Classic houston restaurant dishes
A brief article in Saveur a few years ago was about “nine of our favorite signature dishes from around the country.” I thought that this was a good idea, a nearly replicated it with a list of the top classic dishes of the Houston restaurant landscape, though I added a few for the sake of completeness. I am not suggesting that these are the best dishes served here, but these are ones that have struck a chord among local diners to have remained on a menu for years, or, for newer dishes, ones that have earned tremendous critical praise and seem emblematic of the city. And, if not the best, each of these dishes is very, very good. There is no fried shrimp or chicken fried steak preparations on the list, though I understand that these have been on the some menus for decades. The city’s restaurants, at their best, have long since moved from these. The signature dishes are shown below with my best-guess date when it arrived on the menu along with present prices.
Starters
Brennan’s – Turtle Soup – 1967 – $10 – Rich turtle soup topped with sherry has been part of the fine dining experience for almost 150 years in this country, and Brennan’s version has been the best here, and nearly a requisite order at this Texas-Creole hybrid.
RDG + Bar Annie – Tostadas of Gulf Crab Meat – 1984 – $18 – When it appears on the menu these days, it sports therather ungainly name, “Gulf Crab Cocktail w/ Jicama Lime & Avocado Sauce / Tortilla Chips,” this is delectable crab meat served with avocado relish and fried tortillas, Robert Del Grande showed us that you don’t have to fully abandon Tex-Mex when you go to a top-notch and even innovative restaurant like RDG’s predecessor, Café Annie. Update: It's now Café Annie again as of the summer of 2016.
Artista – Crispy Soft-Shell Crawfish Taquitos – 2003 – $15 – Everyone eats tacos here, and a great many crave crawfish. Featuring an Asian touch with the plum sauce paired with a jalapeño rémoulade there are a few layers of flavors along with the pleasantly contrasting textures of the crispy crawfish and soft corn tortilla. Mostly, it’s delicious. A similar dish is served at Américas.
Goode Co. Seafood – Campechana Extra – 1986 – $14.95 – Mexican-style seafood cocktail made with shrimp and crabmeat that is local, very flavorful, refreshing and Tex-Mex, perfect for Houston. It has been imitated on seafood menus across the city in recent years.
Danton’s – Seafood Gumbo – 2007 – $6.95 (cup), $11.95 (bowl) – This very dark roux-based soup filled with shrimp, crab and oysters and served with white rice quickly set the local and, for some critics, the gold standard anywhere for a dish that has been locally popular since soon after the first person with a French surname moved west from Louisiana to the Bayou City.
Entrées
Ninfa’s – Tacos a la Ninfa – 1973 – $11.50 (one), $18.50 (two) – Ninfa’s tacos al carbon consist of tender, flavorful beef fajita (or grilled chicken) rolled in a freshly made flour tortilla and served with sides of salsa, guacamole and chile con queso; this is the dish that started the fajita craze and help make Tex-Mex even more popular, even outside of the state.
Kim Son – Bo Nuong Xa – 1983 – $16.95 – These so-called “Vietnamese Fajitas” are sliced beef marinated with lemon grass, grilled and served with mint, cilantro, lettuce, bean sprouts, cucumbers and pineapple, and accompanied with rice paper. This dish made Vietnamese food more relatable for many Houstonians.
Churrascos – Churrasco – 1987 – $39 (8 ounces), $47 (10 ounces), $56 (12 ounces) – This became Houston’s definition of the churrasco, a center-cut beef tenderloin, aged and seasoned with chimichurri sauce. It is great beef with piquant, Latin flare; perfect for the city. (You can also get these at the other Cordua family restaurants, Américas and Artista).
Perry’s – Perry’s Famous Pork Chop – 1988 – $36.95 – Though beef is still king in this part of Texas, the pork chop at Perry’s has been a Houston area legend for years. The menu informs that “this prime chop is cured, roasted, slow-smoked and caramelized and served with homemade applesauce.” But, that only tells part of the story of this five-finger high pork dish consisting of about four pork chops that takes five days to prepare.
Reef – Crispy Skin Snapper – 2007- $28 – Served with sweet and sour chard and tomato, brown butter, this is a refined and updated version of a Gulf Coast fishermen’s classic preparation.
Underbelly – Korean Braised Goat & Dumplings – 2010, $14 – Redolant with the soy and garlic, the tender goat served with plenty of sauce matches perfectly with the soft, German-style dumplings.
Dessert
Churrascos – Tres Leches – 1987 – $9.95 – Vanilla cake made with three sweet creams and topped with a light meringue that became Houston’s favorite dessert in a few short years; (thankfully, also available at every other Cordua family restaurant: Amazon Grill, Américas and Artista).
It initially just worked out that there are two soups and three appetizers making up the five starters, six entrées and a single dessert among the ten signature dishes I’ve selected, making for a fine menu in itself. At least a couple of these are also New Orleans favorites. The Crescent City a few hours east on I-10 had long had a strong influence on the local restaurant scene, so this was to be expected. So has Mexico and, in the last thirty years, further south in Latin America, and southeast Asia, especially Vietnam. Michael Cordua’s restaurants have been especially adept at finding a sweet spot among the dining public. Not intentionally, but not surprisingly, each of these regions is represented on this short list. Interestingly, and also not by design, six of the nine savory dishes are seafood, all, or nearly all from the nearby Gulf. Another one is crawfish, which is not quite seafood, though terming it ditch-food might do it a disservice, even though it is accurate.
Published January 18, 2012
Starters
Brennan’s – Turtle Soup – 1967 – $10 – Rich turtle soup topped with sherry has been part of the fine dining experience for almost 150 years in this country, and Brennan’s version has been the best here, and nearly a requisite order at this Texas-Creole hybrid.
RDG + Bar Annie – Tostadas of Gulf Crab Meat – 1984 – $18 – When it appears on the menu these days, it sports therather ungainly name, “Gulf Crab Cocktail w/ Jicama Lime & Avocado Sauce / Tortilla Chips,” this is delectable crab meat served with avocado relish and fried tortillas, Robert Del Grande showed us that you don’t have to fully abandon Tex-Mex when you go to a top-notch and even innovative restaurant like RDG’s predecessor, Café Annie. Update: It's now Café Annie again as of the summer of 2016.
Artista – Crispy Soft-Shell Crawfish Taquitos – 2003 – $15 – Everyone eats tacos here, and a great many crave crawfish. Featuring an Asian touch with the plum sauce paired with a jalapeño rémoulade there are a few layers of flavors along with the pleasantly contrasting textures of the crispy crawfish and soft corn tortilla. Mostly, it’s delicious. A similar dish is served at Américas.
Goode Co. Seafood – Campechana Extra – 1986 – $14.95 – Mexican-style seafood cocktail made with shrimp and crabmeat that is local, very flavorful, refreshing and Tex-Mex, perfect for Houston. It has been imitated on seafood menus across the city in recent years.
Danton’s – Seafood Gumbo – 2007 – $6.95 (cup), $11.95 (bowl) – This very dark roux-based soup filled with shrimp, crab and oysters and served with white rice quickly set the local and, for some critics, the gold standard anywhere for a dish that has been locally popular since soon after the first person with a French surname moved west from Louisiana to the Bayou City.
Entrées
Ninfa’s – Tacos a la Ninfa – 1973 – $11.50 (one), $18.50 (two) – Ninfa’s tacos al carbon consist of tender, flavorful beef fajita (or grilled chicken) rolled in a freshly made flour tortilla and served with sides of salsa, guacamole and chile con queso; this is the dish that started the fajita craze and help make Tex-Mex even more popular, even outside of the state.
Kim Son – Bo Nuong Xa – 1983 – $16.95 – These so-called “Vietnamese Fajitas” are sliced beef marinated with lemon grass, grilled and served with mint, cilantro, lettuce, bean sprouts, cucumbers and pineapple, and accompanied with rice paper. This dish made Vietnamese food more relatable for many Houstonians.
Churrascos – Churrasco – 1987 – $39 (8 ounces), $47 (10 ounces), $56 (12 ounces) – This became Houston’s definition of the churrasco, a center-cut beef tenderloin, aged and seasoned with chimichurri sauce. It is great beef with piquant, Latin flare; perfect for the city. (You can also get these at the other Cordua family restaurants, Américas and Artista).
Perry’s – Perry’s Famous Pork Chop – 1988 – $36.95 – Though beef is still king in this part of Texas, the pork chop at Perry’s has been a Houston area legend for years. The menu informs that “this prime chop is cured, roasted, slow-smoked and caramelized and served with homemade applesauce.” But, that only tells part of the story of this five-finger high pork dish consisting of about four pork chops that takes five days to prepare.
Reef – Crispy Skin Snapper – 2007- $28 – Served with sweet and sour chard and tomato, brown butter, this is a refined and updated version of a Gulf Coast fishermen’s classic preparation.
Underbelly – Korean Braised Goat & Dumplings – 2010, $14 – Redolant with the soy and garlic, the tender goat served with plenty of sauce matches perfectly with the soft, German-style dumplings.
Dessert
Churrascos – Tres Leches – 1987 – $9.95 – Vanilla cake made with three sweet creams and topped with a light meringue that became Houston’s favorite dessert in a few short years; (thankfully, also available at every other Cordua family restaurant: Amazon Grill, Américas and Artista).
It initially just worked out that there are two soups and three appetizers making up the five starters, six entrées and a single dessert among the ten signature dishes I’ve selected, making for a fine menu in itself. At least a couple of these are also New Orleans favorites. The Crescent City a few hours east on I-10 had long had a strong influence on the local restaurant scene, so this was to be expected. So has Mexico and, in the last thirty years, further south in Latin America, and southeast Asia, especially Vietnam. Michael Cordua’s restaurants have been especially adept at finding a sweet spot among the dining public. Not intentionally, but not surprisingly, each of these regions is represented on this short list. Interestingly, and also not by design, six of the nine savory dishes are seafood, all, or nearly all from the nearby Gulf. Another one is crawfish, which is not quite seafood, though terming it ditch-food might do it a disservice, even though it is accurate.
Published January 18, 2012