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Olamaie is Austin's Best Restaurant, According to Statesman

Plus, his lists of best barbecue, Mexican, and more.

Olamaie
Olamaie
Robert J. Lerma/EATX
Nadia Chaudhury is the editor of Eater Austin covering food and pop culture, as well as a photographer, writer, and frequent panel moderator and podcast guest.

Statesman critic Matthew Odam unveiled his annual Austin dining guide today. At the top of the list of 25 restaurants is Olamaie, the modern Southern restaurant helmed by Michael Fojtasek and Grae Nonas. He cited the duo's updated yet old school approaches as reinventing the definition of Southern food with a local bent in the Texas context, like the tomato-less barbecue sauce and their take on ambrosia.

Also included in the top five were were Barley Swine, Lenoir (which topped last year’s list), Qui, and Dai Due. Other newcomers to the list were Apis, Counter 3.Five.VII, Launderette, Prelog’s, Gardner, and Clark’s, which took Perla’s place from the previous year.

For more list fun, Odam included a barbecue one, where he placed Franklin back at the top after dropping it to second place last year. For Mexican, he named El Naranjo as number one, and Kyoten as the best trailer. There’s also his unranked list of 50 recommended places for everyday dining, which ranges from Apothecary Wine Bar, Contigo, Fonda San Miguel, Hopfields, Lonesome Dove, Quality Seafood, to Vino Vino.

Olamaie

1610 San Antonio Street, , TX 78701 (512) 474-2796 Visit Website

Franklin Barbecue

900 East 11th Street, , TX 78702 (512) 653-1187 Visit Website

Kyoten [Closed]

1211 East 6th., Austin, TX 78702 (512) 888-7559 Visit Website

El Naranjo

85 Rainey Street, , TX 78701 (512) 474-2776 Visit Website