The Best Places to Eat in Houston’s New Grocery Stores

Each week seems to bring a grocery-store opening in Houston, complete with new food courts and attached restaurants. Wondering which one to hit this weekend? Look no further than this, our guide to H-Town’s latest—and best—grocery-eating experiences. Shopping never tasted so good!

Whole Foods 365, Independence Heights

• Open Since: August 2018
• Selection Quality: Attached eateries include Peli Peli Kitchen and Juice Society—both quality proven concepts. Plus, beer and wine!
• Date-Night Potential: A seating area at the store’s entrance, plus a covered parking-lot patio with twinkle lights. And, again: beer and wine!
• Inexpensive Find: PPK’s tasty sautéed mushrooms and mac ‘n’ cheese, both $3.99, get two thumbs up.  
• Hipster Factor: Austin-based Whole Foods has cred to spare and a price tag to match; we’re loving its (more) affordable 365 concept.

Super H-Mart, Katy

• Open Since: September 2018
• Selection Quality: There’s a food court offering bibimbap, gyoza, crawfish, and poke, plus a Tous Les Jours Bakery enticing shoppers at the entrance. Come to papa.
• Date-Night Potential: The dining area is clean and tucked away from the produce. Share an order of Singapore noodles and slurp your vermicelli Lady and the Tramp–style.
• Inexpensive Find: The $2.50 deep-fried frank roll at Tous Les Jours is the buttery hot dog pastry you can’t live without.
• Hipster Factor: Most people now know H-Mart is glorious, so you’re not quite ahead of the curve. Still, go now.

H-E-B, Bellaire

• Open Since: June 2018
• Selection Quality: The Roastery, the store’s celebrity-chef-driven coffee café (the team behind it includes NYC’s Jonathan Waxman, a James Beard Award winner), sells globally sourced coffee, sandwiches, and salads
• Date-Night Potential: The café offers both rooftop seating and a contemporary indoor dining area—très supermarket-chic.
• Inexpensive Find: Doughnuts! Get three powdered sugar treats for $2 or a dozen for $8.
• Hipster Factor: The chain is quickly growing. Bellaire’s was the first two-story market with a Roastery, but as of January the Heights has one too.

El Rancho Supermercado, the GOOF

• Open Since: June 2018
• Selection Quality: The bustling in-store eatery, Cocina, offers small plates and family dinners, including $14.99 chicken dinners. A refresquería and tortillería round out the experience
• Date-Night Potential: There’s an extensive seating area, decorated in fun pastels.
• Inexpensive Find: Cocina’s $1.99 pupusasare delightfully soft, lightly charred, and stuffed with spicy peppers—perfect street food
• Hipster Factor: Be among the first cool kids to try the $6.99 caldo de res, a fragrant beef soup with corn, rice, and tortillas. 

Published in the Houston's Top Breakfast Spots issue of Houstonia Mag.