Austin's Secret Eats

The definitive guide to Austin's secret menus: What to order and where

Secret menus are often used as marketing tools, part of a bigger promotional strategy and detailed on a Wikipedia page. In our humble opinion, the word “secret” does not mean what they think it does.

To that end, we spent some time digging up legit secret menus and eats around Austin for your culinary edification. We combed the interwebs for whispers of these sacred secrets and the hours of hard work have paid off in this fairly exhaustive list of items you need to know before you go.

Home Slice Pizza — The Vatican
 Like its namesake, The Vatican is a thing of mystery and power. The Vatican is actually an Italian Sub (ham, dry salami, Capicola, Genoa salami, provolone cheese) baked inside a cheese calzone. A sandwich ... inside a calzone. Gird your loins (and your arteries).

Soto — Uni Shooter 
Soto's clever chefs layer soft Hokkaido (Japanese sea urchin), a raw quail egg, Tobiko (flying fish roe) and a citrus Ponzu in a shot glass before setting fire to this decadent mouthful. Fire shots for everyone!

Taco-Mex — Fish Tacos 
Your favorite breakfast taco walk-up window has been keeping something from you — and that something is fish tacos. Enjoy a tortilla heaped with grilled white fish, ripe avocado, cabbage and a creamy, spicy salsa verde. Simple, delicious and only $2.

Foreign & Domestic — Wagyu Burger 
Ditch In-N-Out's “secret menu” for this hush-hush Foreign & Domestic burger. Twelve ounces of Wagyu beef augmented by Maytag Blue cheese, pork belly and smoked tomato jam. Served with a side of tempura-fried onion rings.

Contigo — Fried Chicken 
On Fried Chicken Thursdays, you can add up to two pieces of fried chicken to your plate for $1 each. Free oxtail sliders are available on Wednesdays from 5-6 pm as well. Go during happy hour and pair it with $6 select classic cocktails.

Cafe Ruckus — The Thin Mint and the Ruckus
You can stop hoarding those freezer-burned Thin Mints because Cafe Ruckus offers them year-round. The Thin Mint Latte is a blend of rich Ghirardelli chocolate and peppermint which is served hot or iced. The cafe also offer a special off-menu drink called the Ruckus which is a Cortado (espresso "cut" with steamed milk) pumped up with hazelnut.

Trudy's — Sopapilla Tacos
Ditch the ‘tilla, yo. Instead, order your Trudy’s taco in a savory sopapilla. This Mexican goodness in a pocket of fried dough is hereby dubbed a "super-pilla." Oh, and if you get the Hondo Chicken Fried Steak you can add an entire extra steak patty for $1. That's right — double your chicken fried steak intake for just a buck.

Threadgill's — Orgy (Chef’s choice) 
This old gal still has some tricks up her sleeve. The Orgy is a heaping plate of seven veggie offerings comprised of the chef’s choice. Make sure to tell your server if there’s something you don’t like. See also: collard greens.

Sushi Saké — Spicy Carlos and Spicy Susan
The Spicy Carlos is a shrimp tempura roll topped with Maguro and tempura flakes while the Spicy Susan is a salmon roll topped with spicy tuna and avocado. Both are drizzled liberally with spicy sauce. What do we have to do to get a roll named after us? Inquiring minds want to know.

Péché — The Devil's Cocktail 
Not for the faint of heart. The Devil's Cocktail is a spicy gin beverage with lemon, muddled jalapeños (or serrano peppers) and a chile rim. Given the amount of heat, this cocktail may actually bedevil you later. 

Peached Tortilla — Roppongi Dog 
The Roppongi Dog (say it three times fast) is only available when Peached runs out of its house dog, the Yume Dog. The Roppongi is a quarter pound all-beef hot dog topped with braised pork belly, pickled daikon, carrots, Sriracha mayo and wasabi sesame seeds. Basically all kinds of goodness on a bun.

Black Sheep Lodge — Tachos 
Do you love tater tots? Do you also love nachos? Someone who was really smart (or high) came up with the ultimate bar food: Tachos. The dish is tater tots topped with chili, green chile queso, sour cream and jalapenos. Our mouths are already watering. 

Frigid Frog — The Secret Menu
 Enjoy a Sixth Street Pub Crawl (pina colada, strawberry margarita and amaretto) without the hangover, an Animal House (blue eagle, silver fox, tigers blood) without the trip to the zoo and a Firecracker (cherry, lemon, blue raspberry) without the burn hazard. Insider tip? Ask for a Sweet Dill (pickle juice, lime and cream). At the risk of getting a cavity, you can peruse the full menu here.

The Jalopy — Mattitude, the KrunkOLicious and the Churchill
 Like all good secret menus, these items were developed by and for regulars. The Mattitude has braised chicken, barbecue sauce, bacon, pickled peppers and apple cider slaw. The KrunkOLicious features chicken, red cabbage, parsley gremolata, pickled onions, chipotle aioli and a tomatillo cilantro pesto. And the lofty Churchill boasts warm flat bread, Asian slaw tomatoes, carrots, pickled onions, lemon hummus and a Thai peanut sauce

Golden Wok — Chifa Menu 
You have to ask for the secret Chifa menu, which features a combination of Peruvian and Chinese cuisine. Must-try items include Wantan Frito, Tallarin Saltado, ChiJauCai Chicken and Lomo Saltado. So if you're feeling particularly international, head to this Chinese restaurant and order Peruvian food in Spanish.

Pao's Mandarin House — Authentic Chinese Menu 
At first glance, Pao’s menu looks like any other. That’s because you’re looking at the wrong menu, dummy. Take your most adventurous friend, ask for the Chinese menu and dig into fried pig intestines, delicate dumplings, chicken feet, smoked fish, tangy scallops, sea bass hot pot or anything that is not sesame chicken.

Roppongi Dog at Peached Tortilla

Peached Tortilla Facebook

Roppongi Dog at Peached Tortilla

unspecified

Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

bars live music concerts comedy