Fig Italian Kitchen & Bar
The best plate at this South Lamar Italian room is fried Japanese eggplant swimming in a red curry broth brightened with fish sauce, lime and sugar.1
Why go
The Infatuation's Nicolai McCrary scored it 7.4 in August 2025, and his verdict is a useful one: the food is hit-or-miss and the misses come from over-engineering. The pappardelle is housemade and perfectly al dente under a rich, gamey lamb neck ragu, then buried under caramelized fennel, pickled raisins, spiced pistachios and mint gremolata. The plates that work are the simple ones, like fried Japanese eggplant sitting in a red curry broth with fish sauce, lime and sugar. Hokkaido scallops come tempura-fried with house-cured red caviar and a koji emulsion. His advice is to order the dishes that do not overcomplicate themselves, and to skip the signature cocktails for the wine list.1
The room is at the base of an apartment complex on South Lamar, dark walls and black leather, which McCrary reads as date-night territory and better still at happy hour, when cocktails, small plates and pastas land around ten dollars.1 Fig trades at 3403 South Lamar, opens at five on weeknights and four at weekends, and takes reservations.2 Its own dinner page carries no dishes, only the note that the menu changes daily and the line that it no longer serves pizza, so the review is the better guide to the card.
Order this / avoid
- Order the fried Japanese eggplant. Some pieces dry-fried, some battered and crisp, all of them in a red curry broth brightened with fish sauce, lime and sugar.1
- The Hokkaido scallops are large, buttery and tempura-fried, with house-cured red caviar for a briny pop.1
- Go at happy hour. Cocktails, small plates and pastas run around ten dollars.1
- Finish with the chocolate ice-box pie, which comes with caramelized white chocolate gelato and peanut butter. McCrary says the desserts steal the show and to pair one with an amaro.1
- Avoid the Texas red fish. It arrives with pickled okra and a seaweed crema, and the verdict on it is
Skip this and order more pasta.
1 - Avoid the signature cocktails. McCrary found them creative and unbalanced, an old fashioned too boozy and a spicy tequila drink too limey. Take the wine list by the glass.1
- Avoid: turning up for pizza. The venue's own page says it is no longer served.2
What locals & experts say
- Nicolai McCrary, The Infatuation Austin, 20 August 2025, 7.4:
Housemade pappardelle is perfectly al dente and comes with a rich, gamey lamb neck ragu, but it gets buried under caramelized fennel, pickled raisins, spiced pistachios, and mint gremolata
.1 - His rule for ordering here:
Stick to the dishes that don't overcomplicate things, and you'll be fine.
1 - The only sentence the kitchen has published about its food is on its own dinner page:
Pizza will no longer be served.
2
Good to know
- Hours: Monday to Thursday 5pm to 9pm, Friday and Saturday 4pm to 10pm, Sunday 4pm to 9pm.2
- Booking: by telephone, per the venue's own page.2
- Price: cocktails, small plates and pastas at around ten dollars during happy hour. Full menu prices are published nowhere this guide read.1
- Age of the verdict: the score and every dish above come off a review page dated 20 August 2025, and this desk's pages are long-lived. Treat the rundown as the meal McCrary ate.
- Hygiene: no inspection record for this business. Absence is not a clean result; a restaurant that opened inside the register's fourteen-week publishing gap would look exactly like this.3
- Getting there: South Lamar between Ben White and Bluebonnet.
Verdict
could-visit — A fancy Italian room at the base of a South Lamar apartment complex, scored 7.4 by The Infatuation in August 2025. The kitchen is hit-or-miss and the misses are over-engineered: housemade pappardelle with a gamey lamb neck ragu arrives buried under caramelized fennel, pickled raisins, spiced pistachios and mint gremolata, while the fried Japanese eggplant in red curry broth is the plate that lands. Happy hour is the value case, with cocktails, small plates and pastas around ten dollars. Pizza has been dropped from the card. Austin Public Health holds no inspection row for the business, and this entry discloses that gap as a gap.