Southwest Austin happy hours
Southwest Austin is small — thirty-odd places across Oak Hill, Bee Cave and Barton Creek — but it punches oddly hard. Two of the largest happy hour boards in the entire city are out here, and the area averages more deals per venue than anywhere else in Austin. If you live this side of the loop, the list is short but it is not thin.
Where to start
11 of the 30+ we track, chosen for a reason rather than a rating. Hours below come straight from our database, not from this article.
-
01 · The largest happy hour board in Southwest Austin
Sway
$$$- Mon–Fri 4–6 PM
80+ deals, far more than anything else out here and among the biggest in the city — with cocktails at half price and a dedicated food menu during the window. Elevated Thai, and one of the rooms people drive across town for.
See Sway's deals in Zappy → Checked -
02 · Sushi at $1.95 for two pieces
- Daily 4–6:30 PM
- Thu–Sat 9–10 PM
Sixty deals with vegetable nigiri under two dollars a pair, running daily. A strip-mall room doing Japanese-Indonesian-American fusion, and better than the setting prepares you for.
-
03 · Two-dollar tacos, eleven to eleven
La Popular
$$- Sun 11 AM–3 PM
- Tue 11 AM–11 PM
- Mon, Wed–Sun 3–6 PM
- Mon–Thu, Sun 9–10 PM
- Fri, Sat 9–11 PM
Carnitas, ribeye, chicken tinga and street corn at two dollars each, on a window covering most of the day — one of the few genuinely late options out here. The tuna tostadas are what regulars add on.
-
04 · Fifty-cent wings, seven in the morning to eleven at night
- Mon–Wed 7 AM–10 PM
- Thu 7 AM–11 PM
- Sun 8 AM–10 PM
- Sat 8 AM–11 PM
- Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 3–7 PM
- Mon, Tue 9–10 PM
- Thu, Fri 9–11 PM
Same wing price and the same enormous window as the Burnet and Southpark rooms. Quick, hot, unpretentious.
-
05 · Half off queso and guacamole
- Mon–Fri 3–6:30 PM
- Mon, Sun 3–9 PM
Soup, barbacoa stackers, chunky queso and smashed guacamole at half price on a thirty-four deal board. The half-price appetizers are the specific thing regulars name when they talk about this place.
-
06 · Buy one burger, get one
- Mon 4–8 PM
- Tue 7–9 PM
Not a percentage — an actual second burger, which is a rarer structure than it should be. A large, event-friendly space, so expect it booked out some evenings.
-
07 · Zero-proof, in a part of town with four options
- Mon–Sat 3–6:30 PM
- Sun 3–9 PM
One of only four Southwest Austin venues discounting non-alcoholic drinks, with 20+ deals on the wider board. A neighborhood room people are protective of.
-
08 · Half off the draft list
- Mon–Thu 3–6 PM
Six drafts at half price alongside 20+ deals. Reliable rather than surprising, with a patio worth waiting for.
-
09 · Half-price wine bottles
- Wed 11 AM–9 PM
- Mon–Wed, Sat 11–2 AM
- Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 3–7 PM
A bottle discount in a room nobody visits for the wine list, which is why it is worth knowing. A sports bar in a strip mall, and it does not pretend otherwise.
-
10 · $2.50 pints
- Mon–Thu, Sun 11 AM–11 PM
- Mon–Fri 3–5 PM
Bud Light and Michelob Ultra pints at two-fifty — the cheapest beer in Oak Hill. Regulars rate this branch above the other Pluckers locations.
-
11 · The other zero-proof option
- Mon–Fri 3–5 PM
10+ deals and the second of the four Southwest venues discounting something non-alcoholic. Health-leaning, and the vegan options get recommended by people who aren't vegan.
When Southwest Austin happy hour actually happens
Three o’clock, overwhelmingly — the large majority of windows start then, against a handful at four. The endings are less predictable than elsewhere, spread across six, half past six, nine and ten.
That spread is worth reading carefully. Unlike most of Austin, a Southwest happy hour that is still running at nine is not unusual, but it is also not the default. The difference between a 6 PM and a 10 PM cutoff at two places on the same road is the kind of thing that ruins a plan.
Small area, big boards
Thirty-odd venues carry 500+ deals between them. That works out higher per venue than East Austin, downtown or anywhere else — driven mostly by Sway’s eighty-one and Eurasia’s sixty, but the pattern holds below them too.
The reason is probably that there is less competition out here, so the places that do run a happy hour go wide with it rather than offering three items and calling it a list.
Not drinking
Four venues discount something non-alcoholic: Keepers, The Well, La Popular and Hopdoddy’s Lil’ Doddy. That is a short list, but proportionally it is not far off the rest of the city — only around seventy venues in all of Austin do it.
All 30+, sorted by what's live
This page is 11 places and an opinion. The app has every Southwest Austin happy hour we track — 500+ deals — on a map, filtered by the day, the time and what you actually want to eat.
Common questions
How many Southwest Austin places have a happy hour?
Zappy tracks 30+ venues across Oak Hill, Bee Cave, Barton Creek and the 290 corridor, carrying 500+ deals — an unusually high number of deals per venue compared with the rest of Austin.
Which Southwest Austin happy hour has the most deals?
Sway, with 80+ deals, is the largest board in Southwest Austin and one of the largest in the city. Eurasia Sushi Bar & Seafood is second with 60.
What time does happy hour start in Southwest Austin?
3 PM dominates — the large majority of windows out here start then. Endings are more spread out than usual, with clusters at 6 PM, 6:30 PM, 9 PM and 10 PM.
Are there late happy hours in Southwest Austin?
A few. La Popular and Waterloo Ice House (Escarpment) both run to 11 PM, and Pluckers Wing Bar (Oak Hill) runs to 11 PM as well. Late options are thinner out here than downtown.