BY TARA BURKE

Our flight landed in Austin, TX just in time for dinner! Lucky us, since there are so many great places to eat in Austin. We heard a lot of good things about the burger bar, Hopdoddy, and since it was fairly close to our Airbnb we decided to give it a try. The menu and setup reminded us of Umami Burger in the city, and being major fans of Umami Burger we had high hopes that it’d be as equally delicious.

Hopdoddy didn’t disappoint and added some southern cooking influences. Cailin and I both got the Goodnight/Good Cause Burger. It was an Angus Beef Burger topped with Tillamook Cheddar, Hickory BBQ Sauce, Caramelized Onions, Sliced Jalapeno, Hickory BBQ and Hopdoddy’s signature Sassy Sauce. Sassy Sauce is a blend of mayo and their house-made horseradish honey mustard. If that doesn’t sound good enough the Goodnight/Good Cause Burger also donates $1 of every purchase to the Lone Star Paralysis Foundation, whose mission is to cure spinal cord paralysis. A burger that gives back?! That’s my kind of burger, haha!

Since we hardly ate anything all day with back to back flights we went all in and ordered the parmesan truffle fries to share and nutella pretzel shakes. Everything was too good! The setup of Hopdoddy isn’t entirely a sit down restaurant. Instead, you order and are assigned a table at the front counter, although a waiter does drop off your food and attends to your table throughout your meal. It’s kind of the best of both worlds between a serve yourself and sit down place. If you’re looking for a casual spot to eat after a day of travel or in general, Hopdoddy is definitely worth visiting.

**And fair warning there is usually a long line for the South Congress location. We luckily had a short line, but when we went back to SoCo for coffee the next day and when we left the restaurant that night, the line was out the door. However, that shows that you’ll be getting one good burger!