A great Vietnamese brewpub with a wide beer selection and delicious bo luc lac.

Best Vietnamese style crawfish you can get outside of your Vietnamese friend’s family crawfish boils.

Second favorite within-driving-distance-to-Downtown lunch spot for Vietnamese food. I usually pair a banh mi with the wonton soup, but I also love the banh xeo here.

Best phở in town. Great bun bo hue as well.

Overall best banh mi in town. I love the special (dac biet) and the chopped ribeye sandwiches.

Best classic banh mi. Get the grilled pork sando.

Best homestyle Vietnamese/best Vietnamese restaurant within lunch-break-driving-distance from Downtown. Also one of my most-recommended restaurants in general. Things to order: #8, #5, #16, #50, #58, #64 (always order with additional lap xuong), #70, #94, #S3, #F5 with shrimp

A cool outdoor beer garden right in downtown Magnolia. They’ve always got some fun limited-release beers on tap, but start with their Yellow Rose, a fantastic SMaSH (single malt and single hop) IPA.

Great coffee conveniently located near Tejas BBQ

Things to order: of course, you’ve gotta get the Texas Trinity of brisket, ribs, and sausage – and for your sausage link I highly recommend ordering their chile relleno sausage. Honestly my favorite sausage link in town. Grab a chocolate bon-bon on your way out. And if they’re not too busy, ask the owner (you’ll see him checking on tables throughout your meal) if he’ll give you a tour of their smokers so you can geek out at their sweet setup.

Their Reuben and their turkey katsu sandwich are the two best barbecue sandwiches in town.

Central TX bbq perfection.

Try the tacos - the tortillas made with brisket fat are divine.

Solid.

Best bbq sides in town

my favorite standalone ice cream shop/now burgeoning dessert empire with three locations across town. My favorite flavor here is the heart of glass, which I attest is greatly enhanced by a post-ice cream listen of Blondie’s Heart of Glass in your car

my vote for Houston’s ~vibe~-iest restaurant. Tiny Champions (feels important to note that it is a sister restaurant of the great Nancy’s Hustle) represents what I like most about Houston dining – it’s unpretentious, unassuming, impossibly hip (if you’re anything like me, your elder millennial will come out when you Shazam every song that comes on over the speakers), and incredibly vibey, with an admirable attention to detail and a level of craft you can truly taste in their pizzas and pastas. All this is accompanied by an eclectically taut wine list with a bunch of fun bottles, and their drink list has plenty of cool cocktails (and good mocktails too!). Get a group of your coolest friends together (my magic number for a party here is five people) and book a reservation here. Or do as I like to do - stop by on your commute home and make some new friends while eating dinner at the bar. If your work schedule allows, head there on Wednesdays right after they open at 5 for a slice of their weekly special Detroit-style pizza. Things to order: everything. Everything is good here. Here’s an example order that my magic number party of five should be able to conquer: fried scamorza cheese balls, mushroom salad, butter beans (don’t skip these), radiator pasta, a pork milanese shared plate, sausage pizza, and do not skip dessert. I cannot emphasize enough that the cookies n cream sherry flavor ice cream is the single best scoop in Houston.

a great, relatively new trattoria serving exemplary Italian food in the space that formerly housed Kanomwan Thai restaurant (RIP). Chef Fernando Rios opened Mimo with Mike Sammons – they’ve worked together at restaurants including Da Marco, and Sammons (founder of 13 Celsius wine bar) has put together a great Italian-focused wine list with a lot of neat bottles. Things to order: It’s all good, but the menu looks completely different from last time I went, so I don’t have any specific recs. Go with your heart. The bar is beer and wine only (no liquor), but that has an added advantage of allowing you to BYOB if you so desire.

some of the best street foods this side of Bangkok. They have an exemplary bowl of khao soi here, which isn’t the easiest dish to find on a lot of Thai menus here in Houston.

Houston’s best Thai food, prepared by 2023 JAMES BEARD BEST CHEF TEXAS AWARD WINNING Chef G. Her husband Graham can usually be found working the front of house here, and he can help you pick some accompanying wines from their fun, eclectic, well-curated list. It’s been fun to watch them grow from their tiny old location to their new fun space a little closer into town. One caveat: they serve “unapologetically authentic” Thai cuisine here, meaning they’re not too big on substitutions or requests for spice level modifications. If you know for sure that someone in your party doesn’t like any spice at all, or if you’re the type of person who always requests changes to a dish when ordering, then I would advise you to look at the menu beforehand, lest you want to get labeled a “Karen” by the staff. Things to order: Everything on the menu is great, but go for dinner on Friday or Saturday for some perennially outstanding off-menu specials, often featuring provisions sourced from vendors at the Urban Harvest Farmer’s Market, where S2K got their start.

Houston’s quintessential dim sum experience. On weekends, come hungry at brunch/lunchtime and order a spread of dumplings for a big group. Don’t be intimidated by the large menu - everything here is good, so you really can’t go wrong with whatever you order. Things to order: start with a pot of chrysanthemum tea and then just start ordering whatever looks good from the carts being wheeled around by the nice old ladies. Some of my must-orders include xiao long bao soup dumplings, siu mai dumplings, and har gow dumplings, and if you’re feeling adventurous, try the braised chicken feet.

Great Korean food.

Great izakaya.

.With a general focus on Cantonese cuisine, but with selections from other east Asian cultures as well, Mein is a great, approachable place for a group to get a taste of Houston’s Asiatown around Bellaire Boulevard.. Things to order: get a little bit of everything to share, but don’t skip the squid ink fried rice, and make sure you save room for the lava toast dessert.

my honorable mention second-favorite ramen spot, Tamashi Ramen. Their curry tsukemen and Tamashi’s Menn bowls are my favorite non-traditional noods in town.

Ramen Bar Ichi on Dairy Ashford has my vote for Houston’s best tonkotsu ramen. After my Japan trip in 2017, I’ve tried most of the bowls of ramen in town to see if I can find the most authentic one, and the bowls they serve at Bar Ichi come the closest to that Platonic ideal. Silky rich pork bone broth, noodles with that perfect kansui-inflected chew, and brilliantly-rendered pork belly chashu on top combine for a truly soul-warming meal. Bar Ichi also gets bonus points for being right next to Seiwa Market, Houston’s best Japanese grocer, making my semi-regular pantry Japanese ingredient resupply runs into tasty adventures. Things to order: tonkotsu ramen (be sure to add an ajitama seasoned egg on top); if you’re going by yourself, you likely won’t need a starter, but if you’re especially hungry or you’re with a group, the chicken karaage nugs or takoyaki octopus balls are v tasty.

my favorite place to go for a party of six people who all want to consume meat. The play here for a group is to order a few apps and sides alongside the massive tapa de lomo ribeye cap to share. The cap (aka spinalis dorsi muscle) is the best, most-marbled-with-fat muscle on the entire cow, and getting it here with a group of like-minded diners is the best way to experience it. Although the wine list could be better, the margaritas are good, and Saltillo is distinguished for me drinks-wise as it is where I was introduced to the carajillo, the espresso martini’s cool older brother. I have had many a carajillo since that first one, but I haven't yet had another one match the presentation as served here. Things to order: the tapa de lomo special comes with some sides, but throw in some queso fundido and/or cubos de queso frito to start. And when you order an espresso martini as a digestif but they recommend you try a carajillo instead, heed that advice, friend.

BORI is my favorite steakhouse in Houston, full stop. Their upscale take on Korean BBQ is extremely accessible as the attentive waitstaff take care of all of the grilling for you. Great banchan, extensive selection of soju flavors (try the peach), and I’ll reiterate that the waitstaff there will help you every step of the way if you’ve never had KBBQ before. Things to order: go with a group so you can order the Butcher’s Feast, and make sure at least one of your meat selections is marinated. Start with a seafood pancake. If you don’t get a combo that includes it, be sure to order a side or two of the corn cheese (literally corn + cheese) for the best Korean drinking food.