You’ll need to plan a few weeks in advance if you want to guarantee yourself a table at Paperboy during prime brunch hours on the weekend (reservations book up fast, but you can always try your luck with a walk-in). There’s a countertop you can post up at to get the traditional “diner” experience, a few tables inside, and a downstairs patio that looks out onto East 11th street. Order the bacon, egg, and cheese if you want to see what helped Paperboy go from a trailer to a two-story brunchery.

There’s diner DNA in the bones of Day Maker, a restaurant built in the shell of a former IHOP near Zilker Park. This is where people come to brunch before a day at the park. (Add yourself to the online waitlist before heading out, or get ready to face a multi-hour wait on the weekends.) Once you’re in, you’ll realize why everyone was willing to doomscroll on their phones near the entryway for so long—this is a classic diner done different.

Launderette seems to exist in two entirely separate worlds. By night, it’s a cute and intimate dining room set in a renovated laundromat with shared plates, and very much a place that should be on your date night roster. During brunch it transforms into a postcard-worthy spot for mimosas, pull-apart cinnamon buns, biscuit sandwiches, and whatever else people have grown accustomed to eating and drinking between the hours of 11am and 2pm on a weekend.

Brunch at Gabriela’s feels like a tropical vacation at a clubby resort. The restaurant is tucked away on a little hill near Downtown overlooking the Austin skyline, with a patio that feels like it’s always packed—on the weekends, there’s even a DJ spinning everything from old Nelly hits to Bad Bunny. Potted plants hang from the rafters, while the colorful wooden fencing that encloses it all adds a sense of seclusion and escape.

Mattie’s has the type of wraparound porch you might design for your dream house. This restaurant in a historic mansion is hidden away in Bouldin Creek, and has been serving brunch since the ’40s. A recent renovation has only made it more pleasant, filling the patio, lobby, bars, and main dining rooms with the kind of vintage decor that looks authentic but doesn’t smell like mothballs. The food has the same upgraded old-school feel, with grits, biscuits, and fried chicken all available.

During the week, 1618 on East Riverside serves up excellent renditions of Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Singaporean, and Southeast Asian staples—it’s a restaurant that does a lot of things, and does them well. But once the weekend hits, it’s (almost) all about dim sum, with a small menu that focuses on the classics—like xiao long bao, har kaw, and sui mai—plus a few Vietnamese soups in case someone at your table needs a little hangover helper.

On weekends, the crowds waiting at this vegan/vegetarian destination spill onto the corner of South 1st St. and West Mary St. Bouldin Creek Cafe is its own mini-scene where the ambiance and the food are equally fun. Many of Bouldin's dishes, like the Wanna-BLTA and homemade veggie chorizo breakfast tacos, taste almost as meaty—and just as good—as their original counterparts.

Stepping through the front doors of Sawyer & Co on East Cesar Chavez feels like entering a portal to a 1950s diner, complete with stubby yellow barstools and waitstaff walking around with steaming pots of coffee. The menu looks and tastes like what you’d find at a classic diner—with a little bit of Austin and New Orleans touches mixed in—which means you can expect to find dishes like a Cajun scramble with crawfish etouffee right next to a pork carnitas benedict with queso and biscuits.

The people at Dai Due on Manor Road harness all of their superpowers—baking, butchery, wood-fire grilling, and tallow-frying—at brunch. So yes, you should order all the pastries, including seasonal fruit-filled kolaches, tallow-fried donuts, and wild boar boudin klobasneks. Yes, you will have a hard time choosing between the breakfast sandwich made with an antelope breakfast sausage or the dry-aged wagyu double cheeseburger.

Sometimes we like brunch at Suerte even better than dinner at Suerte. And while you can still get the iconic suadero tacos any time, there’s a good amount of memorable brunch-only dishes, like smoked salmon tostadas, chilaquiles, steak and eggs with a mole chichilo, or a smoked lengua hash. You should just order all of the fun and imaginative pan dulce like pistachio conchas or kolaches with huitalcoche and manchego—they rotate all the time.

During the week, Hold Out is one of our favorite spots to sit outside with a burger, some wings, and a beer—this Clarksville brewpub does it all, and does it well. Adding further to its list of food accomplishments is the weekend brunch menu. And while you can (and probably should) get a burger at brunch to share with the table, most of the menu is made up of creative takes on classic breakfast items that you’ll want to make a part of your order.

Located in a ridiculously quaint Craftsman house, Josephine’s space feels less like it’s in the middle of Austin and more like you’ve just walked down to a beachfront hotel lobby. And the outdoor space is even more pleasant. When a restaurant is this good-looking, it can be hard for the food to measure up - but not in this case. You really can’t go wrong with any of the menu, but we have a hard time turning down the Josephine Rice Bowl.

Sick of eggs benedict and pancakes and avocado toast? Direct yourself to Sunday dim sum at Wu Chow. This is your best opportunity to sample a ton of stuff from this upscale Chinese spot downtown - and while they don’t do cart service, they make up for it with cocktails. Take advantage of the fact that you can make reservations for brunch, come with a big group, and order everything from (best-in-town) soup dumplings to scallion pancakes to baked pineapple bao.

Enchiladas Y Mas in Crestview is where you go when you partied pretty hard the night before and want to keep the party going, just a little, while also soaking up some of last night’s mistakes. Enchiladas aren’t the only thing on the menu here, but they’re probably what you should be getting at a place with enchiladas in the name. Each order arrives on a massive plate, covered from edge to edge in a blanket of cheese—it’s all but guaranteed to fill you up into the next day.

Ready for brunch, but not ready to wait for the weekend? At Café No Sé on South Congress Avenue, every day can be celebrated with mimosas, golden milk lattes, and buttery croissants. That’s because brunch here isn’t limited to just the weekends—because who said you can’t order a Bloody Mary and a loaded BLT on a Tuesday at noon? Expect to find a mix of classic brunch dishes on the menu, plus a few wild cards like a beet falafel burger or kimchi hash.

When your friend wants to meet your new dog and you want to meet their new baby, check out Sour Duck Market, the new spot from the team behind Odd Duck and Barley Swine. This place is counter service-only and has a large outdoor patio area that’s perfect for really anyone, dogs and infants included. Their menu stays the same all day, but there are certain things that are best on weekend mornings, like the breakfast sandwich and green chile hash.

Nothing says “it’s Saturday” quite like Little Darlin’s michelada—made up of a draft beer with a Bloody Mary popsicle. It’s a fun and tasty way to start the weekend, and a great accompaniment to fried chicken and waffles, farmstand frittatas, and french toast off Little Darlin’s brunch menu. This is one of the best bars in Austin, and when the weather is nice, it’s one of the best patios to be on, too. Throw in a solid brunch menu and it’s one of the best places to spend a weekend.

In a cute house under a 100 year-old heritage tree in Clarksville, Bar Peached pulls off a broadly Asian menu really well, especially at brunch. BBQ Pork Benedict comes yuzu hollandaise and a scallion pancake and chicken and biscuits come in the form of chicken karaage with a beef dashi gravy. Make sure to order the incredible “bacon, egg & cheese” udon that brings together Vietnamese braised pork belly, egg yolk, and mozzarella for a gloriously gooey and cheesy bowl of noodles.

Hidden in a residential section of North Austin, this restaurant inside a house has permanent good vibes. And the power to make you very excited to eat quiche.

There are a couple locations of Phoebe’s Diner in Austin, but if you’re seeking the original 1950s-style classic American diner experience, you’ll want to head to the OG location on Oltorf. Breakfast, brunch, and lunch are served daily—show up during the week for a relatively quiet and relaxed atmosphere, or on the weekends at noon for the full, at-capacity old school diner experience, complete with mimosas and sake-based cocktails.