HOUGuide
The Hit List: New Houston Restaurants To Try Right Now
photo credit: Julie Soefer
Every week we track new openings across the city, and then we visit as many as we can. And every once in a while, a new restaurant makes us feel like a grackle in an HEB parking lot. When that happens, we add it here, to The Hit List, our guide to where you should be eating right now.
This is where you’ll find all of the best new spots in Houston, whether it’s a buzzy smashburger spot, a booth inside of a Chinatown mall, or a restaurant with its own mini-arcade. As long as we’re still recommending it to everyone we know, it’ll be on this guide. One thing you can always count on is that we’ll only include spots that we’ve actually visited—and loved.
New to the Hit List (4/17): Maximo
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Julie Soefer
The folks behind Local Foods, Eau Tour, and Lees Den created an Americana taco destination in small-town Houston, AKA West University. Squeezed into a tiny shotgun space, the hyper-colorful, art-filled Maximo looks like it was designed for a rich, maximalist cowboy. But most of the people here are families attempting to trick a toddler into eating mashed, Tex-Mex-style lentils. The counter-service spot serves loaded tacos on handmade blue corn tortillas and the best take on the classic Big Mac in town, with tangy sauce on a double patty over a thick layer of caramelized onions. Maximo also has punchy tequila cocktails built for lounging with a date on the patio as well as an ice cream machine with the twist served in a mini baseball helmet.
While most outdoor tents have sad rental equipment energy, The Tent sparkles. Friend groups at this Mediterranean cafe and hookah lounge eat beef kabob wraps under string lights, puffing clouds of smoke inside personal cabanas or the main tent until as late as 4am. Earlier in the night, the Westchase spot fills with families, so you'll hear the squeals of children on the playground under lively music played on the oud. Bring your friends for gossip, hookah, and mint lemonade slushes that give spearmint gum a run for its money at this alcohol-free lounge.
photo credit: Isabel Protomartir
People who saw Ema's lines at the Urban Harvest farmers market and wondered, “Are those pastries really that good?” — yeah, the pastries really are that good. Ema left the farmers market hustle and became a small counter-service Mexican food cafe in The Heights. Not only can you get hype-worthy pastries, like a berlineser donut stuffed with cinnamon-spiced horchata cream, but also vegan mushroom tetelas and salsa-smothered chilaquiles, made in collaboration with the folks who opened Papalo Taqueria. Make sure to get to Ema as early as possible because, yes, there is still a long line.
photo credit: Nickel City Bar
Drinking at the dive-bar-adjacent Nickel City makes you cool, like driving-a-Harley cool or I’m-with-the-band cool. The East Downtown cocktail bar arrives by way of Austin with a Buffalo, New York theme. This means an industrial setting—in this case, a fairly dark warehouse—and a menu featuring boilermakers and burgers. And while that’s not really different from most bars, it’s a great place to slam whiskey shots, swig a Coors Banquet, and eat a greasy, griddled double-decker cheeseburger. Nickel City figured out how to build edginess, which makes this bar feel like there were a few decades when people smoked inside. And being open for lunch with 99-cent wings all day Monday makes it even cooler.
photo credit: Mikah Danae
A little rustic and a little retro, the Tex-Mex restaurant HiWay Cantina in EaDo comes from the team behind EZ’s Liquor Lounge and Lightnin’s Good Times. The food fits the archetype for a standard Tex-Mex spot (chile con queso, fajitas giant prickly pear margaritas that require two people to finish.) It’s good, but it’s the energy at Hiway Cantina that we want to bottle up and take home. Solo diners at the bar chat with bartenders like they’re old buddies. And the roar of laughter from groups of friends feels like part of the background music. After spending an hour or two swaying to music and eating enchiladas, we’re motivated to keep the fun going at a bar down the street.
photo credit: Quit Nguyen
Tearing into a whole roasted fish looks and feels very sexy while nuzzled up at Baso, a Basque-leaning restaurant in The Heights. The interior is impeccably dark, as though someone forgot to turn on a couple of lights, and smoldering embers from the open fire kitchen belong in the backdrop of a rom-com. The food is good—dishes like venison tartare and the choco flan are tasty but a bit bland. But the snoozy pintxos are balanced out by a delightfully helpful staff, fun cocktails, and an exciting Spanish wine list. Baso’s sexiness works perfectly for a third date when you’re finally ready to introduce someone to your Labradoodle with jealousy issues.
photo credit: Becca Wright
Taking cues from Mexico City-style taquerias, Comalito—opened by the folks behind Underbelly Hospitality—serves up a long list of fantastic tacos, suaderos, quesadillas, crispy cheese-slathered tostadas, and so much more. Housed in a drab and sparse space behind The Heights Houston Farmers Market with yellow-gray interiors, concrete floors, and metal chairs, the menu does enough heavy lifting that it's worth being a little uncomfortable to taste this food. We loaded up on tender pastor tacos with thinly sliced juicy pineapple, and an alambra plate of slightly smoky adobo-marinated pork mixed with onions, bell pepper, and even more bacon. And the rice pudding with mango and coconut makes a perfect sweet pick-me-up before a couple of hours of browsing the adjacent produce.
From the team behind Kin Dee, Makiin is an Upper Kirby Thai restaurant dripping in opulence and decked out in deep red and golden embellishment. Everything at Makiin feels a bit extravagant—appetizer samplers show up at the table on shimmering tiered towers, sizzling yellow curry is poured over braised ribs, and there’s almost certainly a dish that will arrive in a decadent cloud of smoke. Even with all of the spectacle, the food at Makiin is packed with flavor, and makes us want to circle back for another meal.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
After nearly fifteen years, the team behind the powerhouse Kata Robata finally opened another Japanese sushi restaurant, Katami in Montrose. Katami takes what makes its predecessor excellent—incredible nigiri and sashimi selections, robata-grilled meats, and top tier service—and adds a layer of refinement and ease. Not only does the restaurant itself embrace a more modern and elegant Japanese farmhouse feel, but the menu also leans into all things special, hard-to-get, and anything honed by skilled craftsmanship. Like delicate silver-skinned Japanese fish, impressive selections of marbled Japanese beef, and snow-textured kakigori for dessert made with ice imported directly from Japan. And while you might drop quite a few Benjamins on dinner, the experience justifies every cent.
Beloved Thai restaurant Street to Kitchen may have moved on up to new digs on the west side of the East End, but everything that matters (the food) remains exactly the same. Heaped with near-tongue-obliterating spice, every dish at Street To Kitchen tastes like someone electrocuted your taste buds, but you really liked it. We also appreciate the new cocktail menu (that frozen Thai tea may or may not have saved us mid-dinner) and the curt but polite service that makes us want to be on our best behavior. Secure a reservation as soon as possible for a special occasion, test-the-waters date, or to simply feel the burn.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
In a city where Neapolitan and New York-style slices run the pizza game, we’re especially thankful for Gold Tooth Tony’s, the Heights pizza joint turning out some brilliant and hefty Detroit-style pizza. Each slice, made of fluffy buttered dough and smothered in glistening cheese with edges crisper than a fresh line-up—could easily be a meal on their own. There are classic options like cheese and margarita pizza, but we like to get the more decadent varieties, like “The Griz,” that tastes like a buffalo-chicken-bacon explosion. And with some of the crispiest wings on the northside of Houston, we’re convinced that everything coming out of this small-but-mighty counter service joint is flawless. We’d camp out for one of the few tables inside, or stand outside and eat under the neon glow of the restaurant.
When passing by Clark’s Oyster Bar in Montrose, we find ourselves entranced, unable to resist turning into the parking lot. Fueled by a seafood-craving fugue state and the promise of Happy Hour martinis, we order a couple mixed dozen crisp oysters, lace each briney bit with bits of fresh-shaved horseradish, dig into red snapper ceviche with saltines, and scarf down golden, fluffy lobster rolls with crispy shoestring fries. The Austin import not only serves fresh seafood (among other things, including a great if not small cheeseburger), but it also has one of the most sure-to-be-jam-packed patios in the city. Find us lounging on that patio all year long, martini in one hand, oyster in the other.
photo credit: Liz SIlva
We could probably count the number of (really good) Neapolitan-style pizza places in Houston on one hand. But now, we’re giving Coastline Artisan Pizzeria the ring finger. The small spot on a corner in First Ward has a kind of clubhouse-but-we-make-pizza vibe with a fully stocked bar, wood burning oven, and grilled pizzas topped with things like habeñero honey and buffalo chicken. Grilled bread is great, but we crave the soft, pillowy, slightly tangy crust of Coastline’s Napoletana pizza. One hit of this pie might bring a tear to your eye. Also, the bartenders make great cocktails that sometimes even get set on fire. And excellent pizza and a little danger make for a great night out.
photo credit: Quit Nguyen
There are a few Vietnamese dishes that can be hard to find outside of Chinatown, like bánh xèo (Thien An makes a great one and Dinette makes a small one), bánh khọt, or nem nướng. So when a spot opens specializing in those things, we start salivating at a Pavlovian rate. Xeo Yum, an open-kitchen food stall in Midtown’s Conservatory food hall serves all of those and more. Sit at the bar and watch as bright yellow crepes stuffed with pork belly materialize in frying pans o as each little bánh khọt gets topped with perfectly pink shrimp. Each eventual crunchy, soft, oily bite tastes like a fluffy little turmeric heaven, especially once repeatedly dunked in fish sauce.
