Korean-Mexican Food Truck Chi’lantro Is Opening a Downtown Restaurant

Chi’lantro, the city’s favorite Korean-Mexican restaurant and food truck minichain, is growing with its next new location: a brick-and-mortar restaurant in downtown Austin. It will be found at 303 Colorado Street starting on Tuesday, May 28.

Owner Jae Kim wanted to open a physical restaurant in the downtown area because of interest from customers as well as catering demands, as well as late night hours. He had dreamed of opening a brick-and-mortar location of Chi’lantro since 2014.

The new location’s menu is the same as the South Shore one: customizable rice, salad, and noodle bowls; the kimchi fries; chicken wings; tacos; and burritos.

Kim is taking over coffee shop Barley Bean’s space for this new restaurant, which happens to be near where Chi’lantro first made its debut on 5th and Colorado streets back in 2010.

Breakfast will be served from 7 to 10:30 a.m., lunch and dinner from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., with a midnight closing on Friday and Saturday.

There’s a nearby Chi’lantro food truck too, found on 9th Street and Congress Avenue, which will remain open.

Those planned expansions into Houston and Dallas (funded by a Shark Tank investment) are still happening. “The real estate markets in Houston and Dallas are very competitive,” Kim said. “We are being patient and looking for the right opportunity.”

Chi’lantro currently has five restaurants around Austin and two food trucks. The new downtown restaurant is in the same building as the Italian restaurant Red Ash.

This article has been updated to reflect that Chi’lantro is actually taking over Barley Bean’s location, the menu, and the opening date.

• Chi’Lantro Inks $600,000 Deal on ‘Shark Tank’ [EATX]
• All Coverage of Chi’lantro [EATX]