ATXGuide
The Best Restaurants In North Austin
photo credit: Richard Casteel
North Austin means different things to different people. To some, it’s about The Domain, big shopping malls, and semi-affordable housing. To others, it’s just everything past 183. But North Austin is home to a high density of excellent Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants, great ramen, and the best shawarma in Austin. It has steakhouses and taco trucks, and restaurants where you can actually find parking. Here’s where to eat the next time you’re craving excellent Thai food after trying on a pair of Doc Martens, or you just want to eat an unholy amount of Sichuan-style eggplant in garlic sauce.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Richard Casteel
The tacos and tostadas coming out of this little truck at Celis Brewery are inspired by the Rio Grande Valley, meaning you’ll find everything from mesquite-grilled cauliflower tacos and chori-papa tostadas to the region’s signature bistec estilo Matamoros. It’s all prepared with a level of focus and attention you’d expect at a restaurant with white tablecloths and something called “air conditioning” versus an astroturfed patio. Food can take a while, but a cold beer goes a long way in staying comfortable.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
We cried the first time we tried the papaya salad at Thai Kun. That’s not some sappy statement about the transformative power of food. It’s just that spicy. But we keep going back for that balanced punch of lime, fish sauce, and tart, shredded papaya that makes us forget that we’re at a small restaurant in the middle of a row of rowdy bars at The Domain. They apply that same punch to all the Thai classics on the menu, from the crispy and tart tamarind chili wings to the whole grilled ribeye served with fiery nam jim jaew.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
House Of Three Gorges is home to the best Chinese food in Austin. Not just the best value or the place with the best portion sizes—but it’s certainly strong in those fields, too. It’s at its strongest with Sichuan classics, but along with chongqing chicken and mapo tofu, you’ll find a solid beef with broccoli. You’re not here for the ambiance of a bare-bones dining room in a North Austin strip mall. You’re here for great food, including the spicy eggplant in garlic sauce that could go toe-to-toe with any vegetable dish in the city.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
This food court stall serves ramen that walks the line between Mexican and Japanese flavors, and covers that line with a thick layer of slow-roasted carnitas and a squeeze of lime. Tostadas get topped with raw Hokkaido scallops and salsa verde, while cold and thick noodles get tossed in a refreshing tomatillo salsa and chorizo, creating a mazemen/chilaquiles hybrid. Ramen Del Barrio makes fusion food that immediately takes you out of a grocery store food court, and straight into a tiny ramen stall in Tokyo, a taqueria in Mexico, or some combination of the two that never existed before.
Interstellar BBQ is a Central Texas-style barbecue joint that decided getting an A in “the classics” wasn’t enough and made up its own extra credit assignments. The brisket, pork ribs, and turkey here hold their own with the big names in the Austin barbecue scene, but it’s the daily specials that make Interstellar interesting. It’s where you’ll find things like frito pie sausages, smoked duck breasts, and tender pulled lamb shoulder served in a warm and fluffy flour tortilla.
The beef shawarma at Peace Bakery regularly flits in and out of our dreams—it’s incredibly tender and a little bit charred from the rotisserie—and goes exceptionally well with some smooth, whipped hummus topped with olive oil and a freshly baked pita. Everything at the strip mall restaurant served cafeteria-style—this is what Luby’s would have become if it had spent its formative years on the Mediterranean Sea. Try not to press your face up against the 20-foot display case of slow-stewed meats, fresh salads, and whipped spreads while you decide what to order.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Sifting through Sangam Chettinad’s massive menu of soups, appetizers, and entrees feels like reading a textbook of classic South Indian dishes. If you know what you want, congratulations on being decisive. For everyone else, show up on the weekend and get one of the thali combos that comes with a massive assortment of curries, dhals, yogurts, pickles, and rice. It can feel chaotic on the weekends, with a crowd of people waiting in the entryway for a table and the phone constantly ringing for takeout and delivery orders. Just show up during the week or spend that extra time poring over the long menu.
The pho at Pho Phong Lu'u is our favorite in town, and we’re not alone, as evidenced by the line spilling out of the North Austin restaurant every weekend. The broth here is incredibly aromatic, with cinnamon and clove permeating through the slow-cooked beef bones, and you can add a side of beef fat to up the punch factor even more. Start with a side of fish caramel wings for the table, then get your pho with whatever toppings sound good (we really like the meatballs).
From the folks responsible for the always-busy downtown restaurants ATX Cocina and Red Ash, Bulevar is a blend of both concepts—basically, a steakhouse with Latin flavors. That means dishes like roast duck breast doused in sweet and savory moles, right next to dry-aged porterhouse steaks priced by the ounce. It’s a little upscale, but the large dining room, high ceilings, and colorful decor make it work for a nice Tuesday night dinner or a fancy Friday night date. Where it differs its siblings is that it’s set far enough away from downtown to have a parking lot and a balcony with views of the Northwest Austin hills.
Tare in North Austin follows the same format as the 375 other $100+ omakase sushi spots in town—a speakeasy-style dining room in an old office building, and 15-ish courses of nigiri and small plates. But instead of feeling like just another expensive fish in the sea, it brings some new and exciting flavor combinations to the table, like madai nigiri with salsa verde or negi toro on a bed of crispy chicharrones. The nigiri here starts with well-seasoned rice and high-quality fish, then just leans into the Rio Grande Valley flavors that the chef grew up with and doesn’t worry too much about following the “rules” of traditional sushi.
There are lots of morning options at this little counter-service bagel shop near The Domain, whether you want a classic New York-style bagel BEC or its Texas “Not A Taco” counterpart—basically a breakfast taco disguised as a bagel. We like all the sandwiches that we’ve tried here, but our go-to is one of the schmearwiches. Get the lox on an everything bagel with lemon basil schmear, then pick up a baker’s dozen for the office and hope everyone forgets about how you got a little too loud at last night’s Happy Hour.
Name a country and That Burger will bring you a sandwich inspired by its flavors (no going off-menu though). It’s a concept that sounds gimmicky, but we have yet to try a bad combination in this little EPCOT-inspired burger journey. The Mexican burger comes topped with queso fresco, guacamole, and tortilla chips, while the Argentinian burger gets topped with grilled mushrooms and chimichurri. It’ll also make your next trip to The Domain a little more fun, in case getting your iPhone fixed at the Apple store isn’t the highlight of your day.
Some Vietnamese spots excel at bánh mì, some excel at pho, and some might just excel at being close to your house. Fresh Bowl fits that jack-of-all-trades role, with solid options for a variety of dishes. As the name suggests, everything here is fresh, from the rice noodles made in-house to the bread that’s been baked just moments before transforming into a giant bánh mì. And the dining room is big enough that you shouldn’t have trouble grabbing a table when you bring your group of indecisive friends who can’t decide between bánh mì, pho, and crawfish fried rice.
