Nomad Napoletana

CITY GUIDES | TEXAS

The Best Restaurants in Amarillo, From Roadside Steaks to Punk-Rock Tacos

By Rebecca Thompson
Updated May 11, 2026

AUTHOR BIO: Rebecca Thompson has held many jobs over the years, from daily newspaper writer to middle-school math teacher. As a restaurant critic, she’s reviewed Michelin-starred fine-dining to gas station barbecue.

Amarillo has the kind of restaurant reputation that can get flattened into one giant steak, which is understandable but not entirely fair. The Big Texan looms large here, as roadside legends tend to do, with its yellow building, Route 66 theater, and 72-ounce dare sitting out there like a challenge issued by a man who has never heard of cholesterol.

But the best restaurants in Amarillo are more interesting than the postcard version. There’s oak-smoked brisket at Tyler’s Barbeque, naturally leavened pizza at Nomad Napoletana, green chile burgers at Coyote Bluff, cinnamon rolls before breakfast at Calico County, and a downtown scene that now includes wine bars, rooftop beer, and Chihuahua-style Mexican cooking. Amarillo still likes big portions and straight talk, but it’s not stuck in amber.

This is the Panhandle, after all, where dinner doesn’t need to apologize for being hearty, messy, smoky, spicy, or a little ridiculous. Here’s where to eat in Amarillo now.

The Big Texan Steak Ranch

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The Big Texan is Amarillo operating at full roadside-attraction volume: yellow building, Route 66 mythology, cowboy excess, and a 72-ounce steak challenge that began in 1960 after a stockyard-eating contest turned into a permanent dare. The actual challenge plate is steak, shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad, and a roll, which is a helpful reminder that Texas sometimes treats dinner like an athletic event. Even if you aren’t here for the challenge, this is a good steak served in a space that will definitely have you taking photos from beginning to end.

Best for: Route 66 steakhouse spectacle

Coyote Bluff Café

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Coyote Bluff looks like the sort of place where the building might lose an argument with a strong wind, but then the burger arrives and makes the structure beside the point. Its signature Burger from Hell comes stacked with jalapeños, Tabasco, and Coyote Hell Sauce, a spicy little Amarillo legend created by Rob Haas and later pushed into wider fame by Man v. Food. The green chile cheeseburger is the more reasonable order, assuming reason is still invited to lunch.

Best for: Green chile burgers and heat

Crush Wine Bar & Grill

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My favorite Amarillo restaurant, Crush opened in 2008 from Brian Singleton, Bo Salling, and Brian Mason, giving Amarillo a wine bar with a little more polish. Chef Chase Reid leads the kitchen, and the restaurant works best when it leans into that grown-up downtown mood: wine, dinner, and the feeling that Amarillo can clean up nicely. It’s a useful place for a date night, a business dinner, or anyone who wants the Panhandle with better glassware.

Best for: Wine, dinner, and downtown polish

Drunken Oyster Amarillo Texas Best Restaurants

The Drunken Oyster

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The Drunken Oyster goes all in on New Orleans mood: chandeliers, absinthe-minded cocktails, oysters on ice, po’ boys, crawfish, gator, and Cajun seafood from chef-owner Rory Schepisi. The menu also brings in aged Certified Angus beef, which gives the place a broader range than the name suggests, though the oyster bar and cocktails are still the main event. It’s polished, a little theatrical, and built for a night that starts with a dozen oysters and ends somewhere near bread pudding.

Best for: Cajun seafood and cocktails

El Bracero

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El Bracero is the kind of Mexican restaurant that makes its case through repetition: breakfast tacos early, lunch plates by noon, menudo on the weekend, and a menu built around family recipes, slow-simmered guisados, hand-pressed tortillas, and smoky Bracero seasoning. It’s not trying to reinvent anything, which is part of the point; it’s built for regulars, plates of fajitas, and the sort of meal that doesn’t need a dissertation to justify itself. Amarillo has plenty of Mexican food, and this one earns its place by staying direct.

Best for: Breakfast tacos and guisados

Fire Slice Pizzeria

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Fire Slice has been in Amarillo since 2009, with pizza, pasta, craft beer, and a deep wine list. The kitchen makes everything: dough, meatballs, and even ice cream. The more interesting pies include the Honeybomb with meatballs, smoked ham, jalapeños, and hot honey, plus the Hot Momma with pepperoni, house-made Italian sausage, and green chiles. It’s a pizza place with enough grown-up intent to make ordering a bottle of wine feel like a fine idea.

Best for: Pizza, wine, and house-made ice cream afterward

Girasol Cafe & Bakery

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Jessica Higgins’ Girasol starts early with coffee, pastries, and breakfast, then moves into lunch and catering with chicken salad sandwiches, biscuits and gravy, and smothered burritos. It’s a bright daytime stop for a real breakfast, a reliable lunch, or the kind of coffee-and-baked-goods run that quietly becomes the best decision of the day.

Best for: Breakfast, pastries, and coffee

Hacienda Meche

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Hacienda Meche’s cooking is rooted in Chihuahua, Mexico, with dishes inspired by family matriarch Ma Del Carmen Lopez. There’s live music, weekend energy, tacos, seafood, and a bar program thrown into the mix. It’s one of the more obvious signs that downtown Amarillo’s restaurant scene has been stretching beyond the old steak-and-burger script.

Best for: Chihuahua-style Mexican food

Napoli’s Italian Restaurant

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Napoli’s Italian Restaurant is locally family owned and operated, and the Knapp family’s pitch is straightforward: pizza, pasta, wine, and the kind of Italian-American meal that still believes chicken Alfredo can solve a surprising number of problems. The menu runs through the familiar comforts, including chicken parmesan, fettuccine Alfredo, seafood ravioli, stromboli, and baked pasta dishes, without pretending the wheel needed reinvention. It’s a neighborhood Italian spot for red sauce, full plates, and a glass of wine after work.

Best for: Family-style Italian comfort food

Nomad Napoletana

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Nomad Napoletana began as the Pizza Nomad food truck in 2018 before becoming a downtown restaurant with a full bar, a stone-hearth oven, and naturally leavened dough. Owner Marco Camp created the downtown version to feel like something beyond Amarillo’s borders, and the pizzas back that up with a menu that moves from margherita to brisket with provolone, cream sauce, balsamic reduction, and pepperoncini. The Diablo Con Queso, with pepperoni, freak sauce, pickled jalapeños, and beer cheese, is Amarillo logic applied to Neapolitan structure.

Best for: Wood-fired pizza and cocktails

OHMS Café & Bar

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OHMS has been around since Mary Fuller bought the restaurant in 1992, and it’s still an upscale American bistro, with cocktails, desserts, and a menu that can include ahi tuna poke, sesame-crusted oysters, Thai-style beef jerky, and queso flameado. It’s still one of Amarillo’s better bets for a quieter dinner and drinks to go with it.

Best for: Cocktails and upscale bistro cooking

Six Car Pub & Brewery

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Six Car is Amarillo’s downtown brewpub, with house beer, rotating guest taps, brunch, cocktails, and a rooftop bar that gives Polk Street a little altitude. The food menu reads like a kitchen having fun: Korean chicken sandwich, eggs in hell, Nashville hot fries, stuffed waffles, chicken and waffles, and a bourbon butter patty melt. It’s the downtown answer for beer, brunch, and a rooftop drink.

Best for: Brewpub food and rooftop drinks

Tyler’s Barbeque

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Tyler Frazer grew up in Amarillo with a thing for food and fire. He smokes with oak, serves until it sells out, and keeps the menu anchored by 14-hour brisket, pork ribs, sausage, green chile stew, and peach cobbler from his mother’s recipe. It’s Texas barbecue stripped down to the useful parts: brisket and a line that just builds the anticipation.

Best for: Brisket, ribs, and sausage

Yellow City Street Food

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Chef Scott Buchanan is proudly punk-rock about Yellow City’s counter-service setup, with a menu that runs through diablo shrimp, fish tacos, bulgogi steak, vegan soy curls, dragon tofu, and a smashburger with coffee mayo, egg, bacon, and berry jam. It’s the rare place where the vegan options were given equal thought.

Best for: Punk-rock tacos and vegan options