Austin Restaurants

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If you're in Austin for winter holiday, and that holiday lasts 5 weeks, then it's a sure bet you're going to eat out a few times. There's lots of fine restaurants to explore along with the expected Tex/Mex. Some restaurants are shown in other albums - this album is all about restaurants we explored.

There's a couple of very fine restaurants where you will pay top dollar and have a dining experience. We tried out Paul Qui's new restaurant "Qui" in east Austin and sampled a few dishes. We did the 15 course tapas styled prix fixe dinner at Barley Swine on South Lamar (in our neighborhood) and left feeling stuffed and over fed -- please don't bring another dish! It would be better if one could select a few dishes from the 15 or so courses and walk away pleasantly fed. Both are very fine restaurants but the one we kept coming back to was Sway on South 1st (in our neighborhood). It's a Thai restaurant with good food, a nice decor and a reasonable price.

For Thai food we also tried IM Thai in a south suburban strip mall. We enjoyed it very much and would recommend it.

Kate is vegetarian (but does eat eggs, fish and cheese) so we tried a few. The Bouldin Cafe in our neighborhood is funky with a younger crowd with very good breakfast/lunch foods. Mother's Cafe in north Austin above the University is well worth a visit. We did try Counter Culture in east Austin but it's not our cup of tea.

We liked Red's Porch on South Lamar -- Kate especially liked the salads. It would be a great spot on warm evenings as it looks out over a green belt. Mettle, in east Austin, is a reasonably priced up scale restaurant with a nice patio.

For down home cooking you can't beat Sunday Brunch at Threadgills where they have live music -- usually gospel tinged. And for a "bowl of red" try the Texas Chili Palor bar on Lavaca near the capitol. We went because of the Guy Clark song: "Oh, I wish I was in Texas. In a Chili Palor bar drinking Mad Dog Margaritas and not carin' where you are.."

We tried some cajun food at Evangalines in a south Austin strip mall. The music and decor seemed genuine enough. Tex/Mex food -- Guero's (of course), El Mercado every Monday and the Hula Hut on Lake Austin where we had gone to try something different only to discover more Tex/Mex.

Still haven't tried the food trucks.

Here's a photo album of our adventures.