The Top 93 Places to Eat and Drink Near Jennings & Co. BBQ
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Rank 1. Jennings & Co. BBQ
Texas-Style Barbecue
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Rank 2. Bar-A-BBQ
Texas-Style Barbecue
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- Wine Enthusiast 2024 · Forward 50 Restaurants
- Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants
- Eater The 38 Essential Houston Restaurants
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- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Beatriz Martines
- Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
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Rank 6. Tejas Chocolate + Barbecue
Barbecue
In a converted house north of Houston, a former chocolatier tends barbecue pits that yield salt-crusted beef ribs with ribbons of rendered fat and a carrot soufflé that tilts toward dessert. Scott Moore Jr.'s unlikely pivot from bean-to-bar chocolate to smoking meat has created something genuinely strange and worth the porch wait.
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Rank 7. Belly of the Beast
Mexican
In a modest Spring storefront, Chef Thomas Bille merges Mexican cooking with global technique—saag paneer arrives under spinach mole verde, duck breast swims in cherry mole—without sacrificing balance for novelty. The corn-and-flour tortillas and shared plates encourage wandering; the tres leches with passionfruit and torched meringue suggest he knows when to stop playing.
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Thomas Bille
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Best Chef: Texas · Thomas Bille
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
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- Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Alex Au-Yeung
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Rank 9. Rosemeyer Bar-B-Q
Barbecue
A highway-side trailer where childhood friends Jordan Rosemeyer and Ben Maxwell turn out ambitious barbecue: brisket smoked to mahogany-dark perfection, ribs that fall from the bone, jalapeño-cheese sausages with real snap. Picnic tables and daily specials—check social media—elevate what could be a convenience-store pit stop into something worth the detour.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Texas Monthly 2025 · The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas
- Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
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Rank 10. CorkScrew BBQ
Barbecue
In a modest Spring outpost north of Houston, Will and Nichole Buckman smoke red oak–kissed brisket and beef ribs that sell out daily, drawing lines of devotees who arrive before eleven. The beef ribs are succulent and flavorful, the pinto beans memorable, the operation unadorned and devoted entirely to meat.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Texas Monthly 2025 · The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas
- Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants
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Rank 13. Brisket & Rice
Vietnamese Barbecue
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Rank 14. Brisket & Rice
Barbecue
Chef Hong Tran's backyard brisket obsession became a family operation where long lines move with assembly-line efficiency. Jasmine fried rice with fried egg and Chinese sausage gets proper wok char, arriving alongside melting brisket slabs or beautifully smoked pork ribs—the sides are beside the point. Lone Star barbecue filtered through Vietnamese sensibility, executed without fuss.
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Rank 17. Tatemó
Mexican
A tortilleria in a strip mall conceals Chef Emmanuel Chavez's precise tasting menu, where heirloom corn from across Mexico becomes the architecture—crisp tostadas crowned with caviar, tlacoyos dressed in layered Mexican XO, mole negro dark as slate beneath plantain tortillas. Bring your own wine to an experience that finds beauty in restraint.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Food & Wine 2023 · Best New Chefs · Emmanuel Chavez
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Best New Restaurant
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Rank 19. Agnes and Sherman
Asian Contemporary
The Heights diner where Wong and Lee channel their third-culture childhoods into a playful comfort-food menu: shrimp toast and scallion waffles with sambal honey butter give way to chilled noodles with yuba and a crawfish egg foo young swimming in gumbo gravy. Casual enough for solo dining, assured enough to matter.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best New Restaurant
- The Infatuation 2025 · #12 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants
- Eater 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in America
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Rank 22. Musaafer
Indian
A shopping mall conceals this palace of arches and towering windows, where the chef traces India's geography across the menu. Achappam gives way to scallop ceviche and Malabari fish curry with paratha—each dish marked by precise spicing and the kind of restraint that reads as confidence. High style meets substance here, without pretense.
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Rank 23. Hong Kong Food Street
Hong Kong Chinese
In a Katy shopping center, this family-owned kitchen executes Hong Kong classics with unhurried precision: silky congee with abalone, delicate wonton soup, crisp shrimp with candied walnuts. The curated menu avoids excess, the modern dining room gleams with lazy susans, and everything arrives molten and considered.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Houston Chronicle #19 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
- Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants
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Rank 24. Baso
Live-Fire American
A concrete bunker in the Heights pulses with heavy bass and the glow of an open hearth where live-fire cooking commands the menu. Grilled oysters arrive slicked with 'nduja; striped bass and pork chop emerge charred and meant for passing around. The crunchy endive salad and Basque cheesecake—caviar optional—suggest a kitchen operating at the intersection of restraint and excess.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Max Lappé and Jacques Varon
- Eater Best Live-Fire Experience
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best New Restaurant
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best Chef: Texas · Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu
- Texas Monthly 2024 · Honorable Mentions · Texas’s Best New Restaurants
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Rank 26. Credence
Contemporary American
Chef Levi Goode's first restaurant trades rustic ranch aesthetics for Houston sophistication, anchored by an open kitchen where live fire transforms dry-aged beef and whole duck into centerpieces. Deviled crab in smoky tomato butter and a shared brown butter Bundt cake justify the airy dining room's Michelin selection.
- Texas Monthly 2025 · Honorable Mentions · Texas’s Best New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Houston Chronicle #7 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
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Rank 27. Casaema
Mexican
A daytime spot in the Heights where a popular bakery's evolution into brick-and-mortar finds its footing through Mexican tradition and precise coffee craft. Chilaquiles built on superlative tortilla chips and guava-queso empanadas that vanish by mid-morning suggest a kitchen that understands restraint as discipline.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Texas Monthly 2025 · #6 · Texas’s Best New Restaurants
- Houston Chronicle #3 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
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Rank 28. Pinkerton's Barbecue
Barbecue
Grant Pinkerton's low-slung smokehouse trades in beef ribs that vanish by noon and brisket so yielding it needs nothing beyond its own rendered fat, though the sweet-vegetable glaze on the St. Louis ribs suggests he disagrees. The mounted deer heads lining the walls are a hunter's trophy room aesthetic; the meat is the real prize.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Texas Monthly 2025 · The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas
- Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
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- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Shawn Gawle
- Houstonia 2025 · The 10 Best Restaurants That Opened in Houston
- Houston Chronicle #13 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
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Rank 30. Ema
Indigenous
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Stephanie Velasquez
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Best New Restaurant
- The New York Times 2024 · Horchata Berlinesa · The Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S.
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Rank 31. Bar Bludorn
American
A dark-wood tavern where Chef Aaron Bludorn turns out ricotta-filled beignets topped with Benton's ham and golden-fried half chickens designed for sharing. The open kitchen gleams under spotlights, service strikes an easy balance between attentive and casual, and the menu—pasta, steaks, warm devil's food cake—prioritizes flavor over pretense. Comfort cooking executed with genuine confidence.
- Esquire 2024 · El Jardin · The Best Martinis in America
- Eater Place Where We Want to Be a Regular
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Susan Bae
- Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
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- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. Central
- Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston
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Rank 34. Truth Barbeque
Barbecue
A gleaming warehouse in the Heights where pitmaster Leonard Botello IV applies meticulous technique to smoke and meat: brisket and turkey arrive succulent, house-made sausage justifies an early arrival, and sides like tater tot casserole with fried onions rival the proteins themselves. Soul survives the polish.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Texas Monthly 2025 · #9 · The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas
- Houston Chronicle #10 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
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- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Mark Clayton
- Houston Chronicle #2 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
- Eater The 38 Essential Houston Restaurants
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- Eater The 38 Essential Houston Restaurants
- Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Alex Au-Yeung
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- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Hugo Ortega and Tracy Vaught - H-Town Restaurant Group
- Houston Chronicle #23 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
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- Houstonia 2025 · The 10 Best Restaurants That Opened in Houston
- Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants
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Rank 41. Julep
Global
- 50 Best 2026 · #84 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
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Rank 45. Pappas Bros. Steakhouse
Steakhouse
A steakhouse that has refined rather than softened with age: prime cuts dry-aged in-house arrive seasoned and seared with discipline, flanked by sides like creamed spinach with ham and outsized onion rings. The room—white cloths, glossy wood, a wine list of genuine depth—feels built for ceremony, yet the service moves with such ease you hardly notice the machinery.
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- The New York Times 2025 · Konafa Naama · The 14 Best Restaurant Desserts We Ate Across the U.S.
- Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
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Rank 49. Annam
Contemporary Vietnamese
An elegant Vietnamese restaurant in Autry Park balances refinement with approachability through French-inflected cooking and generous portions. Whole branzino over vegetables with nuanced nước chấm sauce exemplifies the kitchen's restraint and precision.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Houstonia 2025 · Honorable Mention · The 10 Best Restaurants That Opened in Houston
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- Houstonia 2025 · The 10 Best Restaurants That Opened in Houston
- Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants
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Rank 56. Sunday Press
Coffee Shop
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- The New York Times 2023 · The Restaurant List
- Texas Monthly 2023 · Honorable Mentions · Texas’s Best New Restaurants
- Eater The 38 Essential Houston Restaurants
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Rank 61. da Gama Canteen
Indian
In the Heights, a narrow dining room dedicated to the collision of Portuguese and Indian cooking, filtered through the prism of Goa and East Africa. Chana masala arrives as braised chickpeas and potatoes over basmati; beef mishkaki comes marinated, trussed with fried yuca and cooling raita. The pastéis de nata—flaky, custardy—suggest that fusion here isn't novelty but historical fact.
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Rank 65. Boomtown Coffee
Coffee Shop
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Rank 68. Killen's
Southern
Ronnie Killen's Heights shrine to his grandmother's cooking makes no apologies for its excess: cornbread skillet, grilled oysters with harissa, buttermilk fried chicken swimming in creamy potatoes, and all the barbecue you can handle. It's the kind of place where vegetables exist as a courtesy, and dessert—bread pudding—arrives as a moral imperative.
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Rank 77. The Coffee House at West End
Coffee Shop
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Rank 78. Cafetales Specialty Coffee
Columbian
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Rank 83. Cariño Coffee
Mexican
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Rank 86. Catalina Coffee
Coffee Shop
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- Air Canada 2019 · Top 10 · Best New Restaurants
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar