Austin vs. San Francisco Bay Area— Food (Restaurants)
Part #3A — Food (Restaurants)
Note: (Views expressed in this article are my personal views/opinions only and do not reflect those of my current employer)
With the shift towards remote-work and a general trend towards greater acceptance of a more distributed workforce vs. centralized in the Bay Area, the interest in Austin as a potential landing spot for current Bay Area techies continues to steadily increase. I’ve previously written on the tech job market and also on the housing market, two closely intertwined topics. This continues a seven part series on Austin vs. San Francisco Bay Area.
Today I’m going to compare the food scene between the two. If you’re thinking about the move from the Bay, outside of the purely logistical (housing + jobs), I believe food is one of the top considerations (even more if you’re a foodie). This is a less “data-intensive” piece than the prior two, so charts and #s have been replaced with delicious pictures of food. I love both eating out and grocery shopping to cook at home, so I’m going to compare both restaurants and grocery stores (this is really important, trust me). I’ll discuss restaurants now and follow up later with the piece on groceries. My credentials on the food topic are as follows:
- Longtime resident of Austin who used to love going to the original P.Terry’s burger stand on the corner of South Lamar and Barton Springs…because it was the only one around at the time. I also grew up shopping at Whole Foods (the original couple of Austin stores) before it was a cool and national chain. I’ve watched the transformation of the Austin food scene from an afterthought to something that people actually travel here for (watching and eating the evolution from the likes of Rudy’s/County Line/Salt Lick to the Franklin era has been a savory experience).
2. Double-digit collector of Michelin stars from my time in the Bay Area. High-end dining admittedly is not really my thing and I wouldn’t choose it willingly, but I am often dragged to these places by others so can begrudgingly provide a perspective.
My favorite part of the Bay Area food scene is not the ultra-luxe, but rather the ultra-cheap Dim Sum hole-in-the walls in the various Chinese dominated neighborhoods in SF where you can stuff your face full of buns and Har-Gow (shrimp dumpling) for <$10 :O:O:O. This kind of HITW with a long history you don’t find in Austin.
Since this is a long article and you may have gotten hungry already from thinking about food, I’ll give you the TLDR right here if you don’t want to read any further.
Austin — a fast food kingdom that also features a growing affordable $$ and innovative casual dining scene. BBQ heaven. Breakfast tacos abound. Asian food options improving, but still a ways to go.
San Francisco Bay Area — Michelin stars galore for fine dining, exquisite cuisine if you have $$$$. Excellent Asian and Italian food with a deep selection. Affordable “nice but not super nice” options just OK. Also OK for BBQ and fast food.
Approach and Methodology
Before I dive fully into the comparative overview, let’s figure out how to best segment the market. As I alluded to earlier, the first split will be between restaurants and grocers. I’ll then divide each of these categories into sub-categories of comparison. I’ll assign a score of between 1–10, with 10 being the best and 1 being the worst for how Austin compares to the Bay Area for each of these subcategories based on my subjective opinion. Please note that my perspective is likely biased, there are some food areas where I have more experience (e.g., Chinese cuisine) and others where my experience is far limited (e.g., Russian). This isn’t a MECE list of categories so there are notable holes in categories, but I think it covers the biggest ones. My stomach, unlike competitive eaters and hot dog eating champions Joey Chestnut and Matt Stonie (both Bay Area natives), has a limited capacity.
Restaurants
- Fast Food (e.g., Chick-fil-a, McDonalds, Arby’s, In-N-Out, etc.)
- American Casual ($$-$$$)
- Fine Dining ($$$-$$$$)
- European Diversified (e.g., Italian, Greek, French, etc.)
- Asian (e.g., Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian)
- BBQ (e.g., Rudy’s, Franklin’s)
- Mexican
Fast Food
I’ve been in Austin for almost 10 months now and have been consuming far more fast food than I had previously been in the Bay Area. This is definitely a factor that contributed to me gaining about 1lb per month since I’ve been here (1x10=10lb). This gives you a leading indicator on what the conclusion will be on this segment.
Austin’s fast food scene is amazing in both its breadth and depth. For burgers, you have the Cali option (In-N-Out), the NY option (Shake Shack), the local option (P. Terry’s), the Texas option (Whataburger), in addition to a wide selection of other local and national choices. My personal favorite of the bunch is the local P. Terry’s, the fries have just the right amount of crunch, the burger and cheese come together really well, and the ice tea is on point (***yes, I’ve been drinking so much ice tea here that I’ve begun to notice the subtle differences between ice teas at different places). It’s also very inexpensive and they’ve been great about holding prices fairly constant despite inflationary pressures and cost increases.
For chicken, there’s Raising Cane’s, Chick-fil-As, Bush’s (also stellar iced tea), Zaxby’s, Flyrite, Popeye’s, KFC, the list goes on and on. My favorite recent discovery is a newer joint called Tumble22 opened by a famous Austin chef that specializes in Nashville style fried chicken. It’s a tad pricier than your typical fast food joint (think $~10/meal vs. $7), but the juiciness of the chicken combined with the sweat-inducing but ultra-addictive spiciness makes it well worth the marginally more expensive price. For comparison, I think if a place of similar quality were to open in the Bay Area they could probably charge 2x the price and still get crowds.
Of course, there’s a lot more to fast food than just burgers and chicken, but I think these two categories gives you a general sense of how good Austin’s fast food scene.
Not only is the food good, but two other underrated aspects of the fast food scene are the relative cleanliness of the restaurants (many places are newly built and feel that way when you walk-in) and the accessibility. Fast food chains, from local to national usually don’t have just one location in Austin, but have many dotting both suburban and urban areas, so no matter where you live or work, for better or worse (better for your taste buds, worse for your health), you’ll have very good access to a wide variety of fast food.
The Bay Area OTOH, has a comparatively poor fast food scene. No Cane’s, no Whataburger, a limited number of Chick-fil-As (you need to drive ~30 min from SF before you hit the first one and that’s only a recent change, before this summer it was a ~1 hour hike to Sunnyvale…that I admittedly made more than once to nurse a craving), etc. Yes, In-N-Out is everywhere but that is one of the few good options and at some point you do get tired of the animal style fries (also I think the iced tea is just OK, California ice tea < South ice tea). The Bay Area does have Super Duper Burger and its sister restaurant The Bird (which I love and ate at twice a week when it first opened), but they aren’t everywhere and are a bit on the pricey side for fast food (~$15/meal).
On the national side, there are the usual suspects such as Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Popeyes, etc. but they are fewer and further between, not to mention many of them have been around quite a while and from a real-estate perspective aren’t aging very well, so I find eating at these places a bit more questionable in the Bay Area vs. in Austin even though in reality there’s no difference in the quality of food.
Fast Food verdict:
Austin 10/10
Bay Area 4/10
American Casual
This category is a bit hard to define, but the way I think about is an American food (or fusion place) that you would have date night at, that takes reservations that aren’t impossible to secure. It’s not cheap food, but it doesn’t break the bank either, in Yelp lingo it would be the range of $$-$$$.
In San Francisco, an example of this type of restaurant would be one Michelin starred State Bird Provisions in the Fillmore district (this may be a stretch because reservations are still a challenge here). The price for two without drinks is somewhere between $100 and $150, but if you have a bigger appetite you may need to push that budget higher or grab a snack afterwards.
In Austin, two examples that come top of mind for me are Odd Duck and Loro on South Lamar. Loro is one of my top picks for restaurants in Austin, the fusion of Southeast Asian with Texan is incredibly well done and the vibe is great, both for indoor seating and COVID friendly outdoor seating. You can comfortably eat for two without drinks for $50-$100 and be full. Drinks aren’t too expensive either.
My thoughts here are that in Austin there’s a lot of great options at that $50-$100 price point for two with decent portion sizes while in the Bay Area the options in this range are more limited and not quite as good (in terms of quality or portion size). You have to push up in the $100+ range for this kind of meal with smaller portions, though I would venture to say that the quality and fineness of the cooking is a notch higher than what’s in Austin.
American Casual verdict:
Austin 8/10 (less expensive and larger portions)
Bay Area 7/10 (for “finer” dining)
Fine Dining
The Bay Area’s fine dining scene is world renowned, with the 2019 guide listing 62 restaurants with Michelin stars for a grand total of 77 stars. The offerings are diverse, ranging from artfully prepared fresh fare and wine pairings from the likes of Thomas Keller’s French Laundry in the Napa Valley to the some of the highest end Asian fusion in the world at Corey Lee’s Benu to a host of stellar Sushi joints (e.g., Hashiri, Ju-ni., etc.). The fine dining here is heavily influenced by Asia and local Californian ingredients. If you have a discerning palate and a love of the finest dining (plus a hefty wallet), the Bay Area has some of the best options in the USA. You’ll have no problem spending $200+ per person and at the three star places can push $1k/pp with a nice enough wine pairing to knock yourself out.
Although Austin has a stellar dining scene at reasonable price points, if you want to drop big bucks for artistic multi-course set menus and luxury wines, there are very few options. Even if you wanted to spend $300pp or more, you likely couldn’t. Austin’s fine dining pretty much ends at what would be approaching a one-Michelin star quality place. Places like Barley Swine and Uchi (for sushi) have really elevated Austin’s dining game and are excellent, but they are for all their merits, more local gems from local star chefs and not destinations you’d travel here for (unlike the BBQ).
However, the food scene is evolving fast and the migration of tech talent from the Bay Area has also brought along culinary talent. A recently opened fine dining establishment, Lutie’s, brings talented chefs that trained at some of the top Michelin starred restaurants in the Bay Area. While Austin may be a century away from getting the Michelin guide to visit and award stars, the fine dining is improving rapidly and I believe will likely continue to do so in the future as local tastes evolves, migrants bring their own expectations (along with hefty checkbooks), and chefs innovate to bring a flair of Texas to high-end dining.
Fine Dining verdict:
Austin 2/10
Bay Area 9/10
European Diversified (Italian, French, Greek, etc.)
Another category that’s a bit nebulous to define…let’s just say it’s more European influenced than the previous category. For our case study, we can take a look at Italian food.
Austin’s Italian options are admittedly just OK. Most of the choices are what I would term “homestyle”, where diners order typical dishes such as spaghetti and meatballs or lasagna. It’s a step above the likes of chains such as Maggiano’s and Olive Garden but nothing to write home about. There are finer places popping up here and there now (see Red Ash), but for the most part Italian is homestyle. Portion sizes are pretty large so you’ll most likely not leave hungry. These are perfect places to carb load before a running race.
The Bay Area has a much deeper selection of Italian food with even a small “Little Italy” in SF (touristy, with some good restaurants) and more options all the way down the 101 to San Jose. There’s a history of an Italian community here and many restaurants are classics that have stood the test of time. You can order your spaghetti and meatballs, but the options are much deeper than just homestyle with places specializing in items such as Cioppino (great with fresh seafood from the Pacific) or Pinza (Roman Style pizza).
In the interest of brevity, I will skip other cuisines but the story line is quite similar. The Bay Area’s long history of European immigration both past and present can be seen in the richness of the food. Austin’s food leans far more to the “classical American style” of things though there are pockets of finer and more authentic dining as the tastes of population evolve.
European Diversified verdict:
Austin 4/10
Bay Area 8/10
Asian
When I think about comparing cities and their selection of Asian food, I bucket them into three tiers:
Tier 3: The local Chinese restaurant serves only Americanized Chinese food (and may have a buffet) and may also offer sushi, Thai, and other miscellaneous cuisine sometimes even including things like fried chicken. Eating sushi at a Chinese restaurant with your egg drop soup likely won’t make you say “Oishi” (delicious in Japanese) and the consequences could be very dire for your bowels.
Tier 2: Not everything “Asia” is served under one-roof (though restaurants may try), you typically do have a Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian restaurants. Maybe a Korean place too. There are Americanized options as well as more authentic options, but restaurants will likely NOT be regional (e.g., Sichuan vs. Cantonese) or specialized (no place that only serves Udon) and offer a huge menu that encompasses everything in that country. Good signals for being in Tier 2 include a Vietnamese restaurant with passable Pho and/or a Chinese restaurant that serves Americanized food BUT has a secret menu for the truly authentic stuff if you ask.
Tier 1: Regionalized cuisines and specialized restaurants are readily available. For Chinese, you’ll have restaurants serving Sichuan, Cantonese, or even more obscure provincial cuisines such as Yunnan or Shaanxi (and they’ll typically really focus on that type of cuisine). Not only is Chinese regional, you have specialized restaurants within regions (e.g., hot pot, dim sum, noodles, etc.). For Korean, you’ll have places that just do tofu soup, BBQ, or even the delicious Ox Bone Soup. For Japanese, it’s having different regional ramens, udon shops, katsu shops, etc. I could go on for many different types of cuisines, but you get the point.
Here is where Austin falls way short compared to the Bay Area. Austin in the past was probably closer to a Tier 2 but has really made strides in the recent decade, though I think the overall evolution of Asian food has been slower than the overall food scene in Austin. I’d say Austin is currently a Tier 1.5 in terms of Asian cuisine, improving but not quite there yet.
Austin has some standout places such as Ramen Tatsuya (I’m a big fan) and Sway (upscale Thai — wish they hadn’t closed so many locations), but my take is that these places aren’t “100%” authentic, but slightly modified (in many good ways) to take advantage of more local ingredients and cater to a more westernized audience. These authentic but also kind-of-fusion places are where Austin really stands out in Asian cuisine.
Where Austin has major holes is in truly authentic places that do not modify their cuisines at all and are targeted towards an ethnic audience. The holes are largely due in my opinion:
- More limited Asian population (~8% vs ~34% in Bay Area) with a smaller population base
- More conservative tastes among the broader population
The two most notable “holes” in Austin’s Asian scene for me personally are:
- No specialized Korean Tofu Soup joint (not counting the food stall in H-Mart)
- No specialized Hot Pot restaurant (Little Sheep Mongolian tried for a while but failed)
It’s possible that the above foods are very “hot” in nature and are not ideal for a “hot” market (talking about weather, not real estate even though that’s hot too) such as Austin, but I think it may be more the fact that the population base and consumer preferences aren’t sufficient to make these viable independent businesses, despite the potential support of a large student population at UT-Austin. The Houston and Dallas areas have these types of restaurants and they’re just as hot if not hotter in terms of weather but are more heavily Asian with larger population bases to draw on.
If Austin wants to move from Tier 1.5 and begin the journey to Tier 1, those two types of restaurants (Tofu Soup and Hot Pot) will likely be the some of first hurdles to jump before the city can say it’s truly on its way towards Asian culinary greatness.
The Bay Area, on the other hand, is a clear Tier 1 for Asian food (though it’s behind LA and NYC metros in my opinion). Regional and specialized cuisines can be found with often multiple options within each, Korean Tofu Soup and Hot Pot restaurants are readily available (with multiple types of hot pot options from Japanese to Taiwanese to Sichuan, AYCE, solo-pot, group-pot, you name it).
The one gripe I do have about Asian food in the Bay Area is that unlike NYC the very affordable authentic options ($<5/6 per meal) aren’t as common or diversified (it mostly features Dim Sum and/or Cantonese fast food). It still beats Austin though which has a handful of these HITW places at best and even these have higher prices (~$10 for a bowl of noodles with a splash of meat).
Asian verdict:
Austin 5/10
Bay Area 9/10
BBQ
I will only devote a few lines to this topic because everyone knows the conclusion. Foodies make pilgrimages to Austin in order to sample the BBQ, from Franklin’s to Rudy’s to Black’s to The Salt Lick and everything in-between, Austin’s (and surrounding central Texas area) BBQ game is a world class gem. The intense level of competition between restaurants and time honored traditions passed down from generation to generation leads to many options for perfectly seasoned and smoked brisket and other meats galore.
In the Bay Area, there are BBQ (e.g., Gorilla BBQ, Smokin Woods) restaurants either trying to bring a taste of Texas BBQ to the region or serve a distinctly Californian version of BBQ that usually includes a tri tip option (this you don’t see in Austin). It’s good BBQ and I’ll occasionally partake to get a taste of home and scratch the itch…and while my itch is scratched I always feel like there’s something still missing with BBQ. Perhaps coastal air doesn’t lend itself as to delicious brisket vs. the hot dry heat of Austin? In the words of the NYT, California is still “searching” for its own particular brand of BBQ.
BBQ verdict:
Austin 10/10
Bay Area 6/10
Mexican
Both California and Texas share a border with Mexico and while the Bay Area and Austin are still quite a ways from the border, both feature their fair share of authentic Mexican food and their own regionalized renditions (e.g. Tex Mex). Margaritas, avocados, and salsas plaster the dining scenes of both areas. Both areas also have deep enough offerings to feature restaurants serving regional specialties in addition to the usual fare.
You can find excellent tacos and burritos in the Mission district that will fill you up for $ or you can opt for more upscale and mingle with tech entrepreneurs and VCs at the likes of Reposato in Palo Alto.
In Austin, we have Tex-Mex, best exemplified by the chain Chuy’s ,which started in Austin and now has made its way across the country. I personally find Tex-Mex a bit bland, but really enjoy eating the chips and queso at these places. Austin has some pretty fantastic places with excellent queso.
Austin is also famous for breakfast tacos. There are endless options for breakfast tacos in Austin from gas stations to tacos with BBQ brisket, but my go-to has always been Taco Deli. The migas tacos with the Salsa Dona and a dallop of habanero is a rewarding treat after a run around the lake and a dip in Barton Springs pool.
All-in-all, I think the Mexican offerings of both places are fairly comparable in quality, if slightly different in the type of food offered.
Mexican verdict:
Austin 8/10
Bay Area 8/10
With this data we can create a “scorecard” with ratings for each type of cuisine for each area. As you can see it’s a very close race, Austin scores 47 and SF Bay area scores 51!
Just kidding…this is completely unscientific and meaningless, different people value different cuisines differently, but you can take this table and assign your own weights to the categories to form your own “total score” and perspective. You’d still be basing your score off my taste buds, so do be careful.
Next up…a continuation of food in the form of groceries :P and my love of H-E-B :).
