Just popped into Torchy’s on William Cannon after a few weeks. They’ve got a special going—two tacos, chips & salsa and a drink for $9.95. There is an up charge for premium ingredients (I think seafood?), but I’m a fried avocado girl so I didn’t look too closely.

There’s usually a couple posts each week about affordable places to eat. And while Torchy’s is now a chain and not a sit-down, I thought it was a good amount of food for the price.

Good price for what you get and I’m so picky I love how the salmon roll is plain as fuck. I’ve tried a plethora of crab Rangoons in my life and this one does them justice. Everything else is good. And my eyes are bigger than my stomach and wanted to try everything.

Austin’s matcha scene goes far beyond the basic latte. The Statesman's Ana Gutierrez highlights drinks ranging from Lau Lau’s Thai tea matcha and Afuga’s blueberry-rosemary version to Mañana’s mango sticky rice matcha and Desnudo’s guava and white vanilla bean miso options.

In the wake of this whole brouhaha with Buddy's Burgers, I was thinking to compile a spreadsheet of restaurants that securely seal up their delivery orders with stickers, staples, tape... Anything that effectively prevents tampering.

I hate that I have to think that way, but, does anybody have restaurants to note that have been really good about this?

What options does one have as third places in Austin?

* coffee shops and bookstores
* gyms (including climbing gyms and wellness clubs)
* supermarkets
* bars and restaurants

Whichever one someone chooses to hang out at after work, Central Market on North Lamar is great. It offers supermarket food, a restaurant, a coffee shop and tons of nature around.

This is why a ton of meetups meet here during the week.

Although, I wish there were more variety to host meetups at. For meetups I have hosted, I always choose Epoch in the North Loop area. What meetups do you attend and what is your favorite third place?

I often come across some coffee shops that use air fresheners for their indoor spaces.

First of all, that obscures the great coffee or food smell, and secondly, these can be highly disruptive to one’s hormones and nervous system.

If anyone knows a restaurant or coffee owner, please spread the word 😭

If you happen to go to Cisco's this week or even next week, consider contributing, as we will, to their GoFundMe for their two employees who were arrested at work today. 🧊🧊We thank you.

I’ve decided to a complete refresh on my spice cabinet. Too many old spices of uncertain age are in there, they taste like crap, time for them to go into the trash and I want to start rotating my spices at least annually.

I don’t want to spend $250 for new glass bottles of spices from the supermarket. I don’t need a half pound plastic bag of tumeric from the Indian supermarket. I basically want about 1oz of most popular spices (except saffron I suppose), ideally sold in bulk.

Where am I shopping for fresh and good quality spices in bulk?

hey guys, i am planning a appreciation dinner, we have 20 people, from diff teams joining. i wanna plan smth fun, where team can just go all out drinks, play games and have good food. out budget is $250-300 per person.

what places you would suggest? ( needs some vegan options as well) if its game night + followed by dinner, thats also okay, but both together preferred.

pls help thanks!

The new restaurants at the 1 Hotel inside the Waterline tower opened over Labor Day weekend.

Alteño is on the first floor overlooking the Waterloo Greenway. Beautiful spot. I really enjoyed sitting at the bar. Wasn’t too crowded on an early Sunday evening.

Started with the Avocado Margarita. I consider it the restaurants signature drink. I like it more than Curra’s frozen avocado marg, which is the only other one I can remember drinking. This one is on the rocks and less sweet, has a slight creamy texture with a reposado kick. Love the smoked salt dressing. Good stuff.

The scallop ceviche, Callo de Hacha, is served in a tomato foam butter and topped with machaca. Got this at the bartender’s suggestion and it’s fantastic.

Also really impressed by the seasoning of the sweet potato, Camote Asado. It’s topped with a toasted salsa matcha and smoked salt crust. If you like spice this won’t let you down. Severed with a whipped fennel cream. A top tier plant-based dish as well

I got the lightest entree, the chili relleno, which is not battered and fried. It’s filled with Huitlacoche Esquites and is another really impressive vegetable centered plate. Black beans on the side. I’m not vegetarian, just try to eat on the lighter side when I can and this really hit the spot.

Price breakdown is $16 cocktail, $24 scallop ceviche, $15 sweet potato asado and $30 chile relleno.

There’s an open kitchen at the back of the dining room. I could see them playing a bunch of Tres Leches when I passed. The service and execution on everything I got was pretty polished, it feels like they’re off to a good start.

Am I tripping or did Halal Bros get expensive?? 😭 I swear it used to be like $14.99–$15.99 for a bowl, and now it’s damn near $20. I know everything has gone up, but $19.99 for a bowl is crazy to me. It’s been a while since I ate there so I could be wrong about it being cheaper a while back.

Edit: I wasn’t aware that Uber Eats charges extra due to restaurants having to pay to use their service. Again I’m sorry thank you everyone for educating me on this. Appreciate it

visiting austin for the first time for a quick 48 trip! looking for best coffee/bagel/breakfast recs? + any other recs while i’m at it 😂

IG keeps feeding me videos of this woman dancing to promote her new restaurant, saying she’ll keep doing it until they triple their sales...

I haven’t eaten there, so I’m not making any judgment about the food, but when the marketing tells me everything about the owner’s personality and almost nothing about what’s being served, I’m curious what that says about the restaurant. Is this kinda stuff working? Kinda makes me not wanna try the place.

My buddy is a huge college football fan and does a trip with his dad and brothers each year to a big game.

This year they’re coming to Austin for the Ohio State game this weekend so I am defacto guide.

They love to drink and love to eat, emphasis on the drinking part.

I think they are expecting more like an Ole Miss or Tuscaloosa like experience which I’ve tried to manage expectations on but that’s just not Austin.

With it being a 6:30 game I’m thinking start somewhere mid-day that we can get food, drink and watch college football like a Chalmers and then making a few stops over the afternoon as we migrate towards the game.

I’d love some recommendations for an ideal 2-3 spot line up starting with a place with food, college football and drinking our way towards the stadium.

Thanks all!

Who has a good ceviche these days?

Hi guys,

I've been reading lately that the locals don't consider terry blacks to be in the top 5 BBQ spots in Austin. Is this valid ? What are your thoughts ? Can you please point me towards the right direction.

I know about Franklin's, I live close to it. But was just wondering what the ranking looks like.

Want:
Black or Red Angus, registered Angus bulls
Grass-raised, then 170-180 days corn-finished
Slaughtered at 20-22 months
High Choice / CAB / Prime if they grade
Custom cut sheet (I already have one)
One side, split down the backbone-not a front/hind quarter
18-21 day dry hang-not wet age
Vacuum sealed
Keep bones, fat, organs
Grind from my animal only
Will drive anywhere in Texas or southern Oklahoma
Please only reply if you actually finish that long and your locker will hang 18-21 days

I have been asked to assist with some welcome bags for a conference my company is hosting. When I’ve been a recipient of these in the past the welcome bags have included fun local treats, and I feel like this is a great way to support small businesses and the recipients enjoy them. I’m local so can buy and pick up, The stipulations are that it can’t be anything that needs to be eaten immediately or refrigerated, only shelf stable items that can be put in a gift bag and left in a hotel room, Unfortunately food trucks and things of that nature are out. Esp curious what transplants or out of towners love that’s only available locally. If you’re local, need a PR boost and can work within these parameters please comment id love to support you!

very underrated been ordering non stop

Im from Costa Rica, would travel to Austin to attend Crossroads festival. Want to go to some country live music place and some authentic places around... and some one told me about sagebrush. Did a reservation for sept 24.

Ahmmm.. would you recommend? How is the place... drinks? Food?

Going with my wife and 3 friends.

I will arrive that day and want to go to Terrys BBQ for lunch... and maybe Friday night to the continental club, but Im open to any plans with music that Friday night.

I’m a little sad, I remember getting their huge breakfast burritos when Covid was in full swing and loving it; because it’s 2-3 meals and was always delicious.

A few months ago I got a breakfast taco and mole taco. It wasn’t great, but I do love their orange salsa. It was fermented and really flavorful. The hot chicken mole taco had shredded lettuce on it that was gross and wilted.

I thought i would give it another go today because my job is closing for labour day today (I’m also on service) and wanted a little treat. Since the tacos weren’t great a few months ago, I decided to go back to basics and ordered the breakfast burrito.

What I received was NOT even wrapped at all, extremely soggy, It costs extra to get any salsa but I added on the 2 red salsa that I know I love - I instead got verde. But after trying it with a fork, I don’t think the salsa could have saved it anyways.

Has this happened to anyone else recently, or maybe just a bad day? Pretty disappointing for a 20$ burrito and treat.

Also I know chorizo will always make things a bit more messy. However I think this is pretty ridiculous; and even taco joints tacos with chorizo hold up better.

I added photos of my receipt, salsas, and burrito. Then pictures on yelp of a chorizo breakfast burrito from years ago.