1
Google
Italian•Austin•$$$
Red Ash
Red Ash is a italian pick in Austin when you want dinner to feel a little more planned.
date night
Read restaurant page
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
9.4 Google
9.4
2,433 Google reviews
GuideUpdated July 15, 2026
12 Best Places for Pasta in Austin
Where to find the best pasta in Austin — each restaurant rated 4.0★ or higher. Top-rated at 9.4★. Spanning italian kitchens. Curated by TastyPals.
The best places for pasta in Austin are Red Ash, Intero Restaurant, Mandola's Italian Kitchen, and more. Start with Red Ash if you want the strongest overall first pick.
Google
Top picks at a glance
Who this guide is for
This guide covers the highest-rated spots for pasta in Austin. Whether you're a local hunting your next regular or visiting and want to eat well, these picks are sorted by quality and review depth.
Quick picks
Red Ash
Italian • Austin
Red Ash is a italian pick in Austin when you want dinner to feel a little more planned.
Intero Restaurant
Italian • East Austin
Ian Thurwachter's intero occupies a particular position in East Austin's restaurant landscape — a neighborhood that has absorbed a decade of development without fully losing the low-slung, unhurrie…
Mandola's Italian Kitchen
Italian • West Campus
Mandola's Italian Kitchen is a italian pick in West Campus in Austin when you want dinner to feel a little more planned.
Editorial details
On this page
- 1. Red AshView →
- 2. Intero RestaurantView →
- 3. Mandola's Italian KitchenView →
- 4. Gino's Italian Restaurant and PizzaView →
- 5. Tony And Luigi'sView →
- 6. Siena RestaurantView →
- 7. Maggiano's Little ItalyView →
- 8. North ItaliaView →
- 9. Emmer & RyeView →
- 10. Il BruttoView →
- 11. JuniperView →
- 12. L'Oca d'OroView →
How the restaurants compare
Google
Red Ash
Austin • Italian
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$$$
Best for
date night
Mood
Upscale
Google
Intero Restaurant
East Austin • Italian
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$$
Best for
date night
Mood
East Austin
Google
Mandola's Italian Kitchen
West Campus • Italian
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$$
Best for
date night
Mood
West Campus
Google
Gino's Italian Restaurant and Pizza
Austin • Italian
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$$
Best for
date night
Mood
Easygoing
How we chose
We looked for restaurants that feel like a strong fit for the guide topic, not just the most obvious names in the city. The shortlist favors rooms with clear mood, dependable pacing, and enough distinction to help someone decide faster. Read our full methodology →
Room tone
Lighting, pace, and general energy all need to support the reason someone clicked this guide.
Food fit
We favored restaurants that feel best suited for the moment, not just restaurants with broad reputation.
Useful range
The final list tries to give readers enough variation in neighborhood, price, and style to compare real options.
12 ranked picks
Intero Restaurant — Ian Thurwachter's intero occupies a particular position in East Austin's restaurant landscape — a neighborhood that has absorbed a decade of development without fully losing the low-slung, unhurried character that made it interesting in the first place. The room is understood to be intimate in scale, the kind of space where the gap between tables and the quality of the light actually do some of the work, and where a dinner for two holds its shape across the evening rather than feeling like a transaction. That pacing matters when the cooking asks you to pay attention.
The kitchen has built its reputation on a genuine regional focus rather than the generic Italian-American fluency that still dominates Texas dining. The menu is understood to draw deliberately on specific Italian regional traditions — a meaningful distinction in a state where the broader category has historically meant red sauce and nothing further. Intero is consistently cited for a pasta program that treats dough and shape as decisions rather than defaults, and for a wine list that runs through Central and Southern Italian producers — not the marquee bottles that sell themselves, but the regional pours that Italian food was actually designed to be drunk alongside. Diners and critics have repeatedly noted that the kitchen demonstrates the kind of familiarity with its source material that allows it to know which rules exist and why, which is the prerequisite for following them correctly.
Intero is widely regarded as one of the more serious Italian restaurants operating in Texas, a claim that carries real weight given how competitive that category has become in Austin specifically. Reservations are recommended; the room is small enough that walk-ins are a gamble on a weeknight and a near-certainty on a weekend. Go with someone who will let the evening run long. View restaurant →
2
Google
Italian•East Austin•$$
Intero Restaurant
Ian Thurwachter's intero occupies a particular position in East Austin's restaurant landscape — a neighborhood that has absorbed a decade of development without fully losing the low-slung, unhurried character that made it interesting in…
date night
Read restaurant page
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
9.4 Google
9.4
1,246 Google reviews
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Emmer & Rye — Emmer & Rye occupies a corner of Rainey Street that has grown considerably noisier since the restaurant opened, yet the kitchen has remained disciplined in a way that sets it apart from the bars and patios surrounding it. The concept is built around freshly milled heirloom grains — not as a selling point appended to the menu, but reportedly as the organizing principle behind nearly every preparation. Bread programs and pasta work are where that commitment tends to show most clearly, and consistent accounts from diners and critics alike suggest the kitchen treats sourcing and milling as genuine craft rather than branding shorthand. That specificity of identity is uncommon enough in Austin's fine dining landscape that Emmer & Rye has accumulated a reputation that held through the years rather than peaking at opening.
Because no verified dish list is on file, it would be misleading to describe the menu in detail — and the rotating nature of the kitchen's approach makes any fixed list unreliable in any case. What is consistently reported is that the menu changes to reflect seasonal availability and the kitchen's current interests, which means repeat visits carry meaningful differences. That is a genuine operational commitment, not a marketing posture, and it explains why the restaurant's reputation has remained consistent across multiple seasons rather than fading once novelty wore off. Diners are advised to expect a menu that reflects what is available and what the kitchen is working through, rather than a set of signature plates they can plan around in advance.
Emmer & Rye holds a price level 3 designation and sits in the Michelin ecosystem, which together set a clear expectation for the occasion and the cheque. Reservations through their booking platform are the practical entry point; arrive expecting a room that takes its work seriously without performing theatrics about it. View restaurant →
9
Google
Italian•Rainey Street•$$$
BIB GOURMANDGREEN STAR
Emmer & Rye
Emmer & Rye occupies a corner of Rainey Street that has grown considerably noisier since the restaurant opened, yet the kitchen has remained disciplined in a way that sets it apart from the bars and patios surrounding it.
fine diningwine barcocktail
Read restaurant page
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
8.8 Google
8.8
1,818 Google reviews
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Save these spots to your Austin list
Save these spots to your Austin list in the TastyPals app, then explore similar restaurants when you want a tighter shortlist for the night.
Personalized city picksCleaner shortlistsBuilt for iPhone and Android
TastyPalsTonight
Your taste. Our picks.
Smarter follow-through after the guide: better restaurant context, quicker narrowing, less second-guessing.
For tonight
Date night spots with warm rooms and polished service
Next step
Keep exploring in the app when you want a tighter shortlist