Austin.
What Austin is
Barbecue is the reason most people come, and three of the seven MICHELIN stars Austin took in November 2024 went to pits. Eat it at lunch, because the counters stop when the meat runs out. Then save a night for the sushi counters, Tsuke Edomae and Uchi first. Aaron Franklin's kitchen and most of the others holding those awards started in trailers, and several never left.
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406 places
Rooms you can walk into, ranked the way I would send you.
Key: what the badges mean
★ Michelin star · Bib Bib Gourmand · Green ★ Michelin Green Star · Michelin in the Michelin guide, no distinction · J Jeff's own note · Jeff ★★★★☆ 2019 his own rating out of five, and the year he gave it · new the venue itself opened recently · just added recently added to Jeff's list, whatever its age · 2◆ independent chef/industry recommendations · ! hygiene caution in force · ? no current public hygiene record, not a caution · keep walking Jeff has been and would walk past it · the line under a name says when to go: Destination (plan around it) / Solid (the dependable send) / Listed (on the radar). Under it, where the entry states one: how the room takes bookings, and the date I last checked the entry.
Go here first.
Where I'd actually send you first: the rooms I'd put a visitor in on night one, in town rather than an hour down the highway, spread so six cards are six different answers. Producers, markets and the rest of the city are below.
Odd DuckBibJeff ★★★★★ 2024
Destination · Texan · South Lamar · $$$
book ahead
Cast-iron cornbread is permanently on the menu, usually under green onion butter, and the chicken hearts come glazed in mole and doused in masa gravy.
Franklin BarbecueBibJeff ★★★★★ 2017?
Destination · BBQ · East Austin · $$$
walk-in
Franklin's brisket gets salt, pepper and nothing else, then smoke in an offset from split post oak that Chief Firewood trucks in from Smithville.
LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue★?
Destination · BBQ · Austin · $$$
walk-in
The beef cheeks get a salt and pepper bark, four hours of post oak smoke, then a finish in beef tallow confit.
Cuantos TacosBib?
Destination · Mexico City tacos · East Austin · $
walk-in
Suadero comes off a choricera, the domed lard pan of Mexico City street stalls, and the cut here is brisket standing in for the thin one between sirloin and lower flank.
The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co.
Destination · Pizza, pub food · Bouldin Creek
walk-in
The core five here are all low-ABV lagers and ales, built to be drunk in sequence.
SuerteMichelin
Destination · Mexican · East Sixth · $$$
book ahead
The mole negro over the duck confit flautas runs on three chiles, ancho, mulato and chipotle, with chocolate made in the building from toasted sesame and sunflower seeds.
New & next.
Ramen Del BarrioBibnew
Destination · North Austin
walk-in
Christopher Krinsky grills lengua on a robata skewer and serves it on a corn tortilla with the stick still in it, and Texas Monthly put that taco on its list of the fifty best in the state.
NAYAnew?
Listed · Mediterranean and Asian small plates · Downtown · $$
book ahead
Shiitake mapo tofu under red Sichuan peppercorn, on a menu that also runs lamb kibbeh meatballs and whipped feta.
Tao 飯点new
Listed · Chinese · North Central Austin · $$
walk-in
The dumplings are the reason this exists as a separate restaurant: the Infatuation says they are what the team's Cedar Park room does not have.
Royanew?
Solid · Modern Persian · North Shoal Creek · $$$
booking essential
The Infatuation rates the whipped eggplant here the best dip in Austin, ahead of queso, guacamole and salsa.
Space Kat BBQnew?
Solid · BBQ · East Austin · $$
walk-in
A Central Texas barbecue joint with no brisket on the board and Akaushi tri-tip in its place.
De Nada Cantina - South 1stnew
Solid · Mexican · South 1st Street, South Austin · $$
book ahead
Nicolai McCrary calls these "among the best margaritas in Austin", and the large ones are limited to two a head.
Somewhere tonight.
One tap hides everything shut today and everything that needs a booking, then sorts the rest by how close it is to you. I don’t publish opening hours, because they go stale faster than anyone can check them. Check the door before you go.
For the night you're planning.
A table for eight, a quick lunch, something still cooking after eleven: tap the one you need and it opens the rooms that do it. Every time below shows the date it was last checked, so look at that date before you plan an evening around one.
What Austin is known for.
The plates, the room formats and the cooking the city owns, each with the rooms on my list that deliver it.
The Central Texas pit
Franklin has sold out of brisket every day since it opened in 2009, salt and pepper on USDA Prime over post oak.
Franklin Barbecue · LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue · Burnt Bean Company +25
Regional Mexican
These kitchens name their region and their technique.
Cuantos Tacos · Nixta Taqueria · Suerte +18
Outdoor craft breweries
Meanwhile Brewing pours its house pilsner, a former Great American Beer Festival medalist, into a heavily shaded biergarten with a soccer pitch and a row of food trucks along one side.
The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. · Meanwhile Brewing · Pinthouse Pizza +14
My routes through Austin.
Each one runs in the order I would walk it, and every stop carries the reason it is on the route.
The Infatuation's brisket guide puts LeRoy and Lewis first in Austin and Franklin second, and the board at the top pit runs past brisket into beef cheeks out of a tallow confit, whole hog…
I send people to four beer rooms in Austin: Meanwhile, Lazarus, Austin Beerworks at Sprinkle Valley for the barbecue parked on its lot, and Nosh and Bevvy for the British end.
Smitty's and Kreuz were one Lockhart business in one building until a will split the name from the room in 1999, and you can eat both sides of that in an afternoon, with Barbs and Black's inside…
Who is behind the picks.
The chefs who named these rooms, and the critics whose published reviews carry the Austin entries. Every name has a page and a count.
Amanda Turner
Chef · 1 pickMichelin-recognized cooking at Olamaie; Southern-inflected fine dining.
Amanda Turner is chef de cuisine at Olamaie, a Michelin-starred Austin restaurant; a James Beard Award semifinalist for Emerging Chef (2022), a StarChefs Rising Star (2023), and a Season 21 Top…
Nicolai McCrary
Critic · 168 picksAustin restaurants across every price band, from barbecue counters to tasting rooms, reviewed on The Infatuation's ten-point scale. He is the only critic in the city still filing scored reviews.
Nicolai McCrary is The Infatuation's Austin reviewer, Austin-based since 2008, and was a photographer and cook before he was a writer.
Fermín Núñez
Chef · 1 pickMexican-inflected cooking across three Austin rooms: coastal Mexican at Este, contemporary Mexican at Suerte, and Bar Toti.
Fermín Núñez is chef-owner of Suerte, Este and Bar Toti.
The makers behind it.
The mills, farms, butchers and bakers the kitchens buy from, and the rooms on the list that sell or cook with them.
The smoked sausage link
productCoarse-ground beef packed loosely into a natural casing and smoked over post oak, sold by the ring off the same counter as the brisket.
Barton Springs Mill
producerJames Brown opened Barton Springs Mill at Dripping Springs in 2016, then went next door and asked Abby Jane Love to open a bakery that would show what the grain does; her team now teaches…
Trosi Farms
producerKevin Fink's Emmer and Rye group farms Trosi Farms itself, and what Fink tells the Chronicle has taken to the ground out there is Mediterranean herbs, which is a crop a restaurant plants for…
How Austin actually eats.
How people here actually eat, which is the part of a city you learn by living in it.
Central Texas barbecue
how it is eatenTexas Monthly prints the same two words beside joint after joint on its Top 50, post oak, and the rub is salt and pepper and nothing else.
Masa made in house
how it is eatenA handful of Austin kitchens cook whole corn with lime, grind it that morning and press the tortillas they serve.
Trailers, their hosts and the truck park
how it is eatenThe bar owns the address and the cook owns the hours, so read the cook's.
The heavyweights
Every room here has won a Michelin star or a place on a 50 Best list, or has simply been running for decades. 25 here.
Nixta TaqueriaBib
Mexican · East Austin · $$
walk-in
The enchilada potosina taco carries guajillo chile paste worked into the masa itself, duck-fat refried beans under potato and chorizo, and a cap of queso enchilado shipped up from San Luis Potosi.
Parish BarbecueBib?
Central Texas barbecue with a Louisiana turn · Sprinkle Valley · $$
walk-in
Holden Fulco cures pork coppa for a week in salt, brown sugar, fennel and mustard seed, smokes it, then glazes it with cane syrup, Creole mustard, orange juice and pepper jelly.
la Barbecue★
BBQ · East Cesar Chavez · $$
walk-in
Ali Clem was hired as help on a South First food trailer by John Mueller. Fourteen years later the room she built holds a MICHELIN Star.
Interstellar BBQ★
BBQ · Northwest Austin · $$$
walk-in
Bates glazes the pork belly burnt ends with peach tea, and Texas Monthly's Daniel Vaughn says the tea takes center stage while the glaze stays off sweet.
Birdie's
Seasonal American with French and Italian leanings · Rosewood · $$$
walk-in
This room gives its staff four weeks of paid vacation, paid family leave, subsidized therapy and health insurance, and Food & Wine made it Restaurant of the Year in 2023 for exactly that.
KG BBQBib?
BBQ · East Austin · $$
walk-in
Pork ribs come out glazed in pomegranate molasses and sprinkled with za'atar, off an oak-fired offset smoker, and the sauce on the table is tahini cut with vinegar and cumin.
The dependable sends
Good cooking needs no occasion, and these are the ones I hand out on a normal Tuesday. 137 here.
Matt's El Rancho
Restaurant · South Lamar · $$
walk-in
Bob Armstrong Dip is queso souped up with crumbled taco beef and guacamole, built in the seventies for a Texas Land Commissioner who ate here, and trademarked by the restaurant in 2015.
Micklethwait Craft Meats BBQ & CateringBib
BBQ · East Austin · $$
walk-in
The brisket rub is celery seed, onion powder, garlic, chili, mustard and coriander. It builds a coating thick enough to hold the post oak smoke.
BriscuitsBib?
Barbecue biscuit sandwiches · South Lamar
walk-in
Brisket and butter on the same biscuit, finished with smoked strawberry jelly.
LaunderetteMichelin
Modern American · Holly, East Austin · $$$
book ahead
The birthday cake ice cream sandwich puts a thick slab of vanilla between two confetti cookies that stay soft and slightly doughy straight out of the freezer.
Churchrow Tejas BBQ?
Tex-Mex barbecue · Crestview · $$
walk-in
Smoked beef sweetbreads, folded into a fresh flour tortilla with tomatillo salsa and escabeche, were the best bite Texas Monthly's barbecue editor had across four visits.
La Santa BarbachaBib?
Barbacoa tacos · Manor Road, East Austin · $
walk-in
The tortillas come out green and red, colored by spinach and other vegetables worked into the masa. The barbacoa is what goes in them.
On my list
These are on my list; I haven't been yet. 232 here.
DEE DEE : Farm-to-Table Northeastern Thai Foodnew?
Isaan Thai · Sunset Valley · $$
walk-in
Pad ka pow is the house plate: ground pork rich and savory, fried basil leaves aromatic and peppery, and an egg yolk jammy in the middle with crisp edges.
Moreno Barbecue
BBQ · Southwest Austin · $$
walk-in
They sell the jalapeno cheddar sausage by the pound, so you can order a quarter of it alongside everything else.
Pueblo Viejo Taco Truck?
Mexican · Austin · $
walk-in
Most Austin breakfast-taco counters keep two salsas going. Pueblo Viejo keeps five, out to a habanero and ghost chili.
CỦIjust added?
Vietnamese, with Central Texas barbecue · North Austin · $$
walk-in
Banh beo and banana-leaf tapioca dumplings are rare in Austin, and this kitchen leads with them. The pho uses smoked brisket.
MEXTA Mexican RestaurantMichelin!
Mexican · East Sixth · $$$
book ahead
The tetela arrives under a mole manchamanteles built on plantain and pineapple, topped with slow-cooked pork belly.
Nickel City
Neighborhood bar · East Austin · $$
walk-in
The food comes from a trailer in the back yard, Delray Cafe, doing fried bologna sandwiches, burgers and what The Infatuation calls some of the best wings in town.