Top Table
Drape yourself across one of the velvet-swathed sofas in the sociable Lobby Bar for happy hour (Monday to Thursday, 3-6pm).
Dress Code
Anything goes in so-laid-back-it’s-horizontal Austin. You may want to slip into something a little less comfortable if you’re lucky enough to get a seat at hyper-exclusive Otoko.
Hotel restaurant
There are three on-site. Café No Sé is the hotel’s sunny all-day hangout, featuring brunch, happy hour and dinner. There are wooden tables, wicker chairs, and a scattering of outdoor tables on the patio. The fare feels a little Tex-Mex and a little Southern, like the hearty ‘cowboy breakfast’, served with borracho beans, andouille sausage and a cilantro-buttered biscuit. Lighter plates like kale salads, ceviche and charcuterie boards are available, too. Don’t leave without trying the pastries (particularly the kouign-amann, a butter-laden Breton cake) – everything is made fresh in-house by the award-winning pastry team.
And, since it would be a crime to come to Texas and not sample any steak, reservations at informal chophouse Maie Day are a must. The menu features mains like prime rib, tenderloin, rib-eye and ‘the big pork chop’, served with family-style sides including a ‘bodacious bloomed onion’, baked potato, or mac ‘n’ cheese.
For something completely different, Otoko is a 12-seater omakase fine-dining destination (starting from $150 a person) helmed by chef Yoshi Okai, winner of Food and Wine’s ‘Best New Chef’ in 2017. You’ll need to be organised – tickets are released every three months on the restaurant website and are in hot demand.
Hotel bar
The sprawling, minimalist Lobby Bar serves coffee and hand-crafted cocktails, as well as snacks from Café No Sé. During the day, it fills with local creatives locked into their laptops, but with a nightly DJ set, it becomes a hotspot for socialising after 7pm. Next to Otoko, the intimate Japanese-whisky bar Watertrade is open to all. Floor-to-ceiling wood lends a ryokan feel to the suavely dressed space. Choose the omakase cocktail experience for four courses of seasonally crafted cocktails – half the fun is watching the bartenders at work – served with izakaya-style bar snacks made by the Otoko chefs.
Last orders
Maie Day is open until 10pm (9pm Sundays). Café No Sé is open until 8pm (9pm Fridays and Saturdays). The lobby bar serves until 10pm during the week and midnight Thursday to Saturday. Watertrade is open 5-11pm, Tuesday to Saturday.
Room service
Room service is available from 7am-8pm during the week and until 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays.