Wimberley is a town of about 3,000 people, which on paper should produce maybe four or five decent restaurants. Instead it produces about fifteen, and you'll wish you had more nights to eat through them. Here are the ones we actually send guests to.
This is the working restaurant guide we share with guests at our Wimberley vacation rental. Organized roughly by meal and occasion, with honest notes on which spots are walk-in and which take real planning.
Breakfast
Wimberley Cafe
The diner. Pancakes, migas, breakfast tacos, biscuits and gravy. Old-school small-town Texas energy — booths, friendly servers, locals who've been coming for thirty years. Open 7am, cash appreciated but not required. The breakfast taco is the move. No reservations; expect a 10-minute wait on weekends.
Sugar Shack
Pastries, kolaches, very good coffee. The grab-and-go option if you're heading to Jacob's Well or Market Days first thing. A blueberry kolache and a black coffee on the deck at the house at 8am is one of the small reliable pleasures of a Wimberley weekend.
Lunch
Community Pizza & Beer Garden
The locals' favorite, on the corner of Wimberley Square. Wood-fired pizza, rotating local beer, a sun-shaded patio. Equally good for lunch (lighter) and dinner (busier). The Margherita and the prosciutto-arugula are the standards; the white pizza with goat cheese is the one to try if you've already had margherita everywhere. Open daily, takes reservations for dinner only.
Linda's Fine Foods
A Wimberley institution. Hot lunch, plate-lunch style, Southern home cooking — meatloaf, chicken-fried steak, sides like mac and cheese and turnip greens. Walk-up counter, open weekdays. Cheap, large portions, and you will not regret it.
Salt Lick BBQ — Driftwood
15 minutes from Wimberley, in Driftwood. Not technically in town but mentioned in every Wimberley food list because skipping it would be wrong. BYOB, cash only, picnic tables under live oaks, brisket served on butcher paper. The single most iconic BBQ experience near Austin. Worth a midday visit. Sliced brisket, sausage, two sides. The slaw is the best version of slaw most people have had.
Dinner — casual
The Let Go
The casual sister bar to Community Pizza, one storefront over. Nashville hot chicken sandwiches, mahi tacos, smash burgers, frozen margaritas, live music on weekends. The hot chicken is genuinely excellent. Best patio in town for people-watching. No reservations; walk-in.
Howdy Neighbor
Wimberley's newest addition — an all-day cafe and bar serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Modern, casual, good cocktails. A nice middle ground between the diner energy of Wimberley Cafe and the buzzier vibe of The Let Go. Open seven days.
Ino'z Brew & Chew
Burgers, sandwiches, fish & chips, beer. On the Square. The kind of place to land for an unfussy lunch or early dinner before a hot-tub night. Big covered patio, regular live music, kid-friendly.
Dinner — nice
The Leaning Pear
Farm-to-table on a hill above Cypress Creek. The nice-meal pick of any Wimberley weekend. Inventive but not pretentious — pimento cheese, blackened gulf fish, a strong wine list. The patio overlooks the creek, and getting a seat there at sunset is one of the better tables in the Hill Country. Reservations strongly recommended, especially for weekends; book a week ahead in spring and fall.
Tillie's at Camp Lucy — Dripping Springs
20 minutes from Wimberley, on the Camp Lucy resort property. Voted "Most Beautiful Restaurant in Texas" by People and OpenTable — a stunning space built from 18th-century Vietnamese antiques. The food is elevated international: wagyu, octopus, English afternoon tea on Fridays. This is the anniversary or honeymoon dinner. Reservations essential, often 2+ weeks out for Saturdays.
Hays City Store — Driftwood
Driftwood's quieter answer to a refined Hill Country dinner. Steaks, seafood, a serious wine list, an old-store-turned-restaurant atmosphere. Less famous than Tillie's but for many travelers a closer match to what they actually wanted from a Hill Country dinner: warm, slow, unpretentious, very good.
Coffee
Wimberley Roastery
The town's serious coffee shop. Roast on-site, friendly baristas, decent pastries. The locals' work-from-home spot, which means good wifi if your trip somehow involves a Monday-morning call.
Drinks and a snack
The Leaning Pear bar
Same restaurant noted above, but worth saying again: their bar is the best place in town for a cocktail at golden hour. You can usually walk in for the bar even when the dining room is fully booked.
Wimberley Valley Winery — tasting room on the Square
Not a restaurant, but worth a mention. Their downtown tasting room is a relaxed afternoon stop between shopping the Square and dinner. Texas wines, casual setting, walk-in.
For a special occasion
If your trip is anchored on an anniversary, birthday, or honeymoon, the order goes:
- Tillie's at Camp Lucy — book first, two-plus weeks out
- The Leaning Pear (creek-side patio) — book second
- Hays City Store — book third
Save the cheaper, walk-in places for the other nights of the trip.
The full weekend, eating-wise
For a three-night stay, a good rhythm:
- Friday dinner — Community Pizza (walk-in, quick to settle in)
- Saturday breakfast — Wimberley Cafe
- Saturday lunch — Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood (paired with wineries)
- Saturday dinner — Tillie's or The Leaning Pear (reserve in advance)
- Sunday breakfast — at the house, slowly
- Sunday lunch (en route home) — Howdy Neighbor or The Let Go
If you'd like the full weekend mapped out beyond just meals, see our 48-hour Hill Country itinerary.
Cooking at the house
A note worth making: the Wimberley H-E-B-area grocery options are good — guests at La Paz often have H-E-B deliver groceries straight to the house before they arrive. The kitchen is set up for actual cooking, and one or two nights cooking at home (a slow Saturday breakfast, a Sunday-night pasta) is part of what makes a Hill Country weekend feel like a Hill Country weekend rather than a series of restaurant reservations. Don't underprioritize this.