![]() ![]() Outdoor option: The huge wooden deck out front has a wonderful Montrose vibe. Serious cocktails and entertaining wines from small, natural producers, too. ![]() What to order: The menu keeps changing, but look for interesting vegetable treatments along with ideas such as foie gras torchon with Meyer lemon jam and pecan butter, or shepherd’s pie based on sumptuous pork cheeks. For this critic, 93 ’Til was a cheerful port in the storm, comforting and thought-provoking at once. Though they opened nine months into the pandemic, they adapted nimbly: making great use of their big front deck posting constantly updated menus on a website with visual flair doing a careful job with carryout. They can do pop cultural - their fried chicken sandwich might just be the best in town - right along with serious contemporary fare that riffs on Houston’s culinary influences. The hook: It’s always fun to taste the latest ideas from these two chefs. The gist: At their ultra-casual Montrose bistro and record lounge, chefs Lung Ly and Jeff Potts offer a tight, seasonally changing menu that emphasizes local ingredients and a modern sensibility. Either way, this much is certain: With revenues and business models disrupted by the pandemic, the restaurants that are the city’s cultural markers and social glue could use your support. Perhaps you’ll feel moved to reconnect with some of the Houston restaurants that stir your own interest. Maybe you’ll give some of the spots on this list a whirl. My hope is that you’ll use this list of what interests me most right now as a springboard to discovery, or to debate what restaurant qualities capture your own imagination. I’m particularly invigorated by the sense of ferment in Houston’s barbecue community, where the evolution of the region’s smokehouse traditions has set a dizzying pace. I’m fascinated by restaurants that create a strong sense of place with their menu, their setting, their creativity in knitting together this city’s culinary threads. ![]() ![]() I prize the sense of anticipation that comes with never knowing exactly what I’ll encounter on a menu as the days and weeks and seasons go by. So does one that’s never satisfied resting on its laurels. Lately, I’m drawn to restaurants that engage their communities, that show an enlightened leadership style or that operate on a business model uniquely suited to time and place.Ī kitchen that keeps pushing technical or genre boundaries always grabs me. It’s not always and only about the food to me anymore, although the excellence of a kitchen is the bedrock from which all else springs. Nor is it the kind of roster I might have compiled in my starry-eyed mid-20s, when Houston appeared on nobody’s national culinary map and everything seemed new and thrilling to me. My interests keep evolving, and the list of what engages me deep in the second year of a global pandemic is not the list I would have made back in the Before Times. One diner’s thrills may leave another unmoved.Īfter a long career observing Houston’s restaurant scene as a living and a passion, I’ve got my own set of qualifiers for what captures my imagination. What seemed fresh and new one year may smooth out into the safely classic, or even the predictable. It’s a personal question, and one that is time-sensitive. The 20 Most Interesting Restaurants in Houston Right NowĮvery dedicated eater will have her own answers. ![]()
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