Restaurants

The Cherrywood New Texan restaurant — which is so regionally minded that even beer and wine are exclusively from the state — is equally satisfying for brunch or a blow-out meat fest at dinner. The restaurant version of this former farmers’ market stand/supper club from chef Jesse Griffiths is everything Austin could have hoped for. He even won a James Beard book award for his tome about wild hogs. The Texas-forever menu has heavier dishes like giant rib-eyes, fried chicken, and wild boar confit, as well as lighter fare, like mixed green salads and grilled marinated carrots. Takeout orders can be placed online. There are indoor and outdoor dine-in services.

Within Austin's South Asian food scene is a small but strong contingent of North Indian/Nepalese restaurants. Of those, this casual Barrington Oaks restaurant is quite marvelous, serving Indian subcontinent greatest hits like all sorts of momos, chow mein, chilis, dals, meats, and biryanis.

The North Austin Chinese restaurant has lots of dumplings and hand-made noodles. The extensive dumpling list makes it difficult to decide which one to order, from pork and chive to pan-fried beef and carrot. But lucky, there’s a mix-and-mach option. Bonus: Julie’s offered bags of 50 frozen dumplings too. Takeout orders can be placed online; there are indoor dine-in services.

The restaurant focuses on Chinese-style hot pot, with soup bases such as the spicy Chinese mala, a vegetable, and tomato. Then there are the all-you-can-eat ingredients available from the buffet ranging from vegetables to noodles, to fish balls. And then meats and seafood are available at additional a la carte prices. Those include brisket, pork belly, New Zealand lamb, clams, shrimp paste, scallops, and much more.