Meal of Food Austin

I went to Austin for a conference for work last week, and it seemed like the perfect excuse for Ryan and I to enjoy a weekend trip visiting friends and all of our favorite Austin places. We are both University of Texas grads and we met in school, so Austin is pretty special to us.

One of the best things about Austin is the amazing food scene. Since we missed our traditional MoFF, I decided to share some of the best spots that we visited on our trip.

Ryan drove down on Friday morning in time to pick me up at the end of my conference. We went straight to Trudy's for lunch. Trudy's is a local chain of tex-mex restaurants that is famous for great Mexican martinis, and it's been one of our favorites for years. There is a location within walking distance of the UT campus, so it was a place that we went often when we were in school. We started out with chips and queso and a martini. A Mexican martini is essentially a variation of a giant margarita on the rocks. The ones at Trudy's are pretty intense - so much so that you are only aloud to order two. I must admit, one is more than enough for me!

Delicious!

We both decided to order the house special for lunch. It's called the stuffed avocado, and it is an avocado, cheese, and chicken mixture that is fried and smothered in suiza sauce. The waiter convinced us to step it up a notch and add seasoned brisket to the top. It was excellent! I've eaten at Trudy's several times, but had never tried the stuffed avocado. It was so good, that I don't think I'll ever order anything else!

It may look like a mess, but I promise it's good!

For breakfast the next morning, we ventured out to another old favorite, Taco Shack. They have amazing breakfast burritos. My personal favorite is called The Burnet Road, which is a tortilla stuffed with eggs, cheese, potatoes, and bacon. And it was just as tasty as I remember!

Is there a better breakfast than a breakfast taco/burrito? I think not.

Before we left Sunday, we met a couple of friends for brunch at Kerbey Lane Cafe, another favorite of UT students. Kerbey is famous for queso, pancakes, and for being open 24 hours. Kerbey queso is perhaps my most favorite queso in the world. It's white cheese, guacamole, tomatoes, etc. and it's pretty great. We were there for breakfast, but we couldn't pass up the queso!

Nothing like a bowl of cheese to start your day!

We had omelets and apple whole wheat pancakes for our meal. The omelet was good, but the pancakes were better. They are huge! Kerbey sells their pancake mix, so we stopped by the H-E-B and picked some up (along with some Whataburger ketchup!)

We brought back gifts!

Our weekend in Austin was a lot of fun! It's great to be able to see friends and to visit some of our favorite places. Here are a couple of other places that I hit while I was in town - I'd recommend them all!

- Rudy's BBQ - super casual and super delicious! Each location is attached to a gas station convenience store. There are a few locations in DFW as well.

- Serrano's - another tex-mex spot with great margaritas. I had quesadillas and they were great, and you get a huge portion.

- Esther's Follies - this is not a restaurant - it's a comedy club that I had the chance to visit with the conference that I was attending. It's very funny and a great activity if you are looking for something to do while visiting Austin.

- Stubb's BBQ - somehow, neither Ryan or I ever ate at Stubbs while living in Austin, despite the fact that Ryan only buys Stubb's BBQ sauce at the grocery story. It's also a cool concert venue.

What's your favorite Austin spot?