Restaurants in South Central Texas
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Salt Lick BBQ
Many people say the Salt Lick is well worth the drive for the vast Hill Country horizons seen from its rustic outdoor tables. The family-style meal includes all-you-can-eat beef, sausage, pork ribs and sides. There’s also live music on weekends.
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Güero’s Taco Bar
Oh, Güero’s, how we love you. Why must you make us wait? Well, clearly it’s because of the three million other hungry people crammed into your bar area. Still, we’ll try to be patient, because we love the atmosphere lent by the century-old former feed-and-seed store, and because we have an obsessive craving for your chicken tortilla soup.
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County Line
Unless you have an enormous appetite, there’s no need to splurge on the all-you-can-eat meals. Most of the combos and platters of delicious ribs, brisket and sausage are – truly – all you can eat. We love the lakeside location (enjoy a beer on the dock while you wait) and the lake-lodge decor.
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Polvos
Fun, festive and just a little divey, Polvos serves central-Mexican food that always packs in a crowd. Try some of the dozen or so salsa varieties with one of the fierce margaritas.
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Casa de Luz
A peaceful commune feel wafts from Casa De Luz, where the set macrobiotic, organic, gluten-free - yet somehow tasty - meal changes at each sitting (daily menu posted on web).
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Shady Grove Restaurant
‘Do you want inside or out?’ Really, what kind of question is that? We came for the shady patio, like everyone else. The lodgelike stone building is fine if it’s raining, or if you’re too hungry to wait, but outdoors under the pecan trees is prime real estate for enjoying everything from chili cheese fries to the vegetarian Hippie Sandwich.
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Threadgill’s World Headquarters
Taking home cooking to a gluttonous new level, Threadgill’s lets you choose from a ridiculously long list of vegetable sides – something you just don’t get at home. Pair your meatloaf or chicken-fried steak with spinach casserole, butter beans, mac and cheese (not technically a vegetable, but still) and classic mashed potatoes and gravy.
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Schilo’s German Delicatessen
Schilo’s has certainly earned its ambience: this German restaurant has been around since 1917, and looks the part, down to the wooden booths and the elaborate pattern of the hexagonal floor tiles. Specialties include wonderful split-pea soup, fresh pumpernickel bread, German beer and homemade root beer.
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Trudy’s Texas Star
Get your Tex-Mex fix here; the menu is consistently good, with several healthier-than-usual options. But we’ll let you in on a little secret: this place could serve beans and dirt and people would still line up for the margaritas, which might very well be the best in Austin.
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Shady Grove
This 1940s state-park replica, complete with Airstream trailer and metal-lawn-chair kitsch, makes a great place to hang out. Munch on black-bean burritos under lights strung between pecan trees. Thursday night April to November unplugged musicians play.
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Lambert’s
Torn between barbecue and fine dining? Lambert’s serves intelligent updates of American comfort-food classics – some might call it ‘uppity barbecue’ – in a historic stone building run by Austin chef Lou Lambert.
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Mi Tierra Café
Red-velvet booths, colorful streamers, guitar-playing troubadours, a colorful pan dulce (sweet pastry) counter - this Market Sq veteran is touristed, but tops for pageantry à la Mexicana.
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Magnolia Cafe
In Westlake, opposite Deep Eddy Cabaret, this casual, all-night cafe serves American and Tex-Mex standbys such as migas, enchiladas, pancakes and potato scrambles. It gets absurdly crowded on weekends.
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East Side Cafe
- Austin, USA
- Restaurants › Café
Expect earthfresh ingredients in the peach-strawberry soup or veggie enchiladas; you can walk through the herb and vegetable garden behind the whitewashed wood house. (And yes, there are meat dishes too.)
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Hut's Hamburgers
Choose from regular beef, natural grass-fed cattle or buffalo meat for your burger at this Austin roadhouse (it was opened in 1939). Southern mains, like chicken-fried steak, are pretty good too.
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County Line Bar-B-Que
- Austin, USA
- Restaurants › Ribs
County Line Bar-B-Que is the original BBQ joint, located in a wood-shack roadhouse off Hwy 360. It serves a helluva hunka beef - the barbecued 12oz rib-eye steak beats all.
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Black’s Barbecue
A longtime Lockhart favorite since 1932, with sausage so good Lyndon Johnson had Black’s cater a party at the nation’s capital.
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Chisholm Trail Bar-B-Q
Chisholm Trail has been named one of the top 10 barbecue restaurants in the state by Texas Monthly magazine.
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Mozart’s Coffee Roasters
Out on Lake Austin you’ll find a great waterfront view and a sinful dessert case.
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Josephine Street
The neon signs in the front window advertise ‘steak’ and ‘whisky.’ There’s a tree growing up through the floor and out the ceiling of the dining room. And the creaky hardwood floors slant more than a little. This isn’t the place for fussy foodies. It is, however, the place for anyone who wants good steak and seafood – hold the fine-dining ambience and prices.
reviewed
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Green Vegetarian Cuisine
Vegetarians all around the city must’ve breathed a sigh of contentment when this cafe opened up. It’s the only place in town (at least at the time of research) that’s 100% vegetarian, and it’s 100% kosher to boot. With dishes such as basil mint pecan pesto pasta, avocado eggs Benedict, and ‘neatloaf, ’ it’s the kind of place even a meat-eater can enjoy.
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Adelante Mexican Food
This cute Mexican diner is a nice little secret. Located in a strip mall near the McNay Art Museum, it would be easy to overlook, but the inside has the feel of a Mexican mercado, with colorful handicrafts right down to the painted furniture. Plus, the food seems a little lighter than most, and doesn’t leave you wanting a siesta.
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Boudro’s on the Riverwalk
This brightly colored restaurant is hugely popular even with locals. Fresh guacamole is made right at your table. The upscale Tex-Mex menu reveals some gourmet surprises, such as black-bean soup made with sherry and white cheddar, lobster tail fajitas drizzled with pineapple pico de gallo and wines from Texas and California.
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Biga on the Banks
This is one of the most justifiably praised restaurants in town, run by Bruce Auden, who is also the chef. The menu is a wonderful mix of European, Tex-Mex, American and Asian influences that probably don’t cost as much as they should (certainly not what they could). It’s stylish yet welcoming, and the wine list is impressive.
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New World Deli
Fans of the sandwich will be delighted with the offerings at New World, whether they’re after a sloppy joe, pastrami on rye, or curried chicken salad on wheat – all of which are made with New World’s amazing, fresh-baked bread, and all of which will raise the bar on what you’ll expect from any future sandwiches you encounter.
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