Now recognized nationwide as a top foodie destination, Austin boasts a vibrant and constantly-evolving restaurant landscape. High-quality eats made from locally-sourced ingredients can be found in all corners of Texas’ sprawling capital, but if you’re visiting for SXSW, you’ll want some tasty recommendations in the festival epicenter: Downtown Austin. 

Here, you’ll find day-long dining guides for hungry SXSW attendees. Whatever you’re in the mood for, we’ve got you covered. 

For The Carnivores

With Texas having an outstanding reputation for its meat, you can bet there are plenty of amazing meat-eries near SXSW.

Courtesy of Franklin Barbecue

Franklin Barbecue 

With its unparalleled quantity (and quality) of barbecue spots, Austin is a carnivore’s dream city. While the rightfully-famous Franklin Barbecue is just a quick jaunt from most SXSW venues, the lines during the festival will be daunting, to say the least. Luckily, we’ve got some meaty downtown recommendations that won’t require a day-long wait.

Courtesy of eastside Tavern

EastSide Tavern

Many people don’t consider barbecue a breakfast food. These people definitely don’t live in Austin because here barbecue is a valid option at all hours of the day and night. Case in point, the BBQ breakfast menu at EastSide Tavern, an East Austin haven for smoked meats that’s a brief walk from Austin’s downtown center. EastSide Tavern offers breakfast tacos, breakfast bowls, and enormous breakfast sandwiches, such as their signature EastSide BBQ Breakfast Sandwich ($9.50). This behemoth includes eggs, house-smoked brisket, and cheese, all piled onto thick slices of Texas toast and served alongside home-fried potatoes.

Courtesy of Micklethwait Craft Meats

Micklethwait Craft Meats

While Franklin Barbecue features the most burdensome wait times for grub, many of Austin’s top BBQ purveyors operate on a first-come-first-served basis, and when they’re out of meat, they shut down for the day. For this reason, you’ll want to head to Micklethwait Craft Meats at lunchtime, lest you miss out on their exceptional brisket, ribs, smoked chicken, and sausage ($14.50 for two types of meat, $16.50 for three). Grab your plate from the vintage trailer, belly up to a picnic table, and enjoy an only-in-Austin rustic barbecue experience. 

Courtesy of Lambert's

Lamberts

For a slightly more elegant repast with plenty of Austin BBQ cred, check out Lamberts, a “fancy barbecue” restaurant in the heart of downtown. Lamberts has a polished, grown-up feel to it, thanks to its historic digs (it’s located inside a former general store), leather banquettes, and craft cocktails. But the carnivorous delights on the Lamberts menu are classic Texas, albeit with an upmarket twist. From Black Angus brisket with a brown sugar and coffee rub to pork ribs in a maple chili glaze to smoked Texas-raised quail, Lamberts’ signature dishes will satisfy even the most voracious of meat eaters.

Courtesy of Texas Chili Parlor / TripAdvisor

Texas Chili Parlor

SXSW involves some late-night shows and events, so it’s helpful to know some solid spots for hearty grub to soak up any beer and booze still sloshing around in your belly. If protein’s still your priority, Texas Chili Parlor on Lavaca Street will serve you its namesake dish until 2 a.m. on a nightly basis. This is some real-deal chili, too. Go with a traditional bowl of “red” (i.e. no beans, just meat) with the most Texan of accouterments: onions, jalapenos, and crackers. Heat levels range from mild to XXX (super-hot), and a large bowl will only set you back $6.95. 

For The Vegetarian

Austin may be a barbecue town, but there are still plenty of fantastic venues for the veggie-eaters near the SXSW festivities. 

Courtesy of Forthright

Forthright

A quaint New American cafe just blocks from the Austin Convention Center, Forthright makes for a charming breakfast venue, thanks to its sunny and leafy patio and satisfying dishes that are both highly flavorful and vegetarian-friendly. Morning highlights include the quinoa porridge with bananas, strawberries, coconut milk, sunflower seeds, and local honey ($6.50) and a thick-cut avocado toast with crushed red pepper, pepitas, and two poached eggs ($11.50).

Courtesy of Koriente

Koriente

Downtown office workers in search of an inventive lunch spread with plenty of vegetarian (and gluten-free) options flock to Koriente, a lively midday destination on the neighborhood’s eastern edge. Koriente is locally famous for its generous portions of Asian-fusion cuisine, including favorite dishes like veggie bibimbap with mild wasabi soy sauce, japchae with sweet potato noodles, marinated vegetables, and spring greens, as well as customizable rice bowls with king oyster or shiitake mushrooms and optional veggie toppings like broccoli and toasted garlic. Lunch at Koriente also includes a free serving of miso soup, ensuring that veg-heads leave the restaurant full and happy.

Courtesy of Counter Culture

Counter Culture

In East Austin, just a few blocks past the Interregional Highway, you’ll find Counter Culture, a vegan comfort food destination with an outdoor patio perfect for dinner on a warm evening. Counter Culture’s menu features creative spins on diner classics (all free of meat and dairy), like Southern-baked seitan with golden gravy ($12.50), spiced butternut tacos with cashew cheese, cilantro, walnut chorizo, and chili sauce ($13), and BBQ jackfruit and bean quesadillas with kale, pickles, and cashew sour cream ($10).

Courtesy of Cheer Up Charlie's / TripAdvisor

Cheer Up Charlie's

For late-night vegetarian snacking, seek out the Arlo’s food trailer in the backyard of downtown bar Cheer Up Charlie’s. Open until 2 a.m. every night, Arlo’s offers post-drinking eats with bold flavors and without animal products, like a “bacon cheeseburger” with a gluten-free veggie patty, seitan bacon, and melted cashew cheese ($8) and street tacos with crumbled veggie patties, grilled pico de gallo, and chipotle sauce ($6).

For The Tex-Mex Fans

Tex-Mex cuisine runs rampant through Austin’s dining scene, bringing copious quantities of warm queso, crispy nachos, and world-class tacos. If you want to eat Tex-Mex from morning till night during SXSW, here’s the way to do it.

Courtesy of Veracruz All Natural

Veracruz All Natural 

In East Austin near the border of downtown, Veracruz All Natural has its original taco truck location where early risers can acquire some of Austin’s finest breakfast tacos. The dish to get? Migas tacos ($3.50) with eggs, pico de gallo, avocado, Monterey Jack cheese, and tortilla chips folded in a grilled flour tortilla.

Courtesy of Maudie's

Maudie's Cafe

Maudie’s Cafe, an Austin institution serving up heaping plates of Tex-Mex goodness since the mid-1950s, has a location just west of the Mopac Expressway, a very easy commuting distance from downtown. Maudie’s lengthy menu includes every cheesy and spicy Tex-Mex dish you can imagine, but if you’re going for a midday bite, you’ll want to opt for their lunch specials ($6.75) with choices like the Grandma’s Special (two beef or chicken tacos with guacamole salad), Carne Guisada (Mexican beef stew served with rice and beans) and the Mexican Plate (two cheese enchiladas with chile con carne served with rice and beans).

Courtesy of TripAdvisor

El Patio 

In the mood for another Austin classic at dinnertime? El Patio in Central Austin is located just north of the SXSW downtown nexus, and it’s been in the Tex-Mex business for over 60 years. It’s a cozy, no-frills cantina with legendary queso dip, potent fruit margaritas, and combination platters to conquer even the fiercest of appetites, like the David Special ($10.90) with two beef tacos smothered in queso, two enchiladas, and rice and beans and the El Patio Special with one beef or bean taco, one order of chile con queso, one chalupa, and a side of guacamole salad.

Courtesy of Chupacabra Cantina

Chupacabra Cantina

For after-hours Tex-Mex, head to East 6th Street and grab a table at Chupacabra Cantina where you can get chile con queso, huge platters of loaded nachos, and an array of specialty tacos. Try the Orange Chipotle Brisket taco ($4.75) with potato and pepper hash, pineapple salsa, and habanero sour cream or the Honey Jalapeno Fried Chicken taco ($4.75) with breaded chicken tenders, honey jalapeno sauce, jack cheese, bacon, jalapenos, and chipotle mayo. They’re open until 2 a.m. nightly. 

The Sweets

If you want to forgo the whole savory-meal thing and turn dessert into an all-day affair, Austin is a great place to launch that effort. The downtown area boasts plenty of great spots for sweets both traditional and imaginative.

Courtesy of Fareground

Fareground 

For top-notch breakfast pastries, go straight to Fareground, downtown Austin’s first-ever food hall. There, you’ll find Easy Tiger, an artisanal bake shop with a strong selection of morning eats, like the tiger claw with spiced pecan filling, the classic cinnamon knot, and the nine-grain “breakfast stick” with raisins and pecans.

Courtesy of Amy's

Amy's 

When the afternoon rolls around and the sun is at its hottest, you’ll want some sweet relief from the locally-made ice cream at Amy’s on West 6th Street. This Austin mini-chain cranks out super-premium ice cream in base flavors like Mexican Vanilla and Belgian Chocolate, then allows guests to customize their treat with a multitude of mix-ins, from chocolate chunks to coconut to Oreos to fresh bananas.

Courtesy of Holy Roller

Holy Roller

At Holy Roller, a punk-inspired, high-brow diner in downtown, you can find a dinner-sized dessert with both whimsy and chef-driven sophistication. Holy Roller can be a mob scene during weekend brunch, but it’s a calmer endeavor on weeknights, making it a great place to unwind between SXSW shows. Enjoy creative yet nostalgic treats like a house-made “Choco Taco” with chocolate-dipped soft serve in a waffle cone shell ($8), banana pudding topped with freshly whipped cream and caramelized bananas ($8), and yellow cake pancakes with a choice of blackberries and soft serve ice cream, Oreos and whipped cream, or fried chicken and sriracha butter ($10-15).

Courtesy of Prohibition Creamery

Prohibition Creamery

A dessert shop/bar hybrid is an ideal way to close out a night of SXSW events, and at Prohibition Creamery on East 7th Street, that’s exactly what you’ll get. Prohibition’s house-churned ice cream comes in both boozy and alcohol-free iterations at Prohibition, but the highlight of the menu is the signature collection of boozy milkshakes ($12) in flavors like Triple Bourbon (Knob Creek bourbon, bourbon ice cream, bourbon whipped cream), Horchata (RumChata, cold brew coffee, cinnamon ice cream), and Chocolate Orange (Cointreau, Valrhona chocolate ice cream).