Lobster-Slinging Spot Garbo’s Opens New Restaurant Near Downtown Austin

Austin seafood restaurant Garbo’s Lobster is opening its new second physical restaurant this week. The 626 North Lamar Boulevard restaurant is debuting in Clarksville today, Wednesday, March 1.

The menu remains the same: lobster rolls served Maine (chilled with mayonnaise) or Connecticut (butter-poached) styles, as well as spicy crab and fried fish rolls; lobster grilled cheeses, crab cakes, shrimp cocktails, and its own caviar. There are salads and key lime and whoopie pies, plus beer, wine, and sodas. Scope out the full menu below.

The space still holds its diner aesthetic — such as the 10 counter bar seats and outdoor bench seating, but with Garbo’s touches, from the color scheme to the oyster shell chandelier to the outdoor standing bar area. There are indoor dine-in services, as well as takeout that can be ordered online or through the window counter.

Owner Heidi Garbo’s sister Samantha Garbo and longtime chef Yessenia Maldonadois are overseeing this new location, nicknamed Garbo’s on Lamar.

Before the North Lamar restaurant opened, there was a Garbo’s food truck parked at the address serving food. It started in June 2022 and closed later in November to make way for construction.

Garbo’s started off as a food truck in 2013. Heidi Garbo then expanded with a physical restaurant in Wells Branch in 2014. That location closed in 2020 in order to open a new restaurant in far North Austin in 2020. She also reopened the downtown truck at 823 Congress Avenue as of February 13.

This new Garbo’s took over the space that belonged to the original Counter Cafe, which opened in 2007 and closed in 2020. Its other two diners on East Sixth and West 29th Street are still open.

Garbo’s on Lamar is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The downtown truck is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays.

Garbo’s