Austin is a city where a lot’s happening, and there’s a pretty big standard deviation of how fun that stuff is. I lived here from 2021-2023, so I thought this guide would come in handy for my friends and family who are visiting Austin for whatever reason.
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--------------------Places to Eat:-------------------------
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(important caveats: I’ve never been to a michelin star restaurant, and I don’t eat meat except chicken wings. Vibes are very important to me, food quality less so)
Tacos 1: Mi Madre (V)
- Older place. Tacos filled really big, good prices, lots of vegetarian options, and the waiter hit on me once. Breakfast tacos are their specialty. I’d recommend the horchata coffee combo
Tacos 2: Veracruz Al Natural (V)
- Lots of weirder fun options here with some “texas meat options”, a bit pricier but not as bad as Floofy’s. The food truck is better than the indoor location. Good watermelon smoothies
Lots of Vegan Stuff: The Vegan Nom Food Truck Park (V)
- Taco place, pizza place (possum pizza), vegan milkshake place, and a coffee thing. Don’t get the vegan chicken wings. I think the best things here are the tacos.
BBQ: Micklethwait
- So I lied: I do eat meat once a year on my anniversary of being vegetarian. This is the best place I’ve tried. It’s mediumly hyped, which means shorter lines but still a quality “I got austin BBQ” experience. Great outdoor area with a beer garden. They might be sold out of some meats by the afternoon, so it’s better to go on the earlier side if you’re picky, but you don’t need to be one of those freaks who camps out at other places
Vegan Sushi: Nori (V)
- It’s an all-vegan sushi place that had a LOT of hype among millenials in 2023. More expensive but also it’s a fancier atmosphere. Considering how options are limited when making a vegan roll, they do a very creative and tasty job! They have real wasabi if you ask! Don’t get sweet potato stuff, and the appetizers are kinda small
Ethiopian: Aster’s Ethiopian (V)
- It’s a very cobbled-together place next door to a 12 lane highway, it’s mega cheap, super flavorful, and you’ll leave full as hell
Chicken Wings 1a: Tommy Want Wingy (highly rec!)
- Some of the highest-quality wings I’ve ever eaten (those chickens had very well-composed bones to gnaw on), sold from a food truck. Their spiciest sauce is the second spiciest thing I’ve ever eaten, and I order the spiciest sauce everywhere I go (spicy thing #1: paqui hot chip challenge chip). Go for the more flavorful options -- their mango habanero doesn’t taste “cheap” like buffalo wild wings. They have cool merch.
Chicken Wings 1b: Wingzup
- This place KNOWS chicken wings. Extremely cool sauces (e.g. blueberry habanero) along with a really well-calibrated range of heats. The 20 ghost wings in 20 minutes challenge is, as far as I can tell, not humanly possible given the sauce and the spice level. The best sauces are the jalapeno ranch (not spicy), jamaican jerk (dang spicy for a jerk), and the medium (they do it right).
Pasta: Patrizis (highly rec!)
- This is one of the places where even I can tell the food is really tasty. Fun outdoor casual vibes, the food truck is connected to a bar and some sort of theater I never went to.
Brunch: Juan in a Million
- When a place that’s been around forever has a line out the door every day, you know it’s great. Mexican food that’s better than their atmosphere. They have some strangely good deals on mimosas on the weekend. No vegan options.
Brunch: Bouldin Creek Cafe (V)
- I think it’s the tastiest food place in Austin. All vegetarian. Lots of variety and they do it all competently, which is a treat! Ask for yellowbird hot sauce, it’s a texas specialty. I love their beans and rice because I’m a simple man.
To get at the store
- There are also some fun foods and beverages that are sold in texas stores that I haven't seen elsewhere. Big Red (and its cousin that honestly tastes the exact same, Big Blue) is a bubblegum flavored soda pop that is sold in most gas stations and grocery stores. You should definitely try it if you can! If you need to buy groceries, go to HEB, the official grocery store of Texas. While you're there, pick up their store-made tortillas (flour or butter, NOT wheat), which are often hot off the press and absolutely delicious.
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--------------------Places to Drink:-------------------------
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Coffee 1: Thunderbird
- Friendly neighborhood place that brews their own pretty good coffee, has space both indoors and outdoors; the best part is that whoever works here has excellent and varied taste in the music they play, and the clientele like to have very loud very gossipy conversations
Coffee 2: Mozarts (highly rec!)
- On the waterfront, with lots of cute turtles swimming about, it’s one of the comfiest spots in the city. Coffee is fine, they’ve got a pretty big menu of odds and ends to eat and drink. Good milkshakes. You’ll love it.
Coffee 3: Genuine Joe’s
- This place has a lot of atmosphere going every which way and is very nice and weird. Bottomless coffee!
Beer 1: Crown and Anchor (highly rec!)
- I was such a regular here that one of the bartenders went to get his teeth cleaned, remembered I was looking for a good dentist, and brought back their business card for me. It’s extremely unpretentious and features a mix of very regular people and university folk (undergrads at night during the school year). Diverse texan beer selection. Pool. Don’t go here to watch sports. Veggie burger is surprisingly good.
Beer 2: Haymaker
- Sports bar that hosts very well-attended watch parties for Austin FC. Diverse texas + world beer selection. Pool. Go here to watch sports! Chicken wings are breaded, if you’re into that.
Well Drinks: Hole in the wall
- This place has nutso deals and is extremely skeezy in just the right way
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--------------------Things To Do:-------------------------
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Stand up paddleboarding at lady bird lake
- You get to have fun doing an austin meme, and it’s fun in its own right! Great views, you feel like you’re in both nature and civilization at once. Start off against the current so that going back at the end is easier. Pair this with a walk around lady bird lake
Two Step Dancing at White Horse
- I’ve never been here because I am somewhat afraid of dancing in public but I’ve heard it’s pretty authentic AND it’s very welcoming to beginners. Lots of people like going here.
Go to the LBJ Museum
- If you’re into presidents, you’d love this. If you’re not a history person, it’s whatever. Fun giftshop for texas trinkets.
Go to the Blanton Art Museum
- It’s got enough material that you’ll feel satisfied, but you’ll be able to see it all in one trip. By far their best stuff is the abstract expressionism. Better than the contemporary austin.
Walking around lady bird lake by downtown
- There are 10 miles of paths that encircle the river called lady bird lake, and walking a segment is good people watching and a nice, varied way to spend a . If you’re looking for some variety, veer northwards and trek up to pease park and shoal creek. There’s rumors of a serial killer at nite that pushes bodies into the lake, but I think it’s just drunk people falling in
See some live music
- A bunch of bars have live music every night. Many of them are in downtown areas with bad atmosphere. Instead, I’d recommend the Skylark Lounge or the Sahara Lounge, which on most nights have a mix of blues, jazz, and funk where you’ll see some like 65 year old guy who is better at an instrument than you thought possible
Swim at barton springs creek pool
- It’s a section of natural springs that is walled off and turned into a pool. Pretty cool! Free admission in the winter (water’s the same temp all year). Great sunbathing spot.
Do the only cool hike at the Barton Creek Greenbelt
- Park at the barton creek greenbelt trailhead right off of mopac (don’t bring valuables) and hike northwest. It’s about 6 miles round trip, with a creek and some cool waterfalls. Apparently lots of rare salamanders live in the area. Sorry there aren’t other good hikes close by, but they’re all rather boring!
Check out the capitol building
- State capitols are all interesting, especially when you think about the evil that has resided in this one. There are free tours that take you up to where the senate is and help you explore the weirdly big underground space.
Go thrifting at the corner of 29th and guadalupe
- A cool used record store, like 4 clothes thrift places, and a weird sneaker shop. If you’re looking for chaos thrifting where everything’s $3 but half of it is old gym clothes, go to Texas Thrift by I-35.
If You Have a Car:
- Jester king brewing is about a 30 minute drive west. Expensive yet REALLY unique sour beers on a massive brewery that’s got some branch davidian compound vibes. There are also a lot of breweries in austin, as you’d surmise, but none of them have stood out to me as places where you NEED their beer ON LOCATION if you know what I mean
- Waco is 1 hour 30 minutes north. Chip and Joanna gaines have a combo restaurant, store, gift shop, furniture place up there (closed on sundays). The drive there puts you into “real” texas
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--------------------Things NOT To Do:-------------------------
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There are areas of austin that feature many bachelor(ette) parties and a extremely narcissistic culture (you can tell people care very much what other people think of them). Those places are 6th street west of I-35, rainey street, hancock, and the domain. I don’t like those places, they’re expensive, and they’re not any different from things you can see in other big cities! South Congress also has that sort of people vibe, but there are a lot of unique clothing and gift stores to shop at here.
Also, there are some places people love to talk about that you’re better off skipping: Torchy’s tacos (mediocre), Franklin’s (wait too long), la Barbecue (unethical owners), Medici Coffee (yuppie), Tiki Tatsu-ya (pricey), In N Out (not as good as california IN n Out), Whataburger (its just okay).
tedmond.net 