Billy's On Burnet — Restaurant in Austin

It’s hard to write a review of Billy’s without writing a love letter.

The first time my wife and I ever went to Billy’s was July 29th, 2014, the Tuesday before our wedding. We were both full of panic as family members started arriving in town and our to-do-before-the-weekend list sat there not doing itself. We needed a break from the stress and walked over to the place down the street we’ve been meaning to try out. We took note of the Texas Tuesday special and ordered two Shiners, a Billy Burger to split, found a dark corner and sat down.

That night Billy’s was the perfect place. The Shiner was the best drink you could imagine, the burger was perfect, the fries were excellent. We sat in that dark corner enjoying the comfort Billy’s offered us and each wrote our wedding vows. Billy’s was a reminder of what it was really about, what we had lost sight of in the stress of planning a wedding, the time spent together enjoying each other's company.

After we got back from our honeymoon, we went to Billy’s every Texas Tuesday and split a Billy Burger in the comfort of a dark corner for as long we lived at the apartment down the street. I even got a high score on the Big Buck Hunter game!

As the years went on we gradually moved further and further north and weren’t able to walk every Tuesday, but Billy’s has still found a way to be a perfect refuge in stressful times. Billy’s was the first restaurant we braved after the shutdown early 2020. We cried when we saw the chairs flipped over in our empty dark corner - uncertain of what was coming. It was the first place we made sure to go to after being snowed in without power or water during the winter storm in 2021.

While the dark corner sits waiting, like the rest of us, for this all to be over. The patio is open and the...

Never got our food, and apparently they put someone else's (perhaps a regular?) Charges on my ticket. Showed up around 6:40. Only three tables occupied outside, maybe four inside. Got a beer and menus. Went back on and placed food order. My daughter and I looked at animal videos and planned Halloween costumes and watched people around us who had arrived aftwr we did get their food. I went in for another beer and the woman at the bar asked how our burgers were. I said we hadn't gotten them. She said "oh". I asked to close my tab. It was $52 and some change. For two burgers and two beers and a tea. Shoulda rang warning bells. 15-20 minutes pass, no burgers. Go back to check. A man told me we were "in the line". I said yeah, but everyone who came after us has their food. He shrugged. I went back out. More people show up, get food. I go back in after another 15-20, say I guess I just need to cancel my order, we have been there over and hour and a half at this point. Dude goes to the back, comes put and says something, i just repeat that we had been there so long, everyone around us had come, ordered and eaten. He asked what the name on the tab was, pulled it up. There were two beers but also cheese curds and a Mexican coke, which I did not order. I told him I had already closed my tab and those weren't my charges, my tab should have been $43.69 plus tax. Clearly someone else's items were put on my fleffing tab. He grudgingly refunded me $33 bucks, but my beers and tea only came to $12 plus tax. I not only never got food, was treated rudely, but O got cheated and charged for someone elses items. Bye bye Billy's. Reese would be...

Billy's on Burnet is one of those places that you can drive by for years and somehow manage to not notice. Yet it is a unique spot with a seriously chill atmosphere that's quite a bit different than a lot of newer, more hip places. It's not like an old grungy dive bar at all; just a place that time has managed to ignore. Maybe time has driven by and not noticed it.

The beer selection is not vast but it's top notch. The food is chill-out bar food of the finest order, and (perhaps surprisingly) the vegetarian options are outstanding. In particular, the veggie Reuben with avocados is one of the best things on the menu. For beef eaters, don't ignore the patty melt - it's great.

On a quiet afternoon, Billy's is like an oasis of calm. There are power outlets around and it's a fine place to get some work done while dulling the tedium of those TPS reports with a Live Oak Hefe. At night it can get pretty busy, and it's a local focal point for Green Bay fans during football season.

Parking is almost comically limited. There's street parking around the corner beyond the fire station, though not a lot. All the other commercial lots in the area tow aggressively so don't even think about it.

Billy's on Burnet is a local treasure.

Edit: for whatever really bad and dumb reason I had never tried the Billy's BLT until today. It should be called the BBBBBLT. It's simple and yet great; the kind of BLT you'd make for yourself if nobody was looking and you were in a...