HOUReview
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Josephine’s
Included In
If it weren’t for the TVs hanging over the bar or the noise of downtown Houston traffic outside, you could mistake Josephine’s for a restaurant from another decade, or at least one in the deep south. And while a lot of southern-inspired restaurants can easily veer into a heavily cliched Cracker Barrel territory, Josephine’s has a sense of place, with a creative and incredible Gulf Coast seafood-driven menu that could only come from Houston. With dishes that often resemble the spread at a family potluck, Josephine’s modern interpretation of southern cuisine is smart, surprising, and, most of all, comforting.
Josephine’s menu playfully nods at Houston. Unexpected spice and Vietnamese flavors pop up with raw blue crab. African influences are also front and center with the additions of tart chermoula rubbed over redfish or okra succotash with roasted chicken. Dishes like a southern pea salad or a melon salad with actual gummy bears obviously descended from those funny layered casseroles someone always makes for a cookout but no one ever eats (but you will want to eat these). The smoky and sweet barbecue shrimp comes straight from Louisiana, the blue crab rice bowl from the Carolinas, and the Sittin’ Sidewayz burger (cue up the Paul Wall playlist).
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Finding a solid southern seafood restaurant in Houston should be as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, or as counting how many cars forget to use the blinker while yeeting themselves across the highway 59 and 610 interchange. However, nothing else like Josephine’s exists in our massive metropolis. So whether you’re a southerner, or a Texan—or if, as the saying goes, you got here as quickly as you could—everyone’s welcome to join in on Josephine’s version of a bustling family get together, with a sense of light sprinkling of nostalgia and serious flavor. Head here with a big group of friends and split everything, to split trays of oysters and a mound of warm biscuits, or just to eat something that tastes like home.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
photo credit: Richard Casteel
photo credit: Richard Casteel
photo credit: Richard Casteel
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Food Rundown
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Blue Crab Fingers
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Southern Pea Salad
photo credit: Richard Casteel
BBQ Shrimp
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Smashed Boudin Melt
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Halfshell Redfish
photo credit: Richard Casteel