Texas to Potter County

Amarillo

The Texas Panhandle cattle capital. Where the 72-oz steak challenge is only the beginning, the High Plains beef is among America's finest, and Route 66 nostalgia meets genuine West Texas cooking.

6Restaurants Listed
$-$$$Average Price Range
7Avg Food Score
7Avg Ambience Score

Best Restaurants in Amarillo

Five essential tables, ranked by occasion.

$ Under $20  |  $$ $20–50  |  $$$ $50–100  |  $$$$ Over $100

The Big Texan Steak Ranch Amarillo
#1 in Amarillo
The Big Texan Steak Ranch
Texas Steakhouse$$
BirthdayTeam Dinner
The 72-oz challenge that put Amarillo on the map. But behind the spectacle is some of the finest High Plains beef in Texas, served in the most theatrical steakhouse in America.
Food 7Ambience 9Value 8
Coyote Bluff Café Amarillo
#2 in Amarillo
Coyote Bluff Café
American Burgers$
Solo DiningBirthday
The Amarillo burger institution. Locals-only knowledge that produces one of the best green chile cheeseburgers in the Texas Panhandle.
Food 8Ambience 6Value 9
Ohana Hawaiian BBQ Amarillo
#3 in Amarillo
Ohana Hawaiian BBQ
Hawaiian / BBQ$
Solo DiningBirthday
The Hawaiian plate lunch concept in the Texas Panhandle. An unlikely combination that the people of Amarillo have adopted with the enthusiasm usually reserved for barbecue.
Food 7Ambience 6Value 9
Embers Restaurant Amarillo
#4 in Amarillo
Embers Restaurant
American Steakhouse$$$
Close a DealBirthday
Amarillo's upscale steakhouse for the serious meal. Where the High Plains beef is treated with classical steakhouse technique rather than spectacle.
Food 8Ambience 7Value 7
Hoffbrau Steaks Amarillo Amarillo
#5 in Amarillo
Hoffbrau Steaks Amarillo
Texas Steakhouse$$
BirthdayTeam Dinner
The old-school Texas steakhouse experience. No dry-age program, no tasting menu, just a properly cooked Texas sirloin at a price that makes you remember why you loved steakhouses.
Food 7Ambience 7Value 8
Golden Light Café & Cantina Amarillo
#6 in Amarillo
Golden Light Café & Cantina
American / Route 66$
Solo DiningBirthday
The oldest restaurant on Route 66 in Texas, operating since 1946. Burgers, cold beer, and the original road-trip mythology still intact.
Food 7Ambience 8Value 8

Amarillo’s Top 5

01

The Big Texan Steak Ranch

The Big Texan Steak Ranch is one of America's most famous restaurants. A Route 66 institution that has been offering the 72-ounce steak challenge (eat the whole thing in an hour, it's free) since 1960. The spectacle is ...

02

Coyote Bluff Café

Coyote Bluff Café is Amarillo's fiercely local burger secret. A cash-only dive bar with a kitchen that produces burgers from High Plains beef that the city's residents argue about with the intensity that only genuine qu...

03

Ohana Hawaiian BBQ

Ohana Hawaiian BBQ is Amarillo's most unexpected successful restaurant. A Hawaiian plate lunch spot in the Texas Panhandle that has developed a devoted local following despite the apparent geographic and cultural mismat...

04

Embers Restaurant

Embers is where Amarillo's business community goes for the serious steak dinner. A proper American steakhouse that lets the High Plains beef speak for itself without the 72-oz theater of the Big Texan....

05

Hoffbrau Steaks Amarillo

Hoffbrau Steaks is a Texas institution. A simple, unpretentious steakhouse concept that has operated across the state since 1934. The Amarillo location maintains the tradition: cafeteria-style service, a limited menu fo...

06

Golden Light Café & Cantina

The Golden Light has operated continuously on Route 66 in Amarillo since 1946. Longer than any other restaurant on the Texas section of the original road. The building has barely changed; the menu has barely changed; th...

Dining in Amarillo

Amarillo is the capital of the Texas Panhandle. A wind-swept high-plains city of 200,000 that sits at the intersection of cattle ranching, Route 66 mythology, and the particular West Texas character that comes from being equidistant from everywhere and committed to being itself. The cattle yards around Amarillo are among the largest in America, which means that beef here is not a luxury but a commodity. Available fresh, local, and at prices that make the New York City steakhouse experience seem like a geographic punishment.

High Plains Beef

The Texas Panhandle's feedlots and ranches produce beef of genuine quality. The combination of grain finishing, cold nights, and the particular genetics of the cattle that have been raised here for generations creates a product that the area's best restaurants are increasingly taking seriously. The 72-oz steak challenge is the famous face of Amarillo's beef culture; the dry-aged ribeye at Embers is its more serious expression.

Route 66

US Route 66 ran through Amarillo on its path from Chicago to Los Angeles from 1926 until its decommissioning in 1985. The original alignment on Sixth Avenue (now called Historic Route 66) passes some of Amarillo's most characterful restaurants. The Golden Light Café (1946) and the Big Texan (originally on Route 66, now relocated to I-40) are among the best-preserved Route 66 dining experiences in the country.

Practical Notes

Amarillo Rick Husband International Airport has connections to Dallas, Denver, Houston, and Las Vegas. Most dining is concentrated in downtown, the historic Route 66 corridor on Sixth Avenue, and the medical district. Card payments are universal except at the specifically cash-only establishments noted.

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