Before we actually moved to Austin, we came here to visit family and friends a lot. It was my favorite city to spend the weekends (thus making the decision to just pack up and move here). A lot of folks love coming here for the unique eats and typical staples: Kerby Lane, Magnolia Cafe, Guero’s, etc. For me, no trip was complete without having a meal at Trudy’s.
Trudy’s is an awesome Tex-Mex restaurant that has been around since 1977. They now have 4 Austin locations – the one we prefer is their South Star location near Stassney and I-35. The food is super-fresh and their homemade corn tortillas are some of the best I’ve ever had…no joke, I never used to like corn tortillas until theirs. They are so soft and almost make me think of a combo of flour/corn. They have really great drink/happy hour specials and of course an awesome brunch. We still make this our ‘go-to’ brunch destination and you can usually find us there at least once or twice a month (for T.Rex even more often)! The waitstaff is very accommodating – we’ve added this or swapped that out and never a problem – a couple of times we even had a friendly manager stop by just to make sure everything came out ok and that we were happy with everything. Not a lot of restaurants have that kind of service. They do mention no substitutions during peak times – so…the fact we always go when it’s not peek could be why I get what i want! 😉
My fresh mimosa and fresh salsas – notice the awesome t-Shirt T.Rex is wearing?
Our low-carb go-to: Migas & fajitas. We order it without the tortilla strips (for those of you unfamiliar to migas it has tortilla chips in the scramble) and instead of the rice and beans we ask for their spicy mixed veggies – a combo of usually zucchini, yellow squash and mushrooms. Mr. T goes a bit further and asks for a bullet of queso to go on the veggies (they do a small charge for this, but we don’t mind). We also get the Shrimp Diablo since we typically have the waiter bring us two plates and we share all this. Also, when we get there we ask for no tortilla chips, but we keep the salsas. They are great on the meal and the green salsa is SO good with the diablo shrimp…SPICY!
Migas & Fajitas and Diablo Shrimp
Other dishes I recommend: They make the most amazing Tinga Beef (supposedly the chicken is good as well, but I always got the brisket). My splurge dish is the Texas Star Nachos with beef tinga, but you can get the tinga on nachos, sopapillas or a quesadilla. In fact, one time we got their Mexican Eggs Benedict and asked for the beef tinga instead of the fajita – OMG (I need to quit writing this when I’m hungry)! My friends got their chili rellenos and asked for them not to be breaded and said they were able to this as well, so another good low carb option!
Other notes: I hear their stuffed avocados are amazing – I’m allergic, but everyone who I talk to recommends these. They have fresh squeezed juice – I am a grapefruit lover so I get my mimosa’s with grapefruit instead of orange juice. Never a problem with these guys! Also, mimosa’s are only $2.50 until noon on weekends. The patio does not serve ‘brunch’ – I’m not sure why…perhaps to keep things at a slower pace out there. They do still have the migas dish though since that is part of their regular menu so I’m fine with it! They can get super crowded – if you do things the Rex way, you get there early and enjoy the easy pace of the place. We’re usually there before 11 on the weekends. T.Rex goes there for lunch sometimes during the week and I don’t think it gets too crazy.
[sgmb id=”1″]