Le Calamar
A chicken wing deboned, stuffed with huitlacoche (a corn fungus), veal sweetbread and chicken breast, sealed back up and charred over binchotan.1
Why go
Casey Wall cooks here. He founded Bar Liberty in Melbourne, and before that worked at Momofuku Seiobo in Sydney and Le Cirque in New York; Claudia Lee and Richard Hargreave own it with him, and they built it in May 2025 into the space their own wine bar Underdog vacated in February.2 Nicolai McCrary scored it 9.0 for The Infatuation and put the point of the place in one line: There's no tweezers-on-the-plate energy or foam-for-the-sake-of-foam.
1 The Austin Chronicle's food desk named its prix fixe the Best Prix Fixe Dining Deal in the 2026 Best of Austin critics picks.3
Order this / avoid
- Order: one chicken wing per person, which is McCrary's own instruction. It runs close to ten dollars for a single wing and he says it is worth every penny.1 Then the oysters, which are farmed in Texas and come with a green garlic mignonette, and the snapper crudo, which rotates its seasonal partner and was running sungold tomatoes and basil.
- Drink: the Cornstar Martini, gin and corn-infused vodka with Nixta corn liqueur and dry vermouth.1 Order it alongside the wing on purpose: the huitlacoche in the stuffing is a corn fungus, and the drink's sweet corn note runs straight into that earthiness and lifts it instead of fighting it.
- Avoid: arriving with a dish in mind. The menu is rewritten daily around whatever fish landed and what is in season.
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation, Nicolai McCrary (page-dated 3 September 2025), 9.0:
At Le Calamar, you can order a single chicken wing for almost $10
and it is worth every penny, in his words. The same review calls the Gulf oysters small and briny and says they taste more East Coast than swampland, which is a compliment about the farm as much as the kitchen.1 - The Austin Chronicle, Best of Austin 2026, critics picks: Best Prix Fixe Dining Deal. A critics award from the food desk, separate from the readers poll.3
Good to know
- Where it is: 1600 S 1st St, Suite 100, in Bouldin Creek.1
- Booking: book. It is a small dinner room with a 9.0 and a Chronicle award on it.
- Hygiene: no inspection record exists for the kitchen, which is missing data rather than a finding.4
Verdict
must-visit — An Infatuation 9.0 and the Austin Chronicle's 2026 critics pick for best prix fixe deal, which is two different publications arriving at the same place. Chef Casey Wall founded Bar Liberty in Melbourne and cooked at Momofuku Seiobo and Le Cirque, and the cooking reads as that training applied to Texas produce: Gulf oysters from a small farm, sungold tomatoes in the crudo, pecans and honey in the Baked Alaska. The dish to plan around is the deboned chicken wing stuffed with huitlacoche, veal sweetbread and chicken breast, glazed and charred over binchotan, at almost ten dollars each and worth it by the reviewer's account. The menu changes daily on the catch, so go for the technique.