Forks at the ready: Your best bets for Houston Restaurant Weeks
August might be a sleepy time for restaurants, but it’s the most exciting time of year for local foodies: Houston Restaurant Weeks rolls through town with bargain prix fixe menus.
More than 250 area restaurants will participate in this year’s culinary extravaganza, a fundraiser for the Houston Food Bank. Last year the monthlong event raised $2,015,157, making it the largest fundraiser of its kind in the country benefitting the country’s largest food bank. Founded in 2003 by food writer Cleverley Stone, the volunteer effort has raised more than $9.6 million, an amount that translates into nearly 29 million meals for the area’s food-insecure.
For those who enjoy dining out, HRW — which runs Aug. 1 through Sept. 4 — is a delicious way to sample some of the city’s newest and most popular restaurants for
a set price. Newcomers to the event this year include Coltivare, Xochi, Potente, Osso & Kristalla, Common Bond, Eloise Nichols Grill & Liquors, Izakaya, Brasserie du Parc, Le Colonial and Chez Nous in Humble. They join a strong contingent of returning restautants such as Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Brennan’s of Houston, Café Annie, Churrascos, Del Frisco’s, Damian’s Cucina Italiana, El Tiempo Cantina, Rainbow Lodge, Ragin’ Cajun, Vic and Anthony’s and Tony’s.
There are even restaurants offering “experiences” in addition to dining. The General Public in CityCentre is including a gift card for bowling next door at Bowl & Barrel as part of its $35 dinner; at Main Course Cooking School in Spring guests get to prepare dinner then eat it. Lunch at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Katy comes with a free movie ticket to be used at a later date.
Dinners are in two price categories: $45 ($7 donated to Houston Food Bank), and $35 ($5 donation). Lunches are $20 and brunches are $22 ($3 donations). Stone said there are surprises sprinkled throughout the HRW menus, which can be found online at houstonrestaurantweeks.com.
Make your culinary plan of attack in advance. Most restaurants accept reservations, but all welcome walk-ins unless specifically noted.
These are our 10 Best Bets for Houston Restaurant Weeks.
THE GASTRONOME
If modernist techniques thrill, book a table Eculent in Kemah, where chef David Skinner treats local ingredients to imaginative bursts of molecular gastronomy. The 20-seat restaurant is participating on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, dinner only — and considering Eculent’s tasting menu normally costs $189 per person, the HRW price of $45 ($20 supplement for wine pairings) is a veritable bargain. On the three-course menu, which starts with an amuse bouche called “floating fire”: cauliflower soup, Argentinian red shrimp with corn butter, wild mushroom risotto and pasilla chile chocolate ice cream. 709 Harris, Kemah, 713-429-4311; $45 dinner
THE FASHIONISTA
The new $250 million Galleria VI wing is now open, so if you’re already shopping onsite you might as well check into 51Fifteen Cuisine & Cocktails on the second floor of Saks Fifth Avenue. The chic space is serving up brunch, lunch and dinner for HRW. Dinner options include lobster bisque followed by blackened redfish with dirty rice or a 16-ounce Texas T-bone steak with roasted garlic and porcini butter, and, finally, blackberry bourbon cobbler. 5115 Westheimer, 713-963-8067; $20 lunch, $35 dinner, $22 brunch
THE ANDEAN ADVENTURER
The flavors of Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador come to life on chef David Guerrero’s three-course dinner menu at Andes Café. Think salmon and octopus tiradito with lemongrass soy vinaigrette, confit of pork shoulder with white hominy and sweet plantains, and passion fruit mousse with sugar cookie crust and fruit gelée. During brunch, diners can pair Bolivian beef heart skewers with Peruvian-style fried rice and Colombian churros with chocolate sauce. 2311 Canal, 832-659-0063; $35 dinner, $22 brunch
THE INTREPID FOODIE
An unsung Asian restaurant in Seabrook managed to snag the top entrée award at Rodeo Uncorked’s Best Bites Competition in February.
Merlion on 4th wowed judges with its curry shrimp, and could impress HRW diners with its Thai dishes and seafood specialties. The HRW dinner offerings include crabmeat-stuffed egg rolls; a salad with garlic-lime fish sauce and crushed peanuts; jumbo shrimp (or steak or salmon or snapper) with Thai curry sauce; lobster in oyster sauce; or Thaistyle fried rice. To finish? Coconut ice cream with crushed peanuts. 1301 4th, Seabrook, 281-385-9975; $35 dinner
THE ART LOVER
What could be better than spending the day at the Menil Collection? Starting or ending the visit with a meal at Bistro Menil, the serene restaurant on the world-renowned museum campus. Chef Greg Martin is offering both lunch and dinner menus dappled with some of his tastiest creations: chargrilled octopus with paprika; goat cheese Provencal; roasted sea bass with crispy pork belly; duck confit with pink peppercorn butter; and 12-hour beef short rib with port wine and shallot reduction. For dessert, go with a prettyas-a-picture “triptych” of lemon curd tart, buttermilk blackberry and chocolate mousse cakes. 1513 W. Alabama, 713-904-3537; $20 lunch, $45 dinner
THE SOUTHERN SOPHISTICATE
Comfort food goes posh at Lucille’s, chef Chris Williams’ Museum District restaurant specializing in Southern foodstuffs shot through with contemporary flair. For HRW dinner, guests have a choice of bone marrow with oxtail marmalade or scallops with Applewood smoked bacon and grit cakes to start, followed by Hoppin’ John with crispy pork belly, or whole fried snapper, or a 44 Farms steak with duck fat gravy and roasted fingerlings. It doesn’t get any more Southern than lemon icebox pie, croissant bread pudding or red velvet cake for dessert. 5512 La Branch, 713-5682505; $45 dinner, $20 lunch, $22 brunch
THE SEE-ANDBE-SCENESTERS
The lounge and dining room of stylish
Le Colonial at River Oaks District is packed nightly with head-turning people-watching. But not all the visuals are of the boldface-name type. The food at the FrenchVietnamese restaurant is as gorgeous as the surroundings. The HRW dinner offerings include Hanoi steamed ravioli with chicken and wood ear mushrooms in chili lime garlic sauce; Texas Gulf shrimp with snap peas and zucchini in spicy green coconut curry; and caramelized filet mignon salad. Don’t tell anyone you saw River Oaks’ toniest socialites ravaging the chocolate mousse dome or mango sundae. 4444 Westheimer, 713-629-4444; $45 dinner
THE BEEF BARON
Last year B&B Butchers & Restaurant
had the distinction of being the top dollar contributor to the HRW coffers, raising $65,000. “No other restaurant in the history of Houston Restaurant Weeks ever donated that much money to the food bank,” Stone said. It’s a testament to the popularity of the two-year-old Washington Corridor steakhouse. And the restaurant lays it on thick during HRW: brisket ravioli, steak salad, 10-ounce filet, chicken-fried pork chop, bacon-wrapped shrimp stuffed with crab, and two bone-in steak options for a $25 supplement. Classic desserts, to boot. 1814 Washington, 713-862-1814; $20 lunch, $45 dinner
THE SUPERSTAR SUPPER
This is chef Hugo Ortega’s year. He started it off by opening his most ambitious restaurant to date: Xochi, a culinary love letter to the foods and flavors of Oaxaca, Mexico, housed in downtown’s new Marriott Marquis hotel. Then came a James Beard Award in May (for Hugo’s in Montrose). Xochi’s dinner offerings during HRW show Ortega’s scope and reach. He’s created
five separate menus: one based on mole sauces, another on masa-centric dishes; two with Mexican mezcal and tequila cocktail pairings (for an additional charge); and a vegetarian option. 1777 Walker, 713-400-3330; $20 lunch, $45 dinner (vegetarian menu is $35)
NEIGHBORHOOD HOT SPOT
Coltivare in the Heights doesn’t take reservations, which remains the case during HRW. But the dinner menus here — there are two separate lineups — are so stuffed with farmfresh delectables from chef Ryan Pera that you won’t mind the wait. On the Italian-leaning menu: focaccia-style pizzas; summer squash crudo; grilled figs with prosciutto and Point Reyes blue cheese; cacio e pepe; rigatoni with eggplant, olives and whipped ricotta; crab ravioli; chocolate panna cotta; and wood-roasted pear crostada. 3320 White Oak, 713-637-4095; $35 dinner.