Predicting 14 Houston Restaurants That Should Get a Michelin Star

It’s been about a week since the Michelin Guide confirmed its plans to expand its restaurant ratings to Texas. Through a partnership with Travel Texas and local tourism boards in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, Michelin inspectors, known for their anonymity, have already been on the ground evaluating restaurants for various accolades.

Of course, it starts with the famous Michelin stars, which are usually awarded to fine dining restaurants. Restaurants can receive one, two or three stars.

As the guide explains on its website:

• A Michelin star is awarded to restaurants using premium ingredients, where dishes with distinct flavors are prepared to a consistently high standard.
• Two Michelin stars are rewarded when the chef’s personality and talent are evident in his expertly crafted dishes; his cuisine is refined and inspired.
• Three Michelin stars is the highest distinction, awarded for superlative cuisine by chefs at the top of their profession; their cuisine is elevated to the level of art and some of their dishes are destined to become classics.

In addition, Michelin awards Bib Gourmands to less expensive restaurants that demonstrate a high level of culinary excellence and Recommended stars to restaurants that do not meet the other two criteria. Green stars are awarded to restaurants that demonstrate leadership in sustainable development.

Like many other restaurant-obsessed Houstonians, speculating about which restaurants will receive stars has become a part-time hobby for us. With that in mind, let’s make some predictions.

First, a few things to keep in mind. Over the years, the guide has come back to Los Angeles (2019) and the year of his debut in Miami (2022), it awarded stars to 25 and 11 restaurants respectively. So it seems reasonable to expect Houston to fall somewhere in between, with between 10 and 15 restaurants earning stars.

Miami also gives an idea of ​​the number of stars each restaurant is likely to receive. Only a subsidiary of the world-renowned L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon received two stars in its first year, and it remains the only restaurant in Florida to hold more than one star. Considering this, it would be surprising if a Houston restaurant got more than one star.

When thinking about Houston’s food scene, some restaurants seem more likely than others to deserve the Michelin Guide’s attention. Just for fun, let’s categorize them into three categories: Locks, Probably, and Fingers Crossed. Each category is listed alphabetically.

Locks

Barcelona:Montrose Restaurant offers refined Spanish cuisine, a style recognized worldwide by the guide. It also offers a very refined dining experience and has recently upgraded its culinary talent with the arrival of chef Fernando Recio, whose resume includes two Michelin-starred restaurants, Mugaritz and Saison. MAD, its sister restaurant, is something of a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Katami:Not only is the guide known for its penchant for high-end Japanese restaurants, it also showcases the culinary talents of Manabu Horiuchi (known as Hori-san), Houston’s favorite chef. The restaurant’s attention to carefully selected ingredients and classic preparations will serve it well when inspectors present their evaluations.

The gardener:Both New York and Miami restaurants, at the forefront of French and vegetarian gastronomy, already hold stars. Excluding Houston would be a strange snub, especially since the founding chef Alain Verzeroli explains In CultureMap’s “What’s Eric Eating” podcast, all three sites operate to the same high standards.

March:A restaurant with an elegant, European-inspired tasting menu is practically a chief inspector. Add to that an extensive wine list, elegant service and stunning interior, and it would be a huge disappointment for March not to receive at least one star.

Probably

MF Sushi:Like Katami, Chris Kinjo’s Museum District restaurant serves carefully selected fish flown in from Japan. When the chef is working behind the counter, an omakase at MF is one of the most exciting meals in Houston. Given the guide’s interest in Japanese cuisine, it seems likely that it deserves a star.

Neo:No one questions that the cuisine prepared by chefs Paolo Justo and Luis Mercado at this intimate omakase counter deserves recognition. The Uchi veterans have honed their skills through regular travel and collaborations with other top chefs. As long as inspectors are comfortable with the restaurant’s setting, located in a Montrose garment factory, it’s a given.

Tatemó:The CultureMap Tastemaker Awards 2024 Restaurant of the Year winner delivers the kind of personal, avant-garde cuisine that will garner Michelin Guide attention, and as a two-time James Beard Award finalist and Gastronomy and wines Winner of the Best New Chef award, chef and owner Emmanuel Chavez has proven he can make a name for himself on the national stage. Hopefully inspectors won’t be put off by the restaurant’s modest strip mall location and lack of alcoholic beverages.

Theodore Rex:Speaking of the Beard Awards, Justin Yu, winner of the Best Chef Southwest award, continues to helm one of Houston’s most thoughtful, ingredient-driven kitchens. Its downtown Warehouse District location and modest decor may not quite be what you’d expect from a fine-dining restaurant, but the Wagyu beef meatballs, tomato toast, and other fan favorites should propel it to the top.

Crossed fingers

Baso:The Basque-inspired wood-fired restaurant has been lauded by diners and critics alike, and co-chefs Jacques Varon and Max Lappe bring essential experience working in Michelin-starred restaurants. The pork chop, venison tartare and charred shrimp showcase the chef’s skills, but inspectors may want the restaurant to complete a full year before awarding it a star.

Bludorn:Chef and owner Aaron Bludorn said the stress of keeping Café Boulud’s star weighed on him, so he probably doesn’t want to repeat that experience in a new city. While it’s certainly possible that Bludorn is a little too big and a little too loud to deserve a star, it’s also extremely cohesive, French-influenced, and ingredient-driven—all qualities that should catch the inspector’s eye.

An Indian restaurant: One of Houston’s fine-dining Indian restaurants is likely to get a star, but it’s hard to tell whether it’ll be Amrina, Kiran’s, Musaafer or Verandah. All offer tasting menus that might catch the guide’s eye. Maybe chef Mayank Istwal’s expansive menu and extravagant decor at Musaafer will propel it to the top. But Amrina’s chef Jassi Bindra earned Michelin recognition while working in Washington, D.C. Maybe a bite of Kiran Verma’s tandoori lobster or Sunil Srivastava’s biryani could be enough to set their restaurants apart from the rest.

Little’s Oyster Bar:Chef Jason Ryczek and his team have been consistent since Pappas opened his upscale seafood restaurant last year. His passion for sourcing high-quality ingredients, including harvesting his own caviar, should also impress inspectors. A commitment to sustainability could even earn the restaurant a green star.

Nancy’s hustle and bustle: Can a restaurant known for its burger earn a star? Hopefully, given the rest of chef and co-owner Jason Vaughan’s menu, which regularly features new additions and sources from the best local farms. Michelin says her inspectors only care about the food on the plate, Nancy’s well-sourced wine list and always friendly service will serve her well too.

Pappas Bros. Steakhouse: Granted, the guide doesn’t seem to have a high opinion of steakhouses, but if it had to recognize one, in reference to Texas, it would be Pappas Bros. The restaurant shows respect for ingredients by aging all of its produce on-site. It also has the most extensive wine list in Houston and some of the most attentive service. Just make sure inspectors know to add jalapeños to their scalloped potatoes and ask for fried shrimp to complement their steak orders.

Eyes set on 2025

This year has been such a dynamic time for new restaurants that a few establishments are simply too new to be in the running for stars this year. Among them:

• Ishtiethe new Native American-inspired tasting menu concept from Eculent chef David Skinner.
• The Marigold Club:Goodnight Hospitality’s ode to London’s Mayfair.
• Turner’s Cup:Ben Berg’s steakhouse dedicated to 100% luxury.

Good luck for next year.

Bib Gourmand

As for Bib Gourmands, if Pizzana, which won one for its Los Angeles location, is any indication of the kind of casual eateries the guide is looking for, Houston is full of informal, relatively affordable establishments that should welcome awards. Will inspectors be able to visit every deserving nominee in their first year? Probably not. We’ll complain about the inevitable snubs, especially in Chinatown and the Houston suburbs, but here are 11 that come to mind:

• Aga:The South Asian community’s favorite restaurant for food that’s even better than mom’s.
• Burger-Chan:Houstonians love burgers, and an Asian-inspired burger joint that makes its own scallion aioli and sambal mayo seems distinctive enough to make a difference.
• Crayfish and noodles:Still the absolute reference for Vietnamese-Cajun cuisine.
• Himalaya:Gandhi’s district favourite has been operating at a high level for 20 years.
• June:A very personal restaurant from chefs Evelyn Garcia and Henry Liu that could also get a star.
• The Original Ninfas:The guide wouldn’t do Houston justice without at least one Tex-Mex restaurant. Choosing this East End restaurant would be a nice nod to the city’s history.
• Phat Restaurant:Katy’s Malaysian restaurant delights diners with its beef rendang, roti cannai and other favorites.
• Pizzana:If it’s good enough to win one in LA, why not in Houston?
• From the street to the kitchen:The lively Thai restaurant run by James Bead Award-winning Benchawan Jabthong Painter could also be in the running for a star.
• The Truth Barbecue:At least one barbecue restaurant will get a Bib.
• Urban:At least one taqueria is on the list. Michelin is probably playing it safe by choosing Beard Award winner Hugo Ortega’s.

If none of these predictions come true, or very few, it doesn’t matter. The authors of this publication are used to being spectacularly false.