
Every calendar year, the CultureMap Tastemaker Awards toasts the leading expertise in Austin’s culinary scene — and that contains an enjoyable glance at the latest restaurants to heat up area eating.

Our 2022 nominees for Best New Restaurant vary from stylish counter services cafes and Caribbean scorching spots to ground breaking food items vans and a couple of ideas from other cities earning their Austin debut. Although the nominees had been chosen by our panel of industry specialists, the winner is up to you.

Now through April 26, you might be invited to vote in our Most effective New Restaurant tournament, sponsored by Tock. The tournament commences with the 16 dining establishments under, and the winner from every matchup moves on to the following spherical, until finally only just one remains.

Examine about the nominees down below, vote for your favorites as soon as a working day, then be part of us on April 28 at Good Industry when we’ll unveil the winner in our stay awards ceremony. Tickets to our signature bash are on sale now.
1417

Al fresco dining is an crucial Austin enterprise, and this new community eatery features an exemplary patio area for eating on contemporary seafood catches and unpredicted delicacies like blue cheese beignets, duck confit crepes, and top-notch caviar. Named after its South To start with Street handle, 1417 also gives an exceptional weekend brunch featuring every thing from uncooked bar specialties to pastries, quiches, and stacked burgers. And with a total bar and cocktail application — and an outstanding wine range — as very well as an comprehensive espresso program, lounging here is an straightforward, breezy way to commit an afternoon.
5280 Burger & Taphouse

This meaty joint may perhaps hail from Colorado, but it is received deep Austin roots, far too. 5280 restaurateur Clay McPhail was a co-operator of regional Tex-Mex beloved El Arroyo some years in the past, so he has a eager knowing of Austin’s palate. And his west aspect 5280 Burger & Taphouse tends to make a special effort to faucet into Austin-centric flavors. All burgers are made with Texas Black Angus beef, and there are heaps of locally adored components sprinkled through the menu, from guacamole and chili to pepper jack cheese, brisket, and habaneros. Additionally, 5280 features non-burger fare, like a Maine lobster roll, fried rooster, tons of diverse french fry dishes, tacos, egg rolls, salads, and even area and regional beers, as effectively as wine, draft cocktails, and “shaketinis.”
Birdie’s

It didn’t acquire extended for this new lovable east side cafe and natural wine bar to start out toasting the accolades. Nevertheless it is only been open since July 2021, Birdie’s has presently garnered praise from Texas Month-to-month, which named it amongst the state’s ideal new eating places, as effectively as from the New York Times, which termed Birdie’s 1 of the 50 American dining establishments it is “most enthusiastic about ideal now.” Partner-and-spouse group Arjav Ezekiel and Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel surely are entitled to the kudos, as they painstakingly ensure each and every dish — from Birdie’s shareable snacks and modest plates to its entrees and desserts — are immaculately crafted and delightfully offered. And right here, sipping wine is a authentic address, with Birdie’s featuring a curated wine record (as well as its “gem” wine list) that evolves along with the specials Malechek-Ezekiel is cooking up in the kitchen area.
Canje

If there is one style of fare Austin could use more of, it is Caribbean cuisine. And the genius culinary minds driving prolific regional restaurant team Emmer & Rye are delighted to direct the way with their most recent community showpiece: Canje. The “new-age Caribbean restaurant,” helmed by government chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph, capabilities an inspired menu that pays tribute to the chef’s Caribbean roots, which include some unforeseen choices motivated by the a variety of cultures of the Caribbean, this kind of as Indian, French, and African dishes. But Bristol-Joseph also makes guaranteed he’s desirable to Texas palates, so there’s plenty of beef and pork and peppers to be loved. It all melds together in a tantalizing menu of uniquely succulent delicacies that practically transports diners to Bristol-Joseph’s grandmother’s house for an reliable Caribbean food.
Con Todo

If you like your tacos RGV-style con todo, then this North Austin taco truck is for you. Encouraged by chef Joseph Gomez’s relatives roots in Northern Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley, Con Todo brings some definitely specific flavors to this taco town. But really do not call it Tex-Mex — these tacos present a distinct experience than the numerous Tex-Mex tacos Austinites chow down on every single working day. Gomez kicks up the taste with wealthy fillings, rounds issues out with acid from a lot of lime, plays up the crisp factor with ripe veggies and piquant salsa, and serves it all on clean tortillas that could likely make a delicious meal of their personal. In bringing the 956 to the 512, Con Todo is “here to have our voices heard and to fill your day-to-day taco requires.” Professional idea: When the chilaquiles roja exclusive would make a menu appearance, fall almost everything you are carrying out and get to Con Todo for a virtually lifestyle-modifying food items encounter.
Curry Pizza Household

The Austin area’s crafty new fusion place is slicing into all those monotonous outdated pizza offerings with its fresh new and spicy choose on the classic pie. Curry Pizza Property, which originated in the Bay Space a ten years back, has designed its way to Texas with its initial restaurant outdoors the state of California growing in the Cedar Park community. Indian-inspired craft pizza may perhaps seem like an odd mashup, but believe in us, it’s a scrumptious one particular. Specialties involve curry rooster masala pizza, the palak paneer pizza, the shahi paneer pizza, and the aloo chaat pizza. Persnickety pizza pickers can continue to opt for much more conventional pies, like the meat lover’s, veggie, and supreme pizzas, but our recommendation is to dwell a minimal and dig into a fully various and flavor-ahead pie, no make any difference how you slice it.
Delightful Tamales

Like many Mexican-Us citizens, Tasty Tamales founder Valerie Gonzalez honed the artwork of tamale building during once-a-year Christmas tamaladas with kinfolk. Just after a long time in small business as San Antonio’s foremost tamale maker, Tasty Tamales unwrapped its very first Austin area just in time for the 2021 holiday break time. Tamales include things like pork, bean, hen and tomatillo hen, vegetarian, several jalapeño offerings, and even sweet kinds.
Koko’s Bavarian

New east aspect sizzling location Koko’s Bavarian is named for the precise prince of Bavaria, Konstantin Prinz von Bayern. The prince is a associate in the nearby job, an Austin tribute to German beer and brats. The residence features a 400-seat out of doors biergarten and tons of German-style brews, from lagers and hefeweizens to bocks and even IPAs. The foodstuff menu celebrates Central Texas’ loaded German culture, showcasing Bavarian specialties like household-built sausages and schnitzels, giant pretzels, and potato pancakes. If you strategy nicely, you can also imbibe to a backdrop of reside music.
Llama Kid

At East Austin eatery Llama Child, the specialty is Peruvian fare. And if you’re not sure what that particularly entails, it’s possible it is time to venture into a new neck of the woods, culinarily speaking. Llama Kid’s cebiche bar is a excellent location to start off and highlights proteins like ahi tuna, wild halibut, fried calamari, and even veggie solutions. Right before you know it, you are going to be gobbling up more substantial plates of pollo a la brasa (rotisserie hen), arroz chaufa (fried rice with tenderloin), and pulpo anticuchero (grilled octopus).
Mason’s Popular Lobster Rolls

It is truthful to say that when this Maryland-primarily based seafood chain rolled into Austin with its very first Texas site, lobster fans fortunately clawed their way to the downtown oasis. Even though Mason’s Well known Lobster Rolls specializes in the typical roll, the menu also features additional seafood rolls, like the Connecticut Roll, a lobster BLT roll, a shrimp roll, and the combo Bar Harbor roll, any of the famous rolls topped with additional than a pound of lobster. The lobster bisque and clam chowder are pretty darn very good, way too.
R19

The pandemic has brought about all varieties of havoc for the cafe market, and even Austin’s most resilient restaurateurs have experienced to adapt in the light-weight of so a lot adjust. That’s one particular of the additional desirable characteristics of chef Christopher Haydostian, who at first opened popular East Austin taqueria Reunion 19 (alongside with Esdras Ochoa, a semifinalist on Netflix’s The Closing Table, and numerous other chefs) in early 2020, but finished up shuttering the institution in late 2021. Prior to its closure, the undaunted Haydostian launched his R19 idea as a meals trailer in the Hudson Bend local community, wherever it was so well obtained that the chef was in a position to parlay that earn into a brand name-new R19 Taqueria in Lakeway. With a super great mural backdrop and a smattering of “propah tacos” (served on a wide variety of stellar property-designed tortillas), R19 Taqueria is evidence that the comeback is constantly higher than the setback.
Rosen’s Bagel Co.

In 2017, after exhaustively investigating the very best way to make a high quality edition of the morning staple, the intelligent person behind Rosen’s Bagel Co., Tom Rosen, commenced rolling out his ideal bagels at pop-ups — and persistently marketed out. That good results led to Rosen’s Bagels landing in a assortment of espresso retailers and supermarkets (which includes Complete Food items) during city. But it was the opening of Rosen’s very own brick-and-mortar bagel store on Burnet Street in early 2022 that propelled the brand to cream-cheese-of-the-crop position. As they say at Rosen’s, the Austin store specializes in “traditional bagels, artisanal schmears, residence-fixed lox, and all other bagel-similar requires.”
Texas Sushiko

Austin’s sweeping really like of tacos and its insatiable wish for sushi arrive together in this revolutionary meals truck principle. Texas Sushiko was born from government chef Michael Carranza’s motivation to develop an accessible sort of the well-known omakase sushi working experience, just one that did not have to have a reservation months in progress and that would attraction to even his non-sushi-loving spouse and children members. His strategy? Current sushi in the fashion of a very well-loved, ubiquitous dish: the taco. The end result is Texas Sushiko’s omakase-top quality open up-faced hand rolls. Menu highlights involve the king crab hand roll topped with contemporary truffles, the fatty bluefin tuna hand roll with seasonal substances, the sous vide and grilled pork stomach hand roll with kimchi, and Black River Russian Oscietra caviar served with bitter-product-and-onion Pringles. And given that the truck is situated exterior the Texas Sake Company tasting home in South Austin, a beautifully paired sake beverage is just methods absent.
Trudy’s Del Mar

Longtime Austin cafe firm Trudy’s created a fully distinctive splash in the nearby cafe scene when it not too long ago premiered its new Trudy’s Del Mar seafood notion. Found in the alluring space that formerly housed South Congress Cafe, Trudy’s Del Mar, aka the “Tex-Mex of the sea,” options a menu of seafood specialties impressed by classic coastal Mexican recipes, which includes lobster tacos, seared fish smothered in Veracruz sauce, and the bountiful Del Mar Grill, with shrimp diablos, lobster tail, and steak fajitas. Small plates like crab cakes and crispy calamari, as perfectly as ceviche and crudos, round out the menu. And it is a spinoff of Trudy’s immediately after all, so of study course you can continue to get an superb margarita or martini.
Wax Myrtle’s

Austin’s hot, y’all, so when it was introduced that new connected hotel properties Thompson Austin and tommie Austin would dwelling a luxurious poolside restaurant and bar, it didn’t consider a lot for locals to dive into the indoor-outside notion. Wax Myrtle’s, dubbed “a laid-again hideaway among downtown Austin’s urban jungle,” delivers every little thing a summer months pool lounger needs: coated cabanas, an outsized hearth, month-to-month programming, a menu of modern American cuisine, and a lot of curated cocktails best for sipping poolside and basking in the beautiful downtown skyline sights. The Wax Myrtle’s menu contains great pool treats (we’re looking at you, charred octopus skewer), as properly as heartier fare like burgers, pork chops, and beef ribs. And with an substantial menu of cocktails, beer, and wine, Wax Myrtle’s materials almost everything you require to though away an afternoon by the pool.
Yeni’s Fusion

Initially opened as a pop-up, this lasting food trailer parked at the Aristocrat Lounge in North Austin will take culinary fusion significantly. Named soon after chef-proprietor Yeni Rosdiyani, Yeni’s Fusion merges the daring flavors of Indonesian meals with the finest of American, Mexican, and Tex-Mex fare to create a entire new — and intensely crave-worthy — variety of cuisine. Rosdiyani cooks all the things from scratch with precision and a true passion for the craft. Start off with a tropically spiced wonton pocket appetizer served with tamarind-chile dipping sauce, then go on to rooster porridge (an Indonesian street food items recognised as bubur ayam) and curry more than rice, or opt for the Texan-Indonesian fusion dish: coconut cream soup with smoked brisket.