Since 1954, this laidback landmark has been providing quantities of dockside cafe food and live music on the waterfront stage. Ski Shores looks like a classic wharfside diner from the Flipper era. Easily approached by boat, you can also get there from City Park Road.

"Dock and Dine"

      If you are spending the day boating or skiing Lake Austin, take a break and visit Ski Shores Waterfront Cafe. The boat dock has capacity for 12-15 boats, so you can "park" the boat and treat the whole family to lunch, dinner, or drinks right on the waterfront. An Austin tradition since 1954, it's fun, funky, family-oriented place with good food, cold beer, and a laid-back atmosphere. Ski Shores features live music on the deck Friday, Saturday, and Sunday by many of Austin's favorite performers. Take your shoes off, make yourself at home, and relax!

Authentic Austin Waterfront Watering Hole

      Ski Shores is an Austin original, and it's fabulous. It's well worth the 25 minute drive from downtown (or 25 minute boat ride) to relax on the banks of Lake Austin on the weathered deck in the shade of Cypress trees. The atmosphere is reason enough to go Ski Shores, but while your there have some of Austin's best burgers, catfish, and fries. Check the music listings before going as local singer/songwriters play there on the weekends.

The Austin Chronicle: American Cafes

      Since 1954, this laidback landmark has been providing quantities of dockside cafe food - lotsa burgers and sandwiches, lotsa fried snacks, ice cream, sodas, and beer - to lotsa folks out for a good time on the water. Most easily approached by boat, you can also get there from City Park Road. Live music on the waterfront stage is common in the early evening and, for the intrepid, the place is even open in the winter.

Best of Austin 1998 - "Best two-hour $5 vacation"

      Out near City Park, 30 minutes from downtown, a relaxed resort attitude permeates this hamburger joint like the smell of motor boats and beer. The cheap menu is the hook and the yummy food is the sinker. Off-duty musicians (like Stevie Ray Vaughan) have been coming to hang out at this quiet little piece of Austin-yesteryear for years now. Swimsuited kids let out water-logged, caffeine giggles as they run up and down the docks. Boaters lean way back in their chairs, letting their sunburns heal in the faint porch lights that shine across the water like idle fireflies.

Best of Austin 1999 - "Best Ride to a Step Back in Time"

      It's just a stone's throw across the lake, but the drive is something else. Once off the main road it weaves and winds down a dark, secluded two-laner that makes you feel miles from anywhere. At the bottom of the hill the reward is stumbling upon the lakeside shack that that recalls the set of a 1960's teen movie. Frills are few here in this building's design, with its walk-up order window and outdoor seating, but that just adds to the character. Hamburgers, french fries, and cold beer prevail to guarantee an evening or afternoon of unadulterated lakeside lollygagging.

Austin Chronicle Vol. 16, issue 49 - Lake Food

      If you approach this lakeside fixture by car, you'll do a good deal of downhill driving through rural subdivisions and lots of brown grassland, and just when you think you've made a wrong turn about five miles back. BOOM.. there's the lake. Situated on the Lake Austin and operating since 1954, Ski Shores looks like a classic wharfside diner from the Flipper era. A simple snack bar menu (burgers, battered fries, delicate fried catfish) and selection of bottled beers suit the location perfectly. Why complicate things when you can just kick back and watch the boats go by?

Best of Austin - "Best Place to Have Dinner in your Bathing Suit"

      The congnoscenti arrive by water. We drive. Either way this dockside joint earns top honors in the relaxation department. Gorge on beer and battered fries while you critique the style of passing skiers (a great antidote to boat lust). Fine oldies jukebox makes the twilight timeless here. If Valium were a restaurant, this would be it.

Best of Austin 2002 - "Best Place to Chill on Lake Austin"

      If you can't afford to pop for a hillside mansion, a million-dollar lake house, or even a zippy little ski boat, Lake Austin is still within your reach. Make a left off 2222 onto City Park Road and wind all over God's creation until you come to and unpretentious little burger shack straight out of the 1950's. Shade starts at about 4:30 p.m. and lasts until sundown. Sit out on the lawn and watch the water sports or feed the ducks from the shade covered deck. Good, affordable grub, beer with names you can pronounce, live music, and multimillion-dollar ambience make Ski Shores an Austin treasure.

50 things to do in AUSTIN

      "All about Austin" - May 1997 - #10 Boat down Lake Austin and dock along the way for a bite or an earfull of music at Ski Shores.

"Dine on the Dock"

      An Austin tradition since 1954, the Ski Shores Waterfront Cafe is a funky place with good food, cold beer, and a great homey atmosphere, perfect for meeting family and friends after a day at the lake. Located right on Lake Austin. Ski Shores has a boat dock with capacity for12-15 boats where you can "park" and get out for lunch, dinner, or drinks on the waterfront. Live music on the deck on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.