HOUGuide
The Best Deals For Houston Restaurant Weeks
photo credit: Traveler's Table
Houston Restaurant Weeks is upon us yet again. Or, as we like to call, those four weeks at the end of summer when hundreds of restaurants across the city suddenly have a three-course menu. So if you’ve been trying to blackout your restaurant bingo card, or you’re looking for a more affordable way to get into that expensive spot you’ve been meaning to check out forever, now’s the time. Plus, restaurants donate $7 per dinner (and $3 at lunch and brunch) to the Houston Food Bank. It’s a win-win-win. Here are 21 of our favorite spots to make a reservation at during Houston Restaurant Weeks.
THE SPOTS
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person.
Why We Like It: Pappas Bros. Steakhouse not only serves some of the best steak in town, but also makes you feel a little fancy. Plus, the cost of this tasting menu alone is what you would probably pay for a steak during the rest of the year. Order a caesar or house salad, a dry-aged 8 oz filet or 10oz ribeye, and try a thick slice of cheesecake for dessert.
photo credit: Jenn Duncan
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person.
Why We Like It: To get the full experience at Eau Tour, the Rice Village French bistro, you’ll want to hit up as many sections of the menu as possible. And during HRW, $55 will provide a three-course-dinner that provides a pretty good spread of their menu. Have your pick of any of the first two courses, but be sure to devote your last course to the excellent olive oil cake.
photo credit: Rainbow Lodge
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The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person—optional wine pairings are available for anywhere from $29 to $139 per person. Three-course lunch or brunch at $25 per person.
Why We Like It: A classic Houston restaurant deep in The Heights, Rainbow Lodge’s wild game-focused menu here is served up in a replica of a wooden lodge. The best move is to take a few other people and order different cuts of meat so everyone can try crispy rabbit, seared venison, and the smoked duck gumbo.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $39 per person.
Why We Like It: Nearly everything at Winnie’s, a low-key Cajun bar and restaurant in Midtown, tastes pretty damn good. Being able to get Winnie’s addictive dark-roux gumbo (maybe our favorite in town), tomatillo campechana, and a spicy catfish po boy all for $39 is hard to argue with. Especially when you throw a frozen peach bourbon tea icee from the bar. Make the visit a two-fer by hitting up Happy Hour then ordering from the HRW menu.
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person.
Why We Like It: Like many hotel restaurants, spending $55 on a meal at Safina in the Medical Center will get you an entree and an appetizer if you’re lucky. But during HRW, you can swing by the Mediterranean restaurant for an entree, like the saffron risotto, an appetizer, and a slice of lemon pie for the same price.
photo credit: Kirsten Gilliam
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person.
Why We Like It: Traveler’s Table has a huge menu. The international-cuisine-focused restaurant in Montrose criss-crosses the globe multiple times, and its HRW menu is no different. Choose your own adventure here, and try Hawaiian-style crispy chicken, Nigerian suya, Brazilian shrimp moqueca, or New Orleans bourbon bread pudding. There are multiple options for each course–you could go two or three times and never have the same meal.
photo credit: Jenn Duncan
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person. Two-course lunch at $25 per person.
Why We Like It: Ostia understands that nearly everyone who eats at the Montrose Italian restaurant loves the roast chicken, so it being on the HRW menu is a no-brainer. Try Ostia’s delicious bird alongside some bruschetta and basque cheesecake. And make sure to sit in the dreamy greenhouse dining room.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person. (Fourth course for an additional fee.)
Why We Like It: Any excuse to get dolled up and head to Karne, a glitzy Korean steakhouse in the Heights, is one you should take. And with a three-course dinner option that lets you sample some of the best meats on their menu for $55 per person, it may be time to dig out your good suit jacket. Get some hanger steak or marinated rib meat grilled tableside, and opt for a fourth course if you’re feeling particularly indulgent.
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person.
Why We Like It: People watching at the French bistro Brasserie 19 almost qualifies as an Olympic sport. And the $55 HRW menu at the River Oaks restaurant seems like a steal for participating in such a non-stop form of high art entertainment. Take down a few deviled eggs, trout almondine, or a grilled hanger steak with bone marrow, all while watching unleashed housewives, would-be socialites, and wine-spiked regulars traipse in and out of Brasserie 19’s front door.
photo credit: Chelsea Thomas
The Deal: Four-course dinner at $55 per person. Three-course lunch at $25 per person.
Why We Like It: Mimo wants you to try both a pasta and a plated entree, and the four-course HRW menu is designed for you to do just that. Plus get a few appetizers and some light desserts, like amaretti cookies. We suggest also going for lunch when you can grab a soup and a sandwich for $25.
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person. Two-course lunch or brunch for $29 per person.
Why We Like It: Somehow Liberty Kitchen & Oysterette, a seafood restaurant in River Oaks, managed to squeeze generous courses of parmesan-crusted chargrilled oysters, blackened redfish with jumbo lump crab, and white chocolate raspberry bread pudding as options (yes, there’s more!) on its three-course HRW menu. We don’t know how they did it, but we might swing by every week.
photo credit: Michael Anthony
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $39 per person. Two-course lunch at $25 per person.
Why We Like It: Everything at the Vietnamese restaurant Dinette in The Heights is fantastic, so choosing between a few dishes on a regular day is like trying to solve multiple differential math equations (again, we do not do math). But this HRW menu gives you what you want: three courses of all savory food for only $39. Catch us at the bar with a tiki cocktail at least once a week.
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person. Two-course lunch for $25 per person.
Why We Like It: Hugo’s in Montrose is one our favorite Mexican restaurants in town because every meal there feels special, no matter the occasion. The HRW menu at Hugo’s is a bit unconventional: the third course lists a few savory dishes as well as the option of dessert (a chocolate cake with dulce de leche). We say go all in on savory so you can explore even more of Hugo’s massive menu. That also means you can get whatever you want for dessert.
photo credit: Kristin Gilliam
The Deal: Four-course dinner at $55 per person.
Why We Like It: Hamsa replicates the experience of ordering a few different shareable small plates from its everyday menu with a HRW four-course fleet of snacks, salads, skewers, and desserts. Start with a flight of salatim dips, a salad, and whatever meat (or mushroom) skewer suits you. The best bet is to gamify and go for a date night or a lowkey weeknight dinner and split everything.
photo credit: John Suh
The Deal: Four-course dinner at $39 per person.
Why We Like It: Four courses at Xin Chao, a Vietnamese restaurant in Sixth Ward, will likely fill you up. A hard thing to beat for only $39. Try wagyu meatballs glazed in fish sauce, a grilled pork chop with crispy enoki mushrooms, or an ube pound cake for dessert. Xin Chao will then top everything off for you with a caviar and pineapple sorbet crowned oyster. What a send off.
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person.
Why We Like It: One of the best things about Bungalow’s HRW menu is that it leaves room for you to order more food. Not that you need to, but everything at Bungalow is pretty delicious, and the restaurant is so plush, that you can never be too cautious on the ordering front. Get some wagyu meatballs, a bone-in pork chop or a 6oz filet, and end by cracking open a sugar caramel dome and chocolate cake for dessert.
photo credit: Gianni Greene
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person.
Why We Like It: Normally $55 at Kiss won’t get you much more than an entree. But for the same price during HRW, you’ll find yourself with an entree, appetizer, and dessert from the Sixth Ward Creole-Cajun restaurant. So grab a grilled pork chop, some coconut curry wings, a slice of cheesecake, and use the extra savings to treat yourself to their cupcake ferris wheel, because why not?
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person. Three-course lunch and brunch at $25 per person.
Why We Like It: While many restaurants only offer a handful of items for HRW, Brennan’s, a New Orleans-style restaurant in Midtown, went the exact opposite direction and seems to have almost everything from its menu available as a course option. Choose between eight items for a first course, eight more items for a second course, and between six different desserts. That’s like over 300 different combinations (maybe—we don’t do math).
photo credit: Gianni Greene
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $39 per person.
Why We Like It: While there’s a lunch option for the HRW deal at the casual modern American restaurant Weights+Measures in Midtown, dinner is the best time to go. Go for the shrimp bisque, pork belly, and the peanut butter cake which comes straight from the W+M bakeshop. And for another $25, you can get an entire bottle of wine to accompany your meal.
photo credit: Kathryn Worsham
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $39 per person.
Why We Like It: At Oporto, a Portuguese restaurant in Midtown, the HRW deal expands to lunch and dinner, but we recommend focusing on the dinner deal. For $39 a head, you have the opportunity to try some of the best dishes Oporto has to offer, including a hanger steak topped with fried egg, and a spicy red snapper doused in curry. Plus, there’s the possibility of having an entirely vegetarian dinner.
The Deal: Four-course dinner at $39 per person.
Why We Like It: Lucille’s in the Museum District is one of our favorite places to get Southern-style cooking in the city, but a dinner there can be a little pricey. And the opportunity to have a meal there for under 40 bucks is one you should take. There are several gems on the HRW menu, but we think you should go with the fried green tomatoes, yardbird (with dark meat), and finish with the lemon icebox pie.
The Deal: Three-course dinner at $55 per person.
Why We Like It: Restaurants in River Oaks aren’t exactly known for their affordability, so when a three-course dinner for $55 a head pops up, it’s best to head on over. During HRW, swing by the Southern-style restaurant Bosscat Kitchen for a three course dinner, and be sure to finish off your meal with a drink that involves something from their whiskey room.
