The best food in Austin, Texas, this August includes a two-Michelin-star collaboration, proof that barbecue exists in outer space, neo-Neapolitan pizza that has nothing to do with The Matrix, and a Thai and Vietnamese pop-up soon to become a full-fledged brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Even in the sweltering heart of summer, Austin’s restaurant scene doesn’t slow down. Here are four Austin restaurants, food trucks and dining experiences worth seeking out this month.
Hestia Lone Star Series Dinner x InterStellar BBQWhat do you get when two Michelin-starred restaurants with a penchant for live-fire cooking collaborate? The latest installment of Hestia’s Lone Star Dinner Series, this time featuring InterStellar BBQ. Both restaurants have earned Michelin stars, and they intend to use their powers hopefully for good. At least I’m going to assume they will.
This is literally an all-star, one-off dinner experience, and let’s just say I’ll be skipping lunch. I don’t know what the menu will look like yet, but judging from previous Hestia collaborations with Michelin-recognized restaurants like LeRoy and Lewis and Houston’s Tatemó, I’m getting strapped in for a long evening of bespoke barbecue, fine dining baptized by fire and multiple egg-white cocktails.
In a city where barbecue and live-fire cooking have become increasingly ambitious, this is exactly the kind of Austin dining event that shows how far both have come.
This is a one night only event on Tuesday, August 25th 2026 at Hestia. Link to book here
Excuse me, ma’am, but have you heard the buzz about Măm Măm?
The chef-driven Vietnamese and Thai concept from chef and co-owner Kris Hoang generated enough attention as a pop-up that it’s now making the jump to a full-fledged brick-and-mortar restaurant in Pflugerville. In the meantime, there’s still plenty of reason to seek out Măm Măm right now.
Start with the Thai-style poached chicken and chicken-fat rice, a dish so popular that the one time it left the menu, loyal fans responded with an uproar. I’ve become quite enamored with it myself, and Măm Măm’s version ups the ante with turmeric-yellow rice truly bathed in chicken fat. That fat is skimmed from a broth that has been fortified by the cooking of literally thousands of poached chickens.
The result is the kind of deceptively simple dish that reminds you how much technique can hide inside a plate of chicken and rice. Drive the speed limit, ma’am, but still hurry over to Măm Măm.
Măm Măm is currently located at Springdale General and plans to move to Pflugerville in the near future.
Space Kat BBQIt’s not often you get to say “here, kitty kitty” to a cat in a spacesuit, but that’s exactly the situation at Space Kat BBQ, one of the newer arrivals on Webberville Road and one of the more interesting additions to Austin’s already crowded barbecue scene.
Pitmaster Jack Zizzo has a résumé that includes Barley Swine, and this is one hip Kat who knows a thing or two about cooking meat. But here’s the thing: don’t show up expecting brisket. Space Kat’s cut of choice is tri-tip, and don’t sleep on the seldom-seen coppa chop, cut from the pork shoulder.
My typical barbecue pro tip is to skip the sauce because I think it can mask the work of a great pitmaster. Nick’s—make that Jack’s—barbecue sauce made me break my own rule. I feel bad disclosing his secret ingredient, so let’s just say it’s the ultimate beverage to pair with a backyard barbecue.
Standing out in Austin barbecue requires more than smoking a good brisket these days. You need a point of view, an interesting menu and formidable technique. If you’re looking for all three, apparently you should seek out the astronaut cat.
Side Eye PiePizza might not be quite as crowded a category as barbecue in Austin, but the city has been blessed with more than its share of talked-about pizza spots. Side Eye Pie stands out on that increasingly long list thanks to chef Tony Curet, whose approach to neo-Neapolitan pizza combines serious technique, familiar pizza comforts and an intensely hot wood-fired oven.
The pizzas start with cold-fermented dough made with Texas Red Wheat flour and native yeast before hitting a post-oak-fired oven. The result lands somewhere between Neapolitan tradition and a distinctly Austin interpretation of what modern pizza can be.
But here’s my pro tip for any great pizza joint: if they serve wings, try the wings.
At Side Eye Pie, that’s especially true. Working without a traditional fryer, Curet found a far more interesting solution: the wings are confited in duck fat off-site and then fired to order. The result is one of the more unique chicken wings I’ve encountered in Austin, and perhaps anywhere.
Come for some of the best wood-fired pizza in Austin. Just don’t overlook the wings.
Austin’s food scene keeps on trucking, even in the heart of a sweltering Texas summer. This month’s standouts also happen to demonstrate just how varied eating in Austin has become, from a Michelin-starred barbecue collaboration to Southeast Asian comfort food, a barbecue trailer willing to skip brisket entirely and an Austin pizza shop confiting chicken wings in duck fat.
That’s what keeps eating around this city interesting. There is always another chef trying something new, another trailer challenging what an Austin staple is supposed to look like, and another dish worth driving across town to try. So nosh on neo-Neapolitan pizza, pounce on Southeast Asian-style poached chicken and indulge in the occasional Michelin-starred mashup.
Pro tip: save room for September.
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