The 10 Best Dive Bars in Austin from a Local Austinite

If there is anything I absolutely love, it’s a dang good dive bar. So I made it my personal mission to find the best dive bars in Austin. The stickiest, grungiest, cheapest, best spots for a drink with absolutely not a single frill in sight! We compiled a list of 47 dive bars within Austin city limits, 47 dive bars we thought could potentially reach the top 10. And then we created a strict data based spreadsheet to rank each Austin dive bar with no prejudice. And now we present, after a year of research, the best of the best!

The Dive Bar Ranking Criteria

Price of Beer: The cheaper the beer, the more points the dive bar got. Our base level was Lonestar.

Available Bar Games: Points for having darts, pool, pull tabs (IYKYK), shuffleboard, or whatever bar game!

Type of Music Playing: A single Top 40 song played? Lost points! We wanted grunge music, country, or a total mix

Bathroom Cleanliness: The dirtier the bathroom, the better. You felt clean inside it? No points. Afraid to touch anything? Points.

Windows + Lighting: Darkest gets more points! Having open windows and sunlight? Too fancy, no points for you.

Crowd of People: if the average age felt like it was under 40, no points.

Decor: Highest points given to bars with NO consistent theme, just wild decor choices.

Now, lets begin!!!

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The Ultimate Winner: The Sahara Lounge in East Austin

East Austin || 18 Points Total

The ultimate winner, and the only bar that maxed out points on EVERY single category. We’re talking the cheapest drinks you could find, the most dive-bar like crowd, and decor that made zero sense at all. A bonus is on Saturdays you pay $10 for the all you can eat African buffet that is actually this nice woman who made dinner in several crockpots and then brought it to the bar. I kid you not.

If you’re looking for the dive bar that “Keep Austin Weird” is basically made for, this is the one to be at. You can also find pool tables in the middle, a stage for live music, and random nonsense seating. Plus their outdoor back patio is pretty nice and features fire pits!

For the live music: important to note it will never make sense. You might have a local rock bands playing, or this man who plays the bongo drums. It’s never the same, and you always wonder what’s going on. And that’s what we absolutely LOVE about Sahara Lounge.

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The Aristocrat Lounge

Central Austin, Burnet || 16 Points Total

This one was an absolute FAVORITE for our dive bar ranking squad. Could it have been because we were several beers in by this point? Maybe. But it ranked so high for us all, and even in the data backed ranking criteria.

Our favorite things were 1) the fact it was basically dead empty and 2) the amount of bar games it had available! Several pool tables, shuffleboard tables, and dart boards for the group to enjoy. Also had great deals on drinks, a delicious bloody mary, and bartenders were nice as can be.

Apparently, they even have a happy hour which I just now discovered on their website: $3 wells, cheap cans, and $1 off house cocktails until 7pm every day!

This is one I am sure it’s a point of contention on if it’s a dive bar, but we vote it is and it’s a favorite.

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The Lost Well aka The Friendliest Bar in Austin

East Austin || 16 Points Total

The Lost Well is a grunge DREAM COME TRUE. And an absolute iconic bar that the first time we went, we KNEW would make the list. Firstly, it’s our neighborhood bar so we end up at this spot pretty often. But it deserves the love it gets.

The drinks are CHEAP (Happy Hour everyday from open till 9pm), the bartenders are truly so kind (they always let me try beers if I have never had them before), and the space itself is the definition of dive bar. The music is always so loud that I cannot think and the bathroom, no matter how many times I wash my hands, always makes me feel sticky. And yet, I will always frequent this bar.

They have bar games (they did start charging for them, pretty tragic) and plenty of indoor and outdoor space. The crowd is very biker gang (it reminds me of what Yellow Jacket was back in the day) and the vibe is generally immaculate. A MUST STOP.

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The 04 Lounge

South Congress Austin || 16 Points Total

As you can tell from this photo, this pretty much one of the only bars in Austin where the crowd actually feels like they’re of legal drinking age! We loved the 04 Lounge as soon as we walked in. They have fabulous prices for their beers, jello shot deals, and actual adults. Including adults who brought their families to the bar with them, which personally I believe they should have a bonus point for.

They have bar games (see the above pool table) and the stickiest floor and bathroom. The music is pretty much entirely classic country, didn’t hear a single song from after 1990, so that’s a win!

Overall, we felt like we had been transported back to South Fort Worth with this one, which is rare to find in Central Austin. We absolutely knew this would crush it and we would be back!

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Casino South Side

South Austin || 16 Points Total

This dive is a local Austin staple, where the staff is famous (I won’t say what) and has been the same staff for…as long as I have been alive maybe? Either way, it was obviously going to make the list. Known for generally good deals and prices, an outdoor patio where 100% of the people will be smoking, bar games (pool and darts) galore, and music so loud I cannot think.

The bathrooms also used to be iconic, but we did find that they changed them up and removed some of the staple pieces we had expected. But no matter what, we knew it was going to get enough point to rank on our list and in fact it DID.

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The Side Bar in Downtown Austin

Downtown Austin || 16 Points Total

I can already feel Brittany being like “NO” and I am so sorry, but the math simply does not lie and I cannot gatekeep a bar that qualified for the Top 10 Dive Bars in Austin finals!!!!

The Side Bar, located right between 6th and 7th Downtown, is known for being the spot to be if you’re leaving a show early or waiting for a show to start. One reason it was immediately iconic for us was the fact that our bartender was truly the meanest person in the world to every single one of us. Not even remotely kind. But you know, it’s a dive in downtown Austin what do we expect?

They also have solid deals (despite the fact the bartender kept saying check the website for the specials and I can tell you THEY DONT LIST THEM THERE), some pool tables, a photo booth, and decor that looks like they just raided a Goodwill one day and called it a day. Fair enough.

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Dons Depot

East Austin || 14 Points Total

Don’s Depot is an institution in Austin, and for good reason. This is one where it barely makes the cut, specifically because it’s become SO iconic that it’s usually packed on weekends, the prices have gone up, and you’ll find it on MOST “Best Bars in Austin” lists. Lost points for that.

But reality is, it’s a killer bar for many reasons. It’s got Shiner on top, the clientele is usually found with an average age in the 40s and 50s, they have live music on weekends, the decor makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and because it’s been in Austin longer than I have been alive.

If you want a Texas experience at a killer bar, this is probably going to be the one I recommend.

Also, go to the bathroom here. Trust me.

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La Perla Bar

East Austin || 14 Points Total

You know it’s a dive bar when they do not have a website I can link to, at all. La Perla is an itty bitty Chicano bar in East Austin that’s been around since the 70s. It’s a huge contrast to the REST of what East Austin has become (not been, become) and it’s therefore a favorite of mine in Austin.

It’s TINY so don’t expect to find a seat, and instead stand and talk to the bartenders. Or play a round of pool at the table (if it’s even open), or talk to whatever locals are there! They’ve got gross bathrooms, cheap cheap beers, absolutely no windows, and very likely nobody in their 20s (except me).

Start your night at White Horse pre-cover, end your night at La Perla (where there is literally never a cover) and you’re in for a truly Texan evening.

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Barflys

East Austin || 13 Points Total

If you LOVE a bar game (like me) then you’re absolutely going to want to head to Barfly’s! This North Loop bar has been around since 2001 and it’s dark, no window, dingyness with endless pool tables and dart boards and cheap drinks and dirty bathrooms makes it an immediate must on the list.

The people there are usually a lot younger, but they’re very much not the same crowd you’re finding at most bars in Austin. It’s giving me Yellow Jacket Social Club or Violet Crown way before East Austin turned into what it is. And if you know what either of those two bars were, you’re likely going to love Barfly’s.

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Full Circle

East Austin || 12 Points Total

Obviously a Skee Ball bar is going to have to be on the list of Best Dive Bars in Austin! First of all, they have their own Skee Ball league at Full Circle and that alone makes it a must visit. Second of all, the drinks are cheap and the food is greasy and the bathrooms are mid, so obviously it got points for all of that. The crowd is incredibly random, an eclectic mix of people who love skee ball and people who love cheap drinks on the East Side.

The way this street is being built up definitely makes me feel like Full Circle won’t remain a Dive Bar in Austin for too long, but for now I absolutely recommend you visit it!

Side note: I recently learned they have a location in Brooklyn and that made me fully cackle. The math doesn’t lie and it still remains a dive even if it’s a chain, but it did lose 2 points for that.

Honorable Mentions!

So these Austin Dive Bars didn’t make the cut in the top 10, but they absolutely were favorites by the group. Therefore, they’re being added into this Honorable Mention section and i’ll let you know. They all received at least 10 points in their ranking system, so they’re close contenders!

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