New Restaurant TLC Brings “Texas Southern Comfort” to Austin

TLC is a new regional Texas comfort food restaurant in south Austin, and I’m really excited it’s here! I went to try it out with my friends Rachel and Mark on Sunday for lunch, and here’s what you should know:

Here’s the important stuff:

They serve “Texas coastal comfort food,” not just cajun food…. So while you’ll be able to get gulf shrimp and boils and gumbo, you can also find chicken fried steak and sloppy joes and Texas chili.
This place is made for big groups. Rows of giant picnic table fill the interior and exterior (along with some smaller tables outside.) You can easily fit a group of 20.
Happy hour is NO JOKE. 3-7 pm Tue-Fri, and all Monday night.
Bring the kids! There’s a separate room (still visible from the main restaurant) with arcade games, AstroTurf, and a giant chalkboard coloring wall.
Giant beer list of 30 taps, and I was pretty happy with the selection. They included good ones from Austin, as well as some of the the top dogs from craft brewers around the country.
There are several cocktails on tap, so you can get your drink strong and quickly!

Try this: Crispy Oysters Rockefeller

(We gobbled these down in a seconds!)

Try this: “You Confit Me”: 14 Duck Leg Confit, Cucumber, Red Bell Pepper, Red Onion, Cilantro, Habanero Honey

If you wanna try it out, happy hour is a good way! I mean….I’m just always such a big fan of happy hours. Why pay full price when you could pay half?

All of these goodies are $5 from 3-7 Tue-Fri, and all night Monday:

1/2 Dozen Gulf Oyster
1/2 Dozen Mussels
Fried Pickles
Hushpuppies
Deviled Eggs
TLC Margarita
House Red Wines
Local Brews

I think that the boil is lots of fun. There’s something so comforting and childlike about eating food with your fingers, and I love how customizable it is. We went with the gulf shrimp and littleneck clams + cajun spice + classic remoulade. I’m gonna try the dungeness crab next time.

Really, y’all….I’m just so excited about this one! I think it’s a great addition to the Austin dining scene. Sometimes restaurants open in ATX and I think, really? We need another one of those in this town?? But TLC is a welcome addition. We don’t have a lot of places that have big rows of picnic tables AND good food (off the top of my head, I can only think of Fresa’s, Pinthouse, and Banger’s).

It’s a great place for the post-church crowd on Sunday afternoons, watching the game (lots of big tvs), and casual birthday dinners for a big crew.

The grand opening is February 8th, but they’ve already had their soft opening so you can swing by and check it out any time!