Launderette looks even better in the daylight. Whether you’re out on the patio or inside the dining room, it’s hard to have a daytime meal here without wanting to move out of your own house so you can start over with a place that looks like this. And while dinner at Launderette is a sharing situation, if you’re an only child or just never got good at compromising, you’ll appreciate that you can go to town on your own burger or fried oyster florentine or pastrami hash during brunch.

Brunch at Gabriela’s feels like a tropical vacation at a clubby resort. The restaurant is tucked away on a little hill near Downtown overlooking the Austin skyline, with a patio that feels like it’s always packed—on the weekends, there’s even a DJ spinning everything from old Nelly hits to Bad Bunny. Potted plants hang from the rafters, while the colorful wooden fencing that encloses it all adds a sense of seclusion and escape.

During the week, 1618 on East Riverside serves up excellent renditions of Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Singaporean, and Southeast Asian staples—it’s a restaurant that does a lot of things, and does them well. But once the weekend hits, it’s (almost) all about dim sum, with a small menu that focuses on the classics—like xiao long bao, har kaw, and sui mai—plus a few Vietnamese soups in case someone at your table needs a little hangover helper.

You’ll need to plan things out a few weeks in advance if you want to guarantee yourself a table at Paperboy during prime brunch hours on the weekend—reservations book up fast, but you can always try your luck with a walk-in. Order the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich if you want to see what helped Paperboy go from a trailer to a two-story brunchery. Or take advantage of the fact that there’s a real kitchen by ordering braised pork and sweet potato hash, or some steak and eggs with chimichurri.

Stepping through the front doors of Sawyer & Co on East Cesar Chavez feels like entering a portal to a 1950s diner, complete with stubby yellow barstools and waitstaff walking around with steaming pots of coffee. The menu looks and tastes like what you’d find at a classic diner—with a little bit of Austin and New Orleans touches mixed in—which means you can expect to find dishes like a Cajun scramble with crawfish etouffee right next to a pork carnitas benedict with queso and biscuits.

The people at Dai Due on Manor Road harness all of their superpowers—baking, butchery, wood-fire grilling, and tallow-frying—at brunch. So yes, you should order all the pastries, including seasonal fruit-filled kolaches, tallow-fried donuts, and wild boar boudin klobasneks. Yes, you will have a hard time choosing between the breakfast sandwich made with an antelope breakfast sausage or the dry-aged wagyu double cheeseburger.

Sometimes we like brunch at Suerte even better than dinner at Suerte. And while you can still get the iconic suadero tacos any time, there’s a good amount of memorable brunch-only dishes, like smoked salmon tostadas, chilaquiles, steak and eggs with a mole chichilo, or a smoked lengua hash. You should just order all of the fun and imaginative pan dulce like pistachio conchas or kolaches with huitalcoche and manchego—they rotate all the time.

Mattie’s has the type of wraparound porch you might design for your dream house. This restaurant in a historic mansion is hidden away in Bouldin Creek, and has been serving brunch since the ’40s. A recent renovation has only made it more pleasant, filling the patio, lobby, bars, and main dining rooms with the kind of vintage decor that looks authentic but doesn’t smell like mothballs. The food has the same upgraded old-school feel, with grits, biscuits, and fried chicken all available.

During the week, Hold Out is one of our favorite spots to sit outside with a burger, some wings, and a beer—this Clarksville brewpub does it all, and does it well. Adding further to its list of food accomplishments is the weekend brunch menu. And while you can (and probably should) get a burger at brunch to share with the table, most of the menu is made up of creative takes on classic breakfast items that you’ll want to make a part of your order.

Sick of eggs benedict and pancakes and avocado toast? Direct yourself to Sunday dim sum at Wu Chow. This is your best opportunity to sample a ton of stuff from this upscale Chinese spot downtown - and while they don’t do cart service, they make up for it with cocktails. Take advantage of the fact that you can make reservations for brunch, come with a big group, and order everything from (best-in-town) soup dumplings to scallion pancakes to baked pineapple bao.