The best new restaurants in Austin, ranked.
The standout new Austin restaurants from 2025 and 2026, from Paul Qui’s sushi bar and a beef-Wellington steakhouse to Georgian cheese boats and a no-brisket barbecue bus.
The best new restaurants in Austin, limited to genuinely new rooms that opened in 2025 and 2026 and are open right now. Built from cross-source research across Eater, CultureMap, The Infatuation, Texas Monthly, and each restaurant’s own current listing, then fact-checked to cut the things that only look new: relocations, renames, and out-of-town chains. The deeper benches, the tacos, the barbecue, the sushi, each have their own guide. Updated as places open, move, and close.
Featured spots can add this badge to their own site, free.Subscribe free and the full Austin restaurant directory unlocks in this browser: every restaurant, ranked and filterable by cuisine and neighborhood. Then an email from Carissa on Thursday mornings.
- East Austin · $$$ · No. 4 on Texas Monthly’s Best New Restaurants 202601
Fish Shop
Justin Huffman and Nicole Rossi grew their Le Beef pop-up into this East 6th raw bar, and it landed at No. 4 on Texas Monthly’s Best New Restaurants 2026, the only Austin spot on the list. Huffman flies West Coast catch in from San Francisco’s Monterey Fish Market, so the move is the Dungeness crab cocktail, the halibut crudo, and a dozen oysters. The Le Beef burger crosses onto the menu for the one person at the table who does not eat seafood.
- Bouldin Creek · $$$ · French-Texan bistro from the Underdog team02
Le Calamar
The Underdog crew handed this Bouldin Creek bistro to chef Casey Wall, late of the Spotted Pig and Melbourne’s Bar Liberty, and the result is French technique run through a Texas lens. The signature plate is oysters charentaise served with Texas hot links, though the roast chicken and the steak au poivre are the reasons regulars come back. It is dinner only, Thursday through Monday, and it already carries a Michelin Guide listing.
- South Lamar · $$$$ · Paul Qui’s handroll and sushi bar03
Kitsu Nori
Paul Qui built this South Lamar counter around ikebana, the Japanese art of arrangement, and the menu leans French-Japanese in a way no other Austin sushi bar does. Order the scallop ceviche with brûléed grapefruit and tarragon, then the koji-cured wagyu that reads like a steak au poivre. Book ahead for the 30 indoor counter seats, since the long patio is the easier walk-in.
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Subscribe free and the full Austin restaurant directory unlocks in this browser: every restaurant, ranked and filterable by cuisine and neighborhood. Then an email from Carissa on Thursday mornings.
- Downtown · $$$$ · wood-fired New American steakhouse04
The Kimberly
Chef John Carver named this Indeed Tower steakhouse after his wife and stocked it with wood-fired USDA Prime and 30-day dry-aged cuts. The showpiece is a beef Wellington wrapped in applewood bacon and finished with shaved truffles, set next to a tower of potato mousseline. It is a downtown special-occasion room from the Red Ash team, open nightly from 5.
- East Cesar Chavez · $$$ · oysters from the owners’ own Maine farm05
Austin Oyster Co.
This is the rare oyster bar that farms its own, and Brendan Yancy and Drew Ahumada shuck Lone Pine Pearls from their farm on Maine’s New Meadows River. The East Cesar Chavez room opened in March 2026 as the first brick-and-mortar for a pop-up they started in 2020, and the raw bar is the point, backed by baked clam stuffies and a lobster roll. It is the freshest opening on this list, so expect the menu to keep shifting with the season.
- East Austin · $$$ · Southeast Asian from chef Laila Bazahm06
Siti
Laila Bazahm makes her own curry pastes for this Southeast Asian room inside the Frances Modern Inn, pulling from Filipino, Singaporean, Malaysian, and Thai kitchens. The dish to order is the lobster chili crab in a chili-XO sauce with fried mantou buns for dragging through it. The weekend Kopitiam Classics brunch and the push-cart sambal service are the tells that this is a destination, not a hotel restaurant.
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- Downtown · $$$$ · French-American with a cocktail lounge07
Restaurant François
Harold Marmulstein runs this downtown French-American room in the AMLI building for the Guy and Larry group, pairing classical technique with dry-aged prime steaks. The Maine lobster thermidor is the headline, and the adjacent Bar Rouge handles the cocktail half of the evening. Reserve on Resy for dinner, Monday through Saturday.
- West Sixth · $$$ · Neapolitan pizza and a tableside cheese wheel08
Moderna Bar & Pizzeria
Chef Leo Spizzirri bakes what he calls post-heritage Neapolitan pizza, roughly 700 degrees for two and a half minutes, in this Hartland Plaza room on West 6th. The order beyond pizza is the tagliatelle alla ruota, finished tableside in a wheel of Grana Padano, with a 20-layer lasagna for the table that commits. The cheese-wheel pasta is dining-room and pizza-bar only, so sit inside for it.
- Downtown · $$$$ · an un-stuffy New York steakhouse09
VanHorn’s
Berg and Sons, the team behind Bill’s Oyster and Teddy’s, opened this 2nd Street steakhouse as a deliberate counter to the white-tablecloth norm. The prime dry-aged cuts come from New York’s Pat LaFrieda, the grilled porterhouse is the centerpiece, and a seasonal raw bar and a proper burger keep it from taking itself too seriously. Book on Resy for dinner, and note the weekend kitchen opens at 10 for the morning crowd.
- North Austin · $ · the taqueria behind a New York Times best dish10
Paprika ATX
Mago and Hayden Perez turned their food truck behind Michi Ramen into this North Lamar taqueria in October 2025, and the suadero taco, confited brisket on a house tortilla, is the one the New York Times named among the best dishes in America. Saturday brings al pastor carved off the trompo, and it tends to sell out the same day. It is counter service, Tuesday through Saturday, and the line moves. It is one of the fourteen taquerias we rank citywide, which flags the closed day and the sell-out hour at each one.
- North Loop · $$ · no-reservations Italian-American11
Rocco’s Neighborhood Joint
Wade McElroy and chef Nicholas Ford built this Airport Boulevard trattoria as a mom-and-pop dinner spot: no reservations, a virtual waitlist, doors at 5. The plate the Austin Chronicle singled out is the lumache with corn, black garlic, chanterelles, and crispy salumi, with fried mozzarella and rigatoni vodka close behind. It is the kind of neighborhood Italian that fills up on a Tuesday.
- Allandale · $$ · regional Mexican breakfast and lunch from the Fonda San Miguel family12
Tzintzuntzan
Fonda San Miguel, the 1975 hacienda landmark, opened this daytime sibling in Allandale for breakfast and lunch. The chilaquiles, red or green, arrive under a sunny-side egg and a drizzle of crema, and the in-house panadería and ice cream make the case for lingering. It shares an outdoor space with Fonda but runs as its own room, so come for the morning, not the evening. Fonda itself sits on our ranking of the best restaurants in Austin.
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- Bouldin Creek · $$ · all-day deli and bar with house charcuterie13
High Road Deli & Bar
Salumist Ryan Wilson, of Franklin Barbecue and Burt’s Meat Market, cures the meats at this Bouldin Creek deli and bar from the Cavalier team. The sandwiches are the draw, the Italian layering soppressata with stracciatella and mortadella, and the kitchen makes its own sausages. There is a coffee program in the morning and frozen Big Red margaritas by the afternoon.
- Springdale Rd (just outside the city) · $$ · Texas smoke with Louisiana roots, a Bib Gourmand14
Parish Barbecue
Pitmaster Holden Fulco, four years at InterStellar before this, smokes his brisket over post oak, works hickory into the mix, and runs Cajun spice through the whole board at this trailer, which earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2025 and kept it in 2026. Look for pork spare ribs with a Steen’s cane syrup glaze, house-cured ham with a creole mustard glaze, pulled duck under crispy duck skin, and the crawfish cornbread dressing. Since May 2026 it has parked at Austin Beerworks’ Sprinkle Valley brewery, just outside the city limits on Springdale Road, Thursday through Sunday.
- East Austin · $$ · the barbecue truck that refuses to serve brisket15
Space Kat BBQ
Jack Zizzo parked this converted school bus on Webberville Road in early 2025, and the rule of the house is no brisket. The cut to get is the smoked Akaushi tri-tip, deeper and juicier than the usual choice beef, which is the one the Infatuation singles out. It runs Thursday through Sunday until it sells out.
- East Austin · $ · Austin’s khachapuri specialist16
Bread Boat
Three Georgian founders built this East 7th Street spot around khachapuri, the cheese-filled bread that is Georgia’s national comfort food. The one to order is the acharuli, a golden boat of molten cheese topped with an egg and butter you stir in at the table. It bakes fresh on weekend mornings and is small, so go early.
- East Austin · $$ · New Haven-style pies at Springdale General17
Small’s Pizza
Kelsey Small, a Connecticut native who cooked at Franklin Barbecue and Bufalina, opened this New Haven pizza counter at Springdale General in fall 2025. The blistered thin-crust pies are the draw, the anchovy and caper and the garlicky tomato pie with pecorino, and small-batch bagels appear on weekend mornings. It is a counter, so plan to grab a table in the food hall.
- East Austin · $$ · late-night sushi inside Papercut18
Konbini
The Tare team runs this counter inside the Papercut cocktail bar on East 5th, built for the after-dinner hours, with sushi served until 1am on weekends. The format is choose-your-own, rounds of nigiri, sashimi, and crudo on seasonal fish like madai and kanpachi brightened with citrus and chiles, plus A5 wagyu when you want to spend. Think of it as the sushi nightcap Austin did not have before.
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- Far Northwest Austin · $ · Thai fried chicken at Pink Flamingo19
Kai Zabb
Woravit Insee and Nannaphat Pumtong run this Thai trailer at the Pink Flamingo food park off McNeil Drive. The namesake kai zabb is fried chicken tossed in a zabb dressing of fish sauce, lime, toasted rice powder, and mint, and the panang curry is the creamy counterpoint. The Statesman put it on its best-of-2025 list, and it is open Tuesday through Sunday.
What we considered and didn’t include
The things we passed on are part of the value. Documented for editorial discipline.
- PoetaOne of the best Italian rooms in town, but it relocated from the Frances Modern Inn to the East Austin Hotel in January 2026. A move, not a new restaurant, so it sits this one out.
- Kiin DiThe four-year-old Thai trailer graduated into the former Mr. Natural space on South Lamar in late 2025. Worth your time, but a trailer moving into a brick-and-mortar with the same menu is a relocation, not a debut.
- Siam’s ATXIt took over the old Super Thai space on South Lamar and bills itself as on South Lamar since day one. That reads as a rebrand of an existing restaurant, not a new one.
- ShokuninA genuinely good à la carte sushi bar on East 6th, but it is a Scratch Restaurants Group concept, the multi-city group behind Sushi by Scratch. We kept this list to independent local debuts.
- Mian & Bao and Old Alley Hot PotBoth are Austin outposts of Houston’s Taste Corp, the group behind a thousand-location hotpot franchise. Good food, but chain expansions, not local newcomers.
- Blue ApsaraIts fish amok earned this South Lamar trailer, Austin’s first Cambodian one by its own billing, a place on this list. Its site and its ordering page both say it is temporarily closed while its equipment is repaired, so it sits out until it reopens.
- New bars and coffee shopsA best-new-restaurants list is dinner-and-a-table first, so the year’s new bars and new coffee shops live in their own guides.
Common questions
- What are the best new restaurants in Austin right now?
- The strongest 2025 and 2026 openings span every price tier: Fish Shop for seafood (No. 4 on Texas Monthly’s Best New Restaurants 2026), Kitsu Nori for Paul Qui’s French-Japanese sushi, The Kimberly for a wood-fired steakhouse, and Le Calamar for a French-Texan bistro. If you only book one, make it Fish Shop or Kitsu Nori.
- What new restaurants opened in Austin in 2025?
- 2025 brought Fish Shop, Le Calamar, Siti, Bread Boat, Small’s Pizza, Parish Barbecue, and Paprika ATX’s brick-and-mortar, among others. Late 2025 added a wave of downtown fine dining: The Kimberly, Restaurant François, VanHorn’s, Kitsu Nori, and Moderna.
- What is the newest restaurant in Austin?
- Among the picks here, Austin Oyster Co. on East Cesar Chavez is the freshest, open since March 2026, with oysters from the owners’ own farm in Maine. New rooms open weekly, so this guide is updated as they do.
- What new restaurants opened in East Austin?
- East Austin leads the city for new openings: Fish Shop and Konbini on East 6th and 5th, Siti at the Frances Modern Inn, Bread Boat on East 7th, Small’s Pizza at Springdale General, and Space Kat BBQ on Webberville Road.
- Where are the best new food trucks in Austin?
- The standout new trailers are Kai Zabb for Thai fried chicken in far northwest Austin, Space Kat for no-brisket Akaushi barbecue, and Parish Barbecue for Cajun-inflected Texas smoke, just outside the city limits on Springdale Road.
- Do you need a reservation for Austin’s new restaurants?
- Reserve ahead for the downtown fine-dining rooms (The Kimberly, Restaurant François, VanHorn’s) and Kitsu Nori. Rocco’s runs a no-reservations virtual waitlist, and the food trucks and counters (Bread Boat, Small’s, Paprika) are walk-up.
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