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Heads up! Our new Top 100 Houston restaurants list drops next week, and we're having a great big tasting party to celebrate. We've invited a slew of top chefs from the list to bring their best bites for unlimited sampling — and there will be wine purveyors and schmoozing, too.
It all happens at the Houston Chronicle building next Thursday, Oct. 24, and you can get tickets for the event here. Highly recommend. There are still some dishes from last year's event stuck in my brain; Aaron Davis of Viola & Agnes, I'm looking at you.
Meanwhile my colleague Sonia Garcia just published one of the best pieces of food writing I've seen all year — a deeply reported (and deeply felt) portrait of a Houston restaurant owner, Christopher Huang, who's been struggling to keep his tiny Ninja Ramen shop open.
It's a business story that's a profile, and a profile that's a business story, and you will emerge on the other side with a much better understanding of what it takes to keep a restaurant afloat in these very trying times. (Hint: It's not just skyrocketing food costs.)
Sonia has been tracking Ninja Ramen for a year, and I salute her and our editors, Jody Schmal and Melissa Aguilar, for staying steadfast in encouraging reporters to take time for this important work while keeping a thousand other plates spinning.
If you're a dedicated Houston diner — which is why you're here, right? — Sonia's piece is a must-read that is also a lovely piece of portraiture filled with little details to savor.
The image of Chris sitting in his car outside the restaurant, so he'll be on call without taking up one of the seats, is one that I'll never forget.
Pick of the Day
Photo by: Yi-Chin Lee, Staff Photographer
Running a restaurant in 2024 has been expensive, with rising costs and money lost in the derecho and hurricane. Ninja Ramen provides a snapshot of the struggles.
Local eats
 Photo by: Yi-Chin Lee, Staff Photographer |
The Houston Chronicle took a closer look at the stressors the restaurant industry is facing through the lens of Ninja Ramen and its owner, Christopher Huang. |
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 Photo by: Yi-Chin Lee, Staff Photographer |
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 Photo by: Hash Kitchen |
Chef Joey Maggiore, the self-described "Brunch King," is bringing Hash Kitchen and its boozy brunch menu to Pearland. |
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 Photo by: Courtesy/Portillo's |
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 Photo by: Courtesy Of Jax Grill |
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 Photo by: Courtesy Of Afuri Ramen |
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 Photo by: Becca Wright |
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Events at the Chronicle
Photo by: HC Marketing Photo
The lineup includes BCN, Belly of the Beast, Brennan's, Le Jardinier, Mimo, Musaafer, Navy Blue, Pizzana, Pondicheri and more. Get your tickets here.
Aprons on
Photo by: Paula Murphy
To celebrate Houston's favorite foods, we compiled a cookbook of dishes and drinks from the city's favorite chefs and restaurants.
Barbecue
Photo by: J.C. Reid, Contributor
Briscuits food trailer in Austin has a signature dish: slices of smoked brisket piled on to a buttermilk biscuit and slathered with a smoked strawberry jelly. We tried it.
- UPDATED: The 30 best places to get barbecue around Houston: Greater Houston is enjoying a new era of smoked meat supremacy, making it, perhaps, the new capital of Texas barbecue. Here the best BBQ places in Houston.
Houston's top restaurants
Photo by: Karen Warren, Staff Photographer
From tasting menus to world-class banh mi shops, this is our carefully vetted guide to the best dining in Houston.
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