Ask Eater: Where Can I Find the Best Flour Tortillas in Austin?

Welcome to Ask Eater, a column from Eater Austin where the site’s editors answer specific or baffling restaurant requests from readers. Have a question for us? Submit your questions via email to austin@eater.com with the subject line “Ask Eater Question.”

Dear Eater —

I was wondering if you knew the best restaurant/place to buy flour tortillas in Austin? I really love the flour tortillas at Sour Duck, they have the homemade taste going on. Does anyone at Eater know of a good source?

Dear Quality Flour Tortilla Seeker,

Ah, flour tortillas — to some, they taste of home, to others, they are a bastardization of everything good about tortillas. Personally, as a child of Tex-Mex, I fall in the former camp, so I am happy to advise you on your flour tortilla purchase. This being Texas, you have quite a few good options.

First of all, when I posed this question via Instagram, the overwhelming response was H-E-B and quite frankly, this is not wrong. Soft, flaky, readily available, and — if you time it right — still warm from the press, there’s a lot to love about the offerings from the national grocery store of Texas. (However, I must say the H-E-B variety I prefer is the mitad tortillas — half corn, half flour, and best of both worlds.)

If you’re looking for something a little fancier but also less readily available than H-E-B, the absolute best flour tortillas are from Comadre Panaderia. She makes hers with whole-grain Sonora flour which somehow amplifies the delicious powdery flakiness of a great flour tortilla. Ten stars. However, Comadre is only open on the weekends via preorder — watch her Instagram for the weekly order form.

As you have experienced, many Austin restaurants will sell you tortillas in bulk if you ask nicely enough. Joe’s Bakery, Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ, and Matt’s El Rancho are a few places that will sell you flour tortillas. Of course, you could also pay a visit to a tortilleria like Tortilleria Rio Grande, which has a north and south location.

I hope these options aid you in your quest for flour tortillas. Please let us know what your favorite turns out to be, and happy taste-testing!

Have questions about the Austin dining scene? Send questions via email to austin@eater.com with the subject line “Ask Eater Question.” Eater will feature the answer to one or more questions each month, providing guidance to the questions that plague Austin diners (be sure to specify a part of town, if relevant). People who write in with questions remain anonymous, so go wild.