I am a big homer for the Houston, but I have to admit that, unfortunately, as good of a restaurant city that it is, Houston is a fairly poor place for pizzerias.  There are a lot of middling, mediocre and lousy pies being dished in pizza joints throughout the area.  And I have eaten a lot of pizzas here over the years, probably too many including for my forlorn Margherita Pizza Project where I tried almost every local version of that famous concoction, nearly one hundred in all.  Not too many here were worth ordering. 
 
In addition to scarfing too many pizzas, for the some of the writing I had done on the subject, I was tapped for an episode on The Food That Built America on The History Channel entitled “Pizza Wars” that initially aired early in 2021.  (I was followed by Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi on one the snippets; she was very polished and gorgeous, and I was somewhat the opposite.) 
 
It hasn’t helped that he pizza game here has taken some hits in recent years.  What was the easily the best pizzeria for quite a while, Dolce Vita, shuttered.  Though its sister restaurant alludes to Dolce Vita pizzas on its menu, these are really flatbreads, not made with pizza dough as is familiar nor cooked in a pizza oven.  Go to Poscol, but don’t order the pizzas.  Other closures helped to lighten an already weak field.  That includes Fresco on the Southwest Freeway had very enjoyable take on the Roman pizza al taglio, and those were just a secondary effort.  Then there is Kenneally’s, which actually used to have excellent pizzas.  These were the original pizzas in Chicago when my father was growing up in Chicago, thin-crust and cut in squares that were devised by immigrants from the Naples area or their offspring.  Those pizzas in recent years have been pretty much terrible, even quite burnt a few weeks ago.  The recipes appear to be the same, but no one there has known how to make or bake a pizza for quite a while.  A few other pizza stars of years past also don’t seem nearly as proficient as they once did.
 
But there is plenty of which to choose here, at least stylistically.  In Houston you can find interpretations of New York-style, hearty Chicago deep-dish, Detroit-style, its cugino Sicilian-style – I think these are still to be found – Neapolitan-style, more broadly Italian-style masquerading under the moniker “Neapolitan,” Roman al taglio style (thick and soft sold in squares), Roman tonda (cracker-thin crust), etc.  I like them all, when made fairly well, at least.  Most evident with the barely topped margheritas, the crust is a noticeable problem at a great many pizzerias here.  Maybe it’s the humidity.
 
This list of pizzerias is much shorter than it should be for the fourth-largest city in the country.  But, to note, when looking for top-notch pizza in the Italian vein, some of the very best are actually at restaurants that serve these most as a shareable starter: Amalfi, Da Marco, and Rosie Cannonball head the list.  Each serves a rendition of the Neapolitan-style.  The small pizzas at the newish Trattoria Sofia are well-done, too.
 
Listed in order of preference.
 
The Best
 
Tiny Champions – Something more than just a pizzeria – with fresh pastas, nicely crafted cocktails, and house-made ice cream from the highly regarded folks at Nancy’s Hustle – it’s also clearly the best pizzeria in Houston.  The pizzas look a lot like those in Italy, but with a flavor that has a touch of a New York accent, buoyed by a delicious bready-tasting crust for a uniquely Houston style, possibly.  That crust is the difference-maker here.  A smattering of excellent ingredient on top and skill with the oven ensures that these pizzas taste amazing even when picked up and eaten at home and through all the slices, as these were during the depths of the pandemic.  High praise, indeed.  EaDo
 
Second Tier
 
Roberta’s – The original in Brooklyn gain considerable fame for more than just the pizzas, but those were deemed “marvelous things” in an early New York Times review.  The topping combinations are unusual, but very nicely chosen, with meat none of which is pepperoni only showing up in two of the creations.  The dough is the key, though.  Made, it seems, with equal parts the finely milled 00 flour used for pizzas in Naples and the all-purpose flour helping to provide a flavorful and fairly light but sturdy enough foundation.  Though the new Post Market is wonderfully diverse in dining options and patrons, the small, simple operation has none of the funkiness or charm of the original.  No matter, get down there to pick up an excellent pie.  Downtown
BOH Pasta and Pizza – Hearty rectangles of Roman-style pizza al taglio are done quite well here, with airy, clean-tasting crusts and an appealing combinations.  Sold by the slice when sitting at one of the seats just inside the entrance at Bravery Chef Hall, these hold up quite nicely to the necessary re-heating.  Downtown
Vinny’s – This fairly small antiseptic storefront on evening-bustling St. Emanuel Street in EaDo from the folks at Agricole Hospitality (Coltivare, Eight Row Flint) that have two other concepts adjacent, Indianola and Miss Carousel, dishes up some really nice pies in very broadly New York vein, available with some fun combinations atop a lighter, tastier crust than most. Served in 16” sizes and by the slice.  EaDo
Grimaldi’s – This nationwide chain that began life in Brooklyn won acclaim there – it was named one of the two best restaurants in that borough some twenty years ago in Zagat – and in locations here does a very commendable job with New York City-style pies featuring dough made daily in-house and pies baked in prominently displayed blistering hot coal-fired brick ovens.  Their pizzas are among the best in the area.  Even the tough-to-do-even-decently margherita is worth ordering here.  CityCentre, Sugar Land, Katy, Friendswood, The Woodlands
Buffalo Bayou Brewery – The pizzas at this attractive brewery are worth a visit here alone.  A lot of attention is paid to the crust here – “ we cold ferment our pizza dough for 72 hours” – and it shows, with a lighter, more flavorful base than the vast of majority of places around.  Fun and quality ingredients cooked properly complete the attractive picture here.  Also, uniquely, you can dust your crust with Cheetos, dried ranch dressing or garlic-Parmesan.  You likely don’t want to do that.  First Ward
Rudyard’s – With pizzaiolo Anthony Calleo formerly of the popular Pi Pizza heading the kitchen in recent years, the pies at this long-standing Montrose neighborhood bar and showcase club can be quite tasty, both in the “Houston” style – that might be somewhere between New York and Naples with a sturdy, tasty crust with an appropriate number of toppings – and the necessarily very hearty and greasy rectangular Detroit style.  Worth a pick up to eat at home, too.  Montrose
 
Usually Enjoyable Enough
 
Pizzeraia Solario – Neapolitan-inspired pizzas are done fairly well here, individually sized and with usually clean flavors from decent ingredients.  This small, cheekily-designed place, where it can be is easy to order wine, has been fine choice for nearly a decade now, just around the corner from Costco.  Greenway Plaza
Luna Pizzeria – Inconsistent, these places are sometimes very good, sometimes middling, at best, but always a very good deal for a weekday lunch, and with an unfailingly friendly staff, indicative of the restaurant group, that helps make for an enjoyable visit.  The pies coming out of the gas ovens are little different with a thicker, soft crust that is usually enjoyably savory and quite supportive of the noticeably fine quality toppings.  Upper Kirby, Heights, Briargrove
Pizaro’s – Generally fairly good, if nothing special.  It rose to attention about fifteen years ago with its traditional Neapolitan pizzas, but the offerings have expanded and the near polar opposite Detroit-style pies are the tastiest here these days.  Montrose, West Houston
Piola – Italians seem to like the pizzas here, at least Italians not from the Naples area and maybe Rome, too. This is a smart-looking chain that began in Treviso just outside of Venice, quite far from the pizza heartland, which has franchised locations in south Florida and a couple here.  Thin and appropriately dressed in Italian style, there are numerous individually sized pizzas from which to choose plus even cauliflower and chia flour crusts to accommodate the traditionally pizza-adverse.  A lengthy menu beyond pizzas, too.  Midtown, Briargrove
The Gypsy Poet – In a lightly trafficked section of Midtown, individual thin-crust Italianate pies dished in a sociable DIY-esque setting featuring a prominent open kitchen with a staff chattering in Spanish have won fans since opening a few years ago.  The pizzas are alright and can make for an enjoyable visit – I’ve been several times – but are generally more attractive than flavorful, judiciously topped on a fairly bland crust.  There are more than a few beers and wines to help with a meal, though not a lot of interest for the latter beyond a few selections sourced from the local French Country Wines.  Midtown

An individual pizza at Luna Pizzeria

I do enjoy them, but to be honest, breakfast tacos are almost never great.  At best, these are good but very welcome on a slower, foggier weekend morning.  Though a guilty, easily greatly caloric morning pleasure, these really aren’t the breakfast of champions, unless you’re aiming for champion-size sumo proportions.  And breakfast tacos don’t get the recognition that the more familiar ones – pastor, carne asada, etc. – receive, nor do these deserve it.  These are generally not as interesting nor tasty.  More care is usually put into the daytime tacos by the taqueros.  But, sometimes nothing is better on a lazy weekend morning, or very early in the morning as the night has wound done.  For this kind of weekend food, often for those with a mild hangover or worse, a drive-thru is a big benefit for which a couple recommendable spots can oblige so that Taco Cabana and Chacho’s can be avoided.
 
Breakfast tacos, for me: moist scrambled eggs and most often a protein or potatoes wrapped in a study-enough flour tortilla – recently made in house by experienced hands, ideally – and aided by a flavorful salsa that complements and ties together the components.  Flour tortillas are the standard, as the staffer at Hugo Ortega’s latest venture Urbe confirmed assertively when I asked which type of tortilla works best for the tacos I was ordering.  But corn tortillas are becoming a more familiar as an option at more than a few places now.  The universe of breakfast tacos is expanding.  Tortillas made in house might be ideal if there is a skilled tortilla-maker on site, but there are high quality tortillerias in town, and with it, and the volume most places do, tortillas are always fresh-tasting.
 
Breakfast tacos are an American thing, as far as I can tell and originally a Texas thing, though the breakfast burrito and similar items are probably from points further west.  These seemingly don’t exist in Mexico other than for barbacoa – that eggless, heart-endangering, usually weekend pleasure – for which I received some more recent confirmation from current and former residents.  Scrambled eggs stuck into a tortilla with salsa seems like such a natural thing, but this combination hasn’t been around forever.  Breakfast tacos might have had their start in San Antonio, and Texas Monthly claimed to have found an ad from a paper there in the 1950s mentioning those.  I began to notice them in Houston in the 1990s, though maybe these existed before then.  I don’t remember them in my earlier time in Austin, though.
 
To note, I’ve mostly included places where it’s easy to get them, not the places serving breakfast as part of a large morning ensemble meant most for dining in.  Some of these can be good, but not terribly convenient nor quick, and that’s usually part of the attraction of breakfast tacos.

The restaurants are listed in order of preference.

Updated on May 8, 2022.

The Best

Tacos A Go Go – You’ll have to wait at least a short while for these cooked-to-order morning sensations that are necessarily customized, two items from a choice of a dozen quality options – bacon, sausage, refried beans, etc. – to complement the scrambled eggs, which means shredded cheese can be added for no additional cost, usually a significant benefit.  The number of possible creations are generally welcome, but can require some additional thinking during those much slower weekend mornings.  Along with tacos with the expected fillings, for a little more there are eggs with lamb barbacoa, a really tasty pork guisada, carne guisada, and smoked brisket.  A variety of delicious, mostly piquant salsas can complement any creation, which are available on either flour or corn tortillas, and also whole wheat, for some reason.  Wrapped just in aluminum foil, these tacos travel well, too.  Midtown, Heights, Garden Oaks, Downtown

The Second Best

Tio Trompo – A tiny, newish counter-service spot on Shepherd just past St. Thomas High School, this specializes in pastor-filled tacos cooked on the trompo, but does an excellent job with made-to-order, two-item breakfast tacos and the messier, more authentically Mexican barbacoa, which is served daily in case your cholesterol is too low. Well-wrapped in paper and aluminum foil, the former travel quite well.  The latter are still quite tasty, if always a bit fatty and invariably sloppy.  Washington Corridor
La Carreta – This low-volume spot set unassumingly on 20th Street in the Heights for nearly fifty years serves up some terrific straightforward breakfast tacos that are more than the sum of its parts led by tasty house-made flour tortillas and a different, watery salsa with a subtle spicy flavor that seems to improve everything.  Made to order and travels well.  Heights
El Charro – The fairly spiffy location on Harrisburg is quite cheap and convenient – if you live in or not too far from the East End – and with a drive-thru.  It does a more than commendable job with these basic renditions, as with it does with most its offerings, and for a terrific value.  Excellent salsas and machacado and eggs, too.  East End, Alief
Urbe – Opened in the summer of 2021, this attractive and inviting outpost featuring street food from top toque Hugo Ortega and team (Hugo’s, Caracol, Xochi) in Uptown Park is necessarily more ambitious, wide-ranging and accomplished than just about any taco purveyor around.  Tacos here include more items, and likely of higher quality, than elsewhere and are available with either flour or corn tortillas; the former should be the choice, of course.  Uptown Park
Taco 7 – Available in the biggest array of breakfast combinations around - including a choice among four different types of cheese - it can be a little confusing for a first-timer to order, but the staff is helpful, and tacos are hefty and very enjoyable.  And, convenience of conveniences especially on those slower weekend mornings, it has a drive-thru.  Spring Branch
The Taco Stand – Far from a taco stand, this slick operations on Shepherd in the Heights – a sibling of The Burger Joint next door – offers plump and usually delectable breakfast tacos that can be had in fresh flour tortillas, or corn for about thirty cents less.  Tortillas are made in house, though the flour ones are vegan; no tasty manteca de cerdo in the mix.  These tacos aren’t the cheapest around, but worth it, and these are nicely available until 11 each morning, and with a drive-thru, which is at least as nice.  It’s better to arrive before then because the breakfast versions are much tastier than the later-day ones.  Also, the viscous Taqueria Arandas-style green salsa significantly aids any of the morning offerings.  Heights
La Chingada – Assembled to order with a fair number of fillings stuffed inside house-made flour tortillas for a plump, satisfying result that’s wrapped in aluminum foil to go and served with a trio of commendable salsas: a fiery orange, a piquant serrano-based whipped green, and a fairly mild tomatillo one.  A fine value at around $3 each, the breakfast tacos are served daily, and that includes the barbacoa at this friendly, slightly funky spot not far west of I-45 and close to the Heights.  Near Northside
Laredo Taqueria – Four locations, including the seemingly-always-line-out-the-door original on Washington.  Available with either flour or corn tortillas, and $3 each for the standard two-item versions – mostly egg and something else, of course, but barbacoa daily – that are straightforward and satisfying, especially with aid from the spicy viscous green salsa or the piquant, thin red one.  From a steam table that is replenished more often than most anywhere else, a smear of refried beans provides a base on the tortilla of choice, with the flour tortillas noticeably fresh and flavorful and the fluffy scrambled eggs plentiful; the proteins are used much more judiciously than elsewhere, but you will get pleasantly stuffed for less than $10 here. Washington Corridor and Near Northside (3)
Revival Market – Only one option, as a plate with a side, featuring supermarket aisle-quality flour tortillas and without any additional salsa that is kind of pricey for what it is, but very tasty and definitely worth an order.  Other than the tortillas, the ingredients are as good or better than anywhere else, which is what you would expect from this restaurant cum artisanal butcher and food shop. Heights
Cantina Barba – Cooked to order, and solid and sensibly-sized, these are served all day and with the option for corn tortillas. And, it is open until 2 AM, in case taste matters that late.  Near Northside

Bueno Enough

El Rey – Wrapped in paper then aluminum foil, these plump tacos are available in enough varieties to satisfy most including a Cuban version with black beans providing the protein. The drive-thrus are an important consider. Like The Taco Stand, just go for breakfast not for the afternoon tacos.  Washington Corridor, Garden Oaks, Spring Branch, Katy
La Mexicana – A solid choice featuring items dished from steam trays piled into large flour tortillas toasted on the plancha; not helped by two of the lamest salsas to be found, especially a slightly sweet green one, but these are served all day. Montrose
Henderson and Kane – Low-volume with service that’s always slow, but the breakfast tacos are well-done, made to order featuring pretty tasty flour tortillas made in house and thick slices of bacon that is much higher quality than you’ll find in most other versions around, and the it offers the chance to enjoy beef brisket in the AM.  For this, and all the morning tacos, skip the forgettable green salsa and pour on the piquant and flavorful reddish one.  Sixth Ward
La Vibra – This modern taco stop serves some different types of notably artisanal tacos rooted in Mexico City. The morning versions are more local and less interesting, but are cooked to order and can be satisfying.  Heights
La Guadalupana – The breakfast tacos at this quaint and popular café aren’t as good as they once were, and one of the other breakfast choices is a better option these days. Smaller-sized and utilizing commercial tortillas, the salsas are tasty and an order of the morning tacos can still usually satiate.  Montrose
Brothers Taco House – A value provider as generous portions are scooped from the trays in the steam table beginning with a smear of refried beans into pretty good flour tortillas in an efficient fashion as the every-present line moves quickly.  Its versions are solid if the salsas don’t add too much, with the barbacoa being one of the better choices here. EaDo
El Sol Mejicano – Across from the police headquarters, these very no-frills versions – well-cooked scrambled eggs and another thing – are hefty and generally satisfying, cooked to order and with quality salsas for some necessary extra flavor.  Downtown
El Topo – The near-polar opposite of El Sol Mejicano and Brothers Taco, this offers a chef-y, pricey version of the breakfast taco set in the heart of an upscale, largely white neighborhood.  There are only a couple of breakfast taco options – a solid, not-so-value-oriented rendition of beef barbacoa and a loaded bacon, potato, egg and cheese one – and only open at 9:00; a big breakfast is not needed is these parts.  The loaded option is the largest breakfast taco to be found in town, a true one’s-a-meal for most, which can be complemented with easily the least spicy salsas around.  West U
Papalo Taqueria – This artisanal taqueria in Finn Hall in the heart of the office towers, with a weekend gig at the large farmers market, seemingly has to serve breakfast tacos during the week to help pay for the certainly considerable rent.  Their heart doesn't seem to be in it, as these pre-made tacos aren't nearly as enjoyable nor interesting as their lunchtime and more truly Mexican preparations.  Downtown
The Pit Room – Only recommendable for dine-in, as these travel poorly.  House-made flour tortillas anchors these very big and bold versions with eggs that are cooked upon order and slathered with a very healthy amount of well creamed refried beans.  The brisket tacos are a wonder, but are not enjoyable too many minutes past ordering even though well-wrapped in paper and aluminum foil; but maybe that’s part of the problem, as there’s just too much moisture in the meat and the eggs that are cooked to a wet consistency.  Actually, nothing travels well at all, with or without the refried beans on the bottom.  Montrose
Chilosos –  Though not nearly in the same league as the tacos from nearby La Carreta or La Chingada, this spot has been popular for years with Heights residents. The breakfast tacos are huge, and so a fine value.  Otherwise, the straightforward tacos feature house-made flour tortillas that are little thicker and gummier and less tasty than typical – corn is an option, too – and salsas that are also less flavorful, even as the green one packs some heat.  Made to order, the orders can be quite slow to fulfill on weekends and the setting is rather cramped and charmless as you wait.  Heights

I don’t believe that it is fair to review, or judge too much, a restaurant after a single visit, but the outlines for the new Wild Oats in the commercial farmers market on Airline seem clear and probably won’t deviate much in the near future.  Most importantly for me, the food and drink are excellent – from a menu laden with mostly very hearty options – as top-notch cooking and accompanying beverages to be expected from a restaurant from Chris Shepherd and team these days.  The setting, in the nicely casual side vein, befitting its spot in a pleasant industrial structure adjacent to the farmers market, is heavy on the Texas theme, cringingly so at times and the noise level because of some design mistakes is excruciatingly high.
 
The best first, what comes from the kitchen, bar, and from the wine list.  We began with cocktails, Paloma for me, and a Chilton for my charming and also witty, I suppose, dining companion.  Both were delicious, and better than usual; the Paloma drink dangerously quickly on a warm evening, and in a warm restaurant.  She drank the Chilton in a surprisingly more measured pace.  For food, it started with chili, that Texas favorite, which is actually not found that often on local menus, comes in three sizes, a cup and a bowl, of course, and a shot.  Also planning on an appetizer, it was a shot for each of us, an engaging and fun way to start a meal here.  It was terrific, meaty and properly bean-free, much more complex and flavorful than the version of Lady Bird Johnson’s chili I make somewhat regularly (and which is actually usually quite tasty).  That appetizer, thankfully just one given its size, was the queso.  It is a production that includes a dramatic, large fried potato that looked like a sheet of chicharron, beef fat-laden flour tortillas, a jar of nopalitos; sturdy house-made chips, and a slightly sweet green salsa.  The preternaturally melted processed orange cheese-food that was the queso was fine, very thin and straightforward, if far from fine dining.  Enjoyable, this is not a must-order, though, and it’s somewhat of a lower-key outlier with the rest of the well-crafted items on the menu.
 
For the main, though hardly a Texas staple, but a favorite of my childhood, I opted for that evening’s special, pierogies, as our server said that these were lighter than my other choice, the pork shank.  These were filled primarily with nicely moist and flavorful braised rabbit topped with some more chopped rabbit.  Very tasty and nicely put together, if not light at all, probably the heartiest pierogies I’ve ever had, which is something.  The other order, a quail preparation, two of the small birds that were bacon-wrapped and filled with corn bread stuffing and served with cream cheese and jalapeño slices, was eaten ravenously.  The small piece I had was a little overcooked and dry, but maybe that was the only part of it that was.  No desserts; we were stuffed.  We ordered heavily but the menu is heavy-dish-laden, too much so for my tastes. 
 
For the necessary wine, we enjoyed a really nice, ready-to-drink 2019 Barbaresco from Luigi Giordano, a producer that has found a home on many Houston area lists, for $78 the complemented both of the entrées quite well.  The wine list from Matthew Pridgen is predictably engaging, nicely-edited and affordable for a restaurant of this quality.  It is easy to choose well and without too much stress on the pocketbook here. 
 
Service was a little slow at times, including receiving menus as we were told they restaurant did not have many of them, but friendly.
 
Now the bad and I guess ugly: décor was homey in a Texas-through-a-Disney-esque-lens and did not work well at all to our eyes: an amazing number of quilted throw pillows on the benches lining one wall; cloth half curtains on the windows looking like cheap gunny sacks; and the bill delivered in an old steel Gilley’s beer can.  Even worse was the noise level.  It was very, very loud even being only two-thirds filled.  We had a tough time carrying on a conversation even with an empty table next to us.  Ridiculous.  The dining area consists of three rooms plus a bar area and a patio.  We sat in one with a fairly low ceiling, which certainly made it worse, but there are just too many hard surfaces throughout.  We thought that it was a poorly designed restaurant, and one of us believed it was very unattractive, somewhat insultingly so, also.  As much as we enjoyed the food and drink, we won’t be rushing back.
 
Wild Oats
2520 Airline (south of I-610), 77009, (713) 393-7205
wildoatshouston.com

I really never watch those cooking competition shows – I like to see food that’s cooked at restaurants, where people can actually experience it – but I have been tuning into the current season of Top Chef airing now on Bravo that is set in Houston, enjoyably catching some of the featured local sites and restaurateurs.  The other night, a good portion of the show was filmed at the attractive, small Bethel Park that is mostly the structure of the former Bethel Missionary Baptist Church at 801 Andrews Street, which was one of the oldest churches in the Fourth Ward, in Freedmen’s Town.  The name of the theme for that setting was soul food in its various, very personal interpretations.
 
In the day-before the competition tour of the park, the contestants feasted on food brought in by This is It, the longtime soul food favorite that is now in the Third Ward.  Many Houstonians will remember its nearly four-decade tenure on Gray Street just west of Bagby, at the juncture of Midtown and the Fourth Ward.  Having This is It was an especially good choice.  Not only a long-popular place broadly fitting the show’s theme, it began life in the late 1950s a scant two blocks west at 1003 Andrews Street.  That fact wasn’t mentioned in the show.
 
I actually saw the filming of the episode, or rather the outside of the filming on a Chamber of Commerce day last fall.  I live even closer to the site than the original location of This is It and that morning noticed one of the adjacent streets blocked off with police officers in front and much of the exterior of the park covered in tarp.  That was odd.  The public park is essentially only open for private events, but having the its entire half-block obscured from view was quite unusual.  But, the filming did turn out well.
 
Though I don’t get invited to too many things anymore, as there are no longer local Zagat editors and the my food writing output is rather scant these days, I was somewhat miffed I didn’t get one for that.  It was just a very short stroll down the street after all and Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi actually appeared in back-to-back snippets in The Food That Built America on The History Channel.  It was an episode entitled “Pizza Wars” that initially aired earlier this year.  She was very polished and gorgeous, and I was rather the opposite; it had been a while since I had been in front of the cameras.  And it might be a while until the next time.  A cameo in something filmed in my neighborhood would have been quite cool, even with no speaking lines.

Tio Trompo on Shepherd just past Saint Thomas High School is a quaint, fairly new taqueria set in a derelict little retail center – the other business there is shuttered – with a limited menu, but what it offers, and its value, is well worth a trip for anyone who enjoys casual Mexican food.  As the name suggests, the trompo, the vertical spit used to cook pork al pastor, is a key attraction.  That slowly roasted pork, which retains its moistness unlike at far too many taquerias in Houston, makes its way into traditional tacos, tortas and something called the Torta Arabe.  That was a new one for me.
 
Described on the menu as white pork "Trompo" meat on a pita bread, it was larger than a taco and quite like a gyro or shawarma but with Mexican flavors.  Featuring tender, flavorful pork that I slathered with the fiery reddish salsa stuffed into a large pita- and tortilla-like bread, it was delicious.  And just $6, too.
 
Though I was not exactly familiar with this large taco-style item, its name was not surprising as I was familiar with the story of Lebanese immigrants bringing the trompo to Mexico a century or so ago.  The taco arabe, I have come to learn, is a specialty of the city of Puebla that is southeast of Mexico City and the birthplace of mole poblano and chiles en nogada, not bad company. 
 
Tio Trompo
316 Shepherd (at Feagan), 77007, (832) 804-6364  
tiotrompo.com

The Washington Post very recently published “A local’s guide to Houston,” just the sixth one joining Phoenix, Moscow, Montreal, Bogata, and Madrid in a seemingly new project by the paper.  The concise guide is actually pretty good, especially when highlighting cultural and recreational spots, but as a former author and contributor to guidebooks about Houston, I do have a few quibbles with the restaurants and bars recommended, of course.  I’m a critic; I criticize. 
 
Within the format of the guide, which I think is well done, here are restaurants to replace several of those recommended:

• EggHaus Gourmet – A rather obscure and singular place near Timbergrove from the folks at King’s Bierhaus serving breakfast tacos and odd versions of kolaches – ever heard of a bratwurst kolache?  Replacement: Kolache Shoppe –  These two locations are easily the two best outposts for kolaches in Houston and likely the entire state – Weikel's Bakery in La Grange is the only serious challenger I’ve found – and the drive-thru of the Heights spot is the source of a mini-traffic jam every weekend morning.
• The Rice Box – The coolly set little Chinese-American place on the curve on Shepherd across the street from The Backstreet Café attracts a younger set. Replacement: Pepper Twins – One of the several home-grown Sichuan-specialists is on West Gray, a half-mile away, serving far better food in the Chinese vein, it has resonated with both the growing Chinese community and any diner who enjoys usually well-crafted food with noticeably high quality ingredients.
• Ninfa’s on Navigation – The Tex-Mex landmark that help instigate the fajita craze several decades ago was a Houston favorite for years. Replacement: El Tiempo on Navigation – Ninfa Laurenzo’s family long ago moved on to El Tiempo and has seemingly much of the former staff at Ninfa’s; serving similar fare, but just much better and in a much more consistent fashion, especially those grilled steak offerings.
• Mai’s – The Midtown spot that had served as introduction to Vietnamese for many college students has been known mostly for its late hours, post bar, when the dishes happened to taste a lot better. Replacement: Thien An Sandwiches – There are still a number of Vietnamese restaurants in Midtown, though not as many as in years past, and the no-frills Thein An is the best, serving excellent versions of all the local favorites across banh mi, bun, com dia, banh cuon, and pho – where the old school tripe and tendon can still be added.  It does close at 6:00, unfortunately.
• Tacos Tierra Caliente – The food truck across the street from the West Alabama Ice House is alright, if nothing special other than it’s often quite handy location. Replacement: Master Taco – A few blocks away on Richmond and Woodhead, this friendly daytime and early evening spot from a family from the state of Guerrero, in which Acapulco is located, crafts some terrific small tacos on both corn and flour tortillas, both house-made.
• Coltivare – This place on White Oak can be credited with generating interest in the Heights as a dining destination, though it’s been surpassed by several other restaurants in the neighborhood. Replacement: Squable – Comfort, wit, intelligence, experience and a lot skill are hallmarks of this eclectic eatery that is especially good with breads and cocktails and almost everything, actually, as it is the top dining spot in the Heights, and one of the best in the city.
• True Anomaly and Truckyard – A new brewery and a fun, tacky, beer garden imported from Dallas were two of the recommendations for EaDo.  Given my experiences, I cannot suggest visiting a small domestic brewery in good conscience, and there are better options in EaDo for those past their mid-twenties to imbibe than the Truckyard. Replacements: J-Bar-M and Tiny Champions – The new barbecue joint is not only the slickest in the area, it serves up fantastic ‘cue and with an expansive, attractive bar and plenty of seating with views of some of the nearby downtown skyline. Tiny Champions, a funky place with well-crafted pastas, cocktails, ice cream and pizzas.  It’s the best pizza joint in town these days.

 
And a couple of other things worth revision:

• “Don’t leave without having: A rib-eye at any of the bars that hosts a steak night throughout the week…”  I had to laugh at this, as did a friend in the hospitality business and a former bar owner here.  Neither of us could recall a decent steak we’ve had at any bar’s steak night over the years, and it’s got to be tougher to pull off with more expensive beef these days.  These promotions don’t exactly draw the most demanding diners.
• “But the local favorite is really: Food trucks….”  There might be a number of food trucks in Houston, but with our usually hot and humid weather, the area is not as well suited to food trucks as a place like Los Angeles.  A much better option to the food truck scene is the broadly similar food halls, which have sprung up in recent years.  Bravery Chef Hall, The Post Market, Railway Heights, and Finn Hall are all worth visiting.  Not only can you dine under cover and in air conditioning with metal utensils and proper plates, you will find an array of dining options much better than from the food trucks. 
• “But the local favorite is really:..pizza….”  Though it pains me to write this, but Houston is not a good pizza town.  The recommendable pizzerias are limited: the aforementioned Tiny Champions, Poscol, Vinny’s, Rudyard’s. Though pizza is certainly eaten often here, a cuisine that is very popular, deeply woven into the local dining culture, and is done here as well or better than anywhere else in the country is Vietnamese, and something visitors should try before any pizza place.  The complex beef broth anchoring a good bowl of pho or a crusty loafed banh mi are two types of often excellent locally found fare to be had for a comparative song.
  

 
On last thing, for the ink about The Menil Collection, I would have mentioned Barnett Newman’s “Broken Obelisk” that’s set on a reflecting pool near the Rothko Chapel, one of my favorite pieces of public art in Houston. 
 
There is a lot that can be recommended for Houston.

The fiery, delicious Pepper Twins Chicken that's just $11.99 for lunch during the week.

Jalapeños at 2702 Kirby, just south of Westheimer, was an Upper Kirby favorite for years that succumbed to development at the end of 2005.  Pondicheri among others rests on its ashes today.  I wrote in the first edition of Houston Dining on the Cheap that “Jalapeños is back among the better Mexican restaurants in town.  In fact, Jalapeños is, overall, one of the best Mexican restaurants in town.”  Its spinach enchiladas were the first dish I recommended and were among my favorites there.
 
Those can be found at Seco’s Latin Cuisine tucked away in a small house on Nottingham, a stone’s throw from Kirby, and not far north from the Rice Village.  Owned by the former chef at Jalapeños who has had Seco’s for about fifteen years now, which has a menu that has morphed over those years to one that is nearly fully Tex-Mex, if with a decided accent from the 1990s or so.  Chief among that vibe is Chef Seco’s Famous Original Spinach Enchiladas.  Featuring, rather unusually, flour tortillas that are filled with roughly chopped spinach and a mild cheese then topped with a cilantro cream sauce and served with lightly Spanish rice and choice of refried black beans or charro beans.  The enchiladas taste comfortable to me – and an order in which I can try to believe I am eating healthy – and readily enjoyable with spinach that’s verdant but not overpoweringly herbaceous nor harsh, and the flour tortillas carry a surprisingly light touch, even with a cream sauce atop.  It is a taste of Houston restaurant history, albeit not too distant one, but a remainder to me how much has changed in the local dining landscape in the past couple of decades.
 
Seco’s is set in an old house with several small rooms.  It is quaint, and there are very few parking spaces at the restaurant.  You should be able to find parking easily across the street, though.
 
Seco’s Latin Cuisine
2536 Nottingham (just east of Kirby), 77005, (713) 942-0001
secoslatincuisineinc.com

Just $12.99 and with chips and salsa, of course

Eating a pambazo the other day at La Chingada – a small place that I have really enjoyed in recent months that’s quite friendly in contrast to its somewhat crass name – made clear why I often hesitate to order tortas, Mexican-style sandwiches found at taquerias around town.  A pambazo is basically a quickly pan-fried torta drenched in a guajillo pepper sauce, a piquant knife-and-fork sandwich.  I enjoyed the version at La Chingada but that sauce-soaked telera roll was obviously of the dull, lousy Mrs. Baird’s-like quality.  The same issue occurs with the torta at another Mexican spot I’ve had some very good food from, Master Tacos.  The tacos are great there, but the torta is handicapped by cheap-tasting bread.  That happens at too many places.  Most Mexican restaurants here, in fact, in my experience.  The tortillas might be made in house or are otherwise good quality, but the bread, either the telera or bolillo rolls, is of the inexpensive, overly processed variety.
 
As with other types of sandwiches, the bread is substantial part of the whole; it’s not going to be a good sandwich without pretty good bread, at least.
 
There are certainly exceptions to the curse of Mrs. Baird’s afflicting area Mexican eateries.  The fairly new Urbe, from Hugo Ortega and team, has excellent breads for its torta-like creations and Mexico’s Deli on Dairy Ashford, still possibly Houston’s torta king, has long served quality rolls for its innumerable sandwiches.  But, unfortunately, when thinking about a torta at a Mexican restaurant, you might want to think more about something else.

Lame, processed-tasting supermarket bolillos; the problem at many places.

Spent the past weekend in New Orleans helping to celebrate a friend’s birthday with a big group and indulging into much rich Creole fare.  Too much alcohol, too, of course.  It seems impossible to eat without drinking there, especially as a tourist.  As in the past, the weekend’s festivities began with a Friday lunch downstairs at the famed Galatoire’s, which is something special, largely for its celebratory environment that’s raucous yet mostly refined, but the food is terrific, and has been on each of several visits.
 
The menu is not inexpensive, but fairly priced.  Many of the dishes are centered around locally sourced seafood.  High quality seafood bears a cost.  The fairness in pricing extends to its good-sized French-heavy wine list, and maybe more so to its spirits.
 
After we finished with the food – at the men’s table, as the women shunted us to a separate one where the desserts were overlooked but the beverage list not at all – my brother tapped me on the shoulder to show me what another person in our group had just ordered, a glass of Macallan 12-year-old filled neatly a full-three fingers high.  That was a surprisingly stout pour, and just $15.  In Houston, to give a few examples, an order of Macallan 12 at both Georgia James and Le Jardinier is a full ten dollars more, and nearly so at Squable where it is $24.  The pours at most establishments in Houston are probably an ounce or even an ounce-and-a-half less than the one at Galatoire’s, also.  It was impressive.  The Macallan 12 is an entry level Speyside single-malt whisky that is easily enjoyable for me most after-dinners with a big meal.  With the tariff for that quality and quantity, I had to order one.  It might have been two; it was a fun afternoon.
 
I’ve experienced this over the many years in New Orleans; in the tackiest touristy bars in the French Quarter to the nicest restaurants in the city, the town does not rip you off with the alcohol.  I find that the quality of the cocktails there are usually just middling, even at James Beard Award-winning bars and restaurants, including at several in a few days, though Commander’s Palace in a notable exception in this regard.  Regardless of the quality of mixing, the drink is always strong, and usually more-than-properly priced.  Plus, the settings and atmospheres are almost always a lot of fun.   

A neat whisky at Galatoire's the other day.  Note all the stains nearby.

I somewhat recently included Lobster Fra Diavolo on a list of the best Italian-American dishes of all time.  Most popular in the northeast, especially the New York area and Boston – near where lobsters are caught – the dish takes the southern Italian tradition of shellfish with factory-made pasta to feature sumptuous lobsters.  It’s been found on Italian-themed restaurant menus since the 1930s, at least in New York where it is probably the most popular.  Featuring tomato sauce seasoned with plenty of chopped garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes, it’s another exuberant of Italian-American cooking.  “Fra diavolo” means “brother devil” in Italian and might suggest the heat of the red pepper flakes and also the red of the tomato sauce and cooked lobster.  The name might also reference the nickname of a legendary and vicious bandit in southern Italy who was the subject of a nineteenth century opera.
 
Lobster Fra Diavolo can be a rich and fun dish.  It might also have had a practical, or devious, reason for its creation.  On a gastronomic trip to Italy nearly a decade ago sponsored by the Gruppo Ristoranti Italiani, a restaurateur from Massachusetts mentioned to me that he believed Lobster Fra Diavolo likely was created many years earlier because restaurants had to cover the taste of seafood going bad.  If so, that gives an additional layer – maybe more substance, too – to the name of the dish, a slightly devilish one at that. 

A version of Lobster Fra Diavolo from Tagliata restaurant in Baltimore

That might seem to be an odd question, especially so if you are not as into that kind of food as am I.  If you ask an American what is Italian food, there is a good chance that you’ll get an answer that names dishes featuring a long-simmered tomato sauce like spaghetti and meatballs and chicken Parmesan along with garlic bread.  If you ask an Italian, someone from Italy, the response won’t include any preparations remotely like those, which they certainly don’t regard as being Italian.  They consider those American creations, rightly so.  Their answer might include some of the dishes from their town or region, and those items will likely depend on where the person comes from in Italy.  But, food served under the banner of Italian food here, at restaurants on supermarket shelves, will be seen as Italian food no matter the veracity.
 
I believe that Italian-themed restaurants in this country can be placed as under one of broadly three banners: Italian-American, Americanized Italian, and Italian.
 
Italian-American easily claims the largest number of restaurants and also dishes in the popular mind.  These restaurants serves items that come largely from the Italian-American tradition like those spaghetti and meatballs.  The preparations in the Italian-American tradition are rooted in the big wave of Italian immigration from the 1880s until 1924.  The vast majority of these people came from the Italian south where the tomato has a prominent place, and about half the dishes in the Italian-American canon originate in the Naples area like long-simmered tomato sauce, pasta and clams, and lasagna made with tomato-sauce and ricotta.  These dishes might have had roots in Italy, but were adapted and grew with American tastes, abundance, industrialization and pace of life.  The people who were eating these dishes were Americans, as the immigrants’ offspring and descendants were plus the generations of restaurant patrons.  The preparations at these restaurants, regardless of the provenance of the recipes, are generally much heartier, and meatier and cheesier than in Italy and frequently sporting some red color.  And, if a restaurant's menu touts its sauce, it's Italian-American.
 
But restaurants need to serve what people want, and the menus are not static.  These might often have pasta carbonara, fettuccine Alfredo and penne alla vodka, dishes born in Italy after the big emigration to America, but have become very American in interpretation here.  Steaks, too.  Americans love steak.
 
Similar to the Italian-American restaurant is the newest type, the Americanized Italian.  These do not hew to the Italian-American traditions for the most part, and use more contemporary ideas and products from Italy, but the food is generally different than it is in Italy.  These are often from a skilled chef who puts their spin on Italian dishes, or their notion of Italian dishes, and might use the Italian cooking philosophy as an inspiration.  The quality of ingredients is usually high, and sometimes expensive.  Italian descriptions are often used to portray a greater sense of authenticity or understanding, at least, even if the Italian is often mangled.
 
Restaurants that might be called Italian try to mimic how food is prepared in Italy, or in very capable and knowing hands, express the ethos of Italy and with Italian products when necessary.  The chef is almost always from Italy or has cooked there.  They know Italy.  Italian can be in one its regional or local variations, and from rustic to high cuisine to creative.  In the U.S., traditional and mostly authentic Italian usually features several dishes that are popular outside of Italy or popular in across a lot of Italy, especially the touristed cities and towns (e.g. cacio e pepe).  Truly Italian food can be tough to do, and its appearance in America is actually somewhat recent.  Tony May of the landmark San Domenico in New York was quoted in 2008 saying that "twenty years ago it was very difficult to reproduce regional Italian cuisine…..A chef couldn't get imported Parmigiano-Reggiano or buffalo milk mozzarella, virgin olive oil, prosciutto di Parma, or balsamic vinegar. Now, everybody can buy the finest of such ingredients, and it's made a tremendous difference in the taste of the food."  But, even so, the way we eat in this country is different than in Italy, what customers want is not the same, and restaurants need to make money.  "There's no point in being strictly authentic with an empty dining room," as Lidia Bastianich was quipped a few decades ago.  That’s one reason why authentic Italian restaurants can be hard to find here.
 
In Italy, Italian food means all of different things.  In this country, it can mean even more, and often items that are really more American than Italian.

The meat ravioli at the original Carrabba's in Houston

The Post Market has been opened for a scant few months now.  It’s actually still opening as many of the announced businesses have yet to start operations, including several of the restaurants, but what’s already there is worthy of a trip to the northwest corner of downtown for those in search of interesting and fun food offered in a dizzyingly diverse array, with a few places serving extremely high quality food.
 
The Post Market is the transformation of the former central post office, certainly looking a far cry from what it did when I had a postal box there.  A 5,000-seat music venue is at its eastern edge, with the food hall to the north of that and not-ready retail and work spaces to be located somewhere not so apparent, plus the Skylawn atop the building.  A dramatic staircase extends from the food hall up to that, the landscaped roof, which I haven’t yet traversed, being just focused on the food during my dozen or so visits thus far.
 
Just that has been fun.  Both the Post Market and the other food hall to open in 2021, Railway Heights, have been very pleasantly surprising in terms of the array of what is offered and the quality of the food.  The Post Market is the larger and more ambitious of the two.  When all are opened, there will be two dozen food and drink options in the Post Market with cuisines extending from Middle Eastern, Thai, Filipino, Japanese street food, pizza, Nigerian, hamburgers, seafood, contemporary Tex-Mex, hot chicken, pho, crepes, Pakistani, and Indian plus ice cream and gelato options – for partisans of each frozen treat – along with beer, wine and cocktails.  
 
All of the food is dispensed via counter service with fairly limited menus, and those menus often might only be viewed via a Q code, dishing preparations that are generally on the small side.  There are some hiccups in these early days: the steamed rice might often be overcooked; the usually young staff at these new places isn’t always well-served with the food they are pushing across the counter; and the dishes are not necessarily that value-laden.  No matter.  My food has mostly been good, sometimes excellent, in a dozen trips, and it has been enjoyable to explore a range of cuisines all in one setting.
 
Paul Qui, the acclaimed Austin-based chef, who had the excellent Qui on lower Westheimer in 2018 and has a James Beard Award and some baggage, is part of four operations, which shows in the cooking at these.  His three solo efforts are Soy Pinoy, highlighting his Filipino heritage, Thai Kun, and East Side King, Japanese-influenced that has been maddeningly out of what I’ve wanted in a couple of trips.  At
Golfstrømmen Seafood Market he partners with Norwegian chef, Christopher Haatuft, for an enticing seafood outpost that highlights the high quality of their sourcing with mostly straightforward creations in ways usually familiar to locals that can be absolutely delicious.  It’s the best restaurant at Post Market and, I thought, one of the best to open in Houston in 2021.  Two other stars are across the aisle, The Butcher’s Burger and its sibling Salt & Time Butcher Shop, Austin imports like Qui.  The messy hamburgers at The Butcher’s Burger are terrific, employing meat from the butcher shop that are directly from ranchers in central Texas.  It is one of the top burger joints in town.  The attractive case filled mostly with cuts of beef at Salt & Time has already tempted me.
 
Among the other top spots so far is Hawker Street Food from Spain-based, chef Laila Bazahm, who had a well-regarded restaurant in Barcelona and currently operates one in Ibiza. She has been on site at her place that serves a really eclectic set of influences often in a single preparation: Korean, Indian, Peruvian, Balinese, Malaysian, Italian, and more on a short menu.  It has worked out quite well for me in a couple of visits.  I was told by her staff that she is looking for another restaurant in Houston.
 
Though still a work in progress, with construction still underway, the dining area of the Post Market gives the impression of mall food court, if a cool, kind of funky food court.  It has a high ceiling, bustling crowds and a breezeway in back, the former loading dock, set with plenty of tables for safer open-air dining.  It is now open daily for lunch and dinner.  At the Post Market, you’ll visit for the food not the atmosphere, and you likely should visit.

An open-faced crab sandwich with house-made potato chips during a recent visit to Golfstrømmen Seafood Market.

It’s been an interesting year for Houston restaurant openings, a very pleasantly interesting year given the ongoing pandemic. I’ve had few thoughts and insights about it in a recent post. This one is just for the best newcomers in a crowded year for very worthwhile new eateries. My criteria is firstly and primarily the quality of the food with setting, service, beverage programs, value following. It thought that a sense of utility, usefulness is also important; a high quality restaurant that can be visited for different meals and maybe even on the spur of the moment will be a more integral, and more often enjoyable, part of my dining future and for most. Below are the top ten new restaurants to open in Houston in 2021, listed alphabetically, and described in a mostly concise if occasionally blowsy fashion.
 
To note, the approximate average prices for each reflect a typical dinner, which might be an appetizer, side or dessert in addition to the entrée – or a suitable number of small plates – a couple of drinks, tax and a 20% tip.
 
Alba – $150 – The new concept at the Hotel Granduca replacing Ristorante Cavour features an updated rich, plush, green-hued setting, but thankfully has the old chef, Maurizio Ferrarese, who might be the top Italian toque in Texas and some ways beyond. At the new Alba, the “dishes are a balance between innovation and Italian traditions,” and with a very experienced hand and a big fan of the famed Michelin three-starred Piazza Duomo in Alba in Ferrarese, it offers a very enjoyable insight into the contemporary, refined and often indulgent cuisine of the region of the Langhe that surrounds Alba, which is highlighted by Barolo, Barbaresco, and white truffles. Even the region’s signature pasta dish, on Alba’s menu, ravioli del plin, is sometimes advertised in that area with being made with forty yolks of egg, for example. Terrific with fresh pasta like this and gnocchi, there is certainly no chef that does a better job with risotto that’s on the menu a couple of times, befitting one from Vercelli not terribly far from Alba, the European capital of rice production. You are in excellent hands here. Not unexpectedly, Alba is not cheap; the four mains featuring proteins average nearly $60. Uptown Park
 
Concura – $110 – Another Italian, and somewhat of a regional one with an emphasis on the cooking of the Marche, from where the owners and chefs hail. This is a region in central Italy north of Rome between the Adriatic and the Apennines that is rarely visited by American tourists, but which has some of the best scenery in that beautiful country and exemplary food, both from its coast and the interior. Some of that is replicated here with versions of Coniglio in Porchetta, aggressively herbed, stuffed and roasted rabbit, and the pasta-like passatelli served with stewed mushrooms and truffles along with the region’s most famous appetizer and a great party dish, olive all‘ascolana, stuffed and deep-fried large olives. Fittingly with chefs from the seaside town of Fano, there are several compelling seafood dishes, raw, fried, in a ragù over pasta and even a cod liver foie gras appetizer plus some Tuscan preparations and a couple found over much of Italy. The wine is rather tiny if studded with stars, but oddly no Verdicchios, the region’s premier varietal. Concura is small inside with a décor that blends contemporary and rustic notes in plenty of black and dark gray with an open kitchen that feels like a newer restaurant in Italy, as does its outdoor seating along a sidewalk. Highland Village
 
Da Gama Canteen – $60 – “Drawing inspiration from the former Portuguese-Indian territory of Goa, Gujarat and Portugal all through our Houston lens” is how the experienced local restaurateurs (Oporto and The Queen Vic) describe the fare here, which will be mostly recognizably Indian to local diners but something a little different, and readily appealing. Appealing also applies to the quite comfortable, contemporary space scattered with tables, banquettes that feels roomy along with an attractive long bar punctuating one end and pleasant patio seating off the side. Set in the somewhat sprawling M-K-T complex at the edge of the Heights, the restaurant resides alongside a breezeway and a park that adds to the charm. Also do the presentations of dishes, belying its reasonable prices, including water served in fetching metal cups that are very appropriate for our heat- and humidity-racked climate. Well-crafted mains run from $14 to $24, meat, seafood and vegetarian. And there plenty of tempting appetizers like East Coast oysters, plus house-made breads, curries, salads, and desserts, too. Cocktails in line with the cuisine, several fun wines on tap, and an intriguing, natural-heavy wine list. It all can encourage many returns. Heights
 
Golfstrømmen Seafood Market – $80 – The name is quite appropriate, meaning Gulf Stream in Norwegian, as this seafood spot from a duo of acclaimed chefs, one from Norway and the other in Texas, employs products, inspirations and preparations from there and here. It begins with excellent fish and shellfish sourced nearby and the north Atlantic, the bounty of the Gulf Stream and the Gulf. In the new Post Market development in the northwestern edge of downtown, the food hall setting isn’t much, but there is usually a tempting display of seafood set on ice that can be gastronomic eye-candy that might include fish commonly seen and not like langoustines, scallops, and oysters like the delicious and different Belon (though from Maine rather than Brittany). Christopher Haatuft, from coastal Bergen who has been on site in the early days, and Paul Qui, who had the excellent Aqui on lower Westheimer, have a kitchen that highlights the high quality of their sourcing with mostly straightforward creations in ways usually familiar to locals that can be absolutely delicious. A recent open-faced sandwich featuring plenty of the slightly sweet lump Jonah crab meat with melted lightly herbed butter, a bit of mayonnaise and some welcome strands of raw onion atop a toasted, tasty sourdough loaf with a side of crisp, freshly made potato chips was one of the best things I had eaten in a while. A nice array of wines, too, to complement, that have a welcome strong French accent. Downtown (Post Market)
 
Ixim – $50 – The A small counter-service place with a somewhat limited menu in Bravery Chef Hall, this effort from Tim Reading, a former executive chef at Caracol, dishes excellent, vibrant, attractive preparations from the broad culinary landscape of Mexico that are among the best in the city. The dishes might be on the small side among local interpretations of the cuisine, but pack a lot of flavor. Even the taqueria morning staple, chilaquiles was rendered artfully and deliciously with some carne asada that was aided by guajillo salsa and grilled red onions. Plancha-grilled Crispy Pork Tacos drenched in a mild salsa were nearly knife-and-fork-necessary and quite an enjoyable, messy lunch. The menu changes often the Vuelve a la Vida and Aguachile de Cameron that were popular early on might no longer be available but there still is the cumin-scented fried lamb and pork meatballs with chipotle sauce that is nicely out of the ordinary and a fun, if less healthy, way to start. Downtown (Bravery Chef Hall)
 
J-Bar-M Barbecue – $50 – The grandest setting for barbecue in the city has the smoked meats that at least match the clean-lined, extremely handsome build-out led by its moist and deeply flavorful brisket, as it needs to be. And that is USDA Prime. It goes into what is the best chopped beef sandwich in the city. That’s largely because it is not really chopped, rather mostly sliced, but, no matter, it’s delicious, helped by an excellent soft fresh bun. Pork ribs, pulled pork and turkey are the other meats, and the kitchen puts out a greater array of sides than any other barbecue joint around, including hand-cut fries and some fun desserts not seen at similar spots. The brisket alone warrants a visit, but the big well-stocked bars inside and out and the great picnic area with views to the downtown skyline a few blocks to the east might entice when you might not need to eat. EaDo
 
Le Jardinier – $135 – The new fine-dining star of the new, grand addition to the Museum of Fine Arts complex, the Kinder Building, this also succeeds grandly serving fairly ambitious modern French restaurant fare that largely substitutes many non-Gallic influences for the tradition extending from Escoffier through Bocuse. The results are interesting, intelligently composed and artfully constructed while being delectable, most importantly, from the amuse-bouche through dessert. Maybe not cutting-edge – foams are frequent, not entirely au courant while working very well at a meal this summer, for example – but this is still something new for Houston. The wine list is expansive, heavily French-laden and very food-friendly. A branch of a restaurant group with places in Miami and New York, which carries a Michelin star, along with La Table in the Galleria area, this place exudes professional competence and in an inviting way that makes a visit a real joy. The comfortably modern dining room looks out to the Isamu Noguchi-designed Cullen Sculpture Garden – always way too much concrete for my tastes – that does allow a gaze at a dramatic Rodin while dining, an additional pleasure not found elsewhere in town. Museum District (MFAH, Kinder Building)
 
March – $285 / $560 – Though it had a brief initial run in 2020, it truly opened this year, this is the best of breed of the quartet of pricey set-menu-only restaurants that came on the scene in 2021. The most ambitious offering in the Goodnight Hospitality Group (Rosie Cannonball, Montrose Cheese & Wine), and one of the most ambitious around, March is staffed by a very capable and broadly experienced team led by executive chef Felipe Riccio that can pull off Michelin-starred-quality creations inspired by top restaurants around the Mediterranean. It’s only dinner here in six- and nine-course meals that begins with snacks of the fanciest kinds and drinks in the lounge area. A seafood escabeche cooked in piquant harissa sofrito and aided with Jamón Ibérico, and blood sausage paté with black currants are a couple of the current items from menus inspired by the southern Spanish regions of Andalusia and Murcia. The food is exquisitely rendered and served in a nicely understated setting along with informed and attentive service to make this one of the premier dining experiences in the city. One of the two wine pairings might be the easiest way to proceed but if you want to use the wine list you will be rewarded: eighty pages put together by Master Sommelier June Rodil has plenty of Burgundy or Bordeaux, but also lot from the finest cellars in Piedmont and a number of wines from top Italian and Spanish producers like Quintarelli, Fontodi and López de Heredia, and some nice choices in the two-digit range. Montrose
 
Soto – $125 – A transplant from Austin sporting a gorgeous dark interior, unrecognizable from that of the previous tenant Bistecca on the lowest of Westheimer, this offers an approachable, well-executed, well-sourced take on the popular Tokyo-style sushi occasionally spiked with some regional favorites like jalapeño, avocado and even tacos of a sort. Truffles and foie gras make appearances, too. Some items arrive from Tokyo’s Toyosu seafood market; the uni here is from Hokkaido rather than Santa Barbara. Japan Express menu changes daily and with often about ten seasonal available as nigiri or sashimi. The daily hour happy from 5:00 to 6:30 each day can be an enjoyable and generally affordable way to end the work day or begin an evening especially if it includes the Chef’s Choice of five pieces nigiri. One of the omakase menus, at $150 and $250 a head, offers an indulgence. In that vein is the A5 Wagyu beef that’s one of the fairly numerous hot dishes on the menu that might be worth visiting even if sushi is not part of the meal. Montrose
 
Urbe – $55 – Though this does not have the culinary fireworks you may encounter at one of Hugo Ortega’s other three local Mexican restaurants – Hugo’s, Caracol and Xochi – Urbe is easily the most accessible and maybe the most useful for many diners that is counter-service morning and midday and full service in the evening with pandemic-friendly take-away items easily feeding two. You can your quality Mexican fix here for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week all for a very fair tariff at an enticing, welcoming place that seats almost 300 people plus a patio. Attractively plated dishes inspired by the street foods of a lot of Mexico with maybe an emphasis on its sprawling capital include highlights like the Torta Ahoga, shredded inside a terrific birote bread with a side of chile de arbol-centric salsa, the large fried pork rind with sides of guacamole and salsas, an entire roasted cauliflower with aioli and cojita cheese, and the Arrachera, a tender and flavorful wood-grilled skirt steak complemented by roasted pineapple and mushroom relish. Uptown Park

One of the artfully plated dishes at Alba

The pandemic continues but the restaurant openings, which slowed considerably in 2020, made up for that lost time.  Briefly, there have been a number of very welcome new dining spots in an delectable array of cuisines this year.  The city’s restaurant landscape has gotten even better and broader.  Here is an overview of what’s happened in this busy year for Houston restaurants.
 
The new restaurants

• The most attention-grabbing development might have been the emergence of a quartet of set-course-only menu restaurants with very high prices for the area, $115 to $225 before drinks: March, Hidden Omakase, ReNeiki, and Degust.  March, from the folks at Goodnight Hospitality (Rosie Cannonball, Montrose Cheese & Wine) and Degust in Spring Branch, both with a recent influences on the plate from Spain, were each named among the top twenty new restaurants by Esquire last month.
• A couple better Italians: Alba, Concura. OK, maybe one, as Alba is the revision at the Hotel Granduca from the excellent Ristorante Cavour with the estimable Chef Maurizio Ferrarese still at the helm.  Inspired by the rich cuisine of the Langhe – the home of the most-prized white truffles, Barolo and Barberesco, etc. – it might have claims to being the best Italian restaurant in the state.  Concura serves mostly the food of the Italian region of the Marche, something new for Houston, and most diners.
• New places from top local restaurateurs: Urbe from Hugo Ortega and Tracy Vaught, Georgia James Tavern and Red Sauce Italian from Chris Shepherd – that will become Pastore when in moves in the spring of 2022 – along with couple more on the way from and team in 2022; Mark Cox and Carmelo Mauro, formerly of the long-lived Mark’s and Carmelo’s, respectively, are involved in an upscale Mexican place, Maize, in the latter’s former space; and the Berg group opened another place with Trattoria Sofia.
• One of the big changes from Chris Shepherd is the shuttering of the excellent and widely interesting UB Preserv, the successor to the ground-breaking Underbelly, at the end of this year.  Its chef, Nick Wong, will move to Georgia James Tavern making that much more worth a visit.
• Big new food halls offering a wide range of cuisines and gustatory fun: Railway Heights and The Post Market, both are worth visiting and can be a lot of fun.  It’s not going to be the best food, except for maybe Golfstrømmen and The Butcher’s Burger both in the Post Market, nor it is necessarily a great value – relatively small portions are typical – and presentation is secondary in counter-service spots without much emphasis on the service, but all caveats asides, these two offer an enjoyably diverse array of cuisines and dishes done well or well-enough for repeated trips.
• The East End including EaDo offers more dining and imbibing options, with J-Bar-M Barbecue, now the city’s grandest spot for smoked meats, the cocktail bar Nightshift, and Roostar adding a location on Navigation.
• Downtown has even places to spend that expense account on Prime steaks with the addition of the Latin American-inspired Toro Toro in the Four Seasons that replaced the long-running Italian concept there, Quattro, and the relocation from Westheimer of The Palm, which is under the Landry’s corporate umbrella.  Now the city center boasts seven high-end steakhouses: Pappas Bros., Vic & Anthony, Guard and Grace, Morton’s, Shula’s, Toro Toro and The Palm, which might be dumbed down somewhat as Landry’s positions each of its broad array of upscale steakhouses.
• The restaurant scene in the greater Heights continues to grow, including a few spots where you can be parted a fair amount for an evening meal.  Led by the terrific Squable, the neighborhood’s dining landscape has returned to pre-pandemic levels prior to the pandemic’s demise.  Piper’s Barbecue, presciently named by J.C. Reid in the Chronicle as one of the city’s best ‘cue joint, and Ume that opened in late 2020, Da Gama, Fegen’s, Chivos, Studewood Grille, Studewood Cantina, the Italian-themed Trattoria Sofia from the Berg group, and a location of the fun, counter-service TJ Birria’s y Mas, with successful and acclaimed Austin-bred Loro en route.  And, the nearly revitalized commercial farmers market on Airline is just beyond the Heights borders.  Assertive foreign flavors might be muted and some of the concepts needed some fine-tuning out of the gate, but the Heights has certainly gotten better for dining and imbibing.  There is certainly a well-heeled appetite for it there.
• The MFAH got a couple of worthwhile new spots, the modern French Le Jardinier and the cafeteria-like casual Italian Cafe Leonelli from acclaimed New York chef Jonathan Benno.  Both are location in the new Kinder building, and both can be worth a destination by themselves, especially Le Jardinier, one of the best restaurants in the city.
  
• Though it has been turning into a haven for out-of-town restaurant chains in recent years, unfortunately, the Rice Village welcomed a terrific new retail bakery, Bādolina Bakery & Cafe, from the folks from the Doris Metropolitan steakhouse. Led by its executive pastry chef Michal Micheali, it turns out something a little different, done very well: "modern Middle Eastern and Israeli baked goods, sweet and savory pastries, along with specialty sourdoughs, croissants, babkas and more."
  
• The demise of the beer bar with The Ginger Man – America’s first contemporary beer bar – and The Hay Merchant, the city’s most serious spot for hops shuttering along with the famed Falling Rock Tap House in Denver.  The last was the best beer bar in the entire Mountain Region and a requisite stop for beer tourists during the GABF, run by a trio of brothers from Houston and alums of The Ginger Man, The Red Lion on Main Street, and The Mucky Duck.  Sad but true.

 
At the restaurants

• Straightforward preparations, high prices.  Gratify, Tonight & Tomorrow, The Nash, Georgia James Tavern, Studewood Grille and the steakhouse Gatsby’s were examples of this.  Many folks here have a lot of money; the markets have soared during the pandemic and seemingly a lot of Houstonians will pay a pretty penny for a version of comfort food, sometimes middling, if nicely presented in a pleasant setting. In fairness, a couple of these have to appeal to a wide array of hotel guests, and many business travelers look for the familiar when on the road, from the likes of Dubuque and usually elsewhere, too.  The Four Seasons, as always with this hotel chain, took a different and better tack with its very appealing Latin American-influenced steak-centric Toro Toro.
• Service has gotten even worse.  Houston has always been behind the other top handful of restaurant cities in terms of the level of service.  It has gotten worse, understandably so, during the pandemic.
• Q codes for menus.  It saves the restaurants with time and expense to update menus.  It’s mostly a hassle for customers, especially with some gaps in cell phone service, as sometimes happens at The Post Market, home to vendors mostly utilizing Q codes, and when those online menus are not updated.

 
On the menus   

• Wine become more so pink and orange.  Somewhat more natural, too. 
• Caviar is found much more often. There is plenty of money in Houston, even more so these days.
• The spicy chicken sandwich craze continues, with new restaurants arriving here specializing in these, a popularity due to the recent-years press for Nashville’s hot chicken and subsequent craze for Popeye’s chicken sandwich that was introduced a couple of years ago (which the newcomers actually rarely equal).  It’s been a boon for those who like the common, unnaturally hefty Chernobyl Farms-style chicken breasts battered with plenty of a cayenne pepper-heavy rub, enough to induce a runny nose if not completely obscure the invariable dullness of the plentiful white meat.

 
It’s been an interesting year.

One of the attractively presented dishes at Le Jardinier.

A lunchtime staple for its convenience and easy affordability, basically fillings enclosed by bread that are eaten out of hand, sandwiches come in many forms, hot and cold – well, room temperature – from simple to elaborate, and boring or worse to delicious.  It all starts with the bread.  It’s tough to have a good sandwich without good quality fresh bread, and that is found much more readily here these days.
 
The most distinctively Houston sandwich, once ubiquitous, is a cold po boy with a unique airy roll devised several decades ago from a family originally from the Levant that lives on in recommendable form at a couple humble sandwich shops.  Concerning popular local sandwiches, there are the Vietnamese banh mi and ones with barbecued beef brisket, both of which are done at least as well here as anywhere.  Those brisket sandwiches – though often delicious – are excepted from this list.  Every one of the many really good barbecue joints serve a really good beef brisket sandwich, with sliced or chopped brisket, and usually just those two sandwiches.  See the best of barbecue section.  And banh mi are distinctive and popular enough to warrant a separate section.
 
There are also excellent versions New Orleans-originated po boys with fried shrimp and the like and muffalettas to be found here.  The Mexican tortas, too, though too many versions suffer from inexpensive, preservative-laden bread, but there is at least one place in Houston worth a drive for them.  And there are many other types of tasty sandwiches here.
 
Below are the best places for sandwiches in Houston, listed in order of preference.
 
The Best
 
Kraftsmen Bakery & Café (Hot and Cold) – As the retail outlet for a commercial bakery that supplies many of the city’s top restaurants, and operated by a chef who was once named as one of the country’s top ten young chefs by Food & Wine magazine, you can expect that the sandwiches here to be worth the trek to this largely residential section of the Heights in Houston.  There’s only about a half-dozen sandwiches here, but all are quite tasty, even a turkey one, The Jive Turkey, which has received some national attention.  Heights
 
Very Good
 
Roostar (Hot and Cold) – Now with a trio of locations in various parts of town, this Banh Mi 2.0 operation is both slicker and better, overall, than its predecessors.  What began as Vietnam Poblano in Spring Branch, an area with a far higher Hispanic and Korean populations than Vietnamese, this has adapted to a growing clientele with a menu and preparations that are broadly popular.  Jalapeños, shredded pickled carrots, cucumbers, cilantro with stems, soy sauce and garlic aioli help provide the sandwich platform along with rolls from excellent Slow Dough Bakery that are maybe more traditionally French than is found at other banh mi spots.  Not just the bread, but the proteins are also generally better quality than other banh mi purveyors.  These are certainly worth a trip, which is now a little easier for many.  Spring Branch, Galleria area, East End
Winnie’s (Hot) – Contemporary takes on New Orleans-bred po boys from experienced, skilled chef with Louisiana roots, these slightly upscale and whimsical renditions will likely please any hearty or discriminating appetite.  A fun, friendly spot that belies any thought this is a sandwich shop – as tasty as the sandwiches are – there is are also oysters on the half shell, from the East Coast, too, and the capable bar mixes and shakes excellent cocktails, many of which are just $5 before 5:00 every day but Monday when it’s closed.  Midtown
Pappa Geno’s (Hot) – Philly cheesesteaks with a Houston accent – thankfully, as the Philly one is quite awful, having lived across the river as a kid – these are the best cheesesteaks in town.  Always moist flavorful beef stars in these oft-messy concoctions, with fresh rolls, and in local fashion can be nicely complemented with the Valentina hot sauce in plastic bottles on the table.   Montrose, Spring Branch, Timbergrove, Katy (2), Deer Park
Kenny & Ziggy’s (Hot and Cold) – A spiffy, large new spot near the Galleria serving slick renditions of Jewish-American deli food and a sporting a multi-generational deli legacy, this is easily the best place in Houston to enjoy the deli classics, which are all here, including those gut-busting sandwiches.  Obscenely large, typically as unhealthy as a sandwich can get by any measure, and often unable to be eaten with your hands, some of these are ridiculously tasty, including the pastrami sandwiches, featuring meat smoked in house.   Galleria area.
Mexico’s Deli (Hot) – Excellent, hot Mexican-style sandwiches, which are not only delicious, but a tremendous value is the simple reason to visit here.  There are now about forty different tortas here, plus soups, tacos, burritos, alambres, and breakfast, all prepared to order on the flat grills and a meat-laden spinner in the open kitchen found in a humble strip center on Dairy Ashford.  Possibly the best tortas in town, it is certainly the most attractive tortaria, and it’s also among the city’s best food values, period.  West Houston
Angelo’z Po Boys (Cold and Hot) – Serving the once-ubiquitous Houston-style cold po boy better than anywhere else, these feature an airy, crusty roll filled with a just-enough amount of lunch meats or other fillings, usually a thinly sliced cheese, and complemented with its distinctive piquant chow chow that just works really well when done well.  They also assemble a top-notch warm muffaletta, with bread from Royal Bakery, which also supplies the rolls for its po boys. NRG area
Ragin’ Cajun (Hot) – The shrimp po boys – deep-fried, of course – and muffalettas are both the best renditions in the city and each worth a trip here.  The other dozen-plus po boys can be very tasty, too.   Greenway Plaza
Baguette and Tea (Hot and Cold) – A tiny place in a small strip center with wretched parking on West Alabama across the street from the Ice House, it can also be quite slow to get an order fulfilled here. But the sandwiches, which all come with a light smear of chicken pâté, are so good and such a fine value that it is worth any possible hassle.  Reflective of a large part of its clientele, who might have never ventured to Bellaire Boulevard, you might even be asked if you want jalapeño on your sandwich.  Montrose
Thien An (Hot and Cold) – A Midtown stalwart, this casual unassuming place opened from mid-morning to early evening is seemingly always bustling during the weekday lunch hours with downtown office workers and a heavy Vietnamese contingent, more so after Sunday Mass.  Closed on Saturdays.  Its banh mi thit nuong is one of the very best around, as the restaurant is more generous than most with the pork, which is nicely cooked, tender and richly flavorful.  Midtown
The Cuban Station (Hot) – The best Cuban sandwich in the area is found here. Made with Cuban-style roasted pork, slices of ham, a judicious amount of thinly sliced of Swiss cheese that’s melted, a bit of similarly thin pickle here and there, mayonnaise and evident yellow mustard on a sturdy, somewhat crusty, admirable fresh bread that’s served warm after a turn in a sandwich press.  It is delicious, with the tasty – fairly mild but flavorful – roast pork, which is used the most, setting the tone for the rest of the quality ingredients that work together for an excellent sandwich that might be in a lower-key, but very easy to want the next bite and the next until the substantial construction is no more.  There is also a similar Pan de Lechon, a roast pork sandwich, that’s worth ordering plus a dozen other options.  East End
Don Café (Hot and Cold) – This modest stand-alone structure along Bellaire Boulevard has served up some of the very best banh mi in Houston for about a couple of decades now, and it remains one of the top values with the sandwiches; still costing just $3.50 or so. Don Café serves all of the requisite Vietnamese sandwiches plus the somewhat unique versions with char-grilled beef (banh mi thit bo nuong). In addition to the sandwiches, there are about two dozen items on the menu and a few brightly colored packaged items near the counter. Though take-away is very popular, you can actually linger here – not that it is that comfortable nor charming – as many of the polyglot patrons do.  Chinatown
Revival Market (Hot) – Well-situated in the prosperous Heights, this eatery from the folks at Coltivare, Indianola and others, does additional duty as an artisanal butcher shop, quite helpful for the five sandwiches on the menu that includes a fun, fancy fried baloney one.  Not so cheap for what these are, but certainly enjoyable.  Heights
Yelo (Hot) – It’s modern Houston banh mi here. Anchored by excellent, fresh and crusty loafs, the smaller-than-usual sandwiches step a little beyond the locally typical banh mi creations.  Assembled to order, slowly, and a bit more expensively, this friendly, attractive contemporary little spot in a Katy Chinatown strip center offers easily enjoyable flavors and still-welcome values from a focused menu that still has a number of enticing options.  Jalapeños, shredded pickled carrots, cucumbers, cilantro, papaya slaw, garlic aioli along with a smidgen of pâté provide a solid and expected-tasting base for the sandwiches.  Katy
Brown Bag Deli (Cold) – This small local chain of small bare-bones sandwich shops, siblings to the Barnaby’s, has been more-than-aptly serving up often delightful built-it-yourself cold sandwiches in a low-key fashion since 2003.  Montrose, Heights, Downtown (2), Rice Village, Spring Branch
Paulie’s (Hot) – Featuring hot Italian-inspired sandwiches, both panini-pressed and otherwise, the Italian accents are clear here. These are artfully assembled with obviously quality ingredients such as ripe roma tomatoes, nicely fresh spinach, roasted red peppers and tasty, fresh bread.  Montrose
Maine-ly Sandwiches (Hot and Cold) – Maine-style lobster rolls are the main attraction here, but there is also a really tasty chicken salad sandwich, done differently.  Served on a buttered and toasted split-top roll, a soft, industrially produced hot dog roll, with everything, it’s the chicken salad, slivers of apples, bits of walnuts, chopped onions, iceberg lettuce, slices of tomato, pieces of bell pepper, pickles, black olives, pickled and jalapeños along with salt and pepper.  It is a rather odd and unsightly concoction, but it was quite tasty, mayonnaise-heavy, with a lot more going on than the typical chicken salad sandwich.   Spring Branch.
Nickel Sandwich Grill (Hot) – There is barbecue, plenty of deep-fried dishes, seafood, a juicy grilled hamburger, and Cajun items, some of this is served in sandwich form, at two decade-old neighborhood standby on Lyons just north of I-10 in the Fifth Ward.  It’s almost all very tasty, and a terrific value.  Portions are large and prices are low, and the kitchen here is much better than most similar type of neighborhood places.  The sandwiches are served on thick slices of buttered toast that works quite well, and the po boys on a small, crusty baguette-like roll.  The Smoked Cajun Turkey and Chopped Beef are a couple of the sandwich stars here.  Fifth Ward
 
To Keep in Mind
 
The Boot (Hot) – Using the New Orleans favorite Leidenheimer French bread for the po boys makes a
difference, even from par-baked form.  Po boys with fried shrimp, catfish, oysters, and crawfish tails might be the most tempting, but you can also get the first two in healthier if still tasty form, grilled or blackened.  All these and the others properly fully dressed with mayonnaise, iceberg lettuce, tomato and pickle slices.   Heights
Nielsen’s Delicatessen (Cold) – Old school and eschewing those spices and peppers that are popular in much of the world, and here, it’s just bread and sliced meat or another protein, and their tasty house-made mayonnaise.  It still works.  You can add cheese, lettuce and tomatoes though for a charge for each.  Afton Oaks
Ploughman’s Deli & Café (Hot and Cold) – Very friendly little place set in a quiet decades-old strip center with a half-dozen hearty specialty sandwiches on the menu including quite respectable takes on the reuben and meatball sandwiches. You can also create your own in a couple of different sizes from a half-dozen types of bread, nearly as many proteins plus more than enough cheeses – grilled cheese is an option, too – spreads, dressings and vegetables to satisfy nearly any taste.  A handful of sides or chips complement, as can the soup of the day, and the sandwich’s great partner, beer on tap in four flavors.  Garden Oaks
Common Bond (Cold) – With bread making for much of the quality of the sandwich, it’s not surprising that Houston’s best retail bakery also offers some credible sandwiches.  Chicken salad and the Texas Club with turkey, thick bacon, and a bit of avocado and piquant aioli, both served on the ethereal croissants, are two worth a visit to one of its locations.  Montrose, Heights (2), Garden Oaks, Medical Center, Downtown, Spring Branch, Spring
Paulie’s Po Boys (Cold and Hot) – Not to be confused with Paulie’s on Westheimer, this one is still owned and operated by descendants of Antone’s and does a great job with that sandwich legacy in similar fashion to Angelo’z.  Serving the once-widespread Houston-style cold po boy featuring those airy, crusty rolls filled with lunch meats or other fillings and a smear of the distinctive piquant chow chow and wrapped white paper, these are often sitting ready to grabbed with the low, open refrigerator.  West U
Local Foods (Hot and Cold) – Nearly ten sandwiches each day among the garden-fresh and health-oriented (or -signaling) options.  These come with the choice of a couple sides or the soup of the day, all higher quality than at most other inexpensive spots, even the chips are house-made.  Some of the items, including the sandwiches, are more attractive than they are delicious, though.  Rice Village, Upper Kirby District, Heights, Tanglewood
BB’s Café (Hot) – A big attraction here are the New Orleans-style po boys, several deep-fried seafood plus a roast beef one, with a Texas twist – chipotle-infused mayonnaise – done well, and heartily so.  Montrose, Upper Kirby District, Heights, Briargrove, Oak Forest, West Houston, Katy, Cypress, Pearland, Webster

Most of a whole muffaletta at Angelo'z