I recently went on my first Austin Eats Food Tour and it was a blast! Austin Eats Food Tours are curated, guided tours where you get to eat and drink at the city’s best local restaurants, food trucks, bars, and breweries. Currently, there are four tours you can choose from, the “Sunday Brunch” tour, the “BBQ, Brunch & Brewery” tour, the “East Austin Happy Hour” tour, and the “Best of Austin Food Trucks” tour. You can also design your own, custom private tour! Austin Eats Food Tours partners with over 100 local spots, so there is a lot to choose from when you design your own.
I went on a private tour of six stops put together by Consumable Content, thanks to my foodie friend Caitlin (bigworldsmallgirl.com). So while this exact tour isn’t available to the public, the idea behind the chartered bus taking you from place to place so you can eat or drink is still the same. I also attended the tour for free (thanks, Consumable Content and Austin Eats Food Tours).
We started at Sour Duck Market and enjoyed their broccoli and smoked chicken toast with pimento cheese, pea tendril, and green chile. The toast was absolutely delicious. I would order it again for sure. To drink, I tried their turmeric mule draft cocktail. It has Frankly vodka, ginger beer, and turmeric. I’m a big fan of all things ginger, so I really liked this cocktail. We also had one of their tasty salads and, to balance it out, hit up their incredibly delicious bakery. I’d been to Sour Duck Market before, but only for breakfast. I was happy to get to try a larger portion of their menu through the tour!
We hopped on our awesome chartered bus (which was loaded with Austin Eastciders cider, Zilker Brewing Company beer, and Topo Chico). It was pretty sweet, honestly. Adam Boles, the Austin Eats Food Tours GM and our personal tour guide, was super knowledgeable and talked about the places we’d be visiting as we drove. From Sour Duck Market, we drove to Kerlin BBQ. Their truck is located in the food truck park at 2207 E. Cesar Chavez. We got to sample their brisket and cheddar kolache – wow! Definitely in the running for best kolache in Austin. There was so much meat stuffed inside! It was all perfect, from the bread, to the brisket, to the BBQ sauce you could drizzle on top. It was at this point, though, that I realized I had to pace myself. We had 6 places to visit! I was already filling up after two…
Back on the bus, I was thankful to have a minute to digest my food. We drove just a few miles to Nickel City and their food truck, Delray Cafe. We had our choice of several drinks and I went with a classic old fashioned. I’ve always been a fan of Nickel City, but I’ve never eaten from their food truck! Delray Cafe‘s burgers are thin and delicious. I love tater tots and these were perfect. Simple and crispy. I had a few very disciplined bites (we still had three more stops to make!) and a handful of tots. I would definitely order their burgers and tots next time I’m at Nickel City. No fuss, no fills, just like the bar. Did I mention the slider is $3.18? Yeah, amazing. That’s the cool thing about these tours – you learn new things about places you’ve been many times before!
We took a break from eating to do a small cider sampling at the Moontower tasting room on Tillery Street. Honestly, I’m not a huge cider person, but I really enjoyed the Pomme Blush. It’s a blend of culinary apples from the Northwest, Orange Muscat, and Ruby Cabernet grapes from the Texas High Plains.
From Moontower Cider, we drove to Oseyo, the new Korean food restaurant on East Cesar Chavez. It’s a BEAUTIFUL restaurant. Definitely worthy of date night. I really enjoyed their Korean fried chicken and their shrimp and scallion pancake. Their cocktails are unique – the one I had was a bit smokey! Dining at Oseyo is like eating inside an art gallery. There are huge pieces of modern art by artist Brandon Miller on the walls surrounding you. I’d definitely like to go back to try more of their menu. That’s another good thing about these tours – I don’t think I would have gone to Oseyo on my own, but the little sample I got on the tour has piqued my interest!
Finally, it was time for dessert! We ended our tour at Lefty’s Brick Bar for some cajun snacks and frosty drinks. I ordered their Vietnamese coffee boozy sno-ball. I loved it. It went perfectly with their beignets! The outdoor space at Lefty’s is really great – just make sure the weather is nice. I would have hung out there longer since this was the last stop on the tour, but I needed to take the chartered bus back to Sour Duck Market to get my car.
In general, tours last 3-4 hours and cost somewhere between $85-99. While (#transparency) I didn’t pay for this tour, I’d say it’s easily worth $100. There was more food and drinks than I could handle. I could have had even MORE to drink, but I had to drive, so that was kind of off the table. Note to self: plan accordingly next time for a REAL fun tour. While 3-4 hours seems like a long time, it actually went by pretty fast. I had a blast with the tour group, our bus driver was wonderful, there were restrooms everywhere we went… I honestly have no complaints! They were also pretty accommodating to food allergies and dietary restrictions. There were vegetarian and gluten-free options made available to several points during our tour.
An Austin Eats Food Tour would make an awesome birthday gift, a fun day date, or a memorable day with friends. I’ll for sure be going on another sometime soon.
Who wants to join me?
Thanks again, Consumable Content, for setting up such a fun tour!
