RESTAURANTS
HOUSTON’S BEST
Welcome to Houston, one of America’s most exciting dining destinations. It’s been one for years, thanks to the city’s exhilarating diversity and rich indigenous culinary mix, but the rest of the world is only now snapping to the pleasures of our unique Gulf Coast table. While you’re here, treat yourself to the best of the city at James Beard Award-winning restaurant critic Alison Cook’s latest picks for Houston’s top 10 restaurants. These aren’t necessarily the fanciest or priciest spots in town, although there’s ambitious fine and fine-casual dining in the mix. What they do share is ambition, verve and a knack for staying at the top of their game, month in and month out. From Texas barbecue to rollicking South Asian, meticulously sourced Gulf Coast ingredients to dazzling nods to the city’s Mexican influences, it’s all waiting. Just come hungry. [ 1] OXHEART
When Justin Yu won this year’s Best Chef Southwest title at the James Beard Awards, it seemed like overdue recognition that his 5-year-old restaurant, Oxheart, is one of the best in America. In a snug, informal Warehouse District space, he and his crew quietly produce six-course tasting menus of breathtaking precision and seasonality, with vegetables often given pride of place. Service may feel relaxed, but it’s notably well-informed, a token of the seriousness with which the chef chooses and shepherds his ingredients. 1302 Nance, 832-830-8592; oxhearthouston.com
[ 2] HUGO’S
Chef Hugo Ortega’s regional Mexican flagship has never been better than it is right now. Ortega’s mastery of chiles makes his arsenal of salsas and moles hum with increasing depth and complexity. Flavors bloom even under the influence of chile heat: in a round, sunny mole amarillo accompanying seasonal squashblossom empanadas; in a smoky pasilla chintextle sauce bathing rich, delicate slices of braised and wood-grilled tongue. Roll it up in the fragrant blue-corn tortillas that are made in-house. Desserts, cocktails and service never seem to stop improving here. 1600 Westheimer, 713-5247744; hugosrestaurant.net
[ 3] THE PASS & PROVISIONS
Consistently smooth, wellinformed service eases the way for nine-course, $105 tasting menus at The Pass, co-chefs Seth Siegel-Gardner and Terrence Gallivan’s serene temple to modern technique. So do the rock ’n’ roll soundtrack and unusually well-chosen wines, beers and cocktails. Next door, in more casual Provisions, provocative wood-oven pizzas, pastas, meaty lunch sandwiches and soft-serve creations make the retrofitted old Antone’s deli space user-friendly, as do an ambitious bar, a pleasant terrace and a bumptious Saturday brunch. 807 Taft, 713-628-9020; passandprovisions.com
[ 4] BCN TASTE & TRADITION
Chef Luis Roger comes from Spain, where he worked under modern master Ferran Adrià for a time and where he draws inspiration from sources high and low, old and new for his stirring, immaculately executed cuisine. Lodged in a cool, pale redo of a grand old Montrose house, BCN looks as good as it tastes, and its phalanx of crisply dark-suited staff is as deft and attentive as any in town. The all-Spanish wine list and the scintillating Spanish-style gin and tonics continue to delight. What to order: fresh pickled anchovies, steamed shellfish in graceful broths and spicy patatas bravas. 4210 Roseland, 832-834-3411; bcnhouston.com
[ 5] KILLEN’S BARBECUE
Thank goodness for the mighty oak that towers over this Pearland joint. It shades the barbecue pilgrims who queue faithfully for a taste of chef Ronnie Killen’s superbly detailed smoked meats and side dishes, no matter the season or the weather. The beauty’s in the beef here: prime brisket crusted in a soul-rattling, black-peppery char and imbued with a deep wood smokiness. For true beef voluptuaries, there may be burntend specials or a humongous beef rib that Killen aptly calls the foie gras of barbecue. 3613 E. Broadway, Pearland, 281-4852272; killensbarbecue.com
[ 6] PAX AMERICANA
Bold seasonal cooking is all about contrast and surprise, whether it’s the tart/sweet stealth bomb of apple butter gracing a baba ghanoush of Louisiana green eggplant or its nutty jump of toasted pepita seeds and hazelnut vinaigrette. You can make a fine meal by sharing small plates — including some terrific charcuterie and vegetable dishes — or invest in a large-format platter of Texas Black-Footed Chicken. The sourcing is passionately Gulf Coastal. And the service is so diligent and informed, it smooths out the feel of this noisy room, which is crowded for good reason. 4319 Montrose, 713-2390228; paxamericanahtx.com
[ 7] PONDICHERI
What fun chef Anita Jaisinghani’s all-day Indian diner has turned out to be. From breakfast through lunch through afternoon tea, from happy hour to dinner through upstairs dessert at the Bake Lab, this colorful establishment has verve to spare. Flavor, too: The many South Asian customers who throng to this sophisticated room testify to Jaisinghani’s righteous seasoning, delivered with a sly Gulf Coast accent. The menus revolve here, but keep an eye out for the Madras chicken wings;
any of the lacy stuffed dosas; the freewheeling thalis, a constellation of small dishes; and housemade paneer in cashew masala. 2800 Kirby, 713522-2022; pondichericafe.com
[ 8] CARACOL
Hugo Ortega’s Mexican seafood restaurant seems to grow ever more crisp, cool and collected. The service is deft. The crowd is worldly and multilingual. The wine list and cocktails are exceptionally wellsuited to the food. The kitchen handles a nonstop volume with aplomb, too: crucial when it comes to the split-second timing seafood demands. Bouncy little fried-oyster tacos emerge just so, swaddled in pliant handmade corn tortillas and anointed with pico de gallo and chipotle mayo. You will crave the wood-grilled oysters with chile-spiked breadcrumbs. You will dream of the pan-seared striped bass with bracing tomatillocaper sauce. 2200 Post Oak Blvd., No. 160, 713-6229996; caracol.net
[ 9] BERNADINE’S
How good is this fresh Gulf Coast seafood restaurant? So good that even the house-made hot sauce is a minor miracle: bright, tart and hot in one cheerful burst. Apply a few drops to the well-chosen oysters on the half shell, or to one of chef Graham Laborde’s stupendous fried oysterand-shrimp poboys, which employs a sharp Creole mustard vinaigrette as a secret weapon. Laborde is as deft with big-ticket Gulf fish and meat items as he is with immaculate salads, buoyant seasonal soups and ingenious small plates. 1801-B N. Shepherd, 713864-2565; treadsack.com/ bernadines
[ 10] HIMALAYA
Chef Kaiser Lashkari’s plucky Pakistani restaurant represents so much of what matters about our city’s food scene: its diversity; its penchant for rambunctious flavors and chile heat; its strong bench of affordable mom-and-pop establishments; its gleeful borrowings from our shared culinary traditions. Here, in a mango-hued room laid with clear plastic table coverings, Lashkari and his wife, Azra, turn out unusually consistent fare. Aromatic biryanis, gripping curries, stellar kebabs, glistening orbs of naan — it’s all part of the exhilarating South Asian flavor ride. 6652 U.S. 59 S., 713-532-2837; himalaya restauranthouston.com