01 / 10Second Ward (East End)1.6 mi from downtown
The Original Ninfa's on Navigation
Where Houston learned to eat fajitas
The 1973 East End room where Mama Ninfa Laurenzo folded grilled skirt steak into flour tortillas and gave Houston its fajita habit. Still the city's essential Tex-Mex pilgrimage.
Ninfa Rodriguez Laurenzo had lost her husband, Domenic, and was keeping the family tortilla factory going on Navigation Boulevard when she set out a few tables inside it in 1973. Her tacos al carbon, charred skirt steak wrapped in handmade flour tortillas, became the dish the rest of the country learned to call fajitas, and the whole Tex-Mex canon bent around it. The original building still anchors the East End, loud, warm and full of birthday tables and out-of-town cousins. Start with chips and the creamy avocado green sauce, then order Mama Ninfa's taco al carbon or a sizzling platter of beef fajitas for the table. Weekend brunch runs until 2pm, and in 2023 the city marked the restaurant's 50th anniversary with its own official day.
- Seating spreads over several rooms, a garden room and a large covered patio.
- It gets loud at peak hours, and service can slow when every table is full.
- Private dining rooms can be booked for groups and parties.
Order
- Mama Ninfa's Famous Taco al Carbon
- Beef fajitas
- Chips with the green sauce
- 1973Since
- Ninfa Rodriguez Laurenzo (Mama Ninfa)Founder
- Ninfa's Uptown, 1700 Post Oak BlvdSecond location
James Beard Award semifinalist, 2019 (per the restaurant) · City of Houston proclaimed November 12, 2023 The Original Ninfa's Day (50th anniversary)