better lake than never

Worldly restaurant with fancy plating and views floats to Austin lakefront

Quince LakeHouse is emerging from a soft opening phase into full service, including brunch.

Photo courtesy of Quince Collection

Austin classics Hula Hut and Mozart’s Coffee Roasters have a new neighbor: A “fun, upscale casual international” restaurant which quietly opened in the former Abel’s on the Lake building this fall.

Quince LakeHouse (after the number 15 in Spanish; not the fruit) started with a soft opening in October, at the Oyster Landing business park that has long been a hub of lakefront dining on Lake Austin.

The restaurant is the third location in the Quince Collection, which launched in 2016 with its first restaurant in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. It’s also the second location in Texas – the first opened in Fort Worth in March 2023. And the Austin location has big shoes to fill – Robb Report Magazinenamed the Mexico location the “No. 1 Rooftop Restaurant in the World” and the "No. 1 Rooftop Destination in the World."

Quince LakeHouse will offer menu items inspired by all types of international cuisines, pulling flavors from Peru, Mexico, New Orleans, and more. Notable menu items include ceviche, sushi and sashimi, panko crusted Chilean sea bass, bao pork carnitas, French dip sliders, and drool-worthy desserts like French toast à la mode and sweet corn cake. The cocktails, too, are mostly simple classics made especially beautiful.

Photo courtesy of Quince Collection

As of November 18, it is also offering a new brunch service, and it has some special events scheduled already. It will be open on Thanksgiving with a special menu, and is planning ahead for an official grand opening dinner in “early 2024” that will benefit Pets Alive and the Trail Conservancy.

Quince Collection owner Brian Sneed compared the dining experience to “being on vacation near your home,” writing in a press release that the restaurant does “NOT try to turn tables quickly,” giving customers time to luxuriate over their meals.

Sneed said over email that he’s pleased with how the first month of the soft opening has gone.

“We were only super soft open without any announcement so we could have time to find great staff and get them trained before we had any rush of interest,” Sneed said. “We didn’t even tell our friends we were open, but people found out and thankfully have been very pleased.”

Longtime Austinites know that the city is really only treated to a few weeks of ideal weather each year, and some of those nice days fell right in the soft opening period – but Sneed was pleasantly surprised by those willing to show up on the not-so-ideal weather days, too.

“We made a big effort to make our place comfortable in all climates. Virtually all of Quince is temperature-controlled with heaters, and cushions, and comfortable seating, not to mention a huge fireplace. We want this to be everyone’s favorite place for our food, but also we want it to be their comfort place in all seasons,” Sneed said.

Photo courtesy of Quince Collection

The closing of Abel’s on the Lake was just as quiet as Quince LakeHouse’s opening has been – if you weren’t paying attention, you may not have even noticed that owner Ellis Winstanley confirmed the closure back in December 2022. Sneed said he’s honored to take over one of the most sought-after lakefront restaurants in town.

“It’s one of the best locations in Austin and we only do locations with great views and community,” Sneed said. “We have respect for Abel’s and their 13 year run on the property, and we hope that people enjoy our place as much as they enjoyed Abel’s.”

Quince LakeHouse is located at 3825 Lake Austin Blvd #201. Operating hours are Monday through Thursday from 11 am to 10 pm; Friday from 11 am to 11 pm; Saturday from 9 am to 11 pm; and Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm. Happy hour is on weekdays from 3-5 pm. Reserve at quincesma.com.

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Peak Plates

7 Austin restaurants make OpenTable's top 100 for 2024

Jeffrey's Restaurant/Instagram

Jeffrey's Restaurant is a great example of the type of fancy, well-established restaurant that made the list.

Restaurant reservation website OpenTable has issued its new list of the top 100 restaurants in America for 2024, and seven Austin restaurants have made the list. That's already impressive at a glance — 7 percent of the entire national list in just one city — but compared to other Texas cities, it's huge. Austin is the only Texas city to have more than one restaurant on the list.

The "2024's Top 100 Restaurants" list is a compilation of the most sought-after and top-ranked restaurants in the U.S. based on 14 million verified reviews on OpenTable from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024. Restaurants are not ranked, but arranged in alphabetical order by state.

Austin's seven restaurants (including several repeats from OpenTable's 2023 list) are:

Aba: Known for its laid-back, yet fancy patio and being a popular spot for visiting celebrities
J Carver's: Known for a commitment to the classic steakhouse experience and legitimately fancy dining
Jeffrey's Restaurant: Known for fine dining, a connection to Austin before its boom, and a fantastic wine program
Red Ash Italia: Known for approachable, yet high-quality Italian food with rustic touches
Sammie's Italian: Known for its romantic take on the archetype of an East Coast Italian joint
Uchi: Known for bringing Austin into the national sushi conversation and defining the scene
Uchiko: Known for a cool atmosphere and getting creative with sushi and other small plates

Austinites will probably not be surprised by this list, which names some very well-established restaurants that are all upscale. These qualities tend to appeal to similar lists, regardless of who's curating them.

It is interesting, given that the list was democratically based on user ratings, that there were not more beloved food trailers or casual spots. However, other factors that led to high rankings included alerts set and reservations made ahead — things that don't really apply to even the most awesome taco truck.

Mediterranean food was a trend among the Austin picks. Red Ash Italia and Sammie's Italian are, as the names would imply, completely dedicated to Italian food, while Aba covers a wider swath of the Mediterranean. There were also two steakhouses: J Carver's and Jeffrey's Restaurant.

As list-perusers may have guessed, Uchi and Uchiko are in the same family of restaurants, with Uchi being the more formal and Uchiko being a bit more accessible for drop-in meals and cocktails. But are two more incognito duos of sibling restaurants on the list: J Carver's and Red Ash, and Jeffrey's Restaurant and Sammie's Italian.

That could be a coincidence. It could also be a reflection of the utility of money and experience in opening a good restaurant, or a lesson about the effects of good (and expensive) marketing. Whatever it is, it doesn't sound like hospitality groups had any direct sway on how OpenTable made its choices.

This list was different from the inaugural list of OpenTable Icons, which launched in 2024. The "Icons" list chose restaurants that are getting a lot of buzz, which ended up being more subjective. It also seemed to let in — as a side effect of the process, rather than a hard eligibility rule — more new and Mexican restaurants. Two restaurants are on both lists: Red Ash and Jeffrey's.

Restaurants outside of Austin that made the Top 100 list, organized alphabetically, are:

Hudson House — Dallas
Steak 48 — Houston
Signature — San Antonio

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