Section 03

Where to eat.

Houston is the most diverse big city in America, and the food scene reflects it. You can eat Tex-Mex, Viet-Cajun, Nigerian, Persian, and award-winning new-American — sometimes within the same strip mall. Below is how we'd send a visitor in.

Tex-Mex & Mexican

The genre Houston arguably owns. Tex-Mex isn't Mexican food badly imitated — it's its own thing, born here.

Ninfa's on Navigation

The original location of the restaurant credited with inventing fajitas. Order them.

El Tiempo Cantina

Festive, family-style Tex-Mex. Multiple locations across the city.

Hugo's

Hugo Ortega's interior Mexican cuisine — moles, Oaxacan dishes, an obligatory weekend brunch.

Xochi

Hugo's Oaxacan flagship downtown. Get the mole tasting if it's available.

Viet-Cajun & Crawfish

Houston has the third-largest Vietnamese population in the U.S., and Vietnamese cooks crashed crawfish boils with garlic, butter, and chiles. The result is one of the city's most distinct food traditions.

Crawfish & Noodles

Trong Nguyen's Bellaire icon. The dish to order is exactly what the name says.

BB's Tex-Orleans

Crawfish boils with multiple seasoning blends. Bring napkins.

Cajun Kitchen

Boudin balls and étouffée done right. Strip-mall hidden gem in southwest Houston.

Barbecue

Texas BBQ in Houston means brisket, and the city quietly has some of the best of it — without the Austin queues.

Truth BBQ

Leonard Botello's brisket frequently ranks among the best in Texas. Pies are also serious.

Pinkerton's Barbecue

Heights smokehouse with technically masterful brisket and inventive sides.

Killen's Barbecue

Ronnie Killen's Pearland temple of meat. Worth the drive south.

Goode Company Barbeque

The classic. Been here since 1977. Get the jalapeño cheese bread.

Fine dining & special occasion

Houston punches well above its national reputation here. James Beard winners scattered around the city.

Theodore Rex

Justin Yu's Heights restaurant. Modern, vegetable-forward, James Beard winner.

March

Mediterranean tasting menu, ambitious and refined. Splurge territory.

Bludorn

Aaron Bludorn (formerly Cafe Boulud) brought New York polish to Montrose. Reliable for a celebration.

Nobie's

Inventive, hard to categorize, and consistently one of the best dining experiences in town.

Casual and where locals actually go

The neighborhood spots that show up in our group texts.

Lucille's

Soul food, Southern, on the edge of the Museum District. Don't skip the chicken.

Doris Metropolitan

Israeli-style steakhouse. Counter-intuitive, excellent.

Coltivare

Heights neighborhood Italian with a backyard garden. Pizza is the move.

Killen's STQ

Casual Killen — burgers, brisket, pasta, all done at a higher level than they need to be.