Arriving at the specified meeting location, we were immediately greeted by Adam Boles of Austin eats, food tours.  Adam is the GM of the company and was our tour guide that day.  Before even starting the tour, we were all given a “golden egg” from “Walton’s Fancy and Staple, a bakery just across the street.  There was nothing but goodness in every bite of the nutmeg infused yellow cake dipped in melted butter and coated with cinnamon sugar – yum!!  Within minutes of boarding the bus, we were then given our choice of mimosas to start off the Sunday Brunch theme.  We hit 5 places and here they are:

1 – Odd Duck Restaurant

We were quickly seated at a long table reserved just for us with our group’s menu at every place setting.  We were tasting smoked vanilla and whiskey scones with orange marmalade and then goat chili mac with seared spaetzle, egg yolk, and crispy tobacco onion and both were just amazing.  There were a few beverage options for us and I went with a local beer, but after tasting my friend’s Draft Paloma, I should have gone with that.  I didn’t choose it originally because I’m not a big fan of tequila or grapefruit – but add Aperol, tarragon, ginger, lime, and salt foam and WOW.  This restaurant had a wonderful local feel and there was a beautifully painted mural to view, behind us.

This restaurant is known for using only locally sourced ingredients for their innovative dishes.

https://oddduckaustin.com

1201 S Lamar Blvd. Austin TX

2 – Old Thousand Chinese Restaurant

Our second stop on the food tour wasn’t what I was imagining in Austin, but that’s what a food tour should be – the unexpected.  This Chinese restaurant has a funky vibe, fun art on the walls that just works.  They offer a Dim Sum Brunch on the weekends, and I really enjoyed the chili wontons (really spicy) and the smoked trout rangoons along with another mimosa.

https://www.oldthousandatx.com

1000 E 11th St #150, Austin TX

3 – Trill Taqueria

This stop was a great “taste” of Austin for me, as this was a food truck.  We were all given a bottle of Topo Chico sparkling mineral water before we stepped off the bus, to have with our tacos.  Apparently, this Mexican beverage is very popular in Austin and was a nice break – for a few minutes – from the alcoholic beverages at the first two stops.  Having only been open for a few months, Nick Belloni’s food truck already seems to be a hit with their housemade tortillas and his use of local and organic ingredients.  We had the smoked lamb and egg taco topped with a mole-like pecan salsa – wonderful combination of flavors.

Trill Taqueria can be found on Instagram and at this address: 2418 E 7th St, Austin TX

4 – Austin Eastciders Collaboratory

Our 4th stop was a cidery with a great deck to sit and sample many of their wonderful flavors.   This company has roots in England, so they use real cider apples sourced from Europe and blend them with apples from the Pacific Northwest.  I love dry ciders and they had many to choose from.  After sampling about 7, I’d have to say that my favorites were the Rose Cider and the Blood Orange – although the grapefruit and their Texas honey were pretty tasty also.  In addition to the unique flavors, their ciders are also gluten-free and kosher.  You can’t go wrong with a sunny day, a large outdoor deck and cider – just add good friends and great conversation and call it good.

https://austineastciders.com

Tap Room location – 979 Springdale Rd, Suite 130, Austin TX

5 – Fixe restaurant

We actually ended, where we started, as this is the location that we met to begin the food tour.  The amazing food aromas were pumping out from the restaurant to the street, while we congregated and I wondered then why we weren’t going in, so ending here made sense.  The theme here is Southern comfort with a bit of a twist.  The homemade biscuits with whipped butter and strawberry preserve just melted in your mouth.  In addition to our Honey Badger cocktail (aged old Forester whiskey, honeycomb, and lemon) we then enjoyed the fried chicken sandwich with sweet tea pickles, chicken mayo on a roll with fries.  Fixe’s comfy and funky decor, like old screen doors, hung on the ceiling, cool old mirrors and a combination of old dinner plates on the walls is charming.

500 W 5th St, Austin TX

So, as you can see, this food tour provided quite a variety of eateries in the Austin area, and of course, only scratched the surface of this city’s amazing food scene.  The tour was well organized, very adaptable to peoples food issues and/or allergies and Adam did a great job of keeping our group informed and moving.  I would highly recommend Austin eats to anyone visiting this city.  They offer many different tours options, like happy hour, food trucks, BBQ and brews, just to mention a few.  Our Sunday Luxe Brunch tour was about 3.5 hours and cost $99.  I only included a few photos in this post, there are more to view in my food tour gallery.

www.austineatsfoodtours.com