Underdog

Everything about Underdog seems designed to set off an Austin cynic’s radar: it’s at the base of a fancy new condo building in South Austin. There’s not a lot of parking except for an expensive parking garage. It’s next door to a new location of Picnik. The restaurant serves a “Korean-inspired” menu and natural wines (which start at $15 a glass) from a team that comes from Momofuku. The dining room veers contemporary and soft, with dashes of pink and forest-y green, blonde wood, and bulbous lighting.

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Everything here screams on trend, enough to make you want to dodge traffic and run across South 1st to the safer, more familiar confines of Fresa’s for a power bol and an agua fresca. But stick with it. Underdog has fun, sharply executed food, a charming staff, a seriously good wine list, and an attached bottle shop. This restaurant is greater than the sum of its parts, and the kind of place you wish you had in your neighborhood. (Unless, lucky you, you live in Bouldin Creek.) 

Most of the food at Underdog leans heavily Korean, but there are twists and turns, like the caviar stroopwafel bites that we didn’t know we needed (the caviar bump trend seems so déclassée in comparison). Fried chicken gets an absurdly crispy crust seasoned with toasted nori salt for an extra umami bang. The galbi, cooked over a binchotan, is meaty and thickly sliced, while most places in Austin use thin, cheaper cuts and cook them to jerky. The revelatory ebi burger sidelines the menu's bulgogi smashburger, but both are joined by some next-level fries. There are some serious cooking chops at Underdog, where the details matter.

photo credit: Richard Casteel

photo credit: Richard Casteel

photo credit: Richard Casteel

photo credit: Richard Casteel

photo credit: Richard Casteel

The best place to sit here is the bar, where the easygoing staff will rattle on and on about the wine if you let them. You probably need to be a wine nerd to fully appreciate what’s going on in the attached bottle shop, but more than once we liked a glass of wine so much that we bought a bottle of it to take home. There are plenty of NA options, and if you don’t feel like spending north of $15 a glass on wine, you can always get a Coors Banquet Stubby for $5. It pairs nicely with the ebi burger.

Most Korean restaurants in Austin are either humble yet dependable places that have been around for a long time, party spots where food comes secondary to soju, or basic KBBQ or fried chicken operations, so what’s happening at Underdog feels fresh and innovative. Sure, a lot of the underpinnings at Underdog are decidedly on-trend and enough to make a cynic balk. But it’s ultimately a fantastic neighborhood restaurant with brilliant Korean-esque food and a wine list to match. We wish we could live near Underdog, since we’d probably pop in all the time, especially for the Happy Hour, even if it’s literally just an hour. Is it worth going out of your way for? If there’s not too much traffic, then absolutely, yes.

Food Rundown

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Caviar Stroopwafel Bites

Who needs caviar bumps when you can start a meal with some caviar stroopwafel bites?

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Oysters

East coast oysters come with a kimchi vinaigrette and tiny, fatty sausages like you might get in certain corners of France.

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Caesar Salad

The caesar salad here gets topped with tiny toasted anchovies and grated house-cured egg yolk. It’s the kind of salad you’d wish you’d have had for lunch but probably didn’t. Lucky you, you’re at Underdog now.

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Ebi Burger & Fries

The ebi burger is a simple, delicate, and shrimpy affair. There’s often a very good bulgogi smashburger next to it on the menu, but the ebi burger is he clear winner between the two. Either way, both burgers come with spectacular, shatteringly crisp fries that are tender on the inside, the way they should be. Most places treat fries like an afterthought, but the people at Underdog know what they’re doing.

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Galbi

Cooked over a binchotan, the galbi is smoky, thick, tender, well seasoned, and cooked medium rare. Underdog’s galbi means business, which is why it comes with some fancy golden shears.