The 11 Best Brunch Spots in Austin, Ranked

Paperboy started as a food truck on an East 11th Street lot in 2015, moved into the building behind it in 2020, and has spent the years since collecting spots on every brunch list that matters in this town. The Infatuation put it at the front of its 2026 guide. Do512 keeps it in rotation. When Austin argues about brunch online, this is the name that ends threads.

The menu earns it. The pancake is a single fat round with brown butter and sea salt for $12, and it has a following the way barbecue joints have followings. The Texas Hash stacks roasted pork, sweet potato and pecan mole under a poached egg for $17, and the B.E.C. puts smoked bacon and pimiento cheese on sesame challah with jalapeno jam. Nothing on the menu reads like filler.

Go on a weekday if you can. Doors open at 8 a.m., and the kitchen runs to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 3 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

Josephine House works out of a white 1930s cottage on a shaded Clarksville corner. Almost nobody else in Austin serves brunch every day. This kitchen does, 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and that alone would earn it a place here. The cooking pushes it to number two.

In April 2026, OpenTable named it one of the top 100 brunch spots in the entire country, one of just four in Austin. The steak and eggs pairs bavette with poblano hollandaise, and the lemon ricotta pancakes have their own fan base. Diners have pushed its OpenTable score to 4.9 across more than 1,600 reviews.

No brunch in Austin can match the setting. Mattie’s occupies an 1890s farmhouse on five acres of live oaks in Bouldin, and the lawn belongs to the resident peacocks. The property started serving guests as Green Pastures in 1946, and it seated everyone from day one, which was rare in that era of Texas. Weekend brunch goes 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and that is the whole window.

The food plays the Southern classics straight: a fried chicken Benedict, chicken fried steak, chilaquiles, biscuits with honey and raspberry butter. Reviewers score the experience higher than the plates, which is why it sits third and its Google rating still holds around 4.6.

Book through Resy ahead of time. Three hours of weekend service does not leave room for improvising.

The block at 4827 East Cesar Chavez has fed people since 1948, when Arkie’s Grill opened there. Sawyer & Co moved into those bones in 2014 and kept the diner soul, turquoise booths and counter included. What changed is the cooking, which now leans hard toward New Orleans, and no other brunch in town goes there.

Order the beignets first, then decide between the gumbo and the cheese grits. Diners have it at 4.8 on OpenTable across 671 reviews, one of the strongest scores here, and weekday mornings from 8 a.m. are calm enough to walk right in.

The building came first. In the 1920s it was Doc Young’s drugstore, run by one of the few Black pharmacists in Texas at the time, and his family owns it still. The husband and wife behind Hillside Farmacy restored it in 2011, and the state made it a Texas Historical Landmark in 2019. The patio out front shares its stretch of East 11th with Paperboy, a short walk up the same street.

Weekend brunch goes 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., walk-in only, and the prices stay humane: buttermilk pancakes at $12, the Classic Benny at $16, a Big Brekkie at $16, steak and eggs at $26 if you feel flush.

Some brunches you plan a week out. Better Half is the one you pull off on a whim. Two free parking lots sit outside, a sentence that sounds invented this close to downtown. The room opens at 8 a.m. every day, most mornings you sit right down, and the patio spills into Hold Out Brewing next door.

Texas Monthly gives it three stars and points at the breakfast sandwich, an English muffin holding a hash brown patty and paprika aioli. The crunchy chicken biscuit with jalapeno honey butter is the other argument starter. CultureMap’s Tastemaker Awards once named it Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year, which is exactly the register it plays in.

Sour Duck Market is what a tasting menu chef builds when he wants a neighborhood bakery. Bryce Gilmore, the name behind Odd Duck and Barley Swine, opened it in 2018 on East MLK. The counter serves breakfast daily until 2 p.m., with a full brunch menu on weekends from 9 to 3.

The prices are the story. A breakfast taco is $5.50 and the migas quiche is $11. Even the flagship smoked brisket chilaquiles at $20 and the XXL breakfast burrito at $19 undercut half the white tablecloth rooms in this ranking. Order at the counter, grab a number, and take the beer garden seat.

The band is the tell. On Sundays a jazz and soul group works the room at Geraldine’s while the plates come out, and the whole thing happens on the fourth floor of Hotel Van Zandt, above the Rainey Street bar crowds. The kitchen now cooks modern Mexican under executive chef Sergio Ledesma, a shift from the menu longtime regulars remember, and the chilaquiles at $20 are the anchor order.

The ricotta blueberry pancake at $17 covers the sweet side. The brunch burger is $22, and the wagyu steak and eggs tops out at $34. Time Out calls the cocktail program possibly the best of any restaurant in Austin, which matters at a brunch built around a band. This is also the closest thing our eleven has to a true downtown brunch, a short walk from the Convention Center at the foot of Rainey.

Day Maker is the newcomer, opened in fall 2024 off MoPac near Zilker by Jack Gilmore and Tom Kamm of Jack Allen’s Kitchen, with Forrest Briwa running the line. It earned its place fast. The Infatuation scored it 7.8 within months, and its Google rating sits around 4.6.

The hook is the morning happy hour. Weekdays from 7 to 10 a.m., drinks drop in price, mimosas pour at $8 a glass or $23 a bottle, and a Bloody Mary is $10. The Chorizo Benny puts chipotle hollandaise on masa cakes for $16, and the churro pancakes are the signature, though critics note they land short of the photos.

Phoebe’s Diner keeps opening new rooms because the formula works. It is a comfortable Texas diner that serves brunch every day, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Brisket Benny is the calling card. The brisket burrito backs it up, and the Bananas Foster French toast handles dessert disguised as breakfast. The Oltorf original opened in 2017. Three more rooms followed, downtown, at Gracy Farms up north, and most recently Shady Hollow in April 2026.

This is the pick for a Tuesday brunch that feels like a weekend. Portions are heavy, especially the potatoes, so arrive hungry or plan to share.

Magnolia Cafe is here for what it means and for what it still does at 3 a.m. The gingerbread pancakes have been an Austin ritual since the original opened on Lake Austin Boulevard in 1979, and the South Congress location has carried the flag since February 1988. Two warnings before you go. The original closed for good in 2020, and the famous around-the-clock service now holds Thursday through Sunday only. Monday through Wednesday, the doors close at midnight.

Come in daylight and you get a decent diner. Come at 3 a.m. and you understand the legend. Migas at that hour, when every other kitchen here is dark, buy a lot of forgiveness. Recent reviews say the plates can be uneven. At 3 a.m., you will not care.