The best splurge-worthy restaurants in Houston
You can spend a lot of money in a quite a large number of restaurants in Houston: USDA Prime steaks aged for an appropriate amount of time and longer at steakhouses; the even pricier A5 Wagyu from Japan; sushi like from the belly of the blue fin tuna, uni, and a seasonal special just flown in from the famed Toyosu seafood market in Tokyo; white truffles from Alba, or labeled as such at least, at the end and start of the year; seafood towers; and, increasingly, caviar as a bump on a host of menus. But where are the best restaurants to spend much more money than you do typically, like for a very special occasion?
Here they are below, listed alphabetically. 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, if appropriate, tax and a 20% tip.
Posted on January 26, 2024.
Alba – Italian – $175 – The latest concept at the Hotel Granduca 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 that small city, 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. The freshly made pastas and gnocchi are at least as good or better than I’ve had in most of the top trattorias and Michelin-starred restaurants I’ve dined in Italy in recent years. The setting is comfortable, attractive and usually quiet. Uptown Park
Andiron – Steak – $225 – Yes, Houston does need another expense account steakhouse when it is something as striking, distinctive and proficient as this opulent effort from the folks at The Pit Room, Candente and, formerly, the excellent seafooder 1751. Featuring steaks and more cooked over a post oak-fired grill rather than the typical steakhouse broiler, the USDA Prime offerings, with just a scent of smoke and lower temps of the grill, taste just a little different. In a welcome way. Even with some turmoil in the kitchen as the initial executive chef departed early on, it’s recently settled on Michael O’Connor, longtime head of the kitchen at Vic & Anthony’s, the best of the Landry’s restaurants. The menu now features the standard quartet of cuts plus a steak au poivre, A5 wagyu cooked on a robata, and a recognizable array of steakhouse sides and accompaniments done a little uniquely. The expansive wine list encompassing both the Old and New World is an enophile’s dream, a wealthy enophile’s dream. The cocktail program is just as serious. Set just off Waugh near the AIG tower and Stages Theater in an older single story Spanish and Mediterranean-influenced building, it’s part of a River Oaks-adjacent nexus of excellent, pricy newcomers including Auden, Cocody and Katami. “Handsome” or “gorgeous” might be the first word many would use to describe the main interior that seats 110 including a bar area, done in browns, blacks and green. This is Houston’s most attractive steakhouse. And the most interesting. Montrose
BCN – Spanish – $150 – Set in a handsome older house, this provides locals with a very well-executed glimpse into Spanish fine dining that is both contemporary and deeply rooted in the traditions of Barcelona. The kitchen is headed by Chef Luis Roger, who had years of experience in kitchens in his native Catalonia including a stint at El Bulli. Before proceeding to think much about the entrées and something from the excellent all-Spanish wine list, it’s a great idea to start slowly here, with one of the nearly fifteen or so tempting pintxo-esque appetizers like seared bluefin tuna, crispy baby artichokes with romesco sauce and boquerones and one of the fun, revelatory gin tonics like the signature BCN: Hendrick's gin, Indian Fever-Tree tonic water, juniper berries and cucumber. A few of the tempting mains are: Spanish hake with bomba rice cooked in cuttlefish’s black ink, baby squid and scampi, suckling Ibérico pig “a la Segoviana,” and grilled duck breast served with quince, Idiazábal cheese sauce, pine nuts and balsamic vinegar reduction. Then there are desserts…. Montrose
Hidden Omakase – Sushi – $225 – Led by an alumna of Uchi who’s cooked in Spain and Thailand, this offers only set courses with two seatings of no more than eighteen folks nightly from Thursday through Sunday, which are $175 a head, for just the food. You need to bring your own wine or sake, BYOB is $20 per bottle. It will be fifteen courses of sushi with flavors that can go well beyond Japan. Burger Chan located nearly adjacent won’t be open when you depart, unfortunately; though delicious, you might need a burger after dinner here. Galleria Area
Katami – Japanese – $250 – Chef Manabu Horiuchi, Hori, of Kata Robata acclaim is one of the very best toques in Houston regardless of cuisine, and the enchanting, grand new space that opened in October, long home of the Italian-American Vincent’s, is a fitting setting to shine even more. Imbued with a Japanese design ethos, this “sushi, wagyu and sake-focused restaurant” features clean lines, blond woods interspersed with black, a separate ebony colored bar and over 180 seats along with a few dozen more in a somehow tranquil patio near busy W. Dallas. But it’s the food that’s the star. With the most wide-ranging regular selection of nigiri and sashimi around, it includes a number of items flow in regularly from Japan, all fashioned and served in optimal fashion. Hori has some fun with the makimono, the rolls, like the Southern Smoke Roll with fatty tuna belly, uni, caviar, shiso, wasabi and soy sauce, or the less opulent Texas Hamachi Roll filled with fried shrimp, spicy tuna and yellowtail with yuzu juice and topped with slices of fresh jalapeño. And others such as the Foie Gras PBJ Milk Bread. The lengthy menu has much more than sushi, with plenty of hot preparations including A5 beef from two different prefectures and two types of cooking methods. It might be overwhelming, but you can make it easier by ordering the sashimi or two or chirashi, sashimi over rice, or the kitchen’s choice of ten pieces of nigiri. It seems like it’s tough to go wrong here, and the plentiful staff will be sure to explain and encourage exploration, which can cost. Montrose
Le Jardinier – French – $200 – The fine-dining star of the newest, 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 and edible flowers are frequent, not entirely au courant while working very well – but this is still something unique for Houston. The wine list is expansive enough, heavily French-laden and very food-friendly. A branch of a restaurant group with places in Miami and New York, both which carry a Michelin star, 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 beyond the closest one of the flailing strumpet while dining, an additional pleasure not found elsewhere in town. Museum District (MFAH, Kinder Building)
Little’s Oyster Bar – Seafood – $175 – Pappas Restaurants did something it’s never done before with this spring newcomer, hire a top chef to head one of its kitchens, when it enticed Jason Ryczek who had been the executive chef for several years at Farallon, one of San Francisco’s leading seafood restaurants, to move here. Bringing a fresh and seasoned perspective to the space that housed popular Little Pappas Seafood House for over three decades, it now boasts one of the very best seafood restaurants in the entire Gulf Coast. Possibly the city’s top raw bar does expert duty with oysters including an actually enticing cocktail sauce made with a pomegranate molasses that offsets its dull mignonette companion. Cold platters large and small include a deconstructed Crab Louie with delectable plump pieces of lump blue crab meat. And Ryczek’s past with caviar ensures its service might be the most impressive in town if you can indulge in that luxury and skyrocketing the bill at already expensive spot. A star among the warm preparations is the Texas Redfish served skin-on with an Italianesque salsa verde featuring Castelveltrano olives. Another is the chicken fried snapper with a tangy sauce ravigote. Resolutely a seafood restaurant – and a destination-worthy one at that – but a pricey Prime dry-aged steak or a white truffle risotto, or even some of the compelling vegetable sides, might satisfy those in the group who desist from the ocean’s charms. Wine offerings reach to the deep Pappas’ cellars for a list that is rather unusual, lengthy, and heavy on Champagne and Burgundy. The wait staff is trademark Pappas attentive, accommodating and forthright. Start with a cocktail, something chilled, and about anything else to continue, probably getting some help with the wine, and it be tough not to be impressed here.
March – New American – $325 / $575 – 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 past items. 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: a hundred 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. Montrose
MF Sushi – Sushi – $250 for omakase – Set in a beautiful, modern space, an excellent setting for Chef Chris Kenji’s set-course omakase offerings that has won raves since he arrived from Atlanta several years ago. There is just one seating for that Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and you’ve got to call to reserve, but additional effort and expense is worth the two dozen or so creations. Museum District
Navy Blue – Seafood – $175 – The most impressive entry onto the Houston dining scene is this beautiful blue 7,000-foot-plus seafood place, palace, from the folks at Bludorn that opened around Thanksgiving following plenty of anticipation. It immediately became the best restaurant in the eatery-laden Rice Village. The moneyed set quickly followed from Bludorn, and reservations have been very tough since doors opened. Executive Chef Jerrod Zifchak arrived from New York where he was the last one at the Michelin-starred Café Boulud on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, succeeding Aaron Bludorn in that role. Notably for the cuisine, Zifchak also had four years in the kitchen at Le Bernardin, widely regarded as the top seafood restaurant in the country. There are other impressive CV’s on staff here, which quickly shows upon entry and with the first drink, as service is noticeably professional – unusually so for just opening and for the city in general – solicitous, knowledgeable, accommodating and friendly. The menu is actually quite approachable, ranging from oysters and clams (and caviar) to start with crab cakes, a mussel bisque en croute, fresh pasta preparations and fish. There is a swordfish steak served in a green peppercorn sauce, and an entire Dover sole is fileted tableside. With that and the lobster, you’ve got options; almondine, Oscar and Provençal for the former. A French accent is found in other items, too, a good thing, plus there are a couple of nods to our area with a blackened red snapper and a different-tasting take on seafood gumbo. Rice Village
Neo – Sushi – $282 – Another omakase concept from alumni of Uchi, this is more than sushi and fish. The setting is also different, in a menswear showroom. It can be tough to get a ticket and that will cost $260 for the twenty or so courses, drinks and tip, along with something to brag about, if successful. Montrose
Pappas Bros. Steakhouse – Steak – $200 – Boisterous, always loud and often delightfully indulgent and even excessive – these and Georgia James are clearly the best two steakhouse concepts in the city. Not only is the food excellent, especially the nearly unparalleled wet- or dry-aged steaks, most importantly, but the compendious wine list is the most impressive in the city. The Westheimer original has around 5,000 labels and 28,000 bottles, and the downtown branch slightly less, so there is seemingly everything you might want at a fine dining restaurant with depth in Champagne, Burgundy – both colors, with pages of Grand Cru and Premier Cru – Bordeaux, Napa, Super Tuscans, Barolo, Rhone, and much, much more. You can spend a small fortune on just drink here. Along with the kitchen and cellar, the wait staff here, is also a cut above among the local steakhouses. The attentive, friendly and proficient service stands in stark contrast to the casual, not-so-professional or informed service you might find at Mastro’s, another expense account steakhouse, for example. Galleria Area, Downton
Potente – American Italian – $175 – Americanized Italian with a luxurious bent, as the caviars topping the menu might indicate, it has a top chef at the helm, Danny Trace formerly of Brennan's and Commander's Palace, and uses approachable preparations inspired from Italy with excellent ingredients to a welcome, if quite expensive result. Trace’s kitchen is very adept with seafood and those preparations occupy much of the menu, but it is tough to go wrong here; decadent pastas, a few steaks and dried porcini-braised veal cheeks are some other options. Directly across from the ballpark, this is owned by Jim Crane, owner of the reigning World Series champions Houston Astros. Downtown
Soto – Sushi – $225 / $325 for omakase – 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. 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 can be worth visiting even if sushi is not part of the meal. Montrose
Tony’s – Italian / New American – $150 – Though the restaurant has not been advertised as Italian since its early days several decades ago, Tony’s serves some of the most delicious Italian dishes in town, usually infused with a rich American exuberance. That remains after namesake Tony Vallone passed away in September 2020. His widow carries on with Katie McLean manning the kitchen, and Tony's seems more approachable than ever. More than half of the menu at Tony’s is Italian, and these items shine through with pan-Italian sensibilities that present the best of Italy, the best of prosperous, gourmet Italy, at that. Flavorful, thin, fresh stuffed pastas, tender veal and impeccable seafood are just some of the attractions, not to mention the often excellent service, wine selection and intriguing modern setting punctuated with dramatic works by Rauschenberg and Jesus Moroles. Tony’s procures the excellent ingredients and has a chef that can translate these into magnificent Italian creations that are properly accompanied in all facets. The wide-ranging wine list is excellent, generally expensive, but in there is a customer-friendly section up front, "75 Wines at $75 and Under." Greenway Plaza
Uchi – Sushi – $250 – Serving a creative take on modern Japanese food and known for its sushi and sashimi preparations, this is a version of the most acclaimed restaurant in Austin that won Chef Tyson Cole a James Beard Award several years ago. It quickly became part of the restaurant firmament in Houston after opening in early 2012, and remains a top destination for sushi and seafood, period. Terrific service, too. Montrose
A dish at Alba
Here they are below, listed alphabetically. 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, if appropriate, tax and a 20% tip.
Posted on January 26, 2024.
Alba – Italian – $175 – The latest concept at the Hotel Granduca 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 that small city, 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. The freshly made pastas and gnocchi are at least as good or better than I’ve had in most of the top trattorias and Michelin-starred restaurants I’ve dined in Italy in recent years. The setting is comfortable, attractive and usually quiet. Uptown Park
Andiron – Steak – $225 – Yes, Houston does need another expense account steakhouse when it is something as striking, distinctive and proficient as this opulent effort from the folks at The Pit Room, Candente and, formerly, the excellent seafooder 1751. Featuring steaks and more cooked over a post oak-fired grill rather than the typical steakhouse broiler, the USDA Prime offerings, with just a scent of smoke and lower temps of the grill, taste just a little different. In a welcome way. Even with some turmoil in the kitchen as the initial executive chef departed early on, it’s recently settled on Michael O’Connor, longtime head of the kitchen at Vic & Anthony’s, the best of the Landry’s restaurants. The menu now features the standard quartet of cuts plus a steak au poivre, A5 wagyu cooked on a robata, and a recognizable array of steakhouse sides and accompaniments done a little uniquely. The expansive wine list encompassing both the Old and New World is an enophile’s dream, a wealthy enophile’s dream. The cocktail program is just as serious. Set just off Waugh near the AIG tower and Stages Theater in an older single story Spanish and Mediterranean-influenced building, it’s part of a River Oaks-adjacent nexus of excellent, pricy newcomers including Auden, Cocody and Katami. “Handsome” or “gorgeous” might be the first word many would use to describe the main interior that seats 110 including a bar area, done in browns, blacks and green. This is Houston’s most attractive steakhouse. And the most interesting. Montrose
BCN – Spanish – $150 – Set in a handsome older house, this provides locals with a very well-executed glimpse into Spanish fine dining that is both contemporary and deeply rooted in the traditions of Barcelona. The kitchen is headed by Chef Luis Roger, who had years of experience in kitchens in his native Catalonia including a stint at El Bulli. Before proceeding to think much about the entrées and something from the excellent all-Spanish wine list, it’s a great idea to start slowly here, with one of the nearly fifteen or so tempting pintxo-esque appetizers like seared bluefin tuna, crispy baby artichokes with romesco sauce and boquerones and one of the fun, revelatory gin tonics like the signature BCN: Hendrick's gin, Indian Fever-Tree tonic water, juniper berries and cucumber. A few of the tempting mains are: Spanish hake with bomba rice cooked in cuttlefish’s black ink, baby squid and scampi, suckling Ibérico pig “a la Segoviana,” and grilled duck breast served with quince, Idiazábal cheese sauce, pine nuts and balsamic vinegar reduction. Then there are desserts…. Montrose
Hidden Omakase – Sushi – $225 – Led by an alumna of Uchi who’s cooked in Spain and Thailand, this offers only set courses with two seatings of no more than eighteen folks nightly from Thursday through Sunday, which are $175 a head, for just the food. You need to bring your own wine or sake, BYOB is $20 per bottle. It will be fifteen courses of sushi with flavors that can go well beyond Japan. Burger Chan located nearly adjacent won’t be open when you depart, unfortunately; though delicious, you might need a burger after dinner here. Galleria Area
Katami – Japanese – $250 – Chef Manabu Horiuchi, Hori, of Kata Robata acclaim is one of the very best toques in Houston regardless of cuisine, and the enchanting, grand new space that opened in October, long home of the Italian-American Vincent’s, is a fitting setting to shine even more. Imbued with a Japanese design ethos, this “sushi, wagyu and sake-focused restaurant” features clean lines, blond woods interspersed with black, a separate ebony colored bar and over 180 seats along with a few dozen more in a somehow tranquil patio near busy W. Dallas. But it’s the food that’s the star. With the most wide-ranging regular selection of nigiri and sashimi around, it includes a number of items flow in regularly from Japan, all fashioned and served in optimal fashion. Hori has some fun with the makimono, the rolls, like the Southern Smoke Roll with fatty tuna belly, uni, caviar, shiso, wasabi and soy sauce, or the less opulent Texas Hamachi Roll filled with fried shrimp, spicy tuna and yellowtail with yuzu juice and topped with slices of fresh jalapeño. And others such as the Foie Gras PBJ Milk Bread. The lengthy menu has much more than sushi, with plenty of hot preparations including A5 beef from two different prefectures and two types of cooking methods. It might be overwhelming, but you can make it easier by ordering the sashimi or two or chirashi, sashimi over rice, or the kitchen’s choice of ten pieces of nigiri. It seems like it’s tough to go wrong here, and the plentiful staff will be sure to explain and encourage exploration, which can cost. Montrose
Le Jardinier – French – $200 – The fine-dining star of the newest, 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 and edible flowers are frequent, not entirely au courant while working very well – but this is still something unique for Houston. The wine list is expansive enough, heavily French-laden and very food-friendly. A branch of a restaurant group with places in Miami and New York, both which carry a Michelin star, 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 beyond the closest one of the flailing strumpet while dining, an additional pleasure not found elsewhere in town. Museum District (MFAH, Kinder Building)
Little’s Oyster Bar – Seafood – $175 – Pappas Restaurants did something it’s never done before with this spring newcomer, hire a top chef to head one of its kitchens, when it enticed Jason Ryczek who had been the executive chef for several years at Farallon, one of San Francisco’s leading seafood restaurants, to move here. Bringing a fresh and seasoned perspective to the space that housed popular Little Pappas Seafood House for over three decades, it now boasts one of the very best seafood restaurants in the entire Gulf Coast. Possibly the city’s top raw bar does expert duty with oysters including an actually enticing cocktail sauce made with a pomegranate molasses that offsets its dull mignonette companion. Cold platters large and small include a deconstructed Crab Louie with delectable plump pieces of lump blue crab meat. And Ryczek’s past with caviar ensures its service might be the most impressive in town if you can indulge in that luxury and skyrocketing the bill at already expensive spot. A star among the warm preparations is the Texas Redfish served skin-on with an Italianesque salsa verde featuring Castelveltrano olives. Another is the chicken fried snapper with a tangy sauce ravigote. Resolutely a seafood restaurant – and a destination-worthy one at that – but a pricey Prime dry-aged steak or a white truffle risotto, or even some of the compelling vegetable sides, might satisfy those in the group who desist from the ocean’s charms. Wine offerings reach to the deep Pappas’ cellars for a list that is rather unusual, lengthy, and heavy on Champagne and Burgundy. The wait staff is trademark Pappas attentive, accommodating and forthright. Start with a cocktail, something chilled, and about anything else to continue, probably getting some help with the wine, and it be tough not to be impressed here.
March – New American – $325 / $575 – 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 past items. 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: a hundred 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. Montrose
MF Sushi – Sushi – $250 for omakase – Set in a beautiful, modern space, an excellent setting for Chef Chris Kenji’s set-course omakase offerings that has won raves since he arrived from Atlanta several years ago. There is just one seating for that Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and you’ve got to call to reserve, but additional effort and expense is worth the two dozen or so creations. Museum District
Navy Blue – Seafood – $175 – The most impressive entry onto the Houston dining scene is this beautiful blue 7,000-foot-plus seafood place, palace, from the folks at Bludorn that opened around Thanksgiving following plenty of anticipation. It immediately became the best restaurant in the eatery-laden Rice Village. The moneyed set quickly followed from Bludorn, and reservations have been very tough since doors opened. Executive Chef Jerrod Zifchak arrived from New York where he was the last one at the Michelin-starred Café Boulud on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, succeeding Aaron Bludorn in that role. Notably for the cuisine, Zifchak also had four years in the kitchen at Le Bernardin, widely regarded as the top seafood restaurant in the country. There are other impressive CV’s on staff here, which quickly shows upon entry and with the first drink, as service is noticeably professional – unusually so for just opening and for the city in general – solicitous, knowledgeable, accommodating and friendly. The menu is actually quite approachable, ranging from oysters and clams (and caviar) to start with crab cakes, a mussel bisque en croute, fresh pasta preparations and fish. There is a swordfish steak served in a green peppercorn sauce, and an entire Dover sole is fileted tableside. With that and the lobster, you’ve got options; almondine, Oscar and Provençal for the former. A French accent is found in other items, too, a good thing, plus there are a couple of nods to our area with a blackened red snapper and a different-tasting take on seafood gumbo. Rice Village
Neo – Sushi – $282 – Another omakase concept from alumni of Uchi, this is more than sushi and fish. The setting is also different, in a menswear showroom. It can be tough to get a ticket and that will cost $260 for the twenty or so courses, drinks and tip, along with something to brag about, if successful. Montrose
Pappas Bros. Steakhouse – Steak – $200 – Boisterous, always loud and often delightfully indulgent and even excessive – these and Georgia James are clearly the best two steakhouse concepts in the city. Not only is the food excellent, especially the nearly unparalleled wet- or dry-aged steaks, most importantly, but the compendious wine list is the most impressive in the city. The Westheimer original has around 5,000 labels and 28,000 bottles, and the downtown branch slightly less, so there is seemingly everything you might want at a fine dining restaurant with depth in Champagne, Burgundy – both colors, with pages of Grand Cru and Premier Cru – Bordeaux, Napa, Super Tuscans, Barolo, Rhone, and much, much more. You can spend a small fortune on just drink here. Along with the kitchen and cellar, the wait staff here, is also a cut above among the local steakhouses. The attentive, friendly and proficient service stands in stark contrast to the casual, not-so-professional or informed service you might find at Mastro’s, another expense account steakhouse, for example. Galleria Area, Downton
Potente – American Italian – $175 – Americanized Italian with a luxurious bent, as the caviars topping the menu might indicate, it has a top chef at the helm, Danny Trace formerly of Brennan's and Commander's Palace, and uses approachable preparations inspired from Italy with excellent ingredients to a welcome, if quite expensive result. Trace’s kitchen is very adept with seafood and those preparations occupy much of the menu, but it is tough to go wrong here; decadent pastas, a few steaks and dried porcini-braised veal cheeks are some other options. Directly across from the ballpark, this is owned by Jim Crane, owner of the reigning World Series champions Houston Astros. Downtown
Soto – Sushi – $225 / $325 for omakase – 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. 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 can be worth visiting even if sushi is not part of the meal. Montrose
Tony’s – Italian / New American – $150 – Though the restaurant has not been advertised as Italian since its early days several decades ago, Tony’s serves some of the most delicious Italian dishes in town, usually infused with a rich American exuberance. That remains after namesake Tony Vallone passed away in September 2020. His widow carries on with Katie McLean manning the kitchen, and Tony's seems more approachable than ever. More than half of the menu at Tony’s is Italian, and these items shine through with pan-Italian sensibilities that present the best of Italy, the best of prosperous, gourmet Italy, at that. Flavorful, thin, fresh stuffed pastas, tender veal and impeccable seafood are just some of the attractions, not to mention the often excellent service, wine selection and intriguing modern setting punctuated with dramatic works by Rauschenberg and Jesus Moroles. Tony’s procures the excellent ingredients and has a chef that can translate these into magnificent Italian creations that are properly accompanied in all facets. The wide-ranging wine list is excellent, generally expensive, but in there is a customer-friendly section up front, "75 Wines at $75 and Under." Greenway Plaza
Uchi – Sushi – $250 – Serving a creative take on modern Japanese food and known for its sushi and sashimi preparations, this is a version of the most acclaimed restaurant in Austin that won Chef Tyson Cole a James Beard Award several years ago. It quickly became part of the restaurant firmament in Houston after opening in early 2012, and remains a top destination for sushi and seafood, period. Terrific service, too. Montrose
A dish at Alba
