ACL Fest, or the Austin City Limits Music Festival if you’re of the more formal type, is as much about the food as it is the music. At least, it is for me. My picks for where to eat at ACL 2026 cover smashburgers, loaded fries, Texas BBQ with a Mediterranean twist and one spicy shawarma.
ACL Fest 2026 at a glance: Austin City Limits Music Festival returns to Zilker Park October 2–4 and October 9–11. All four of my picks below are located in ACL Eats, and the festival also offers vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options throughout the food lineup. ACL is cashless, so you can link a credit or debit card to your wristband before heading into the park.
In just a few short years, JABS has become a local fave when it comes to smashburgers. And the prices are reasonable too, which is remarkable considering the burgers feature 3-ounce patties of Creekstone Farms beef—the same premium beef you’ll find at high-end steakhouses.
My move is a double with grilled jalapeños. Simple but effective.
PRO TIP: Get extra sauce. Makes that Raising Cane’s stuff seem like poverty mayo.
Mama Fried is essentially an ACL Eats exclusive, coming back to life for the music festival. This is probably better for my waistline—and yours—because Mama loads french fries with smoky brisket, queso, pico de gallo and pickled jalapeños. Damn, Mama.
PRO TIP: The brisket comes courtesy of LeRoy and Lewis, a Michelin-starred BBQ restaurant. So, like, make like a Michelin inspector and get you some Mama Fried.
My argument for shawarma as nearly perfect music-festival food is simple: it’s filling, flavorful, handheld and gets you back to the music quickly. It also happens to pair remarkably well with however many craft beers you’ve convinced yourself are necessary for surviving an afternoon at Zilker Park.
PRO TIP: The spicy sauce is spicy. And the bathroom situation is of the portable kind. You have been warned.
KG BBQ also took Austin by storm over the last few years and for good reason. Kareem Ghayesh aka the Egyptian Cowboy, fell in love with Texas BBQ, moved here, brought a piece of Egypt with him and became one of the great new success stories in the Austin BBQ scene.
Pro Tip: get the lamb, it’s his specialty and rarely seen on most BBQ menus.
ACL Eats has become one of the better snapshots of where Austin food is right now. You can go from smashburgers and loaded brisket fries to Egyptian-Texas barbecue and shawarma without ever leaving Zilker Park. That’s a pretty good representation of how much the city’s food scene has expanded beyond the barbecue-and-tacos stereotype.
My strategy is simple: figure out what you want to eat before you arrive, grab it between the sets you absolutely can’t miss and don’t waste valuable stomach space on something you could eat anywhere. You already paid ACL prices to get through the gate. You might as well eat something worth remembering.
And yes, you’re probably still going to miss part of a set waiting in line.
At least make sure there’s brisket at the end of it.
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