Where to Eat in Austin

JUNE 23, 2022 | LEITH STEEL

From lavender lattes to unbelievable brisket, here’s our favorite places to eat in Austin. 

Carbonate’s strategy team put together a five-day culinary tour for an international restaurant group looking to gain insight into current American cuisine trends as it relates to the popular American-style restaurants they operate in Europe. Our first stop was Austin, Texas which was actually our Food City of the Year in our trend report a few years ago. Austin did not disappoint!  

Here are our favorites: 

Breakfast

Café No Sé - Instagrammable definitely defines this charming all-day cafe with cool, comfortable atmosphere and delicious cooking. Creative morning drinks come in all flavors and colors from the Golden Milk to the green Iced Strawberry Matcha Latte, to the pretty and pink Beet Latte to the must-order popsicle pour overs featuring fruit flavored popsicles with beer or wine poured on top. The menu covered the spectrum from savory to sweet including delicious breakfast pastries, beautiful rainbow colored vegan breakfast bowls, Sweet Potato Hash and a Cowboy Breakfast with eggs, bacon, confit pork, borracho beans, tomato, and roasted jalapeño. Our favorites included the best and most beautiful Smoked Salmon Bagel of the trip with smoked salmon, hard-boiled egg, bright pink pickled onion, tomato, and a thin swipe of caper scallion cream cheese on an everything bagel, and the Quinoa Bowl with soft poached egg, crispy fried chickpeas, avocado, hearty greens and almond pesto and delicious desserts including an incredible Blondie.  

Veracruz All Natural - A modern Austin institution, Veracruz All Natural has six locations in Austin and is expanding to Los Angeles. A breakfast favorite, Veracruz is best known for their Migas breakfast tacos and refreshing and not too sweet agua frescas (get the watermelon!) and fresh fruit juices. Our recommendation: go for the Migas Poblanos with roasted poblano peppers and make sure to try the Shrimp Macha taco with sauteed shrimp, salsa macha, green onion and avocado.

Lunch

Franklin BBQ - Widely considered the best BBQ in the world, we wondered could Franklin BBQ really be that good? Thankfully we had enough people to pre-order the minimum five pounds of tender smoked meats to find out, and our verdict: there is no better brisket. Super soft, juicy and flavorful, the brisket was everything we dreamed it would be. While other bbq places we visited  could compete on some of the other items, the brisket alone is reason enough to make Franklin BBQ the legend it is. 

Nixta Taqueria - Nixta Taqueria’s chef Edgar Rico just won the “Best Emerging Chef” title from the prestigious James Beard Awards, and rightly so for his incredible cooking. With grassy lawn, counter bar, and a few wooden picnic tables decorated with streamers above, eating at Nixta feels like being in a friend’s backyard, only this friend makes their own masa and tortillas for their tacos. The shredded Duck Carnitas Taco comes on a blue corn tortilla with bright watermelon radish, while the vegan Beet Tartare Tostada features flavorful diced roasted beets with salsa macha aioli, fresh horseradish and lime on top of billows of creamy avocado crema and a crisp tortilla shell; but the Cauliflower Tacos are a best seller with roasted cauliflower, nutty romesco sauce, pine nuts, and queso fresco. In every dish the flavor of each ingredient stands out. 

Dinner

Odd Duck - Odd Duck is not to be missed for creative New American cooking dedicated to local, sustainable ingredients and a craftsman approach to cooking. Highlights included the Cast Iron Cornbread with spring onion cultured butter and lingering heat thanks to Hatch Chilis within, Crawfish Queso Fundido with cajun sausage, pickled green beans and sourdough toast, a surprisingly meaty Grilled Quail stuffed with carolina gold dirty rice bathed in hot sauce butter, a tender roast pork tenderloin with pork fat grit congee, kimchi, and gremolata, and the not-to-be-missed Black Sesame Ice Cream Sundae, with ancho chili brownie, berries, candied pecan, buffalo blanco fresco whip, sesame caramel. Creative refreshing cocktails balanced out the menu with spirit-driven drinks and bright flavors; the frozen hurricane steered shy of being overly sweet thanks to a strawberry shrub. 

Loro - A partnership between two of Austin’s most famous chefs, Tyson Cole of Uchi and Uchiko, and Aaron Franklin of Franklin’s BBQ, Loro is an Asian Smokehouse & Bar, marrying texas style bbq with Asian flavors. The sprawling outdoor atmosphere is convivial, casual and inviting, like an overgrown patio party, with large picnic tables for groups and adirondack chairs for those with cocktails waiting for a table. While ordering at the counter is a bit chaotic, the kitchen and menu is designed to churn out lots of food, quickly. The menu features fresh vibrant vegetable dishes touched with the lick of flame alongside intensely flavorful meat and seafood dishes. Standouts include the crispy Chicken Karaage with chili aioli and thai herbs, Malaysian Chicken Bo Ssam, Oak Smoked Salmon with cucumber-yuzu broth and a notable Smoked Brisket Sandwich topped with papaya salad, peanuts, chili aioli and thai herbs. Cocktails and slushies are batch-made enhancing the laid-back party-style feel, and come in flavors like Frozen Gin & Tonic or the Kyuri Mule with vodka, sake, cucumber and mint.

Sweets

Henbit - Fans of Levain Bakery’s oversized cookies take note, Henbit’s Monster Cookies are just as good, or dare we say even better? Coming in one flavor only, these palm-sized jumbo super-soft cookies come with large chocolate chunks still soft and melty and southern pecans.