HOUGuide
The 25 Best Restaurants In Houston
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Have you ever woken up and thought, “Gosh, I’d love to eat at a second-best restaurant today?” Of course not. Whether you’ve lived here your entire life or are visiting for the first time, it’s human nature to want to experience the best of the best. And that’s exactly why we wrote this guide.
These are the highest-rated restaurants in Houston—the ones we’d sit in an hour of traffic on 59 and wouldn't complain about. Food and experience are both taken into consideration, and any type of dining establishment is fair game. On this list, you’ll find sushi restaurants, casual barbecue joints, and walk-up taco trucks. Every city has its classics and its hot new places, but these are restaurants where greatness is guaranteed.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Kata Robata operates on a level most places only dream of. Despite its long sushi list, plus izakaya dishes like silken chawanmushi, and smoky grilled hamachi kama, the Upper Kirby spot never gets bogged down or skimps on quality. Everything runs like clockwork, as though it’s been pumping out sushi and grilled skewers since the beginning of time. Whatever you’ve come here for—a proper omakase at the sushi bar, or a simple bowl of ramen—Kata handles any situation with ease.
photo credit: Vivian Leba
Nancy’s Hustle is the cool restaurant that gets better with every visit. The music is effortlessly curated and the lighting is set to the perfect hue of date-night amber. It's one of the hardest reservations to book, but Nancy's is worth the effort. The menu rotates with the seasons, but count on the mainstays like the fluffy Nancy Cakes, double-patty topped with briny pickles, and the delicate lamb tartare to be on the menu (which means they should also be on your table).
Houston (and Texas in general) is synonymous with beef, and no place epitomizes the final, heavenly form of a hunk of beef better than Pappas Bros. Steakhouse. Every cut gets dry-aged in-house for a minimum of 28 days, seared to form a crispy, salt-flecked crust, and served solo on a hot plate like a sizzling jewel. This is the best steakhouse in town, so expect perfectly butchered petite filets and prehistoric-looking tomahawks carved tableside on one of those fancy carts. Dinner here makes you feel like a wealthy cattle baron, mostly due to the many paintings of longhorns on the prairie, but also the lingering scent of seared beef, servers buttoned up in tuxedo vests, and luxurious dark-wood walls.
Hugo’s is a rite of passage—the historic stunner was built in 1925 and has high ceilings and chandeliers that look like they’re on loan from a castle. At this upscale Mexican restaurant in Montrose, the details matter, including margaritas that get shaken tableside, or personal tableside handbag racks. The place operates with the quiet confidence of an institution. Hugo’s knows how good its tender barbacoa wrapped in banana leaf is. Or, the chapulines with spicy salsa and blue corn tortillas that make you forget your manners when there’s only one left. And it’s not just a dinner spot. Celebrate a birthday or fend off the Sunday scaries at the mile-long brunch buffet with a plate of chilaquiles.
photo credit: Liz Silva
Dinner at Jūn is all hits, no misses. The Heights restaurant does the whole small plates thing better than the rest. Flavors and textures so blissfully fade one into the next—carrots with salsa macha and Salvadoran cheese leading into a bowl of savory grits with carne seca and tomato—that once dessert hits the table, the meal becomes personal, as though Jūn reached into your soul and created food meant solely for you. No matter how many times we eat at Jūn, or what evolves on the menu, the experience remains unchanged.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Reggae Hut quietly serves the best Jamaican food in the city. All of the classics are accounted for at this Third Ward spot—jerk chicken doused in scotch bonnet that’ll raise your basal temperature a few degrees, caramelized plantains that could pass as dessert, and oxtails served in a pool of rich, spiced gravy. Even making a sandwich of flaky patties filled with spiced beef and slightly sweet cocoa bread can inspire someone to take an extra long lunch. Add in the sounds of Sister Nancy and a crisp ting soda, and you might find yourself getting another beef patty to go.
At night, the dining room at Tatemó looks near pitch black, with only flickering candles and faint wall sconces to illuminate the corn-packed seven-course tasting menu. This tiny Mexican restaurant in a nondescript Spring Branch strip center is a temple of tortillas—or, more specifically, masa. The focus is on heirloom Mexican corn, nixtamalized in-house, the smell of which floats around the room like a faint puff of perfume. Servers quietly whisper each heirloom’s name as you stare into a tiny plate with a dish like a yellow corn tortilla blanketed in rich mole, a thick sope smothered in shaved cheese, or a tiny buñuelo crisp over a scoop of masa ice cream. When dinner is over, and you leave with only the smell of masa wafting behind you, you’ll wonder when you can pay homage again.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
The food at Katami is so good that we would voluntarily embarrass ourselves by wearing a Rangers t-shirt to every Astros game if that were the only way to eat there. If you’re looking for a high-end sushi experience, this is the one. Order a chef’s selection of sashimi and what arrives is a mountain of ice and glass dripping in flowers nestled around glistening cuts of silver-skinned gizzard shad, intense but sweet barracuda, and perfectly pink hamachi. Everything here is like a chic mullet: trim and precise up front, but packing a flavor supernova in the back. And while you might drop quite a few Benjamins on dinner, the experience justifies every cent.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Squable exists as a reminder to all why Houston should be considered one of the great food destinations of America. And that, as a city, we can achieve great things, like going to the moon or birthing Beyoncé. Come here for an incredible brunch punctuated by hashbrown towers dripping in hollandaise. Or a special dinner that starts with acid-punched oysters, moves into agnolotti pillows in savory broth next to funky raclette burgers, and ends with toasted pan de mie topped with ice cream. No matter the occasion, the food at Squable makes it even more special.
photo credit: Quit Nguyen
This is one of the best sandwiches in America, and it only costs $5. It’s so good that, if the world were ending, we would save Alpha Bakery & Cafe’s dặc biệt bánh mì for the annals of history. Because while there’s no shortage of Vietnamese food or bánh mì in Houston, Alpha Bakery’s bánh mì is special. This sandwich is stuffed with thick layers of mayonnaise and butter, pâté, chả lụa (bologna), pork belly, giò thủ (head cheese), and a fistful of sliced vegetables and herbs all in a housemade mini-baguette.
Street To Kitchen will leave you questioning if you’ve ever had spice in the first place. This East End Thai restaurant’s crisp papaya salad gets crunchier and spicier with each bite and the acidic tom yum soup laced with shrimp and mushrooms only intensifies the burn. But the heat is all part of the experience and makes leaning in with a date over mango sticky rice for dessert much sweeter. Mix in the neon signs, music that encourages seat shimmying, and the most serious Thai food in town and we’ve got one the best restaurants for a romantic night out, or a spot to catch up with friends over frozen thai tea.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Sheba could be named, “The Restaurant That Makes The Best Lamb Dishes You Will Ever Eat.” But we get that might have been difficult for the Yemeni spot in Gulton to squeeze onto a sign. When the roast lamb and saffron rice arrive, dump each onto the plastic tablecloth. Then, shove fistfuls into your mouth with your hands, as is both customary and irresistible. It’s fun. The Hanith lamb, slow-roasted on the bone, arrives so tender it falls apart at the slightest quiver. It’s gamey but sweet, full of warm spices, and unbelievably comforting. Finish the lamb tour de force with a bowl of spicy maeaq soup and tea, or, perhaps, more lamb.
photo credit: Liz Silva
Whether you grab a seat at this counter-service spot or get your meal to go, you’re eating the best South Indian food in Houston. Shri Balaji Bhavan specializes in chaats, and every single one we’ve ordered is somehow better than the last. Like the samosa chaat, a large fried dumpling smothered in so many different spicy and tangy sauces you can barely see it. Try the pav bhaji, a simple tray of spicy vegetable mash with buttered, soft buns to dredge until the tray looks wiped clean. While Shri Balaji Bhavan may resemble most spots up and down this strip of Hillcroft, the expertly spiced food sets it apart.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Lifelong Houstonians who grew up going to rodeo cookouts or big country picnics will instantly recognize Triple J’s style of barbecue. It’s part country cookout and part East Texas potluck, all slow-smoked together into something uniquely Houston. This mostly to-go Trinity Gardens spot’s smoky, sauced-up pork ribs, fire-breathing boudin, and fatty sausage will expand your definition of what constitutes incredible barbecue. The sides here hit just right, with homestyle macaroni and cheese and pot likker-stewed green beans that have the same soulful flavor as any of the meat. This old-school joint holds it down—and if the extra sauce is needed, pour out as much as desired from the five-gallon spigot bucket Triple J’s keeps on hand.
photo credit: Liz Silva
At Afrikiko, each dish tastes like it was made for you because you have an in with the cooks in the back. In other words, this is Houston’s best Ghanaian food. The tiny Westwood joint’s jollof rice is slightly sweet with a little acidity from the tomato base, the mounds of waakye have been smoked to high heaven, and the flaky, fried tilapia dissolves into fluffy, house-made banku. Afrikiko is for a relaxed weeknight when you’re in the mood for jollof rice or to make friends with the regulars who sip malt beer nightly.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Cuchara’s brunch blurs where the party begins and the restaurant ends. A full, kitted-out mariachi band roams around the colorful Montrose restaurant while folks spoon up posole and huevos divorciados between glugging micheladas and bloody marias. Plates arrive with tiny, toy donkeys riding waves of fresh panela cheese and cinco leches cakes in a pool of caramel sauce. And Cuchara keeps the party going well into dinner, with a page full of margaritas.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Hai Cang is built for taking down truckloads of seafood with a ravenous group of friends. Even better, BYOB is allowed if not encouraged here. As the adage goes, everything is bigger in Texas, and that’s the case at this Vietnamese-Chinese seafood restaurant in Chinatown. Everything here is, in fact, gigantic—like the massive neon sign outside—but especially the food. Massive lobsters and crabs float around in seafood tanks. Order these by the pound. Then, once dry-fried or tossed in sauce, hulking platters of rice are stuffed back into glistening crustacean shells and heaved onto a rotating platform at the center of the table.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Only in Houston could you find such a playful combination of Southeastern classics, Gulf-Coast seafood, and a few city-specific references. The redfish coated in chermoula gives a nod to African influence, and the cracked crab fingers are soaked with Vietnamese peanut sauce. But it’s still perfectly country with their–pea salad and puffed-up biscuits that remind us that this is a restaurant from the South first. Come to this Midtown spot when you miss the family reunion and need a meal that feels just as similar.
photo credit: Liz Silva
At first, Neo is hard to find. The exclusive, 10-seat counter is located inside a Montrose townhouse behind a clothing couturier. You might wonder what the hell you’re doing in a store with clothing somehow even more expensive than the meal you are about to eat. But once you’re whisked behind a closed door and handed that first piece of nigiri, any bit of confusion disappears. Dinner consists of sixteen-something courses of straight sushi. Each piece builds on the last and is served at the perfect temperature with light drizzles of sauce or minimal toppings. It’s blissful sushi matrimony.
photo credit: Liz Silva
Whenever asked to imagine a dream meal, the nam khao from Sao Lao Thai Cafe comes to mind. The Northside spot’s nam khao arrives as a giant bowl of crispy rice, pork, and silky tripe that we all but launch into as if shot out of a cannon. It’s got this sweet, tangy, and acidic funk we cannot stop ourselves from inhaling until we’re scraping the last dregs with a lettuce leaf. Something about the bits of crunchy rice spiking the dish with ribbons of herbs and soft pork itches our lizard brain. Especially when surrounded by funky lao sausage, rich red curry, and massive mason jars of thai tea.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Nothing compares to the warmth emanating from a taco truck window. When you want to huddle around that warmth and get the best tacos pastor in the city, get in line at Tacos La Sultana in the East End. These tacos are delivered by an ethereal being (the taquero), made of an otherworldly substance (high-quality pork), and imbued with mystical powers (expertly roasted and lightly charred). You don’t consume these tacos, you experience them. La Sultana’s truck shares a patio with the bar next door, so crack a couple of cold ones over a massive plate of delicious pork.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
With 50 years under its belt and a patio consistently packed, Burns Original BBQ is a legend. An Acres Homes landmark, this spot specializes in East Texas style ‘cue that crowns the pork rib king and comes with sides that need to be brought to your table with a forklift. After ordering at the counter indoors, find your place at a picnic table out front and prepare to clean the pork ribs off the bone and work your way through a small mountain of smoky baked beans, too. You may never utter a word but you and those folks on the porch have all been changed (thank you, chopped beef baked potato). Because at Burns, the best dish only depends on who you ask.
photo credit: Liz Silva
Chopnblok fast-casualifies West African food, and it’s amazing. They take traditional dishes and dress them down into convenient bowls, like the Green & Tings where rice gets tossed with nutty, vinegary Liberian-style collard greens. Chopnblok comes with heavy hitters. We suggest getting with the Trad bowl, composed of smoky jollof rice, sweet kelewele, and mixed vegetables coated in a yaji spice. We’d happily brave the masses inside of the Post Market food hall and be compelled to buy some $8 popcorn from the good folks at Chopnblok, too.
photo credit: Liz Silva
No one at Giacomo’s is out to impress you, outside of serving excellent cacio e pepe. Here Italian food is served en masse with a gigantic wine list. Everything is fantastic, like the thin-shaved brussels sprouts salad with lemon and pine nuts, or mozzarella-stuffed grilled radicchio with just a kiss of char. The somewhat aloof service gives Giacomo’s even more charm, as does the outdated kitschy interior and the explosion of wine boxes across the restaurant. But despite its chaos, Giacomo’s is for everyone, whether you want a quiet date night or a place to let your toddler smear their face with alfredo sauce.
photo credit: Liz Silva
Pampa Grill might be the only place in Houston where you can eat a large platter of Argentinian meat while listening to a mustachioed man croon opera over soccer matches on TV. Bring your own bottle of wine (we suggest an Argentinian one), and get in and out with a belly full of beef for under $100. On Friday nights, when the one-man-show occurs, the romantic tension wafting from the table-sized-griddle holding charred asado de tiro, flank and skirt steak, and chorizo increases exponentially—especially when you throw in a few empanadas de queso and smother everything in chimichurri. Cut the tension with a knife, literally, as well as the smoky, seared meat-fruits of Argentina with a side of old-school ambiance.
