Eating My Way Through Austin, Texas

When I began planning my trip to Austin, Texas last month, I had one thing on my agenda: eat BBQ. I love BBQ, and while I have always been partial to the Carolina style, I am a huge fan of Texan BBQ. Everything is bigger in Texas, including the flavors!

Well, four days came and went and somehow, I managed to leave Austin with having only eaten BBQ once - from a food truck after doing the bar scene on a Sunday night. Oddly enough, even that was pretty damn good!

So what did I eat while in Austin?

Well, my foodie tour of Austin began with margaritas, chips and salsa and steak tacos at Z Tejas, an Austin institution. It was one of those get picked up-from the airport and immediately start drinking kind of Thursday afternoons.

That's how every trip to Austin begins, now that I think about it!

Z Tejas is a fun place to grab a quick bite to eat and their happy hour, which includes margaritas, can't be beat!

While my pal was at work Friday, I wandered Congress and found a nifty little burger joint called Wholly Cow Burgers. When I saw that they served grass-fed beef, I was sold!

 

If you're a fan of burgers, I highly recommend trying them out. It was one of the best burgers I've ever had, and their onion rings were almost as big as the burgers themselves!

Wholly Cow Burgers also serves Dublin soda, which is a local soda brand out of Dublin, Texas. Made with cane sugar, you can actually enjoy a soda without worrying about artificial ingredients. I had an orange cream soda and it totally tasted like a creamsicle!

 

 

Before going out on Friday night, we went for drinks and dinner at Uncle Julios. Uncle Julios is a Mexican restaurant within walking distance of the Four Seasons, where we planned on meeting up with friends later that evening.

 

We started with craft beers and chips and salsa - I tend to eat more chips and salsa in Austin that anywhere else! Knowing that we had a long night ahead of us, I made sure to get a substantial meal in me at Uncle Julios.

Steak fajitas, rice and beans...can we say delicious?

 

After tubing on the Guadalupe on Saturday, we stopped by a Gruene restaurant in town called Mozies.

I ordered the garlic french fries, which were delicious, and the sliders, which were not so delicious.

Not only were they totally smothered in cheese, but the buns were burnt...and the burgers themselves lacked enough seasoning to give them any real flavor.

I left Mozie's feeling pretty disappointed, and a bit queasy.

Unfortunately, it only got worse from there. I suffer from shellfish allergies, as does one of my friends who accompanied me to Mozies. By the time Saturday evening rolled around, we were both in bed, sick to our stomachs, with our other friend ready to call 911 at any minute. While neither of us ate anything with shellfish in it, we think that the restaurant did a really crappy job of avoiding cross contamination because we both had the exact symptoms that we usually get when we come into contact with shellfish.

Our Saturday night was a total bust.

Sunday morning rolled around and while my friend was still pretty ill, I was well enough to wake up ravenous. We headed to Max's Wine Dive, which is one of the most famous restaurants in Austin.

We started off with mimosas, you know, hair of that dog and all!

My friend ordered the chicken and waffles - which have been voted the best in Austin - and I ordered a half order of the Tres Leches french toast.

Being the sweetheart that she is, she gave me her drumstick.

Thank goodness she did, because that was the best fried chicken that I've eaten in my entire life!

 

And the Tres Leches French Toast? FOODGASM.

 

So I may not have hit up all of my favorite Austin BBQ spots while I was there, but that just means I have one more reason to return soon!