Quality Seafood has been Austin’s fishmonger since 1938. “Selling [its] Sole Six Days a Week,” it’s one of our top places to take visitors, for ambience alone. The tin-roofed, shack-like bar in the middle has a TV for game-watching, and some decent local beers on draft. Get into a tray of Gulf oysters here when the season’s right. On the grocery side, cases are stocked with gorgeous Gulf bounty, and all your seafood-grilling, boiling, and baking needs. On the other side, booths and tables sit beneath a wacky cartoon mural depicting a drum-playing octopus, shark waiter, and fancy fish couple. Life-sized replicas of sharks and such hang from the ceiling, and on Mondays, a Dixie band plays and Chesapeake-style king crab legs are just $14.99 a pound, sending the atmospheric awesomeness over the top.

Beyond those, the best choices are soups. Seafood gumbo is chock full of fish, scallops, and shrimp, and is wonderfully thick. Crawfish étouffée is also superb, teeming with crawfish tails. Each is hearty enough for a whole meal. Po’ boys are okay, their hoagie rolls not crunchy enough for the genre; generally, blackened orders are better than fried, which come heavy and greasy. Family packs are convenient—they include fish, sides, and that all-time Southern kid favorite, the hush puppy. Fun for everyone, including, it seems, fish.