Other restaurants in Houston
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Haven
Houston’s first LEED-certified restaurant cooks up farm-to-table cuisine that’s so fresh your grandma would slap it. An adventurous menu puts a mod spin on Texas comfort foods, such as free-range devilled eggs, peanut-crusted soft-shell crab with okra and Hill Country wild-boar chili.
reviewed
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Hobbit Hole Cafe
You don’t have to be a Lord of the Rings fan to geek out over this adorable woodsy hideaway with enticing veggie options. What would Frodo order? Probably the Gandalf sandwich or the curry chicken salad, guaranteed to fortify against orc attacks.
reviewed
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Ruggles Grill
Houston’s original green restaurant is a dietary-restriction-friendly Montrose phenomenon. Local, organic ingredients shine in creative dishes such as butternut hemp ravioli and agave-glazed pork chops. The answer to one of life’s most agonizing questions, ‘Do you want dessert?’ should be a resounding ‘Yes’ here. (Chocolate crème brûlée, red velvet cake and a low-fat tres leches.)
reviewed
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Brasil
Fresh soups, such as sweet potato and fresh thyme, paired with salads and pizzas. Decadent cheesecakes and nightly drink specials. Oh Brasil, what don’t you offer? Retreat to the shaded back patio for an artsy scene full of writers, professors, and bright-eyed dilettantes engrossed in their laptops, cigarettes, and red wine. Watch for offbeat movies that screen most evenings.
reviewed
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Baba Yega
Grilled salmon and fruit blintzes overflow the Sunday buffet brunch (a bargain at $18.95) in this pretty garden bungalow cafe that’s named after a witchy character in Slavic folklore. Plenty of TLC for vegetarians – such as a veggie meatloaf with garlic mashed potatoes – balanced with good burgers and homemade peanut-butter pie mean that all appetites will happily coexist here.
reviewed
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Empire Café
A classic fixture of the Montrose neighborhood and one of the best all-day breakfasts in town, the Empire’s a jack of all trades that manages to excel at everything: coffee, lunch, evening cocktails… We like to sit on the shady patio with a slice of luscious lemon poppy cake – or maybe the Chocolate Blackout. With half-price cake night on Monday, why not order both?
reviewed
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House of Pies
Not really a house at all, unless your idea of a house is a packed counter teeming with red-eyed hipsters chowing down on pancakes and burgers. No, the food’s not amazing. On the other hand, it’s three in the morning, the girl with the weird tattoo is winking at you, and there’s one last slice of pumpkin.
reviewed
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Ziggy’s Healthy Grill
In a cozy old house with a twinkling outdoor patio, Ziggy’s succeeds with that elusive oxymoron, healthy comfort food. (Think spicy garlic turkey burgers so tasty that they may woo vegetarians to the, um, dark side.) Hell, we’d eat this stuff even if it weren’t healthy. Delish breakfasts, too.
reviewed
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This Is It
If James Brown is the ‘Godfather of Soul, ’ then This Is It must be the godfather of Houston soul food. In fact they’ve been slinging the good stuff cafeteria-style since before Brown released his first album (1959). What else do you need to know? Real Southern food cooked with heart. You’ll feel good.
reviewed
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Baby Barnaby’s
With a wait even on weekday mornings, we suspect that Montrosians are playing hooky from work in exchange for chicken apple sausage, pancakes and strong coffee at Baby Barnaby’s. Or maybe it’s the service: these folks remembered our order on our second visit.
reviewed
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Zydeco Louisiana Diner
If you see people dancing in the street, it’s because this place is having one of its frequent after-work crawfish boils, complete with live zydeco music. By day, dive into authentic Louisiana classics such as oyster po’boys, jambalaya and étouffée. Great lemonade, too.
reviewed
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Sweet Lola Yogurt Bar
With its comfy-chic vibe and yogurt flavors such as ginger agave and lavender, family-owned Sweet Lola is the antidote to the antiseptic Pinkberrys of the world. The topping bar seduces first-timers with peanut-butter sea-salt croutons and dark-chocolate pomegranate.
reviewed
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Tiny Boxwoods
Set among blooming flowers in a River Oaks garden shop, this lovely cafe is a natural haven for ladies who lunch. With food this good (grilled cheese and pesto sammies at noon, pumpkin gnocchi and smoky goat lamb burgers at night), guys secretly love it too.
reviewed
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Lankford’s Cafe
A Montrose institution that has outlasted hippies, disco and grunge, and was classic before classic was cool. The burgers, topped with whimsical ingredients such as fried eggs and mac ’n’ cheese, have been rated among the 100 best in the USA. Cash only.
reviewed
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Dolce Vita
The thin-crust pizza in this convivial two-story house is very good, and loyal fans sing its praises in even more superlative terms. Try the Taleggio (taleggio cheese, pears, arugula, truffle oil) or the Zucca (butternut squash, pancetta, mozzarella).
reviewed
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Benjy’s
At the stylish Sunday brunch, happily munch away on the nut-crusted challah French toast ($10.95), while a luxe happy hour lets you try blood-orange margaritas, butternut-squash crepes, and pistachio-crusted goat’s cheese at half the price.
reviewed
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Les Givral’s
Food bloggers and downtown office workers are going crazy for this sleek but cheap spot. They keep it simple and sweet – pho, a smattering of rice and meat dishes, and the to-die-for Vietnamese sammies worth braving traffic for.
reviewed
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Tart Café
Savory and sweet. No, we’re not talking about that hot curator sitting next to you, we’re talking about the tarts on offer for lunch. Corn poblano, chicken pesto and lime margarita varieties should sate your inner pastry libertine.
reviewed
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Blue Fish House
Fresh, well-priced sushi in an intimate environment that’s a nice change of pace from all of those upscale trying-too-hard sushi joints that seem to double as minimalist techno nightclubs filled with wannabe models.
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Croissant Brioche French Bakery Café
Munch on a perfect éclair or an asparagus quiche at the communal table and soak up the trés magnifique atmosphere of this casual hangout, rife with Rice intellectuals and brioche addicts scoring a fix.
reviewed
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Oishii
‘Cheap’ and ‘fresh’ rarely go together when it comes to sushi, but Oishii delivers on that oxymoron. You – and your wallet – might get happy just looking at the menu. A $2 spicy tuna roll? Are you kidding us?
reviewed
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Café Rabelais
Excusez-moi ? A French restaurant in Texas that actual French people say is authentic? Praised for its mussels, steak and classic desserts, this cafe knows that beauty lies in simplicity.
reviewed
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Pavilion Coffeehouse
Take a break at the mod Pavilion Coffeehouse, in the Central Quad, behind Fondren Library, where budding philosophers and rocket scientists hunker down over their laptops.
reviewed
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Da Marco
Don’t let the BMWs in the valet parking lot scare you off: Da Marco is more about food than fuss. Try the three-course business lunch, a steal at $25. Probably Houston’s best Italian.
reviewed
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Pie in the Sky Pie Company
The magic words are: bumbleberry, Mississipi Mud, lemon cream. For the guilt-prone, the strawberry spinach salad and savory pies justify the trip to this sweet Heights cafe.
reviewed
