Restaurantsthe whole world, one city

March is a small, serious restaurant on Westheimer where chef Felipe Riccio of Goodnight Hospitality treats the Mediterranean like a syllabus. Twice a year the kitchen closes, spends weeks researching a single region, and reopens with a new menu; past seasons have ranged from the North African Maghreb to southern Spain, Greece and Venice, and since August 7, 2026 the kitchen has been cooking Portugal. The evening opens with cocktails and first bites in a wood-paneled, art-filled lounge, then moves to a dining room of roughly 28 seats done in blush pink, brass and warm wood. It is now one set menu, four lounge snacks followed by seven courses, and take the pairing, because Master Sommelier June Rodil's beverage program is half the reason people travel here. Budget a long, unhurried night.

Price

$$$$

Hours

Dinner Tue-Sat; closed Sun-Mon

Reservations

essential

• Felipe RiccioChef
• Goodnight HospitalityGroup
• Four lounge snacks, then a seven-course set menuFormat
• About 28 in the dining roomSeats

MICHELIN Guide Texas 2024 and 2025: One Star · James Beard Award finalist, Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service 2026 (June Rodil)

Hugo Ortega was born in Mexico City and spent part of his childhood in Puebla, living on his grandmother's rancho near the Oaxaca border, and that countryside still shapes the plates at Hugo's. He opened the restaurant in 2002 with his wife and business partner, Tracy Vaught, and it became the flagship of their H-Town Restaurant Group. The Montrose dining room hums with families, first dates and business dinners. Go for cabrito, roasted goat with garlic salsa and a nopales salad, or arroz a la tumbada, a brothy rice crowded with seafood and chorizo. Aguachile made with hearts of palm shows how well the kitchen treats vegetables, and squash blossoms arrive every spring. After six straight years as a finalist, Ortega won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2017.

Price

$$$

Reservations

recommended

• 2002Since
• Hugo OrtegaChef
• Hugo Ortega and Tracy VaughtOwners
• H-Town Restaurant GroupGroup

James Beard Award, Best Chef: Southwest 2017 (Hugo Ortega) · James Beard Award finalist, Outstanding Restaurateur 2026 (Hugo Ortega and Tracy Vaught)

BCN is airport shorthand for Barcelona, the city where owner Ignacio Torras and chef Luis Roger were both born and trained. Roger, who came to Houston from Girona, worked under Ferran Adrià at elBulli and taught cooking in Catalonia before taking over this kitchen. The setting is a 1920s white stucco bungalow on a quiet street near Richmond Avenue, hung with pieces from Torras's own art collection, including Picasso owl jugs. The cooking respects tradition and then sharpens it: char-grilled octopus over silky pommes purée, Iberian suckling pig with a shattering crust and red wine sauce, and a tarta de Santiago brightened with lemon marmalade. The wine list is all Spanish, and a whole section of the menu is devoted to gin and tonics.

Price

$$$$

Hours

Mon-Thu 5pm-8:30pm; Fri 5pm-9:30pm; Sat 11:30am-2pm and 5pm-9:30pm; closed Sun

Reservations

recommended

• Luis RogerChef
• Ignacio TorrasOwner
• 1920s stucco houseSetting
• All-Spanish listWine

MICHELIN Guide Texas 2024 and 2025: One Star

Musaafer means traveler, and the restaurant began with one: owners Mithu and Shammi Malik of the Spice Route Company spent 100 days crossing India to research recipes and design before opening in the Galleria in May 2020. The 10,000-square-foot space is divided into seven rooms modeled on spice markets and royal palaces, with decor handmade in India, and the private Sheesh Mahal room glitters with about 200,000 hand-cut mirrors. The food is just as considered. Start with achappam, a crisp rosette of a snack, then scallop ceviche in green apple and cilantro water, a short rib taco that nods to Houston, and a Malabari fish curry with flaky paratha. Save room for the desserts, which get the same careful attention as everything else.

Price

$$$$

Hours

Mon-Thu 5pm-10pm; Fri-Sat 12pm-11pm; Sun 12pm-10pm

Reservations

recommended

• May 2020Opened
• Mithu and Shammi MalikOwners
• 10,000 sq ft, seven roomsSize
• Smart casualDress

MICHELIN Guide Texas 2024 and 2025: One Star

Trong Nguyen learned to cook from his grandmother in Vietnam, came to the United States in the 1990s, and spent decades in casino marketing before betting everything on a crawfish pot. His restaurant, in a busy strip center on the Little Saigon stretch of Bellaire Boulevard, became one of the places that defined Viet-Cajun cooking: Louisiana crawfish boiled, then tossed in a heady sauce of butter, garlic and his own spice blend, with heat from mild to blazing. Tables are covered, bibs go on, and conversation stops. Crawfish runs from late January into early July; the rest of the year, Gulf oysters, raw, chargrilled or baked with cheese, and crawfish fried rice keep the room full. Nguyen was a James Beard Award finalist in 2020.

Price

$$

Hours

Mon 11am-10pm; Tue closed; Wed-Thu 11am-10pm; Fri-Sat 11am-11pm; Sun 11am-10pm

Reservations

Resy

• Trong NguyenChef-owner
• Late January to early JulyCrawfish season
• Viet-Cajun boil, choose your heatStyle

James Beard Award finalist 2020 (Trong Nguyen) · James Beard Award semifinalist 2018 and 2019 (Trong Nguyen)

Le Jardinier means the gardener, and the name is the philosophy. The restaurant lives in the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and belongs to The Bastion Collection, which runs sister locations in New York, Miami and Geneva. Culinary director Alain Verzeroli trained under Joël Robuchon and cooked in Japan for 18 years, and that discipline shows in precise, lightly sauced plates built on peak-season produce, fresh herbs and sustainable seafood. Executive chef Felipe Botero runs the kitchen day to day, and pastry chef Tiffani Ann Gkaris sends out desserts as composed as anything on the museum walls. The room is calm and bright, and the menus rotate with the seasons, so no two visits read quite the same.

Price

$$$$

Hours

Mon 5pm-9pm; Tue 5pm-10pm; Wed-Sat 11:30am-2pm and 5pm-10pm; Sun 11:30am-2pm and 5pm-9pm

Reservations

recommended

• Alain VerzeroliCulinary director
• Felipe BoteroExecutive chef
• Tiffani Ann GkarisPastry chef
• The Bastion CollectionGroup

MICHELIN Guide Texas 2024 and 2025: One Star

Benchawan Jabthong Painter, known as Chef G, started cooking at age six in her grandmother's restaurant in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand, then worked in Bangkok kitchens before moving to Houston in 2015. After stints at SaltAir and Justin Yu's Theodore Rex, she grew tired of Thai food softened for American palates and started pop-ups. In 2020 she and her husband, Graham, opened Street to Kitchen, and in 2023 she won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Texas. That fall the restaurant moved into a larger space on Harrisburg Boulevard, where Thai hip hop plays and the kitchen draws on her grandmother's recipes and dishes from across Thailand's regions. Order the papaya salad, which bites even at medium, charred pad see ew, and the green curry.

Price

$$

Reservations

OpenTable

• 2020Since
• Benchawan "Chef G" Jabthong PainterChef
• Benchawan and Graham PainterOwners
• Harrisburg Blvd since late 2023Current space

James Beard Award, Best Chef: Texas 2023 (Benchawan Jabthong Painter) · MICHELIN Guide Texas 2025: Bib Gourmand

Kaiser Lashkari came from Pakistan, earned a master's degree at the University of Houston's Hilton College in 1989, worked for Westin hotels and taught at Houston Community College before opening his own place. Himalaya followed in 2004 on the Hillcroft strip known as the Mahatma Gandhi District, and it has been a fixture on critics' lists ever since. The room is plain and cheerful, Lashkari greets tables himself, and the cooking is anything but timid. Hunter's beef, his Indian-style pastrami, is the signature; steak tikka and green curry chicken were on the table when Anthony Bourdain filmed here for Parts Unknown in 2016. Lamb shank and a buttery Punjabi dal fry round out the essentials. Bring your own beer or wine.

Price

$$

Hours

Tue-Thu 11:30am-10pm; Fri-Sun 11:30am-10:30pm; closed Mon

Reservations

walk-in

• 2004Since
• Kaiser LashkariChef-owner
• BYOBDrinks
• Parts Unknown, Houston (2016)On TV

James Beard Award semifinalist 2019 (Kaiser Lashkari)

Mala Sichuan's founder was born and raised in Chengdu and came to the United States at 12, homesick for food she could not find here. Her family even carried Sichuan peppercorns home in their luggage in the years when the spice was barred from import. Not long after college she opened this restaurant on Bellaire Boulevard in 2011, and it went on to spread across Houston. The name is the mission: ma, the tingle of peppercorn, and la, the burn of chile, used with restraint so you taste the dish, not just the heat. Portions are generous, so bring a group. Get the kung pao chicken, which is far juicier and more balanced than the takeout version, lotus root in sweet and sour sauce, and pork belly with broccoli.

Price

$$

Hours

Daily 11am-10pm

Reservations

Phone (the restaurant takes its own bookings)

• 2011Since
• Chengdu, SichuanFounder's hometown
• Traditional Sichuan, family styleStyle

MICHELIN Guide Texas 2025: Bib Gourmand

Ope Amosu is a Nigerian-American Rice University business graduate who left the energy industry to cook the food of his family. ChòpnBlọk began as pop-ups in 2018, moved into the POST Houston food hall in 2021, and opened its own Montrose restaurant on October 1, 2024, Nigerian Independence Day. The 3,000-square-foot room is layered with West African textiles and art, books and vinyl, and a cocktail list built on Black-owned and African spirits. Order the Golden Bowl, with smoky jollof jambalaya, motherland curry, yaji-spiced vegetables and stewed plantains, and add Polo Club suya, beef skewers dusted with peanut-pepper spice. Aunty Mawa's maafe, a Senegalese peanut curry, is a warm detour, and plantain bread pudding closes things out.

Price

$$

Hours

Sun-Wed 11am-9pm; Thu-Sat 11am-10pm

Reservations

Accepted online

• October 1, 2024Montrose opening
• Ope AmosuChef-owner
• Pop-ups in 2018Began as

MICHELIN Guide Texas 2025: Bib Gourmand · James Beard Award finalist, Best Chef: Texas 2026 (Ope Amosu) · James Beard Award semifinalist, Emerging Chef 2024 and Best Chef: Texas 2025 (Ope Amosu)