Diners' Choice: Contemporary American restaurants in Austin

OpenTable

Updated December 05, 2024

Looking for restaurants with the best overall Contemporary American cuisine in Austin? You’re in the right place. Each month OpenTable analyzes more than 400,000 new diner reviews. We sort the results by category to help you discover new favorites. It's a great partnership: you reserve, eat, and review. We listen...and deliver the results for all to benefit. Enjoy!

Pecan Square Cafe

4.9

4.9 (532)

$31 to $50

Contemporary American

Downtown

About the restaurant

Pecan Square Café, located in the heart of Clarksville, serves simple, seasonal food inspired by our home in Austin. With a focus on market driven ingredients and an evolving roster of dishes, the menu is straightforward but elevated. The beverage program delivers dynamic variations on classic cocktails, with an approachable and sophisticated wine selection. Open for lunch, brunch, and dinner seven days a week. Service is easygoing, warm, and casually elegant.

Top review

ElizabethVIP

Dined 2 days ago

Incredible food and wonderful service! Our server made great wine recommendations

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Experience

Happy Hour | Monday - Friday

Carillon Restaurant

4.9

4.9 (941)

$31 to $50

Contemporary American

Downtown

About the restaurant

The Carillon is a New American restaurant featuring familiar food with a refined twist. The Carillon provides a sophisticated and approachable dining experience for all occasions. Our culinary team masterfully creates dishes with local, fresh, and seasonal produce and organic, grass-fed or free-range proteins. The Carillon offers ‘a la Carte’ or 3-course dinner for $45 tasting menu, which can be skillfully paired with award-winning wines.

Located at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin, The Carillon delivers an impressive and memorable experience. Complimentary self-parking in the Conference Center Garage. Bring your ticket to be validated. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Top review

Robin

Dined on Nov 27, 2024

Another absolutely fantastic experience. Everything was first class… the food, service, ambience… all fantastic. Every time we come is quite simply one of our favorite overall meals. We look forward to another reason to visit The Carillon.

June's All Day

4.8

4.8 (1047)

$30 and under

Contemporary American

South Austin

About the restaurant

June’s All Day is a little bit of Paris in Austin—a neighborhood cafe and bar offering late breakfast, brunch, and an all day menu late into the evenings, along bustling South Congress Avenue.

The bistro-style food menu (think Croque Madame, Steak Tartare & Frites, Grilled Chicken Paillard, & Steak au Poivre) is complemented by a frequently changing wine & bar program including unique bottles and classic cocktails The restaurant has a wraparound patio (open year round) and is ideal for people watching and hanging with your friends.

Top review

Allison

Dined 4 days ago

We had a great time! Lovely ambience and the food was delicious.

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Experience

Happy Hour | Monday - Friday

wink

4.7

4.7 (2343)

$50 and over

Contemporary American

Downtown

About the restaurant

How many of the great moments of your life were experienced at a table over a meal with friends and family? Dinner at wink is like coming to big dinner party where great food, quality ingredients, and Austin hospitality set the stage for yet another memorable experience at table. Wink happily embraces omnivores, vegetarians, vegans, pescetarians, and special dietary issues based on what we have in our larder! "The way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world." - Michael Pollan

Top review

DanVIP

Dined today

Best food in Austin. Any special occasion would be amazing here. The 5 course is very filling and the food is amazing.

Hestia

4.8

4.8 (1901)

$50 and over

Contemporary American

Downtown

About the restaurant

Hestia, named after the Greek goddess of the hearth, is a modern live-fire grill house. Dishes find inspiration from a custom 20-ft hearth which anchors the kitchen and dining room. Our menus offers an opportunity to explore and showcase techniques that highlight the role of fire in food. You may choose to order from our a la carte menu or experience our chef curated tasting menu.

We accept reservations 60 days in advance. For event inquiries, please visit our website.

2024 Michelin One Star

Top review

RebeccaVIP

Dined 2 days ago

The food is flawless. The wait at the bar can be a little tight but the cocktails are delightful. I can’t recommend this place enough.

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Dry Aged 8oz Texas Wagyu Bavette

Foreign & Domestic - Austin

4.7

4.7 (2037)

$31 to $50

Contemporary American

Central Austin

About the restaurant

We are a bustling neighborhood restaurant in the heart of north loop. We are one of Austins oldest farm to table concepts. Our menu is foreign in style, while domestically sourced. Our menus change with the season, farm availability, & on chefs whim. Join us for our nose to tail tasting menu nightly if you appreciate whole animal usage. Our wine program is aimed toward biodynamic natural small production wines. If you'd like to have pre or post dinner cocktails, our awesome neighbors include the tigress bar & drink.well.
Please note that we have a 15 minute grace period on reservation arrival times. Should you find yourself running late, please give us a call or the table may be released to a waiting guest.
Tables of 1-2 guests will be reserved for 1.5 hours, tables of 3-4 will be reserved for 1 hour and 45 minutes, tables of 6+ will be reserved for 2 hours. These times reflect standard dining times of our guests. Should you feel that you need additional time, please notate this.

Top review

Alex

Dined 4 days ago

One: they had no issue splitting a tasting menu between two people in addition to us ordering a number of other things, which was a delightful and excellent way to taste what they had to offer. Two, dollar oysters on Tuesdays and half off small plates during happy hour meant an extremely reasonably priced luxury dinner - I think they do tartare the best in this city, their pork pate was delicious, and the tasting menu was fantastic. portions are good, servers are informed, it’s all kindsa good!

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Popular dish

Parisian Gnocchi

Popular dish

Gruyere & Black Pepper Popovers

Popular dish

Roasted Berkshire Pork Collar

Roaring Fork - Downtown, Congress

4.7

4.7 (3487)

$31 to $50

Contemporary American

Downtown

About the restaurant

The Roaring Fork offers bold American wood-fire cooking with fine dining atmosphere. We serve dinner nightly starting at 5pm and Happy Hour daily from 4pm - 6pm in our bar and lounge area only. Sorry, no reservations for Happy Hour. Our bar and lounge is always open seating. Reservations are always recommended for dinner. Thank you for your interest and we hope to serve you soon.

Top review

Amy

Dined today

Jason was our server. He took great care of us. He made nice suggestions. The cocktails were wonderful. Which each had a different entree and all outstanding. My only negative comment…. $12 for a basket of French Fries? That right there tells you that all prices are inflated. Bottom line, Roaring Forks is consistently delicious. The pork & green chili is NOT to be missed!

Honey Moon Spirit Lounge

4.8

4.8 (284)

$31 to $50

Contemporary American

Central Austin

About the restaurant

Honey Moon Spirit Lounge is a vintage-chic restaurant/speakeasy with a well curated menu of elevated comfort food and modern American share plates. The menu includes a craft cocktail list emphasizing fresh juices and classic ingredients, and an extensive and diverse wine list featuring varietals from around the world with a selection of beers and ciders, and a tap of local craft brews.

Top review

BaileyVIP

Dined on Dec 12, 2024

We had been here once before for after-dinner cocktails and loved the atmosphere. We returned for Jazz Night and enjoyed dinner (everything was delicious and fresh) and drinks (always great). Our server (didn’t catch his name) was so polite and friendly and gave us great recommendations. We’ll be back for another date night!

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Experience

Happy Hour @ Honey Moon

Experience

NYE Pre-Fixe Dinner

The Well

4.7

4.7 (520)

$30 and under

Contemporary American

Downtown

About the restaurant

Located in Austin's iconic 2ND Street District at 440 W. 2nd St., The Well blends top-tier nutrition, local and sustainable farming, and authentic flavors for a culinary experience that redefines healthy food in Downtown Austin.

Top review

Bekie

Dined 6 days ago

Everything was so delicious and beautifully presented!

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