The best food in Austin, Texas, this September includes a tableside martini service that might make you rethink your James Bond order, a new player in Austin’s white-tablecloth Mexican game, a rotisserie chicken that might give Costco a run for its money and a fresh look at an old Austin standby.
School has started, ACL is around the corner and the calendar is getting booked. But here are four Austin restaurants worth penciling in this September.
When I went to Hestia’s Lone Star Dinner Series collaboration with InterStellar BBQ, I was expecting a lot of smoke, fire and meat magic. What I wasn’t expecting was some of the classiest tableside antics I’ve seen in years.
On select nights, Hestia offers a tableside martini service. A bartender rolls a cart of assorted goodies to your table, where you can order a martini from 21 different options. I was perplexed. And then I got tipsy.
In an era of ordering your whole dinner at the counter—and a cocktail culture filled with egg-white washes and bespoke distillers that sound more like indie rock bands—the Hestia martini cart feels refreshingly old-school. It’s as classy as Ron Burgundy in San Diego...but in downtown Austin.
Pro tip: Check with Hestia to see which nights the tableside martini service is available.
AlteñoHotel restaurants used to be...not so nice (Borat accent), but those days are long gone. Celebrity chefs front them—just ask Las Vegas. Here’s another twist: really good Mexican food from Denver.
Before I went to Alteño, I would have been skeptical about the idea of a Mexican restaurant from Denver coming to Austin. But then again, I had never eaten at Chef Johnny Curiel’s restaurants. The chef has earned multiple James Beard Award finalist recognitions, one of his restaurants earned a Michelin star, and he’s opening another restaurant in Charleston. Gordon Ramsay who?
But it’s the food that really wowed me. You don’t need to do much to Mexican food; it’s already awesome. Honor what works in the recipes, source carefully and upgrade the plate to match the surroundings.
Alteño is sleek, but it’s also thoughtful. There’s a deep wine list featuring small producers from Mexico—including a winery where I got married 18 years ago—and dishes like halibut cooked in a Veracruz-style sauce that reflects the Mediterranean influences found in that cuisine. It was served with what someone at the restaurant called “Robuchon rice,” which is basically code for using copious amounts of butter, much like Joël Robuchon famously did with mashed potatoes.
By the way, that’s also a tip to go to Joël Robuchon. But only after you go to Alteño first. Splurge-worthy indeed.
Austin RotisserieRotisserie chicken is criminally underrated. Sure, it can be great at supermarkets, but those birds are subject to timing. Get there too late and you’re staring at a chicken that was literally picked over and left behind—and somehow it’s still pretty good.
Austin Rotisserie’s birds don’t suffer that fate. The chicken you want is pulled right off the rotisserie and carved to order, and I’d recommend getting at least a half bird. Either way, whole or half, you get potatoes cooked in the drippings of the roasting chickens. I’ll allow you to moan and groan now.
The sauces are addictive, especially the spicy green one, but they’re also almost unnecessary. This is the essence of pure chicken deliciousness, and it is uncanny how good something this straightforward can taste. And dare I say dealing with parking at Fareground is a teensy bit easier than Costco? Like...a little?
It’s worth it. Heck, I might have found my Thanksgiving solution.
Matt’s El RanchoYes, it took me eleven years to go to Matt’s El Rancho. And it’s true: I’m not a big Tex-Mex guy. I’m probably not the first transplant to call queso overrated, but I accept that it is part of the culinary tradition here. And when someone invites me, I graciously oblige.
Matt’s El Rancho was slammed like Austin-Bergstrom during SXSW. The buzz is intoxicating, and so are the margaritas—especially when all I’d had was a smoothie for breakfast. Thanks to some expert ordering from Rosie Newberry of Studio 512, I got a run through Matt’s greatest hits: margaritas, queso and the Asadero tacos.
The latter feature tender steak seared with strips of poblano peppers, onions and cheese. There’s a choice between corn and flour tortillas, but pros get flour here. As for the queso? It was as gluttonous as it should be and lived up to the hype.
But I’ll probably wait another eleven years to do it again.
Austin’s food scene keeps changing, and somehow that makes the older places stand out even more. This month took me from a Michelin-starred chef and downtown martini cart to rotisserie chicken and one of Austin’s most famous Tex-Mex institutions. New and old can coexist pretty damn well here.
Whether you crave awards or nostalgia, a cold drink and a laid-back attitude remain key. That might be a little Matthew McConaughey slipping out, but hey, I’ve lived here for eleven years now.
I even tried the queso.
Pro tip: Save room for ACL in October.
