The small yet impressive speakeasy Bandista is hidden behind a bookcase inside the Four Seasons Hotel Houston. Although all the cocktails are gorgeous, the one that stands out the most is the Ritual, the bar’s interpretation of the classic El Diablo. Johnathan Jones, Bandista’s beverage manager, says the El Diablo is made with tequila, lime, ginger, and bitters; Bandista takes it a bit further with the addition of fresh purple carrots and a poblano chile liqueur, with Patrón El Cielo as the tequila.

But the real magic happens leading up to service. The bartenders finish the cocktail off with a classic milk punch method: warmed milk is poured into the mixture, and the citrus causes it to curdle. It’s left for an hour to rest so the curds fully form, then filtered through a cheesecloth-lined strainer, which catches the milk curds. The remaining mixture drips through very slowly as a translucent liquid. This process takes a few hours, and the cocktail is then chilled and stored until the bar opens. The drink is presented in a skull-shaped decanter and is finished with a pop of rosemary smoke and the final touch—a lit-up piece of palo santo wood served on the side. Jones says this is done to “ward off any negative energy and make this cocktail a true sensory experience.”

At Hando and its adjoining speakeasy, Kanpai Club, the cocktails are served in cups that not only make the perfect photo op, but also quite literally hold all the fun. For example, the Audacity is served in a koi fish cup and consists of mezcal, sherry, passion fruit, pineapple, lime, and five-spice orgeat. Co-owner Jason Andaya says it was inspired by tiki cocktails, and the goal when creating it was to have a drink on the menu that exudes tropical fun. The mezcal (which isn’t typical in tiki drinks) adds a smokiness that complements the sweeter components, he says.  

For the Sweet Gin Music, Andaya says the goal was to create a cocktail that is a balance of sweet and spicy to round out the menu. This drink consists of Roku gin, génépy, shishito and habanero peppers, and lime. He says the drink is served in a puffer fish cup as a reminder that, similar to the risk eating puffer fish poses, you never know if you’ll fall victim to a super spicy shishito pepper.

From neon lights to a floating astronaut, Roswell’s Saloon offers plenty of fun photo ops, but the true stars of the show are the crazy cocktails. The Lithium Crystal shot, which consists of vodka, Ramazzotti Aperitivo Rosato, lemon juice, simple syrup, and edible neon dust for a glow-in-the-dark look, was created to be a “house shot” that’s approachable for any drinker, regardless of their palate, says Roswell’s owner Shawn Bermudez.

Follow that with a Fire in the Sky, which consists of either mezcal or tequila, almond syrup, chile liqueur, lime juice, and Hellfire bitters (a habanero shrub by Bittermens). The team uses a Flavour Blaster gun to create a vapor bubble for the picturesque topper. Conal Nielsen, the mixology consultant who helped open the bar and create the menu, says the inspiration for the drink came from a poster for the movie Fire in the Sky, a 1993 science fiction mystery.

Le Jardinier is located inside the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s new wing, the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building. With an attentive waitstaff and a menu focused on French cuisine, the restaurant is also especially Instagrammable due to the intricate plating techniques and attention to detail in all its dishes. The one we admire the most is the seasonal crudo—the gold accents of the plate itself make for nice decoration. Spring’s scallop version got a pop of color from radishes and beets, while the summer dinner menu offered a bass crudo cured with citrus and accompanied by cucumber, mango, and buttermilk.

At Pacha Nikkei, no matter the dish, you’ll be guaranteed a great presentation, but you can never go wrong with the clasico ceviche. This dish is made with Peruvian mahi-mahi, leche de tigre, aji limo, cancha (corn nuts), choclo (Peruvian corn), red onion, cilantro, and sweet potato puree. To align with the restaurant’s Peruvian-Japanese cuisine, chef Masaru Fukuda says he wanted to keep something classically Peruvian on the menu while still working in a touch of Japanese cuisine.

For this dish, rather than using a fish stock like they would in Peru for leche de tigre—the juice of ceviche—the restaurant creates a traditional Japanese dashi, a type of soup stock that consists of dry seaweed and bonito flakes. Fukuda says this gives the clasico ceviche a bit of a smoky flavor while not diminishing any of its freshness.

Hui Lau Shan is loved for its delicious drinks and desserts made with mangoes, including the Carabao variety from the Philippines, but what we’re most impressed by is just how pretty they are. The chain brought a slice of Hong Kong dessert culture when it opened a location in Houston in 2023. For social media’s sake, our favorite is the mango chewy ball. Offered in a regular or jumbo size, the dessert has pureed mango on the bottom, which gets topped with a scoop of mango ice cream made freshly in-house and is then finished with chewy tapioca balls.

This dessert, a representation of the tree of life inspired from Thai culture, is truly a wonder of its own—and fair to say it lives up to its name. Several ingredients are needed to bring the Dessert Wonderland to fruition. To mimic soil, MaKiin uses crushed-up milk chocolate. It’s surrounded by lychee rosewater sorbet, mango gel, raspberry gel swirls, and edible moss. The actual tree is made from dark chocolate and is topped with a fluffy cotton candy cloud. The presentation of it all takes the kitchen about 15 to 20 minutes. Owner Lukkaew Srasrisuwan jokes that the cotton candy is actually the hardest part—she says you’ll sometimes find staff covered in it.

Money Cat’s owner and executive chef Sherman Yeung says the brain behind the bonsai tree is his chef de cuisine Jio Dingayan, who took the whimsical and creative vision for the restaurant and ran with it to create the picturesque dessert, which is also a nod to their shared love for Japanese culture.

Its shape is made with dark chocolate that is piped into an ice bath to create the actual shape of the tree—trunk and branches included. Yeung says one of the coolest things about the bonsai dessert, which isn’t a menu regular, is that no tree is the same, because each is uniquely designed every time they make it. The bites surrounding the tree change seasonally to match the time of the year. For example, this past spring, the bonsai was set in strawberry miso mousse, served with matcha cake and sakura (cherry blossom) green tea ice cream.

We love everything about the food and drinks at Jūn, but the bathroom trip is special, too. Chef Henry Lu says that when he and co-owner Evelyn Garcia crafted the interiors of the bathroom, they decided they wanted a statement piece—something to surprise the customer, giving them a sensory experience separate from the rest of the restaurant. In fact, many of the pieces featured have been collected during chef Garcia’s life, through both thrifting and her travels; others were gifted to the restaurant from the local community and beyond. Lu says that every piece of the bathroom isn’t just decoration, but rather an item that holds a “beautiful rich story.”