The Best Restaurants In Austin For Celebrating Special Occasions

To step into the Ken Fulk-designed Lutie’s is to enter a luxurious alternate reality — in place of chandeliers, plants grow wild from the ceiling, and with its polished wood, mirrored back, and high velvet chairs, the bar recalls a bygone era. The signature restaurant of the Commodore Perry Estate Hotel, a restored mansion from the original Roaring Twenties, Lutie’s dazzles with its impeccable service, fresh ingredients, and choice wine list. Even the bread and brown butter are standouts.

From aguachile to carne asada, the menu at this popular restaurant is not Tex-Mex, but deeply Mexican — chef Kevin Taylor’s parents owned a Mexican restaurant for decades — with a modern twist: The plating is spare and symmetrical, showing off fresh ingredients and splashes of color. Opened in 2017 by Larry Foles and Guy Villavaso, the same people who launched other beloved Austin restaurants, including Red Ash and Eddy V’s, ATX Cocina prioritizes quality and authenticity, even importing its corn from Oaxaca for the tortillas made in-house.

Nothing says “special occasion” like a ten-course tasting menu, which this Italian-inspired restaurant offers with wine pairings. Though chef Nicholas Yanes trained in Italy and favors the cuisine of the north, he isn’t confined by it. From the English pea tart with Sicilian pistachios to the ribeye with salted radish to the grilled blueberries with elderberry pana cotta, the Juniper dining experience is delicious and chic, the plating as artful as the white juniper tree painted across one wall.

Going out for barbecue doesn’t have to mean wiping your fingers on a butcher-paper tablecloth — baby back rib lovers with something to celebrate head to MML Hospitality’s swanky take on a barbecue joint. The exposed brick and warm lighting pair well with slow-smoked Texas prime brisket or blackened shrimp from the oak-burning grill. Craft cocktails such as the Hazy Honey Collins (gin, IPA, lemon, and IPA syrup) are a good choice for those who find the full-page whiskey menu too intimidating. Check the online schedule for live music in the Upstairs Bar and Lounge.

Centered on a grand 20-foot hearth in the open kitchen, this live-fire restaurant was an instant success upon its opening in 2019 because of the picture windows framing the cityscape and the top-shelf ingredients, including wagyu ribeye and lion’s mane mushrooms. Executive chef Kevin Fink and partner/executive pastry chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph knew what they were doing: They had already nailed it when they opened new American restaurant Emmer & Rye in 2015. Their little restaurant empire now includes five popular places, but Hestia’s uniqueness and style makes it perfect for special occasions.

Among the most famous sushi chefs in Texas, James Beard Award-winning Tyson Cole of Uchi opened sister restaurant Uchiko in 2010, and it’s tough to find a flaw in it. Natural materials throughout the space — lots of walnut and wood — accented by steel and brass create a warm, sophisticated ambience. The sushi is the most innovative in town; this is probably the only sushi menu you’ll ever see that includes venison garnished with blueberry, celery, and collards.

Many of MML Hospitality’s restaurants qualify as special-occasion spots — the charming patio at Perla’s is an old favorite, for example — but this new upscale red-sauce Italian concept has a particularly festive atmosphere with its fun old-timey bar and vintage family photos crowding the wall. The menu offers standards such as flavorful eggplant parmigiana, wood-grilled octopus, and shrimp francese. Diners who know their way around an Italian wine list will delight in the wide section of brunnelo, and those with a sweet tooth can’t go wrong with the cannoli.

Once a boutique stocked with little treasures from around the world, Aviary morphed into a wine shop, and then continued its evolution until 2017, when owners Marco Fiorilo and John Coronado finally renovated it into a wine-centered restaurant in a bright space with turquoise walls and a pink bar. Interesting small plates like barbecue carrots, ceviche, and quail tamales make for a celebratory meal with lots of toasting.

Since this upscale Thai restaurant opened and landed on Bon Appetit’s 2013 “50 Best New Restaurants In America” list, the buzz hasn’t stopped — it’s a fave among local foodies. Though the pandemic knocked out the original location, chef/partner Charles Schlienger and operating partner Peter D’Souza are still serving up crowd favorites on Bee Caves Road, including a braised pork shoulder dish with a crispy egg, rice, and pineapple. Sway is all beauty and sophistication with its sleek communal dining tables, macrame wall art, inventive menu, and stunning rooftop bar. Every plate is a work of art.

Top Chef winner Kristen Kish opened this eclectic fine dining restaurant in The LINE Hotel, fusing her training in French and Italian cuisines with her nostalgia for the Midwestern food of her childhood with some Texan and global touches. The result is an innovative and playful menu — think fried dumplings with Calabrian chili; duck egg carbonara; and grilled sourdough bread with crushed green olives, Texas olive oil, charred scallions, red vinegar, aleppo, and feta — in a hip lakeside space in The LINE Hotel.

For upscale wood-fired Italian cuisine conceptualized and prepared by owner and executive chef John Carver, book a table at Red Ash Italia in its industrial-chic downtown space with its famous homemade pasta and dazzling plating. Red Ash fuses the feel of a trendy steakhouse with the taste of the most authentic Italian home cooking: From lobster tails hot off the wood-burning grill to pappardelle alla bolognese to olive oil cake and a glass of limoncello, the menu provides fresh ingredients, unique flavor pairings, and aesthetically pleasing color combinations on every plate.