121. Musashino Sushi Dokoro
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (512) 795-8593
Address: 3407 Greystone Dr.
Description: The extensive menu at this Northwest Austin sushi bar features traditional Tokyo-style offerings and some hybrid American takes on Japanese classics. Sushi enthusiasts hail Musashino as among the best in town. The atmosphere is quietly elegant. Open daily except Mon for dinner only.
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Address: 3202 West Anderson Lane
123. Taj Palace
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (512) 452-9959
Address: 6700 Middle Fiskville Rd.
Description: Both vegetarians and meat-eaters will find an abundant selection at this traditional Indian restaurant near Highland Mall. The vegetarian specialties include saag paneer, a homemade cheese and spinach sauté, and malai kofta, cheese and vegetable dumplings simmered in a cream and almond sauce. Carnivores can dig into tandoori dishes such as barra kebab, lamb marinated in spiced yogurt and then grilled. The menu also features a variety of curries with varying degrees of heat, and the tandoor oven-baked breads are not to be missed. There is an all-you-can-eat daily lunch buffet. Open for dinner daily.
124. Threadgill’s Restaurant
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (512) 451-5440
Address: 6416 North Lamar Blvd.
Description: Janis Joplin sang here at the legendary (a much overused word, but justified) restaurant and club founded by Kenneth Threadgill on a mundane section of North Lamar Boulevard. Of course, back when Threadgill got a liquor license for the former Gulf gas station, this was the far northern reaches of Austin, practically a rural outpost. “There’s music on the menu” is the boast these days, and the mix of Southern hospitality, music, and homestyle cooking packs ’em in. A second Threadgill’s has opened near downtown, and both locations offer similar food: old-fashioned favorites such as chicken-fried steak, fried chicken, meat loaf, hamburgers, and lots of veggies. Open daily for lunch and dinner and until midnight on Fri and Sat.
125. Uchiko
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (512) 916-4808
Address: 4200 North Lamar Blvd.
Description: The name means “child of Uchi” in Japanese reflecting its connection to Uchi, Tyson Cole’s renowned restaurant in South Central Austin. The aesthetic embraces the Japanese farmhouse in its simplicity of line and tranquility, while the menu reflects Cole’s wonderful translation of Japanese dishes with a passion for the best source local and imported product. For example, a cold dish might be maguro sashimi served with local goat cheese, Fuji apple and pumpkin seed oil, while a hot delight might be sake shio salmon with a tomatillo and ponzu sauce. Open daily from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., 11 p.m. on Fri and Sat. reservations are advised, but walk-ins to the sushi bar are welcome.
126. Andiamo
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (512) 719-3377
Address: 2521 Rutland Dr.
Description: Unfortunately some patrons judge a restaurant by its surroundings or by the decor. While the setting is important to enjoying food, don’t let a location in a strip shopping center turn you off. Despite its ritzier neighbors in this part of the city, for example the restaurants at the Domain shopping village, Andiamo’s serves up great Italian seasonal food in a charming interior. The menu features locally grown products and the restaurant has received plaudits from local critics and customers. Open Mon through Fri for lunch and dinner. Dinner only on Sat. Closed Sun.
127. Jasper’s
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (512) 834-4111
Address: 11506 Century Oaks Terrace
Description: Jasper’s is located in the upscale shopping center the Domain, and is a sister restaurant to Kent Rathbun’s acclaimed Dallas and Houston restaurants. The decor is modern, natural, minimalist cool, while the menu features “gourmet backyard cuisine.” Open daily for lunch and dinner.
128. La Palapa
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (512) 459-8729
Address: 6640 US 290 East
Description: The thatched roof is a reminder of La Palapa’s roots south of the border—a palapa is a thatched shelter in Mexico. The restaurant has ties to two La Palapas, one in Laredo, the other in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Under the thatch, patrons will find several variations on the fajita theme plus enchiladas and Tex-Mex fare. On Sat night the restaurant features an all-you-can-eat fajita bar, and Sun there is an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. The restaurant’s cantina has live music and karaoke on Wed, Fri, and Sat nights. La Palapa is open daily for lunch and dinner
129. Arkie’s Grill
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (512) 385-2986
Address: 4827 East Cesar Chavez St.
Description: This old-fashioned diner in a working-class neighborhood on the edge of East Austin serves breakfast and lunch. The cooking is homestyle with generous servings, especially those luncheon side dishes of home-cooked vegetables. The cooking attracts a wide variety of faithful customers. No credit cards.
130. Cisco’s
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (512) 478-2420
Address: 1511 East Sixth St.
Description: Rudy “Cisco” Cisneros is no longer with us, but his east-side cafe where the likes of President Lyndon B. Johnson took breakfast is still a fixture. The small bakery and restaurant continues to attract the powerful and famous for breakfast or lunch, and the walls are plastered with photos of both current and former politicos. The menu is not extensive; simple Tex-Mex fare is offered along with sweet rolls and cookies from the bakery. Cisco was something of a humorist, so the walls are covered with cartoons, jokes, and even a sign hung on an old gasoline pump that says: Out of Gasoline, We Sell Beans. Cisco’s is open for breakfast and lunch only.
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Address: 2113 Manor Rd.
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Address: 2600 East Seventh St.
133. El Chile Cafe
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (512) 457-9900
Address: 1809 Manor Rd.
Description: Created by a couple of sous-chefs from Austin’s top flight restaurant Jeffrey’s, this cafe serves foods flavored and inspired by interior Mexican fare. The brunch on weekends features dishes like the Yucatecan Huevos Motulenos, a Chihuahua-inspired steak and eggs, while dinner might offer a Oaxacan mole or an achiote roasted pork. Open daily for lunch and dinner, brunch on the weekends.
134. Hoover’s Cooking
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (512) 479-5006
Address: 2002 Manor Rd.
Description: When you can’t get home to Mom and you need a comfort food fix, Hoover’s is the place. Hoover’s, created by founder Hoover Alexander, an icon on the Austin food scene, doesn’t look like much inside or out—it occupies a storefront in a neighborhood where working folks live—but the food is down-home good. Chicken-fried steak is a specialty, as it should be since it occupies a special place in the pantheon of Texas homestyle cooking, plus pork roast, macaroni and cheese, catfish, and barbecued ribs. There is a new Northwest location, also. Open Mon through Fri for lunch and dinner, weekends for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
135. J. Kelly’s barbecue
City: Austin, TX
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (512) 499-0910
Address: 900 East Eleventh St.
Description: “We ain’t pizza” the owners of the old Ben’s Long Branch Barbecue used to boast, and after 31 years in the neighborhood Ben’s proved it. Carrying on that tradition in the same location is the new J. Kelly’s, part of the restaurant renaissance in this old Austin neighborhood. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.