By any measure of success, 2014 has been Houston’s year when it comes to food.
A year when 50 restaurants could open their doors by July while only six closed. A year that Underbelly chef Chris Shepherd could bring the James Beard Award back to Houston for the first time since Robert Del Grande in 1992. A year…that’s not even over yet. And as our finest restaurants have flourished, the city and its appetite have grown exponentially. Is this sort of growth untenable? Of course, but for now we are gourmands dining at the richest buffet Houston has seen in ages.
In a lesser town, record population increases and a robust economy would inspire a proliferation of chain establishments, or the umpteenth iteration of fast-casual modern American that’s as non-threatening as a basket of Cheddar Bay biscuits. But not here. In Houston, as any good energy trader knows, success is all about calculated risk and diversification.
Increasingly, we’re not only developing our own cuisine—Mutt City, Third Coast, call it what you want—but tapping deeper into the vibrant currents of the international cuisines already flowing through our city. The restaurants that open these days don’t do boring. They don’t do trite. They don’t do basic.
So go ahead: bury your face in a bowl of ramen, dive messily into a peanut butter–topped burger, nibble on deep-fried blood sausage for dessert, enjoy salad greens grown mere feet from where you’re sitting, gnaw the meat off grilled lamb ribs, fill up on tres leches French toast and vanilla-cinnamon margaritas at brunch, polish off chicken liver po-boys, and slurp roasted Gulf oysters from their wood-fired shells. Whatever you want, Houston has it.
Read on to learn all about our 38 favorite new restaurants to open in the last 12 months, plus the five very best. —KS
The 5 Very Best New Restaurants of 2014
Of all the amazing restaurants that opened this year, it was tough to pick our five absolute favorites—but somehow, we managed.
Best New Restaurants: Upping the Steaks
What could possibly be new and interesting about that old Texas mainstay the steakhouse? Oh ye cutting-edge carnivores of little faith!
Best New Restaurants: Seafood
Now more than ever, chefs are fishing the rivers and oceans of the world—not to mention the waterways of our own backyard.
Best New Restaurants: Americana
Comfort food is back, as classics are classed up and chefs draw inspiration from our collective nostalgia.
Best New Restaurants: Asian Fusion
The cuisines of Vietnam, Korea, Japan, and East Asia—everywhere in East Asia—are once more at the forefront of the city’s culinary scene.
Best New Restaurants: Café Society
Exceptional coffee shops where coffee is far from the only exceptional thing on the menu
Best New Restaurants: Ramen
Sure, noodle shops are everywhere, but a few places have turned a simple pleasure—burying one’s face in a bowl of noodles and pork broth—into a special one indeed.
Best New Restaurants: Burgers
What becomes a legendary burger most? Perfecting the patty and gussying it up with gusto.
Best New Restaurants: Dives
Finding high-quality food in low-key settings is a local tradition, one happily embraced by a new generation of establishments both uptown and down home.
Best New Restaurants: Desserts
Our much-loved mingling of cuisines and flavors isn’t just having its way with our main dishes. Desserts are now fair game too.
Best New Restaurants: Common Fare
Elevating everyday food beyond the, well, every day, is no mean feat, except in the hands of this handful of places.
The Five Hottest Chefs of 2014
The heat is on in the city's best restaurants, and these five pros are responsible for turning it up.
Houston’s Best New Restaurants
Still looking for reasons to believe Houston is the country’s most dynamic food city? How about 38 of them?
Best New Restaurants: 5 Restaurants to Watch
Get excited: these five soon-to-open restaurants will be worth the wait.
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