Master Sommelier June Rodil’s wine pairings add verve, and Shawn Gawle’s disciplined desserts write the finish. The kitchen’s recent plunge into the Southern French region once known as Occitania yielded a lilting spring pea soup sharpened with rosé vinegar and smoked trout roe brandade of whipped salt cod etched with capers and Bearnaise and pork Provençale deepened by black garlic, hazelnut vinaigrette and a green, herbal pistou. That they’ve achieved this during the pandemic makes it even more impressive. His scholarship combines with carefully sourced ingredients (some from the restaurant’s own farm) to create a memorable experience, administered by what is arguably the city’s best service team. Chef Felipe Riccio’s menus shift through the entire Mediterranean basin - and its history - highlighting a new region every few months. This tasting-menu restaurant aims for a Michelin-star level and hits the mark with exciting frequency. Tip: Haatuft’s periodic visits feature dazzling multicourse menus worth booking ahead and frequent chef takeovers can wow.
What to order: The menu changes with the tides, but look for pristine half-shell oyster or clam service pan-roasted barrelfish or kingfish with hoja santa puree and chopped oysters or red drum crudo with cooling buttermilk and dill vinaigrette, apple and celery. The service is as smart as the wine list. The cooking can be spectacular, whether in the form of meticulous pan-roasted Gulf fish whole grilled Maine squid that seems impossibly smooth, supple, and flavor-packed or the freshest local vegetables, gently treated. Chef de cuisine Alberto Cruz, once head sushi guy for Uchi, mixes the influences at play in riveting ceviches, crudos and cold plates. Fish and shellfish from warm and cold waters glint on heaps of ice. There’s nothing like it anywhere.įood-hall dining goes casually upscale in this crisp, sit-down room.
Partners Christopher Haatuft (a Norwegian star chef) and Post impresario Paul Qui blend two regional attitudes with impeccable - and sustainable - sourcing. Invigorating Nordic air meets sultry Gulf Coast breeze at this seafood spot in the Post Market food hall. We hope you’ll use the list, discover new favorites, home in on promising dishes and - as always - argue among yourselves. Overall 42 restaurants are new to the list, a measure of how much (and how fast) our dining scene has changed. Twelve of our Top 25 (the only restaurants we ranked) are new picks. Many of them are appearing on the Top 100 for the first time. They’re the places that have managed to perform most consistently, and most interestingly, in the rockiest of days. To us, these are the places that shine most brightly in their categories right now. What mattered most in building our list - the first to draw on the expertise of our entire food team rather than one lonely critic - was feeling a certain spark in the restaurants we chose. Chefs experimented with niches and formats that have energized this year’s Top 100 list, whether it be exciting storefront pop-ups that caught on, special events that turned into a regular gig, or spots that relied on Instagram to build a customer base. The other was - and is - wildly creative. One was conservative, with menus trimmed back to proven hits and comforting carryout favorites. The changes wrought by the pandemic had two faces. Eleven of our class of 2019 have closed or ceased to function in their previous form, while one came back from the dead as a kiosk in a food hall. Operators are still scrambling to adjust: tweaking days and hours of operation editing menus hiking prices or reducing portions making do with reduced staffs. Even the steadiest players find it hard to maintain consistency when spotty supply chains, labor shortages and inflation remain in play. Our restaurants are still coping with the disruptions two-and-a-half years on. The COVID pandemic that barreled into town during March 2020 brought seismic changes to the city’s dining scene. A lot has transpired since our last edition of Houston’s Top 100 restaurants, published in the more innocent autumn of 2019.
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