2023 Dining Guide: Here are 20 of the best new restaurants in Austin

I’m taking a different approach to this year’s Dining Guide, one that I introduced to great feedback a couple of years ago. Instead of naming my favorite 25 or 50 restaurants in the Austin metro area, I’m solely focusing on new restaurants.

So many people have unwavering takes on their favorites (and not-so-favorites), but I’m constantly asked what I’m loving that has opened recently. I will return to giving context and ranking of the scene at large, but this year, let’s take a deeper look at the new and the now.

The uncertainty and unease of the pandemic fades with each passing month, though finding and keeping great staff and paying for elevated costs of goods remain challenges, and the local dining world is welcoming exciting newcomers almost weekly.

Money isn’t getting thrown around as wildly by new operators as it once was, but smaller, independent concepts are finding interesting ways to add their voices to the mix. That means pizza windows at wine bars, smart food court stalls in grocery stores, coffee bars and wine shops going beyond the expected, established operators opening strip mall spin-offs, and families opening their first restaurants. Almost all of the restaurants included on this list are casual (a telling coincidence), and you’ll find everything from barbecue to sushi, walk-up windows to sommelier-curated natural wine lists.

I’m writing a separate list dedicated to food trucks, so I largely chose not to include them here, though I made one exception for the city’s best new food truck, which would also make my list of top 10 barbecue operations in town.

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The alphabetically arranged list sticks to the greater Austin area, though one Central Texas joint made it in because Lockhart ain’t that far away from Austin and the place to which I gave an exemption deserves it. And it’s my list.

A business had to have opened between June 2022 and August 2023 to be considered for inclusion. I visited all of these places (and many more) at least once, and the American-Statesman paid for all meals. Full disclosure: I have a long-standing personal friendship with a partner in Bill’s Oyster and one in Uptown Sports Club. Both are first-time and unexpected restaurant owners with no plans for future food businesses, and their restaurants made the list on their own merits.

I hope this list turns you on to some exciting new spots, reinforces some of your curiosities, and challenges things you may have heard elsewhere. As always, I am happy to hear about your favorites. Email me at modam@statesman.com to share. Cheers.

Allday Pizza

Flo’s Wine Bar & Bottle Shop owners Flo Clemons and Adair Belisle deserve an award for most prescient bar owners of 2023. They had the foresight to ink a deal to have Allday Pizza serve as the culinary companion at their wine bar on the northern edge of Tarrytown.

Yes, pizza makes perfect sense in conjunction with the more than 200 labels at this casual spot, but it’s not just any pizza. It’s the best New York-style pizza in Austin and the window-service restaurant from Townsend Smith and Daniel Sorg has created a sensation, making indoor and outdoor tables hard to grab at seemingly any hour.

Smith and Sorg worked in the background at Sammataro, the standout trailer that has moved multiple times and briefly operated as a restaurant, and obviously played a big hand in making that pizza great. The game plan here is fairly similar: a long cold fermentation process for dough made with a blend of flours from Barton Springs Mill and flour milled back near the partners’ East Coast roots; quality ingredients like Bianco Tomatoes; and excellent cheeses, from the housemade stracciatella to the imported pecorino Romano. Unlike Sammataro, however, these come from an all-electric PizzaMaster oven that gives the NY-style pies a firm base and tawny crunch.

All the varieties are served by the slice or as a whole pie. Keep it simple with a zippy tomato, garlic, oregano and olive oil pie; or walk the streets of Brooklyn with a killer pepperoni pizza loaded with mozzarella and pecorino. Better yet, order a sampler for a pie with one slice of all half-dozen varieties on offer. (3111 W. 35th St.; allday.pizza)

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Barbs B Q

Three women added their voices to the chorus evolving the tenor of Texas barbecue when Barbs B Q opened in the shadow of the Caldwell County courthouse in Lockhart this summer. Texans should celebrate Chuck Charnichart, Alexis Tovías Morales and Haley Conlin, and the trio’s business partner Joanne Irizarry, for successfully busting into the historically male-dominated world of barbecue. The women also should be praised for how and where they did it: by serving the best barbecue in the Barbecue Capital of Texas.

You can taste the influence of Mexico in the ground guajillo and chile de arbol peppers that blend mild fruitiness and earthiness into the salt and black pepper rub applied to supple brisket and a hulking but tender massive beef rib that’s as good as any I’ve ever tried. More peppery kick emanates from candied pork ribs that are lacquered with a tomato-and-vinegar-based sauce dialed up with serrano-steeped simple syrup and finished with a shower of lime zest for a sweet-spicy-tangy finish. Peppers also electrify the color and flavor of the side dish of “green spaghett” popular in Charnichart's and Morales’ native Brownsville. (No, it’s not in Austin, but Barbs is too good not to be on this list.) (102 E. Market St. in Lockhart; barbsbq.com)

Complete review: Lockhart is reclaiming its crown for Barbecue Capital of Texas — 3 crowns, to be exact

Bill's Oyster

You wouldn’t need two hands to count the number of good seafood restaurants in Austin up until the past year. But with the openings of Este, Uptown Sports Club and Bill’s Oyster (all on this list), Austin is on a seafood hot streak.

No, there is no Bill. But there are oysters. And the kitchen takes them to the next level with the addition of uni and caviar, a luxury befitting the jewel box space with the tile floor and brass fixtures that feels plucked from a street in Manhattan.

Chef Daniel Berg brings creative touches to his raw bar offerings, such as the black garlic molasses that enriches the yellowfin tartare and the creamy tigre de leche that bathe minced raw scallops. And he doesn’t shy away from playfulness (fried mozzarella sticks dotted with caviar) or grand statements (a crab cake the size of your head) on his tight menu.

In addition to adding to Austin’s growing quality seafood selection, Bill’s also answers an important question I often get asked: “Where should we eat before a show at ACL Live?” (205 W. Third St.; 512-363-5769, billsoyster.com)

Casper Fermentables

You know how you can have your favorite version of a specific food and basically swear off all other versions? That was me after trying the bagels at Casper Fermentables for the first time. I still wander (for work and/or convenience), but the Montrealish-style (they don’t cook over fire) sourdough bagels at Casper have my heart.

What makes them unparalleled? It’s the size (not too tall); the texture (a toasty snap with and feathery center); the flavors (the spice riot of the everything, the subtlety of the jalapeño, the sweetness of the cinnamon-raisin) that blend with the faint three-day-fermented sourdough notes; and the toppings (silky salmon, egg salad with dill, creamy white fish, and the bite of housemade kimchi).

The kimchi, spicy, crunchy, unrelenting, is a hallmark of the business, along with the exceptional kombucha. Science-lover and chef-owner Ben Hollander used those two products to create the business that started as a farmers market and boutique grocery favorite in 2016 before adding the bakery component with his now-wife, Phoebe Raileanu. (4715 S. Lamar Blvd. #101A; 512-330-4935, casperfermentables.com)

Related: Austin's best bagel is actually in Sunset Valley (and that ain't all)

Daiboku

When you think about ramen, you probably imagine ultra rich and creamy pork broth soup. That’s not exactly how they do things at this West Campus spinoff from the owners of Sazan Ramen.

The smoked chicken shoyu version reframes the dish, with its smoky broth, blend of white and dark meats and springy noodles calling to mind an Asian chicken noodle soup, with mushrooms and scallions bringing the loaminess and grassiness of earth. And, yes, you can find fatty swirls of pork in their miso Jirokei with its umami laden miso tare, though the broth is a mix of chicken and pork that doesn’t hit with the heaviness you’ll find at some other ramen shops.

The small restaurant, which features a bar lined with sake and Japanese whiskey, also serves some of the best chicken wings in the city, the savory and juicy meat hidden behind a crackling twice-cooked shell coated in a spice blend that gets an umami rush from housemade tomato powder. (609 W. 29th St.; 512-350-2789, daibokuramen.com)

Este

A meal centered on fresh seafood can feel like a celebration. And that’s certainly the case when a tower of seafood crowned by lobster enriched with morita butter sits in the middle of a table ringed with mezcal-sipping friends.

Owner Sam Hellman-Mass and executive chef Fermín Núñez, who created the city’s best Mexican restaurant in Suerte, bring to their latest venture the same energy and sense of excitement that made their first restaurant such a hit. Este evokes the beach and ocean with its elegant and minimalist design aesthetic, fitting for a restaurant that explores the various coastal cuisines of Núñez’s native Mexico.

A dish of shell-on shrimp bathed in chile costeño butter is probably the best (and one of the messiest) seafood dish in town, and turbot soaked in shishito-anchovy butter showcases the kitchen’s skills with creating big, rich flavors. The killer raw section, one of the best in the state, brings equal parts finesse and flavor to vibrant ceviche; clams buzzed with chile oil; and oysters topped with a tiny jumble of bluefin tuna belly and crunchy cucumber relish stung with carrot habanero broth. It’s a party on a half-shell. (2113 Manor Road; 512-522-4047, esteatx.com)

Original review: Este's bold flavors make it one of Austin's best seafood and Mexican restaurants

Ezov

The Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group started with a focus on founding chef-partner Kevin Fink’s love for grains and the sourcing ethos and processes of Nordic cooking. It grew to include a celebration of the foodways of chef-partner Tavel Bristol-Joseph’s native Guyana (Canje). Now comes Ezov, a platform to showcase the cuisine of chef-partner Berty Richter’s native Israel.

The loosely decorated restaurant with graffitied walls and paper lamps nods to the energy of party-loving Tel Aviv and its menu, which pulls inspiration from the multiethnic Galilee region, both speak to a communal experience. Most of the dishes are great for sharing. That includes starters like the smashed cucumbers on the smoothest labneh you’ve ever tasted, a dish that’s in the running for best new dish of the year in Austin, and the tahini-heavy hummus centered by a tangle of earthy squash; and the cylindrical chicken and mushroom shawarma that you can slice yourself and then layer with a vibrant scatter of pickled vegetables inside a sturdy pillow of frena bread.

The whole menu invites tearing, slicing, spooning, swiping and sharing. Richter left New York City last decade after 15 years of cooking at places like Nobu and Tribeca Grill to get away from the ultra competitive and life-consuming jaws of that city’s industry. Ezov feels like an exclamatory exhale. (2708 E. Cesar Chavez St.; 512-305-1118, ezovatx.com)

Backstory: Emmer & Rye group opening Israeli-inspired restaurant in East Austin

Golden Hour

A coffee shop inside of a modern apartment complex made the list? Yep. Because it’s actually much more than it sounds. There aren’t many (any?) coffee shops that make the kind of food coming out of chef Barclay Stratton’s kitchen. We’re talking Sour Duck challah bread layered with a juicy tomato slice as thick as a pocket Bible and slices of smoked salmon that barely conceal an ooze of tart labneh; beef tartare punched with Dijon, caper and pickled shallot that’s as good as your favorite Austin steakhouse; and the best breakfast burrito in town, packed with a tumble of cheesy soft scrambled eggs, diced chives and crispy, cooked-down potatoes.

Topping it off, beverage director Evan Dunivan oversees the bottle shop side of Golden Hour, which sells about two hundred bottles of low-intervention, small-label wines. Great for working on your laptop, an outdoor happy hour, or a no-fuss date night over the evening's sole pasta offering. (7731 Menchaca Road; goldenhouratx.com)

Related: Golden Hour cafe elevates dining scene in far South Austin

Holiday on 7th

I take it from the name of this hybrid bar-restaurant that the idea is to transport you on a holiday. Its Greece-meets-Tatooine-meets-Marfa aesthetic combined with the romantic notion of transforming an old gas station into a two-hour vacation destination alone accomplish that mission. The menus only add to the spirit.

Holidays mean different things to different people. Maybe you’re the type who likes to sit at a bar alone sipping a martini and making small talk with the bartender while on vacation; or maybe outside with a plate of anchovies and a glass or sparkling rosé is your jam; even better, what about a table covered with sticky ribs and chicken liver mousse, and keep the whiskey cocktails made with Cynar, cacao and coffee coming. Whatever your approach, this spot from John DiCicco and former Olamaie beverage director Erin Ashford has you covered.

Thoughts of a great escape almost always involve Italy for me, and executive chef Peter Klein answers the call. The veteran of L’Oca d’Oro always keeps a pasta on the menu, whether it’s a ricotta cavatelli singing of summer with bursting cherry tomatoes in a Parmesan broth or one layered in the grounded richness of roasted mushrooms. (5020 E. Seventh St.; holidayon7th.com)

Backstory: Veterans of Olamaie and L'Oca d'Oro open 'light and airy' East Austin spot this week

KGBBQ

I’m not looking to pick a fight with any of the storied Texas barbecue joints, home cooks or venerable pitmasters that have given Central Texas its hallmark cuisine. I love brisket, ribs and sausage with some mac and cheese or potato salad as much as the next fourth-generation Texan.

But as our state welcomes more global influences to its barbecue landscape, with flavors ranging from Northern Africa to Southeast Asia, one starts to realize there's much more to the smoked meat world than salt, pepper, starch and fat. Barbecuing is a craft and communal celebration that extends from the asadas of Uruguay to the boodogs of Mongolia, and I’ve been thrilled to see and taste so many varied takes on smoked meats in Texas in recent years.

Kareem El-Ghayesh taught himself how to cook barbecue in his native Egypt before spending time working at several Central Texas spots, including Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ, which inspired him to create his own fusion with flavors and textures from home that give his barbecue complexity and vitality.

A pomegranate molasses glaze and dusting of za’atar (here cumin, coriander and sesame) finishes pork ribs seasoned with fenugreek and black pepper, among other spices, at the trailer he opened at Oddwood Brewing in fall 2022. Chicken thighs imbued with significant smoke and kicked up with cayenne find another level with sumac-sprinkled red onions.

And, yes, there is brisket – you’ll find it buried beneath a tomato and cucumber salad bright with mint and vinegar and buzzed with that globe-trotting spice, cumin, in a pita, or in a rice bowl that's studded with candied nuts and pomegranate seeds. If you're looking for banana pudding, you’ll happily settle for a floral cardamom and pistachio rice pudding that tastes like a Cairo street market treat. (3108 Manor Road; 737-294-8598, kgbbq.com)

Ling Kitchen and Ling Wu Asian Restaurant

Chef Ling Qi Wu has contributed more than any one person to the reshaping of the modern Chinese restaurant scene in Austin over the last decade. The Fuzhou native, who worked at La Traviata and Chinatown after moving to Austin from New York City, created a stir with her soup dumplings at Wu Chow when that restaurant opened and brought her fans with her to Lin Asian Bar in 2018.

The more upscale Qi opened on West Sixth Street in 2020. That restaurant was the blueprint for Ling Wu Asian Restaurant in Southwest Austin, with similar dim sum dishes like her famed soup dumplings and caviar scallop shumai, along with offerings unique to the new space, like crispy pork loin with sweet and sour Peking sauce; Szechuan potato glass noodle with minced meat; and Peking duck.

She takes diners inside her kitchen and her process with Lin Kitchen, a tasting-menu restaurant folded into a commissary-style kitchen in North Austin. The intimate and unique experience, with diners seated around a large metal table inside the kitchen and encouraged to engage with one another via server-led discussion, allows the chef to explain her inspiration behind dishes like a beautiful kanpachi and salmon salad and a luxurious egg custard laced with foie gras and truffle, and the elevated experience takes the presentation from Qi and Ling Wu Asian Restaurant a step further, with a tingly smoked duck with Szechuan meat sauce arriving in a lacquered wood box.

Chef Ling will open another Ling Wu Asian Restaurant in a space at the Grove in Central Austin later this year.

(Ling Kitchen. 8423 Research Blvd. 512-953-8182 lingkitchen.com; Ling Wu Asian Restaurant, 7415 Southwest Parkway. 512-892-8878, lingwuatx.com)

Masa y Mas

If you were a skeptic, knowing that this eye-catching restaurant was co-founded by Hopdoddy partners Larry Perdido and Chuck Smith may have led you to believe that it's simply a proof of concept for franchising, an opportunity to join the taqueria masa craze while also serving carb-conscious bowls.

But you get a little more intrigued when you find out that longtime Moonshine (also a Perdido-Smith joint) chef and Mexico native Robert Campos is the operating partner in the spot that took over the moribund Austin’s Pizza building.

Then you visit and try the tender pineapple-covered pastor glowing with achiote on a gently earthy housemade corn tortilla; moist shredded suadero hiding beneath a tumble of red onion and cilantro on fluffy homemade flour; or the ample serving of plump fried shrimp layered with fresh cabbage and a wedge of bright green avocado, and you become a believer.

Even the robust ear of street corn, which could easily underperform as a hastily tossed together side dish, is considered, with huitlacoche mayonnaise and tajin giving funk and flicker to the juicy grilled vegetable. (1817 S. Lamar Blvd.; 512-354-1655, masaustin.com)

Mum Foods Smokehouse & Delicatessen

If you’ve spent much time at the farmers markets around town, the rippled hunks of pastrami and brisket at the stall operated by Mum Foods have caught your eye (and your nose).

Geoffrey Ellis’s business has been drawing lines for more than a decade, but late last year, the Austin-raised chef opened a full-size restaurant serving, yes, the brisket and pastrami, but also peppery pork ribs, juicy and fiery jalapeno-cheddar sausage links, housemade pickles, and corned beef. The brisket and their burnt ends (an onyx-crusted Wednesday special of smoky meat candy), along with the ribs and sausage make Mum one of the best barbecue outfits in the city, and the corned beef and pastrami make it one of the city’s best delis, as well.

The pastrami has been getting love for a long time, and deservedly so, but the corned beef, also brined brisket perfumed with a heaping helping of coriander, is my favorite. It’s steamed to a tender finish but doesn’t hit the smoker, giving you a more pure beefy deli meat taste. Stacked high, draped with the appropriate amount of Swiss cheese and served on a slightly malty and sweet housemade sourdough rye swiped with bright yellow mustard, it’s the perfect sandwich. I had one bite, put it down and sent a message to my text thread (shoutout to the Chalupas), that I'd just found the best sandwich in the city. (5811 Manor Road; mumfoodsatx.com)

P Thai's Khao Man Gai

Chef Thai Changthong lit people’s palates on fire with his OG (which he says stands for “original grandma”) version of Thai food at the Thai Kun trailer before translating that East Side King spinoff into a brick-and-mortar restaurant that serves some of the best Thai food in the city.

Avid Austin diners were probably curious what a chef with a Top 25 restaurant under his belt might do for an encore. The answer might have surprised them. Changthong went solo for his next venture, and he took the menu down to the studs and sapped it of its fiery aggression.

The food court stall in the Hong Kong Supermarket honors the chef’s mother and the food he ate during his youth in Bangkok’s Chinatown. The menu is simple, but it’s all about process and execution. Changthong slowly poaches the chicken, skimming the fat along the way and using it and collagen to cook the rice. The traditional Hainanese dish gets its Thai influence from a pungent chili-ginger sauce made with fermented bean, and he makes a sweet Thai chili sauce from scratch for the fried chicken version of the dish. The result of the process is clean, tender meat with a natural sweetness that tastes like the essence of chicken, served over the most supple rice you’ve ever tasted. No frills, just flavor. (8557 Research Blvd. Suite 130; 512-836-2068, Instagram.com/pthaiatx)

Ramen del Barrio

As the name of chef Christopher Krinsky’s ramen shop inside the Hana World Market suggests, Ramen del Barrio blends Japanese and Mexican flavor profiles and techniques. Krisky, who was born in the United States, lived in Mexico from ages 4 to 18, and spent three years working at a trio of Japanese restaurants in Austin.

Kemuri Tatsuya was one of Krinsky’s stops, and that restaurant’s hybrid culinary ethos is on display here. The food stall’s signature dish is carnitas ramen, the creamy, fatty pork broth packed with voluptuous noodles and a mass of braised pork shoulder, belly, stomach and skins and draped with grilled onions and jalapeño.

Other versions include one tinted red with guajillo peppers and pooled by soft rounds of hominy and honeycombed bits of tripe; a dipping ramen containing Japanese fried chicken in a mole broth; and a brothless bowl with aggressively spiced chorizo and a fermented chili yuzu kosho that nods Krinsky’s time at Kome.

Tacos may not get equal billing as the ramen, but the yakitori-grilled and achiote-marinated octopus; crispy edged al pastor pork belly sweetened with bits of pineapple; and sweet, funky and lush beef tongue deserve equal attention. Irasshaimase y buen provecho, as Ramen del Barrio's site says. (1700 W. Parmer Lane; ramendelbarrio.com)

Underdog

It’s never comfortable to confess pessimism, but I’ll admit I was a touch skeptical when I heard a couple was moving from Los Angeles to Austin to open a wine shop-restaurant (their first) serving Korean fried chicken in a new condo building. Sounded like an Austin dining Mad Lib.

But I rarely rush to judgment and am always happy to admit when I’m wrong. See: Now. The window-wrapped space has clean lines and an industrial vibe, but it blends natural tones and layers textures to add warmth and bring the outside in, making it feel like a neighborhood spot you might frequent in a city that is actually walkable. And there is no shortage of personal narrative.

The unfussy menu reflects co-owner Claudia Lee’s Korean heritage. It’s there in the thin-skinned crackle of Korean fried chicken speckled with a nutty umami seasoning; the kimchi that honors Lee’s mother, Christina, who advised on the menu; the sweet and savory bulgogi burger; and even in the dish of fresh crab perched on rice mounds that are crispy and toasty like Korean nurungji.

The versatile wine list from co-owner Richard Hargreave, who has an impressive career in wine that includes time with the Momofuku restaurant group, features expressive wines that build on the cuisine’s varied flavor profiles. I’ll admit I didn’t explore the connected bottle shop in great detail, but understand they’re moving toward more French labels in the shop that will also offer some bistro-style snacks. (1600 S. First St.; 512-367-2441, underdog-atx.com)

Uptown Sports Club

If you had “Open a New Orleans-inspired Restaurant and Cocktail Bar” on your “What will Aaron Franklin do to Follow the Historic Success of his Barbecue Restaurant” Bingo card, take a bow. You’re quite the soothsayer, or maybe a friend of Franklin’s. Because those who know him well know that he has familial ties to Louisiana and that the famous perfectionist (or, tinkerer, to use his term) considers the gumbo he has been cultivating for years his “liquid brisket.”

The rich, layered gumbo fuels the engine behind the restaurant where you’ll also find other New Orleans specialties — the best fried shrimp po' boy in town and raw oysters — along with some of Franklin’s other favorite foods like flame-grilled steak and crab Louie. Uptown’s creative team reimagined and then rehabilitated the century-old corner-entry building with the colorful history, creating a captivating space that feels fresh but lived-in, with everything from its soundtrack to lighting, its ancient tile floor to wrought-iron patio fence transporting you to lazy afternoons and rambling nights in the Crescent City. (1200 E. Sixth St.; 512-551-2013, uptownsports.club)

Wee’s Cozy Kitchen

The students who’ve lived in the Castilian and Jester West Hall in recent years can one day (now?) say that they used to eat Wee Fong Ehlers’ cooking before she hit the big time. The Malaysia native cooked at Castilian for 11 years and has been working at Jester for the last three. Those days are likely numbered.

Ehlers had been operating the food counter inside a Shell gas station in West Campus (aptly named Foodie’s) serving Chinese-American classics and bar food staples like burgers and wings for about six months before she decided last summer to start mixing in dishes from her native Malaysia. They proved to be a major hit with students and food obsessives thanks to their depth of flavor and the home-cooked comfort they inspire.

The tender beef rendang that falls apart at the touch of a fork brims with ginger and chilies, a faint sweetness of coconut lingering in the back end; that dish, like the chicken nasi lemak, comes with coconut rice, crispy fried anchovies, cucumbers and toasted nuts for added complexity and crunch. And a visit to Ehlers’ makeshift restaurant may be the only time you’ll feel totally comfortable eating scallops and shrimp in a gas station, here in a curry soup fragrant with lemongrass.

The only sound louder than Ehlers’ laughter and chatter with guests is that of her clattering in her wok as she cooks up smoky noodle dishes packed with chicken and baby bok choy. Confused about what to order? The handy photos with names scrawled on them should help, or Wee is happy to guide you.

The name for the "restaurant" is an apt one, as Ehlers’ warmth and joy make you feel less like you are in a fluorescent-lighted gas station than tucked into a cozy breakfast room table at your friend’s aunt’s house. The abundant flavors of the cuisine, Ehlers’ engaging charm (even while buried with orders) and the unique location have garnered Wee’s Cozy Kitchen acclaim from publications as august at The New York Times, so the waits at the minimalist operation can extend beyond an hour. I imagine it won’t be long before Wee has a bigger kitchen and a restaurant to call her own, and there will be no shortage of people saying “I knew her when.” (2400 Rio Grande St.; weefong.wixsite.com/cozycornerkitchen)

Yamas

Hristos and Roxie Nikolakos wanted to open a restaurant that recreated the sensation of dining in their native Greece. The white-washed walls, curved art niches and splashes of cerulean blue throughout the Balcones restaurant all hit those evocative notes, as does a staff populated in part by family members, a menu featuring the flavors of home and a friendly warmth that permeates the space.

The generous portion of citrusy potatoes and asparagus bundled onto a plate of grilled lamb chops reminds one of a long courtyard lunch in Greece, where the host is happy to introduce you to a Cretan red blend with dried berry notes perfect for pairing. And you can imagine sitting on a seaside terrace overlooking the Mediterranean when a crispy-skinned whole grilled sea bream shimmering with a sheen of olive oil and lemon juice arrives splayed and scattered with herbs and capers.

The somewhat runny pool of runny (and delicious) dill yogurt sauce on a plate of perfectly grilled scallops the size of my fist was new to me, but I also hadn’t seen an entire staff, flaming bottle hoisted high, serenade guests tableside with “Happy Birthday” at a family-run restaurant before. Both touches felt right at home. (5308 Balcones Drive; 512-243-7499, yamasatx.com)

Yuki Handroll Bar

The word handroll is right there in the name, but don’t let that distract you from the rest of the menu. Chefs Jun Kim and Hyo Lim slice the fish into ample pieces and drape them over lightly vinegared rice for very good nigiri, like a torched salmon belly and yellowtail belly spotted with chives. Not sure what to order? Yuki has a hand-written board at the end of its 20-seat horseshoe-shaped bar with the chef’s selections that may include sweet shrimp served with a fried head or lush Japanese uni.

And, yes, the handrolls, snappy cylindrical seaweed wrappers stuffed with rice and everything from lobster to salmon roe, are also worthy of a visit and can be ordered separately or in money-saving combinations. (6317 Bee Cave Road. Suite 330; 512-344-9797, yukihandroll.com)

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: 2023 Best New Restaurants in Austin