8 Great Places To Eat & Drink In & Around Austin, TX

After enjoying a little down time in Houston, Shae and I continued on to Austin. We’d already visited Austin in the first year of our road trip but stayed in Round Rock, a city about 20 minutes to the north. This time we stayed downtown as we managed to get a great deal on a hotel there.

Staying downtown meant it was easier checking out some of the great food and drink options available in the city, but it’s not only downtown Austin which has great food. Surrounding areas like Round Rock and Georgetown also have some good dining options, so here’s a list of all the places we loved getting food from during our most recent visit to the state capital of Texas.

1) Round Rock Donuts

As mentioned earlier, we stayed in Round Rock during our first visit to the Austin area and discovered Round Rock Donuts back then. Shae and I loved their donuts so much (here’s our original review), we knew we had to return during this most recent visit.

I’ll admit – I was excited but a little apprehensive about returning. I was concerned that we’d built up in our minds how good their donuts and kolaches were, so I was hoping we wouldn’t be disappointed.

I needn’t have worried.

It turns out their donuts were as good as we remembered. In fact, they might have been even better than I remembered. I started with a kolache which is like a sweet roll with a sausage inside and followed up with an éclair which, at Round Rock Donuts, is basically a stretched out Boston cream donut with custard inside. Ridiculously delicious, with custard throughout the éclair rather than just a small amount in the middle.

I also ordered a donut filled with strawberry jelly but took that to go. When I ate it later, that too was as good as I remembered – incredibly soft and completely full of jelly which meant every bite contained the fruity goodness.

Shae only ordered one donut, but that’s all she needed for several days. That’s because Round Rock Donuts is home to the Texas-sized donut which lives up to its name. As we noted the first time we visited, you might think a donut this large might look impressive but would taste disappointing, but that’s not true – it tastes as amazing as it looks.

Address: Round Rock Donuts, 106 W Liberty Ave, Round Rock, TX 78664.

2) Arlo’s

While in Austin, we met up with our friends Carrie and Drew from Travel is Free. They suggested getting food from Arlo’s, a food truck round the corner from our hotel.

It’s a vegan food truck, but they recommended it despite not being vegan themselves as they said the food was so good. It turns out they were right.

I ordered a BBQ Burger which, if I hadn’t known was a plant-based burger, would’ve assumed was meat. It was surprisingly delicious, as was the overly generous serving of tater tots I ordered on the side. The photo might not make it look amazing, but its taste more than made up for it.

Shae ordered their Frito Pie which also might not look like it’s up to much in the photo below, but was also apparently delicious. Two thumbs up from both Shae and I for this vegan food. It was so good that we’d hoped to eat there again, but ran out of time.

Address: Arlo’s has a couple of locations – we ordered from their food truck at 900 Red River St, Austin, TX 78702.

3) Crepe Crazy

Shae’s been teaching online with Outschool since before the pandemic hit and while in Austin we met up with another Outschool teacher who Shae met through the platform along with two of her children.

We met up for an outdoor lunch at Crepe Crazy in Dripping Springs, a restaurant which serves both sweet and savory pancakes. We hadn’t realized when we first showed up, but Crepe Crazy is a small deaf-owned restaurant chain and all staff members are deaf. As a result, you point to the items you want to order on the menu.

I wasn’t sold on the idea of a savory crepe, so I ordered a lox and lemon-dill cream cheese bagel with a caramelized apple and vanilla cream crepe for after.

Shae on the other hand ordered both savory and sweet crepes. Her savory one was chicken basil pesto, then she followed up with a s’mores crepe. I tried her chicken basil pesto crepe and immediately regretted not getting a savory crepe; while my bagel was good, her crepe was even better. We both enjoyed our sweet crepes too, but be warned – two crepes with all their fillings is a lot of food.

Address: At the time of writing this post, Crepe Crazy has three locations – Dripping Springs and Austin in Texas and Baltimore in Maryland. We ate at the one in Dripping Springs – 660 W 290 Hwy B, Dripping Springs, TX 78620.

4) Koriente

I had $30 of Uber Eats credits we needed to use up from my Amex Platinum cards, so one night we ordered pickup from Koriente, an Asian food restaurant a few minutes walk from our hotel.

Funnily enough, Shae and I ended up ordering exactly the same meal (we didn’t realize until I got back with the food) – their Spicy Chicken Bundle with half rice and half noodles, with a side of edamame. When picking up our meal, I noticed that they seemed to be slammed with to-go orders which was a good sign – if your restaurant is doing well in a pandemic in a food city like Austin, they must serve good food.

That impression was correct – they do indeed serve good food. The chicken was incredibly flavorful and was certainly spicy – if you order that dish, be sure to have a tall glass of water on standby.

Address: Koriente, 621 E 7th St, Austin, TX 78701.

5) Wanderlust Wine Co.

Shae and I are still avoiding eating in restaurants and drinking inside breweries and wineries due to the pandemic. Thankfully the weather was good in Austin for much of our stay, despite it being January.

One afternoon we stopped off at Wanderlust Wine Co., a wine bar with lots of physically-distanced outdoor seating (although you could also sit inside if you wanted). They also had a food truck on site.

One of the fun features of Wanderlust Wine Co. is that you serve yourself. You open a tab, get a card and then you can pour yourself whatever wine you want in whatever sizes you want – 1 oz, 2 oz, 6 oz, etc. When you leave, you hand over the card and pay for whatever you’ve had to drink.

Another great feature is that they’re pet-friendly which meant that Truffles could join us.

Address: Wanderlust Wine Co., 610 N Interstate Hwy 35, Austin, TX 78701.

6) Terry Black’s Barbecue

I’d seen online that Terry Black’s Barbeque was meant to have excellent brisket, so I knew we had to try it. We’ve eaten a lot of BBQ on the road trip, so I was curious how it would compare.

As it turns out, it compares incredibly favorably and is certainly in my top 3 BBQ places and might just have stolen top place. The brisket was indeed excellent – very tender and flavorful. We also got pork ribs which were literally fall-off-the-bone tender. Their sides of green beans, potato salad and corn bread were also good, but the meat is definitely where it’s at.

Address: Terry Black’s Barbecue has restaurants in Austin and Dallas – we got takeout from the restaurant at 1003 Barton Springs Rd, Austin, TX 78704.

7) Brookwood In Georgetown

When leaving Austin to head on to New Mexico, we stopped off for lunch at Brookwood in Georgetown, a cafe in Georgetown which is about 30 minutes north of downtown Austin.

We met up with Amy and Tim Rutherford, a couple we’d met online who also travel full-time and who were house sitting in Georgetown – here’s their YouTube channel GoWithLess. Brookwood in Georgetown had several tables outside and it was something like 70° that day, so it was perfect weather to be sitting outside.

Brookwood in Georgetown provides employment opportunities for adults with special needs and everyone there was very friendly. Their food was very good too, so it’d be worth eating there even if they didn’t have a great mission.

There were several meals that looked appetizing and I ended up settling on their Georgetown Cheesesteak Sandwich. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might’ve seen me mention in the past that I don’t like cheese, so yes – I ordered a cheesesteak sans cheese (don’t judge me too harshly!) It came with caramelized pepper and onion and garlic aioli and was served on sourdough bread. It was tasty, filling and was the perfect choice for me.

Shae on the other hand loves cheese, so she ordered the BiG Grilled Cheese – a grilled cheese sandwich containing four different cheeses (mozzarella, feta, Havarti and white cheddar). This came with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes and she added a grilled chicken breast. I’d picked fruit as my side, but given the fact that she was having a grilled cheese sandwich, Shae got tomato soup as her side. She enjoyed her meal just as much as I did. (n.b. she doesn’t like croutons which is why they’re on the side in the photo below – it wasn’t served like that.)

Address: Brookwood in Georgetown, 905 N Church St, Georgetown, TX 78626.

8) The Baked Bear

After having lunch at Brookwood in Georgetown, we had one further stop to make before heading onwards – dessert at The Baked Bear. They serve cookies, ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, etc.

I ordered a cookie and a single scoop of blackberry crumble ice cream in a cup. The cookie was fine, but I’ve had much better. The ice cream on the other had was fantastic – fruity, creamy and just all-round tasty.

Shae went for the full experience – an ice cream sandwich consisting of a cookie on one side and a brownie on the other, with mint chocolate chip ice cream between the two. She did her best to finish it off, but it proved to be a little too much dessert after a filling lunch.

Address: The Baked Bear, 109 E 7th St, Georgetown, TX 78626.

Final Thoughts

We knew Austin was meant to be a city with good food, so it was nice to have an opportunity to explore that for ourselves during our second visit. The only problem is that the next time we’re in Austin we’d want to try lots of different places to eat but would also want to eat at all these restaurants again!