Austin, TXSeafood

Quality Seafood Market is a fish market and counter on Airport Boulevard that also supplies kitchens across Austin. Sit at the oyster bar for gumbo, fried-shrimp po'boys, and Gulf oysters on the half shell, or take home whatever came in fresh. A two-time honoree in the Austin Chronicle's seafood readers' poll, it has been the city's dependable source for fish since the 1930s.

Chef Fermin Nunez's Este is a coastal Mexican seafood restaurant in East Austin built around a raw bar and live-fire cooking. The tuna tiradito, aguachiles, and shell-on grilled shrimp show off the Sinaloa and Baja influences, with a masa program running underneath. Bright, buzzy, and ambitious, it reads as one of the city's most exciting seafood tables.

Garbo's is a Maine-style seafood spot in North Austin known for lobster rolls served warm with butter or chilled with mayo. Clam chowder, fried clams, and shrimp baskets round out a menu that started as a food truck. A Chronicle seafood finalist, it brings a taste of New England shacks to landlocked Central Texas without the flight.

The Boat is a family-owned crawfish and seafood spot in Northwest Austin with a big outdoor deck and live music on weekends. Come in season for boiled crawfish tossed in garlic-butter and Cajun spice, plus po'boys, boudin, and fried baskets year-round. The Stonelake Boulevard patio fills up fast when the mudbugs are running, a lively Gulf-Coast escape on the north side.

Mongers Market + Kitchen is a neighborhood seafood restaurant, market, and raw bar on Guadalupe in North Loop. The kitchen serves Gulf oysters, crudos, whole grilled fish, and a rotating catch, and you can buy the same fish to cook at home. Its market-driven, of-the-moment menu makes it a reliable pick for anyone chasing what is freshest that week.