First Stop: Gourdough’s Public House

Gourdough’s best seller: the “Ron Burgandy” With donuts as the buns, the Ron Burgandy is made with Angus beef and topped with a fried egg, bacon, guacamole, cilantro, two slices of American cheese, tomato, and mayonnaise. ALL PHOTOS BY ALYSSA WEINSTEIN.

I would’ve NEVER thought that hamburgers with donuts in them would be one of the best meals I’ve ever had, and better yet, may very well be the best burger I’ve ever had.

Gourdough’s Public House located on South Lamar has a one-of-a-kind menu where each dish incorporates donuts, yes that’s right, DONUTS. The unique and creative restaurant offers burgers, sandwiches, entrées, appetizers, and (of course) desserts that all incorporate the breakfast pastry.

The name “Gourdough’s” is actually is an ironic  play on words, as “gordo” in Spanish means “fat” and Gourdough’s advertises as “Big. Fat. Donuts.”

 

The restaurant’s first location in Austin was an Airstream trailer as a food truck serving their donut dishes. Today, they have their brick-and-mortar location on South Lamar that no matter what time of day you drive down Lamar, it is always packed with donut-lovin’ Austinites.

For the longest time, I’ve been wanting to try the famous donuts, and finally I did.

Walking into the cozy restaurant with an Austin ambiance and welcoming staff, I could tell my experience was going to be a good one.

Once seated, since I’ve never been here before, the waitress told me their best seller was their Ron Burgandy. After laughing at the ridiculous name, I decided that’s what I wanted. With donuts as the buns, topped with a fried egg, bacon, and guacamole, it sounded like heaven on a plate…and without a doubt it was.

“may very well be the best burger I’ve ever had”

The menus for meals and desserts may be overwhelming at first, but anything you order is guaranteed to impress.

The best part of the burger was the donut buns, without those it wouldn’t have been the same. The buns aren’t sweet, dessert-like donuts; they’re flatter, only semi-sweet, and the fluffiness of the bread will make you melt. Having donuts as hamburger buns will never want to make you go back to run-of-the-mill hamburger buns ever again.

 

 

With the juiciness of the hamburger patty, the flavorful cheese, and especially the delicious fried egg, all made me realize why this is Gourdough’s best-seller.

I highly recommend the Ron Burgandy, or even some of my other favorites I’ve had recently as well such as the Nacho Libre burger, or their brunch dish, the Dirty Plucker.

Gourdough’s Public House has a variety of creative cocktails and great options for beet (for those of you of age) at their comfortable bar.

Every burger comes with their delicious fried Yukon potato chips on the side, and for drinks (for those out their who are of age) they have an extremely creative menu of cocktails. But for those not of age (like myself) their sweet tea is AMAZING, probably some of the best sweet tea I’ve ever had.

For desserts, they have a whole menu dedicated to them with a total of almost 20 delicious options. So far I’ve only tried one: the Funky Monkey. This donut topped with decadent cream-cheese icing, fried bananas, and brown sugar was the one of best desserts I’ve ever had and I highly recommend this as well.

However, their burgers can be extremely filling. So if you want to try their desserts, I suggest splitting the burger with a friend so you can enjoy their dessert too.

Overall, I give Gourdough’s Public House a 5/5. Nothing there will disappoint you and with their amazingly overwhelming menu, I guarantee you there is something there for everyone.

Even though it is early to say, and they’re only my first stop, so far this is the best burger I’ve
had in Austin and it’s my favorite place. However, the hunt for the best burger in Austin has only just begun. Stay tuned for my next stop: Hopdoddy.

Thanks for reading!

-Alyssa