OT - Trip to Austin

cazzy

Acn said:

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but SWMBO and I will be visiting Austin and San Antonio in early-April (probably traveling on 4/5 and 4/11) and wanted to ask for some additional thoughts on Austin and new recs for San Antonio.

My first question - in Austin would you recommend staying on South Congress or East 4th (deciding between the Embassy Suites or Hilton)?  I'll take other recommendations, but I have Hilton points from work travel, so that will be tough to overcome.

All additional food recommendations, beyond the ones here are highly welcome, as are activity options - we'll have several days in both cities; we will probably fly into one and fly back to BWI from the other, and will rent a car to drive from one to the other, but as to how many days/nights in either or which to start in are still up in the air.

Thanks all!

San Antonio:

Mexican food: Pico De Gallo or Taco Taco (my personal fav)

BBQ: The Granary or The Smoke Shack

Asian: Thai Dee Restaurant

Seafood: Wildfish

Beakfast: Magnolia Pancake Haus or Guenther House

Burgers: Chris Madrid's

Pizza: Florio's or Dough

Have fun!!

The Cen-Tex Smoker

The hotels are only a few blocks apart but the embassy is kind of in no-mans land. It's aross the river (south congress) but not far south enough to be considered SOCO (where all the cool stuff is). Hilton is a short walk to dirty 6th (college bars) but also close to Rainey St. which is really cool. (1st and Rainey which is at I-35 and 1st. Hilton is basically 1-35 and 4th). Careful on dirty 6th. Go early if you must go at all. Gets rough later. Lots of fights and puking coeds. 2nd-4th and lavaca st is a very cool area for drinks and good food for adults. About 8-10 blocks from your hotel. Soco is really cool to walk around during the day. Good at night too but the cool shops are closed. Take a quick walk through Uncommon Objects and Lucy in Disguise if you go to soco during the day. Funky austin shops. Lucy is a costume shop. They have everything under the sun. You will laugh out loud at least 5 times.

Foghorn

If you are looking for San Antonio recs, are you staying at the Hilton on the Riverwalk using points?

We have some solid BBQ, but you'll get better in Austin if you hit the best places there. 

I find the Mexican food on the Riverwalk just "OK". There are better options.  Boudro's is my favorite place on the river.  Get a reservation at least a week in advance.  Definitely order the guacamole as they make it tableside and tell you exactly how they are doing it so you can replicate it at home.  I didn't like guacamole until I had it there. 

Going to the Mexican Market and hitting either Mi Tierra or La Margarita would be a good idea. 

The Pearl Brewery area is a good take as well for good food.  There are a number of good restaurants there. 

@Cazzy and others have offered good suggestions in the past.

 

Acn

Final post on this before it sinks forever.  I'm sitting in the San Antonio airport enjoying a couple of shiners at the end of this trip and I wanted to thank everyone who made recommendations.  

We enjoyed a bunch of @The Cen-Tex Smoker's recs in Austin, and was very glad he suggested the Hilton downtown.  We didn't get to Franklin or La Barbeque, but we did enjoy quite a few drinks on Rainey St and a pitcher of margaritas and some really good food at Polvos.  I did take the wife to Qui, which was the best restaurant I went to last year and was better this visit (and at the risk of being banned from the forum, is a place I'm much more excited about eating at than Franklins).

For BBQ we stopped at Blacks in Lockheart, where my wife polished off a huge dino beef rib (before and after below).  San Antonio didn't have the best food because we stayed on the Riverwalk, but Mi Tierra, Boudros and Cured (at the Pearl) were really good.

Thanks again to everyone who provided suggestions - SWMBO acknowledged that y'all know your stuff.

Eggcelsior

I like your wife's attitude about this forum. She fits in well.