Food Adventures in Austin

Austin likes to present itself as the “live music capital of the world”. For uncultured heathens like me who don’t know enough about live music to really appreciate it, Austin is more like the food capital of the south. Virgin America was having a sweet deal on tickets so M and I jumped on it to take a nice long weekend trip over President’s Day weekend. It ended up being a great trip characterized by some interesting sights, beautiful weather, and most of all, delicious, glorious food.

Great weather in Austin 

We arrived in Austin-Bergstrom International Airport mid afternoon on Saturday, hungry after the four hour flight. Before we even left the airport, we stumbled upon our first BBQ place, The Salt Lick. Having decided not to rent a car for this trip, we most likely would not make it to the original branch on the outskirts of town, so we stopped by for a “little afternoon snack”. We got the three meat platter for $18. It was a little pricey, but to be expected for airport food. It was also among the best airport food I’ve had, so no buyer’s regret here. 

First "meal" in Austin

After checking into our hotel and walking around the Capitol building and grounds a bit, our BBQ adventure continued at Rudy’s Country Store & Bar-B-Q on the south end of town. It’s a casual place where you order at the counter and bring your food to long dining hall style tables to eat. The employees were all very friendly - when they heard we were newcomers to the restaurant, they introduced us to the menu with generous free samples. We ended up getting a quarter pound each of the turkey and moist brisket, and a half rack of baby back ribs, and it was honestly the best BBQ I’ve ever had. The turkey was moist and flavorful, and worked great with the free bread. The ribs were great too - there was BBQ sauce available at all the tables, but the ribs were already seasoned to perfection so I ended up eating most of it dry. Everything was good, but my favorite part of the meal was definitely the brisket. I don’t know how they got it so moist and tender that it would practically melt in your mouth. Best part was that all this meat for two cost us only about $30 total. Definitely a place worth revisiting if I’m ever back in town.

Best ribs ever at Rudy's

On Sunday we spend the morning taking a tour of UT Austin. We followed a friend of mine who’s a student there all around campus, working up a nice appetite a big lunch at Torchy’s Tacos. Turns out Torchy’s Tacos is a chain that was founded in Austin by some big name chef who quit his fancy executive chef job to chase his dream of making tacos. The guy’s skill definitely shows in the quality of the food there. We ordered a basket of nachos and a bunch of different taco flavors. The nachos were okay, but I would recommend forgoing those and saving the stomach space for more tacos. All the tacos were phenomenal, though the Baja Shrimp stands out as my favorite by far. 

Amazing Baja Shrimp tacos on the right

We walked around campus some more after lunch, checked out the LBJ Presidential Library, and then walked back to the downtown area. Our destination? Gourdough’s Public House on 5th street. Gourdough's sells sandwiches and burgers like many other restaurants, but unlike most other restaurants, in place of bread and buns they use fresh piping hot donuts. We ordered a Mother Clucker (fried chicken on top of fried dough covered in grease) and a Miss Shortcake (donut topped with cream cheese and strawberries - we like to think the strawberries make it somewhat healthy). Not something you could have everyday without your arteries screaming in protest, but quite tasty and worth a try. The donut burger is on my list of things to try next time.

Donuts at Gourdough's

Monday was our last full day in Austin. We grabbed a quick breakfast downtown and then took a nice long morning walk along Lady Bird Lake over to Zilker park. When it started getting too warm around noon, we hopped on an Uber over to “SoCo”, or South Congress Ave., a street south of the river lined with great restaurants and interesting shops. For lunch we went to Hopdoddy Burger Bar. Of course, there was a line that snaked all the way through and halfway around the outside of the restaurant, but the wait didn’t seem too bad after a waiter brought us a girl scout cookie milkshake to enjoy in line. After we finally got inside and got seated, we ordered a Magic Shroom and a Primetime burger with a side of Truffle Fries. The wait was long, but the food was worth it. I’d rank these among the best burgers I’ve ever had.

The Magic Shroom burger

We spent the next few hours wandering around SoCo exploring the wide range of shops, ranging from Mexican souvenirs to cowboy boots. After we digested enough to eat again, we walked over to Home Slice Pizza, a nondescript dimly lit restaurant with the smell of freshly baked pizza that greets visitors right at the door. We ordered a half Margherita and half Sausage, Ricotta Cheese, and Red Pepper pizza. Both flavors were good, but we both surprisingly agreed that the Margherita was better. It had a nice blend of spices and off-the-vine fresh tomatoes, and was a great finale to our food adventures in Austin.

Pizza at Home Slice

Our trip to Austin was almost purely opportunistic, but we were pleasantly surprised to discover a veritable food paradise. Almost all the meals we had were top notch. Not sure if I’ll have the chance to visit again, if I do I’ll definitely make sure to arrive on an empty stomach!