the space next door has held Fleet Coffee Roasters and La Santa Barbacha, whose owners Daniela and Rosa Landaverde won CultureMap Austin's 2026 Tastemaker Chef of the Year, so the block runs from 7am coffee to a 1am bar.