ATXGuide

The Best Brunch Spots In Austin

Where to get your late-morning and early-afternoon fix of eggs benedict, enchiladas, dim sum, and more.
The Best Brunch Spots In Austin image

photo credit: Raphael Brion

Whether a Sunday morning meal is the highlight of your month, or you couldn’t care less about another plate of eggs benedict, brunch is an inevitable part of life. Brunch hits different than breakfast. And the sooner you embrace the act of eating and drinking between the hours of 11am-2pm on the weekend, the sooner you accept the fact that adding eggs to anything makes it brunch-friendly (see: steak and eggs). So whether you’re looking for a classic American brunch with Bloody Marys and mimosas, a place to keep your weekend dim sum tradition alive, or just a spot where you can marvel at the existence of a chile relleno monte cristo, head to one of these spots.

THE SPOTS

photo credit: Richard Casteel

American

East Austin

$$$$Perfect For:BrunchDate NightDrinking Good WineHappy HourOutdoor/Patio SituationDining Solo
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Launderette seems to exist in two entirely separate worlds. By night, it’s a cute and intimate dining room set in a renovated laundromat with shared plates, and very much a place that should be on your date night roster. During brunch it transforms into a postcard-worthy spot for mimosas, pull-apart cinnamon buns, biscuit sandwiches, and whatever else people have grown accustomed to eating and drinking between the hours of 11am and 2pm on a weekend—most of them with small twists, like a salmon gravlax plate with neufchâtel butter and ash rye bread. There’s also a beautiful patio covered in small, white marble tables and big blue and white umbrellas that look like they belong on a beach somewhere in Greece. 


Brunch at Gabriela’s feels like a tropical vacation at a clubby resort. The restaurant is tucked away on a little hill near Downtown overlooking the Austin skyline, with a patio that feels like it’s always packed—on the weekends, there’s even a DJ spinning everything from old Nelly hits to Bad Bunny. Potted plants hang from the rafters, while the colorful wooden fencing that encloses it all adds a sense of seclusion and escape. The difference between here and your average resort/club is that the food is worth the visit alone. Grab a frozen margarita pitcher for the table, then load up on queso fundido, chilaquiles, and rum-soaked french toast. 


During the week, 1618 on East Riverside serves up excellent renditions of Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Singaporean, and Southeast Asian staples—it’s a restaurant that does a lot of things, and does them well. But once the weekend hits, it’s (almost) all about dim sum, with a small menu that focuses on the classics—like xiao long bao, har kaw, and sui mai—plus a few Vietnamese soups in case someone at your table needs a little hangover helper. There’s also a full bar, where you can order plenty of cocktails, sake, and mimosas with about half a dozen varieties of juice. 


photo credit: Holly Dirks

$$$$Perfect For:BrunchBreakfastLunch
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You’ll need to plan a few weeks in advance if you want to guarantee yourself a table at Paperboy during prime brunch hours on the weekend (reservations book up fast, but you can always try your luck with a walk-in). There’s a countertop you can post up at to get the traditional “diner” experience, a few tables inside, and a downstairs patio that looks out onto East 11th street through a wall of breeze blocks. Order the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich if you want to see what helped Paperboy go from a trailer to a two-story brunchery, or take advantage of the fact that there’s a real kitchen by ordering braised pork and sweet potato hash, and steak and eggs with chimichurri. 


Stepping through the front doors of Sawyer & Co on East Cesar Chavez feels like entering a portal to a 1950s diner, complete with stubby yellow barstools and waitstaff walking around with steaming pots of coffee. The menu looks and tastes like what you’d find at a classic diner—with a little bit of Austin and New Orleans touches mixed in—which means you can expect to find dishes like a Cajun scramble with crawfish etouffee right next to a pork carnitas benedict with queso and biscuits. They won’t be the softest scramble or the fluffiest biscuits you’ve ever had, but they also won’t disappoint. Especially on a Sunday morning after a long night out. It gets busy on the weekends, so show up early or put your head on the waitlist ahead of time. 


The people at Dai Due on Manor Road harness all of their superpowers—baking, butchery, wood-fire grilling, and tallow-frying—at brunch. So yes, you should order all the pastries, including seasonal fruit-filled kolaches, tallow-fried donuts, and wild boar boudin klobasneks. Yes, you will have a hard time choosing between the breakfast sandwich made with an antelope breakfast sausage or the dry-aged wagyu double cheeseburger. And yes, the craggly, crispy fried potatoes here are the best breakfast potatoes you’ll ever have. 


Sometimes we like brunch at Suerte even better than dinner at Suerte. And while you can still get the iconic suadero tacos any time, there’s a good amount of memorable brunch-only dishes, like smoked salmon tostadas, chilaquiles, steak and eggs with a mole chichilo, or a smoked lengua hash. You should just order all of the fun and imaginative pan dulce like pistachio conchas or kolaches with huitalcoche and manchego—they rotate all the time. Drinks-wise, brunch means a suerte maria with a chile morita-infused tequila and a cascabel rim, or, for when you really need to hydrate, a comically large michelada bigger than your head.


If you’re looking for a historic mansion where you can pull off a sun hat or some seersucker, try Mattie’s in Bouldin Creek.  There’s the type of wraparound porch you might design for your dream house, and the vintage, cozy dining rooms are ideal for drinking mint juleps and eating tender buttermilk biscuits with a chorizo cream gravy or an eggs benedict with fried chicken, topped with an actually spicy hollandaise. Make sure to order the ethereal french toast for the table—it’s a griddled bread pudding soaked in milk punch.


During the week, Hold Out is one of our favorite spots to sit outside with a burger, some wings, and a beer—this Clarksville brewpub seems to do it all. Adding further to its list of food accomplishments is the weekend brunch menu. And while you can (and probably should) get a burger at brunch to share with the table, most of the menu is made up of creative takes on classic breakfast items that you’ll want to make a part of your order. Tacos arrive topped with a whole fried egg and tender carnitas, while pancakes get the Japanese soufflé treatment—puffed up to about a fluffy inch—before getting topped with fried chicken, maple-fresno chili butter, and maple syrup. 


There are a limited number of dumplings on Wu Chow’s regular menu, but it’s only during Sunday brunch that the full dim sum menu is available. Grab an order of soup dumplings—this was one of the first places in town to offer them—then load up on shumai, char siu, turnip cakes, and about two dozen other options. Make sure to order the Bloody Mulan that’s made with Thai chiles, sichuan peppercorns, and fermented chili paste, and topped with a pork bun and Chinese sausage. Prices are a little higher than most classic cart-service spots (that Austin is sadly lacking in), but you’re also paying for the beautiful, upscale dining room. You’ll probably want to grab a reservation now if you plan on eating brunch here in the near future. 


Enchiladas Y Mas in Crestview is where you go when you partied pretty hard the night before and want to keep the party going, just a little, while also soaking up some of last night’s mistakes. Enchiladas aren’t the only thing on the menu here, but they’re probably what you should be getting at a place with enchiladas in the name. Each order arrives on a massive plate, covered from edge to edge in a blanket of cheese—it’s all but guaranteed to fill you up into the next day. And if you want to find out what the “Mas” in the name is really about, make sure to order a couple (very strong) margaritas.


Ready for brunch, but not ready to wait for the weekend? At Café No Sé on South Congress Avenue, every day can be celebrated with mimosas, golden milk lattes, and buttery croissants. That’s because brunch here isn’t limited to just the weekends—because who said you can’t order a Bloody Mary and a loaded BLT on a Tuesday at noon? Expect to find a mix of classic brunch dishes on the menu, plus a few wild cards like a beet falafel burger or kimchi hash. The restaurant doesn’t take reservations for brunch—so show up early, or expect to wait a bit on the weekends—but you can pass the time walking around the South Congress Hotel shops or at the hotel bar. 


With a large outdoor patio area full of picnic tables, the all-day cafe and bakery Sour Duck Market in East Austin from the team behind Odd Duck and Barley Swine is perfect for anyone, really, dogs and kids included. The menu stays the same all day, but there are certain things that are best on weekend mornings, like a potato hash situation, a wagyu cheeseburger, and one of the biggest breakfast tacos we’ve ever had (it even has fries in it). Just make sure you don’t skip the pastry case.


The brunch menu at El Chile is made up of a handful of classic American brunch dishes that spent some time in Mexico. That means dishes like eggs benedict with a chipotle hollandaise and barbacoa, bananas foster pan frances, and a chile relleno monte cristo. If you’re in the mood for something more classic (in either direction), there’s everything from migas to avocado toast—all served next to spiked cold brews, micheladas, margaritas, and half a dozen varieties of mimosa. Grab a table on the covered patio overlooking a quiet stretch of Manor Road for the optimal experience. 


Brunch at Josephine House feels a little like dining at a friend’s (very nice) house. And the best part is that it’s available all week. This is one of our favorite spots in Clarksville for healthy-ish dishes—like the rice bowl served with roasted and pickled vegetables, arugula, and a poached egg. Grab some fresh-baked scones for the table, then make the difficult decision between citrus-cured lox and lemon ricotta pancakes. Better yet, just order both. There’s also a small menu of fresh-squeezed juices, just be ready to shell out $10 for a glass of (admittedly, very good) OJ.


Nothing says “it’s Saturday” quite like Little Darlin’s michelada—made up of a draft beer with a Bloody Mary popsicle. It’s a fun and tasty way to start the weekend, and a great accompaniment to fried chicken and waffles, farmstand frittatas, and french toast off Little Darlin’s brunch menu. This is one of the best bars in Austin, and when the weather is nice, it’s one of the best patios to be on, too. Throw in a solid brunch menu and it’s one of the best places to spend a weekend. 


If you’re looking for dinner and a show, grab a ticket to The Alamo Drafthouse, or head north a few hours to Medieval Times. But if you’re looking for brunch and a show, look no further than Irene’s in downtown Austin. Every other weekend in the dining room, Irene’s hosts a drag brunch with costumes, acrobatics, and plenty of booze. It’s a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon while still enjoying a hybrid menu of Southern staples and Mexican classics—ranging from shrimp toast, to migas and chilaquiles. If you’re here for the show, just remember to reserve a table in advance—spaces go quick. Otherwise, show up on Friday or Saturday, or for a patio table where the only background entertainment you’ll have comes from whatever critters are hanging out by Shoal Creek.


In a cute house under a 100 year-old heritage tree in Clarksville, Bar Peached pulls off a broadly Asian menu really well, especially at brunch. BBQ Pork Benedict comes yuzu hollandaise and a scallion pancake and chicken and biscuits come in the form of chicken karaage with a beef dashi gravy. Make sure to order the incredible “bacon, egg & cheese” udon that brings together Vietnamese braised pork belly, egg yolk, and mozzarella for a gloriously gooey and cheesy bowl of noodles.


Any day of the week, you can count on Epicerie in Allandale for an epic bakery counter. If kouign amanns and pecan cinnamon rolls sound too sweet, there’s the hedonistic, wobbly quiche, or the flaky breakfast croissant sandwich that’ll leave your hands shiny with butter. But the Sunday-only brunch menu items—like soft cooked eggs with trout roe alongside a za’atar english muffin, or strawberries with housemade ricotta—are dishes to plan your Sunday around.


photo credit: Nicolai McCrary

$$$$Perfect For:BreakfastBrunchLunch

There are a couple locations of Phoebe’s Diner in Austin, but if you’re seeking the original 1950s-style classic American diner experience, you’ll want to head to the OG location on Oltorf. Breakfast, brunch, and lunch are served daily—show up during the week for a relatively quiet and relaxed atmosphere, or on the weekends at noon for the full, at-capacity old school diner experience, complete with mimosas and sake-based cocktails. While the menu leans classic American, you’ll also find some distinctly Texas twists, including pimento cheese omelettes, deep fried french toast, and smoked brisket burritos. And while you can’t make a reservation here, you can add yourself to the waitlist online before heading out and save yourself a little time.

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