best fish tacos in Austin

February 20, 2006 1:57 PM

Votes for best fish tacos in Austin, TX? (preferably grilled fish, not deep-fried).
posted by nancoix to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

The grilled fish tacos at Chango's on Guadalupe & 30th are good (and cheap). When the Wheatsville deli (a couple doors down from Chango's) has catfish, they can make you a mean fish taco.

I have heard good things about the fish tacos at Z Tejas from a fishtacoholic.
posted by zonkout at 2:14 PM on February 20, 2006

I second Chango's (they are owned by the same company that has Manuel's downtown) ... I like the cheese in them, which is often not included by most restaurants due to the belief that the cheese competes too much with the delicate taste of the fish (or any seafood for that matter). Also try the mango batida (smoothie) if you go there.

A thread on Chowhound recommends Taco Deli

... truthfully I think you can make better ones at home ... I like to make them loosely based on a Bobby Flay recipe
posted by fourstar at 2:49 PM on February 20, 2006

I'm not going to say what's best, but I will say that the fish tacos (and everything else) at El Chilito are damn good.
posted by adamrice at 3:00 PM on February 20, 2006

I'm the fishtacoholic that zonkout mentions. Z Tejas is indeed the best IMO. It's all about the sauce. Sometimes they have fried fish tacos with a creamy jalapeno sauce, and sometimes the fish is marinated in an asian sauce... both are excellent. Zuzu's on Mopac just off of Northland drive are good, too. They use mahi mahi and real lettuce (not the iceberg crap), and their black beans are really tasty.

I like the question b/c I'm always looking and because I've always thought of Austin as a "hey, let's go grab a fish taco" kind of town.
posted by lunalaguna at 3:10 PM on February 20, 2006

I haven't been there in years, but I got the fish taco addiction at Hula Hut and haven't been the same since. They are the gold standard in my mind against which all other fish tacos must compete.

Looks like they're still on the menu.
posted by mumeishi at 3:39 PM on February 20, 2006

I agree with Changos (though I frequent the one at Lamar and Manchaca, Southside).

If you get it grilled ask them to trade out the cheese and lettuce for the cabbage salad they put on the fried fish.

I would disagree that Austin is a "Hey, let's go grab a fish taco" kind of town. It's more of a "Hey, let's go grab a veggie taco" kinda town and everyone knows that hippy vegetarians can't cook for shit. So the fish tacos are better than the veggie tacos by default.
posted by Seamus at 5:21 PM on February 20, 2006

I'll second Hula Hut.
posted by mr.dan at 7:32 PM on February 20, 2006

My vote(s) are for TacoDeli and Hula Hut.

(the only things I miss about Austin are some of the food places.. sigh)
posted by mrbill at 7:55 PM on February 20, 2006

mrbill: gah! one of the only decent things about houston is the restaurants. we can't even get a ethiopian restaurant up here.
posted by lunalaguna at 8:06 PM on February 20, 2006

lunalaguna: Sorry, but I am not so sure Ethiopian food is a such good thing to have handy. The one time I ate at an Ethiopian restaurant in Austin went a long way to explaining why no one eats very much in Ethiopia. Shiver... Yeeeee-gads, what's with that nasty bread? Gave me a waking nightmare that I was eating the insole of some hippy's sneaker. Someone needs to build them a Hula Hut or a Katz's. Threadgills. Something.

Yeah yeah, IMO and YMMV. (Probably just an atypical bad experience at an otherwise fine dining establishment... But yeesh, that bread. :-)
posted by mumeishi at 8:47 PM on February 20, 2006

I tried Wahoos that just opened on 5th and it was good. Waterloo Icehouse's aren't bad either.
posted by liquid54 at 9:05 PM on February 20, 2006

mumeishi: sorry, this is off topic, but the bread always tastes that way. it's one of those things you either love or hate. it's made from fermented teff, a kind of grain, and i can understand why you wouldn't like it. i love it, though. so spongy!

this thread made me want fish tacos really bad, so i went to el arroyo over on 5th street. their tacos were pretty decent...good-quality grilled fish on a corn tortilla with chipotle mayo and fixins'.
posted by lunalaguna at 9:14 PM on February 20, 2006

lunalaguna, I love the variety of restaraunts that Houston has; I just miss "old favorites" from Austin since I lived there for ten years while I've only been in Houston a little over a year.
posted by mrbill at 7:05 AM on February 21, 2006

Trudy's makes my favorite fried fish taco in Austin..

if youre looking to get more exotic, try Polvo's
they make a fish taco with almond creme sauce that is incredible.. (the sauce is called Cartuja Pipien)...

if youre looking for more advice, this blog has some nice Astin taco reviews:
http://www.tacotown.org
posted by chappy at 5:47 PM on December 6, 2006