The Top 80 Restaurants Near Bar-A-BBQ

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
2. Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants
3. Eater The 38 Essential Houston Restaurants

Tortillas pressed from heirloom corn varieties anchor the menu at this lively Mexican restaurant tucked into a Woodlands strip mall. The chef, a James Beard semifinalist, grew up in Jalisco and cooks like it, with lamb shank slow-braised in agave leaf and a tableside al pastor that gets lit on fire, because apparently subtlety is optional. The crowd that fills this place on a Friday night suggests the mall address puts nobody off.

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
2. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Beatriz Martines

Half-corn, half-flour tortillas land warm at the table while the menu does what it wants, which turns out to be Mexican cooking with detours through saag paneer, nori, and agnolotti. This casual restaurant in Spring won the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Texas and holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, unlikely honors for a strip-mall dining room, but the food makes the argument without needing the room to help.

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Best Chef: Texas · Thomas Bille
2. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
3. Houston Chronicle #4 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Alex Au-Yeung

1. Houstonia Best Crawfish Restaurants in Houston

1. Texas Monthly Dishes We Wanted Seconds Of: Churro French Toast Brisket Sandwich · The Best Things in Texas

1. Houstonia Best Crawfish Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia Best Crawfish Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Margaritas in Houston
2. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Houstonia Best Crawfish Restaurants in Houston

1. AAA Four Diamonds

The sign outside belongs to a doughnut shop, which tells you everything about the neighborhood and nothing about what's inside. Tatemó is a BYOB tasting menu built around heirloom corn from across Mexico, and it holds a Michelin star. The chef turns masa into something you'd describe to people for weeks: a black mole so dark it needs its own tortilla, made from nixtamalized plantain, to make the point land.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Food & Wine Best New Chefs · Emmanuel Chavez
3. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Best New Restaurant

1. AAA Four Diamonds

A nondescript Katy strip mall is doing a lot of work here. Inside, the dining room runs to sleek fixtures and lazy susan-fitted private rooms, and the menu reads like a focused edit of Hong Kong classics rather than the usual encyclopedia. Congee, wonton soup, and candied walnut shrimp anchor things, with weekend seafood specials worth asking about. The Michelin Guide has it on their list, and the Houston Chronicle ranked it among the city's top restaurants.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Houston Chronicle #19 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
3. Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Best Chef: Texas · Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu
2. Texas Monthly Honorable Mentions · Texas’s Best New Restaurants
3. Houston Chronicle #18 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Houston Restaurants
2. Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants
3. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Alex Au-Yeung

A crawfish gumbo gravy poured over egg foo young tells you everything about this Asian American diner in Houston Heights. Named for the chef's parents, Agnes and Sherman blends Chinese and American comfort food into something scallion waffles and pandan French toast feel natural sitting on the same menu. The cocktail list leans equally sideways. A James Beard nominee for Best New Restaurant, and the room fills fast with people who figured that out early.

1. The Infatuation #12 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best New Restaurant
3. Texas Monthly Dishes We Wanted Seconds Of: Bean-offee Pie · The Best Things in Texas

Live fire anchors the open kitchen at this spacious Contemporary American restaurant, where Levi Goode channels five generations of Texas roots into a menu that swings from seafood towers to whole duck. The monkey bread served alongside the deviled crab is the kind of detail that makes a dish unforgettable. Ranch-inspired without being the least bit kitschy, it's the sort of place Houston does better than it gets credit for.

1. Texas Monthly Honorable Mentions · Texas’s Best New Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Houston Chronicle #7 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

Concrete walls, moody lighting, and a hearth that glows through the open kitchen set the tone at this live-fire restaurant in the Heights. The menu pulls from everywhere, pairing live-fire technique with influences that drift across continents, and the whole thing is built for sharing. A James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist runs the kitchen. Bring a group, order widely, and expect the bass to be louder than you planned for.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Houston Chronicle #11 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
3. Eater The 38 Essential Houston Restaurants

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Susan Bae
2. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Hugo Ortega and Tracy Vaught - H-Town Restaurant Group
2. Houston Chronicle #23 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

The salt-baked celery root arrives looking like a small geological event, which sets the tone for this French-influenced New American restaurant where technique is the point but the vibe stays loose. Chef Shawn Gawle, a James Beard semifinalist, built the menu around sharing, with tarte flambée, heirloom tomato pie, and carrot cavatelli doing the heavy lifting. Dressy enough to feel like an occasion, relaxed enough that nobody's whispering.

1. Houstonia The 10 Best Restaurants That Opened in Houston
2. Houston Chronicle #13 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
3. Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
2. Houstonia The Best Tacos in Houston

1. Houston Chronicle #2 · Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants
2. Eater The 38 Essential Houston Restaurants
3. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Mark Clayton

1. The New York Times Konafa Naama · The 14 Best Restaurant Desserts We Ate Across the U.S.
2. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Houston Restaurants
2. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

The menu at this casual Houston Heights spot traces the old Portuguese trading routes through Goa and East Africa, which makes for a sharper, stranger combination than the usual fusion pitch. Small plates move between Indian spicing and Portuguese technique without much fuss. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, and the custard tarts at the end make a convincing argument for the whole journey.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Houstonia The Best Indian Restaurants in Houston

The beignets come out warm, filled with ricotta, and draped with Benton's ham, and the question of how many is too many has no clean answer. This is Aaron Bludorn's easygoing neighborhood bar and dining room, wrapped in dark wood with a gleaming open kitchen visible from most seats. The menu runs from pasta to half chicken to devil's food cake, all built for sharing. A Michelin Guide selection, and the kind of place that makes a Tuesday feel like a reasonable excuse.

1. Esquire El Jardin · The Best Martinis in America
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Eater Place Where We Want to Be a Regular

1. The New York Times The Restaurant List
2. Texas Monthly Honorable Mentions · Texas’s Best New Restaurants
3. Eater The 38 Essential Houston Restaurants

1. Houstonia Best Crawfish Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants

1. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Sylvia Casares

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Sylvia Casares

1. Houstonia The Best Margaritas in Houston
2. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Margaritas in Houston
2. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston

The lamb goes into a pit lined with maguey leaves, comes out fall-off-the-bone tender, and lands on your table alongside consommé and a cactus salad. This casual Mexican restaurant on a resolutely unglamorous stretch of Long Point Road in Spring Branch specializes in the cooking of Hidalgo, which means the barbacoa de borrego is the thing to order. The New York Times put it on their 2023 Restaurant List, which is a long way to travel for a pit-smoked lamb, and not far enough.

1. The New York Times The Restaurant List
2. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants

1. Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Houstonia Best Crawfish Restaurants in Houston

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Houstonia Best Chinese Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia Best Crawfish Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia Houston’s Best Restaurants

1. Houstonia Best Crawfish Restaurants in Houston

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Houstonia Best Chinese Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Tacos in Houston

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Houston Chronicle Houston’s Top 100 Restaurants

1. Houstonia The Best Tacos in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston
2. Houstonia The Best Margaritas in Houston

The hood of your car doubles as your table at this late-night taco truck on Fulton, where the line forms fast after the bars close and moves just as fast. Fajita tacos with Oaxacan cheese and a creamy green salsa that bites back are the reason to show up, along with a Mexican Coke cold enough to justify the wait. No seating, no frills, just the sidewalk and whoever else is hungry at this hour.

1. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston
2. Houstonia The Best Tacos in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston
2. Houstonia The Best Tacos in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Margaritas in Houston
2. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston
2. Houstonia The Best Margaritas in Houston

The menu at this old-school Tex-Mex cantina names dishes after the regulars who inspired them, which tells you something about how long people have been coming back. The Berlys Burrito, the C.W. Special, the Williams Special: each one a standing order that became permanent. It's the kind of place where the margaritas are a serious matter and the chili con carne shows up on everything for good reason.

1. Houstonia The Best Margaritas in Houston
2. Houstonia The Best Mexican Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia Best Chinese Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Tacos in Houston

1. Houstonia Best Crawfish Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Tacos in Houston

1. Houstonia Best Crawfish Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Indian Restaurants in Houston

South Indian cooking is the reason to come to this Westheimer restaurant, even though the menu covers North Indian ground too. Fermented rice batter crepes, peppery tamarind curries, and spiced seafood or goat dishes built on black pepper and sour notes give the kitchen its personality. Finish with an Indian coffee or the sarsaparilla-and-bael-fruit cocktail, which sounds obscure until you try it.

1. Houstonia The Best Indian Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia Best Chinese Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Tacos in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Tacos in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Indian Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia The Best Margaritas in Houston

1. Houstonia Best Chinese Restaurants in Houston

1. Houstonia Best Crawfish Restaurants in Houston

1. Texas Monthly #6 · Texas’s Best New Restaurants

1. Houstonia Honorable Mention · The 10 Best Restaurants That Opened in Houston

1. Esquire #17 · The Best New Restaurants in America