Our Austin
Where to Eat, What To Do, How to Hang
Our Favorite Things About Austin
We maintain this page with recommendations for great restaurants, hotels and things to do in Austin. It continues to evolve and we welcome your suggestions as well!! If you visit any of these spots, please tag us on social media for a chance to win $100 donation to your favorite charity.
Bars and Nightlife
Ah Sing Den – Asian-themed bar named after the owner of one of East London’s most famous opium dens
Grackle – Inclusive hipster dive bar with a pool table and jukebox and small outdoor area
Lustre Pearl East – chill hangout spot for drinks, nibbly things and people watching
The Liberty – one of the oldest bars on East 6th with a food trailer in the back
The Vortex – artist owned theatre that shares a lot with Patrizis Italian food truck
Skylark – live blues music in a trailer
Central Machine Works – great people watching in a huge space with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. Beer and pizza kind of place
La Holly – Tacos and Margaritas either inside the coldest small house bar or outside in a fairly large dog-friendly patio
Happy Hours / Casual
Coffee / Breakfast
Lunch / Dinner
Suerte (Upscale Mexican) ***Also great for Brunch
Odd Duck (Farm to Table)
Intero (American / Italian)
Juniper (Italian)
Justine’s (UNIQUELY AUSTIN French) – French food and cocktails in a bungalow space and light-strung patio
Launderette – upscale New American restaurant in a converted laundromat
Uchi (AMAZING Sushi and Asian Fusion)
Via 313 (Detroit style pizza)
Love Supreme (Pizza / Great Outdoor space)
Nixta Taqueria (Best tacos in Austin IMHO)
Salt & Time – butcher shop restaurant that serves farm-to-table with amazing burger
La Barbecue – Our favorite bbq spot for its brisket and beef ribs. Women owned
Ramen Tatsu-Ya – Austin’s popular ramen restaurant now has a spot in East Austin
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Where to Stay
Hotels
- Arrive Austin – apartment style place, middle of East Austin, my neighborhood and IMHO the best area of Austin for food, drinks, and chill. If you are coming for vacation or with friends, stay here. But they DO NOT have a pool or gym.
- Fairmont Hotel – boring hotel overall, and way too big for my taste. But amazing pool area and gym facilities.
- JW Marriott – If you want to stay downtown, you can’t go wrong here. Walking distance to work and restaurants, nice hotel with exceptional service. Nice lounging area outdoors.
- Austin Proper Hotel – A friend stayed here and said it was Sexy AF
- Hotel Zaza – Super sexy, stylish and friendly. Great place for people watching as well.
AirBNB/vrbo Neighborhoods
- East Austin 78702 – Our hood. Quiet residential streets with trees and dogs but walking distance to iconic restaurants, tons of food trucks, and some live music.
- SHAMELESS PLUG – Here is our AirBNB >> Spacious East Austin SIngle Family 3/3
- South Austin / Barton Hills “704” – People swear by it and there are TONS of things to do, restaurants to visit, live music, and people. Lots and lots of people.
- Mueller – If you are coming with children, this is great. If not, I would go the East Austin route. They are fairly close but VERY different. You will find nice townhomes for vakay rent.
- Zilker / Barton Creek – Parks, trails, food spots a plenty, dogs everywhere, and beautiful people.
- Downtown / Dirty 6th – Some of the best buildings do not allow airbnb but if you can find one, go for it!
To Do
- We rarely do tours but the ones we do (and highly recommend) in Chicago is the Architecture Tour by boat and in Austin it’s the Weird Austin Tour with live music.
- We are members of Thinkery and Bullock Museum, both great places to go for a bit of nerding it up. And also of the Zilker Botanical Gardens, though I am embarrassed to admit our membership has yet to actually draw us to a visit.
- Zilker Park is huge, beautiful, and crowded. Its surrounded by loads of food trucks and bars of South Austin area but you have to be willing to deal with crowds and tourists
- If you want main stream shopping, head up to The Domain. That’s also where to go to see more diversity than most of Austin has to offer unfortunately. South First Street has more small, local stores for unique items and couture.
Check out our vendor guide
