6 Must-Eat-At Restaurants in Houston

Read: You-Better-Eat-At

Howdy! (yea…..*snort*)

There’s something about the people of Texas and their food that makes you feel comfortable and at home. Nothing is quite over the top and fancy, it’s all just pretty “happy” and “genuine”.

I love coming to Houston, barring the fact that you can’t even buy toothpaste without getting on the highway (unless, of course, you live near The Galleria) but oh my God, the barbeque over here… TO DIE FOR!

Texas is primarily known as the hub of barbeque in the United States and I’ve only ever been to Houston to say this, so I can’t even imagine the hidden barbeque treasures spread out in this state!!! Dee-liii-ciouuss.

Besides BBQ, Texan food has a vast, diverse variety to offer. Southern fried chicken, crawfish, po boys, Tex-Mex, and burgers are all top cuisines here.
Check out this link: 25 Foods Texas Does Better Than Anywhere Else

Anyhow, after 9 visits to the city of Houston, I’ve finally been able to structure a list of these restaurants that you MUST eat at, no matter what (If I can cover these in 4 days, you can too) or I mean at least try to go there once … for me… please? Haha, they have become my favorites, and there’s no way they won’t become yours.

Torchy’s Tacos.

Loved this place. This, very southern and casual, Mexican restaurant specializes in soft tacos. The menu is interesting and creative with a lot of options.

We got the Chips & Guacamole for starters followed by my Baja Shrimp taco, and The Democrat.

The Baja Shrimp was phenominal! Full of flavors, saucy and tangy wrapped around a perfect proportion of veggies. I couldn’t get over this one for a while.

The Democrat used very good quality and tasteful beef. The flavor of avocado that flourished through every bite, along with some sprinkled lemon made this taco a real treat to the taste buds.

Our other order was the Trailer Park and disappeared within five minutes of it arriving, so I’m assuming it was yummy to the tummy as well.

Definitely worth a visit. Torchy's Tacos claim to have "best damn tacos in Texas" and damn right, they do!

Chips & Guacamole - Mmmmmmm

Left: The Democrat
Right: Baja Shrimp 

Location: Rice Village, 2400 Times BLVD, Houston, Texas 77005

Luigi’s Pizzeria.

You wouldn’t imagine that I’ve had one of the best pizzas of my life in Houston, right? Imagine it. It’s true.

This little place, with an exceptionally simple and basic layout, probably sells THE greatest pizza ever. We ordered, both, the hot wings and the honey barbeque wings for appetizers and I was caught licking the barbeque sauce of my finger, no jokes! The Hot Wings were way too spicy for me but very crispy with perfectly proportioned sauce.

I hope my pictures do justice to the fantabulous smack the Caprese pizza had, really one of the yummiest twists to a Margherita I've come across.

The Mexicana was a spicy one and even though I normally don’t enjoy veggie-meat filled pizzas but this one, as you would guess, I thoroughly did.

Go to Luigi’s, if you’re a true pizza lover and always on the look out to find a pizzeria that would blow your mind.

Hot Wings

Honey BBQ Wings 

Caprese Pizza

The Mexicana

Location: 3700 Almeda, Houston Texas 77004

Goode Company.

The seafood in Houston is obviously known for its quality and to experience that authentic flavor, you must head over to Goode Company. Along with food, this fun place even gives you an actual Texan feel with the (very) noisy atmosphere, chattering customers and really friendly servers.

The Shrimp Campechana De Mariscos (prawn cocktail to be less exotic) has an extremely flavorful, distinct taste to it. I’m a sucker for shrimps and I’m going to have to call it one of the bests ever.

Goode Company place is famous for its Po Boys (along with oysters and crabs). I opted for the Shrimp Po boy and boy oh boy, I don’t think you can find a sandwich as simple and good as this anywhere.

If you’re in search for seafood, this is your go-to place.

Shrimp Campechana De Mariscos

Shrimp Po Boy

These are what you call - Onion Rings

Location: 2621 Westpark Dr, Houston, Texas

Down House

I’ve already gone ga-ga over this place in my last blog: Houston Diaires : Down House – The Memorable Restaurant, but can’t get over the Kimchi Burger and so it makes this list.

Highly recommend their Kimchi Burger, Fried Portobello and Lettuce Wraps! Very different, fusion and tangy flavors. Love the casual pub layout at Down House along with the high quality food and commendable service. The chefs over there are my favorites (heart-heart).

Lettuce Wraps

Mushroom on Toast

Bistro Steak

Chicken Fried Portobello 

Kimchi Burger - Open

Kimchi Burger - Divine

Location: 1801, Yale St, Houston, Texas 77008

Sweet Paris Creperie.

Bonjour, ya’ll!

If crepes (…”crepps” or “crapes”, whichever pronunciation floats your boat) are your thing, then so is this place. Located in the middle of the hustling bustling Rice Blvd, Sweet Paris is a small place with an incredibly large variety of crepes. The crepes are made in an open kitchen, unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to make a video there otherwise it was really amusing to see how fast they were.

We ordered 5 crepes:

The Feast

Chicken Alfredo

Nordic

Le Mexicain

 Strawberry & Nutella

The Feast was exactly what its name suggests with assorted cheeses bursting flavors through each bite.

I ordered the Chicken Alfredo and requested to add scrambled eggs to it. Indeed, it was very heavy but so very worth every calorie that went inside. Perfectly creamy, and brilliant taste of Parmesan and eggs to go with it.

Why isn’t every food in this world always wrapped in a crepe? It should be.

The Nordic was an exquisite salmon-based crepe that my brother, Chef Fahd, wouldn’t stop raving about. He gobbled it down pretty quick, so it could either be that he was unnaturally hungry, or it was fantastic. Could be both, can’t say!

Le Mexicain was probably their best of the lot – imagine the Mexican specialties of Texas in crepe that clearly they excel in. Wonderful.

Nutella and Strawberry are two things that make me emotional besides my nephews and nieces. The ingredients, mixed together, have the tendency to become very powerful dishes and added inside a crepe by Sweet Paris – EEEEEEEEK!!!!

This ones a special request, you must and I mean you MUST make a visit to this tiny little French looking café.

Strawberry & Nutella

Chicken Alfredo

Nordic

Le Mexicain

This place deserved a collage

Location: 2420 Rice Blvd, Houston, TX 77005 

Rudy’s

Rightfully famous for its BBQ, Rudy’s is the winner in this restaurant spree. This is the place that defines the term BBQ for you, you may also get a heart attack for all the meat you consume there (lol, jk) but I doubt any other place can ever give you the taste Rudy’s does. My TOP favorite place!

The best part of this extremely Texan restaurant is that their quality of meat is fantastic, marinated to the core of any piece you choose to eat and that’s about it. Your affair begins and ends with pure meat, only. Of course, the Rudy’s one-of-a-kind sauce is incomparable to any you’ve ever had and it’s going to become very difficult for you to pick up any other BBQ sauce off a store shelf after this.

I think The Rudy’s (super fun and friendly) team is aware of this impact and so, they’re sweet enough to have a Rudy’s shop in all of their restaurants so you can buy very generous quantities of sauce for home!
We got the Brisket Moist and Half Chicken complemented with potato salad and the crazyyy Jumbo Smoked Potato and were good to be spoilt for life!

Everything and anything you choose from the perfectly short and comprehensive menu will be a treat.

There ain’t no Houston trip without a visit here.

Potato Salad, Jumbo Smoked Potato, Brisket Moist, Chicken, BBQ Sauce, Open Pickles

The sauce you can buy

A kind message from Rudy's

Location: 14620 Northwest Fwy, Houston TX 77040 

You can follow my instagram for live updates and pictures: @hangrywords
I’m still discovering so please add to this list so I can try out your recommendations too!

Houston Diairies : Down House - The memorable restaurant!

Between my last blog and this, I’ve had a roller coaster of life-changing events. I’m not whom I started out to write as, which is a good thing because now I can be adventurous and dramatic like the way I had wanted to be.

Let’s just say, “it’s not that my standards are too high, it’s just that my father has set an amazing example for how a man should treat me”.

Fast-forwarding the mind boggling fiasco, my aunt and elder brother called me straight down to Texas for some change of air! The landing announcement to Houston after 14-something hours was as soothing as hugging my mom after four months, but I’m not going to lie – Qatar Airways made my journey absolutely wonderful!

Besides the limitless pampering by the entire family, I was treated to the finest of restaurants and cuisines. Grateful for being a part of a line of food-lovers, and I’m even luckier to have a chef brother!

On my second night in town, we decided to have dinner at Down House, a restaurant that my brother works in as a line cook. I obviously chose the day he was on duty, so I could take the customer advantage of sending sarcastic compliments to my darling chef. Hah!

Situated on Yale Street, Houston, Down House has a very casual and comfortable feel to it. We walked into a softly lit pub decorated with vintage, yet classy furniture and were greeted by an extremely welcoming staff member. The weather was absolutely beautiful so we chose to sit outside.

The menus were already placed on the table, which our friendly server skimmed through with us. While we contemplated over what to order, I requested the server to inform “Chef Fahd” inside, of my arrival. Everything in the restaurant’s concise menu sounded particularly simple and appetizing and it actually became hard to choose!

 For starters, we ordered the Mushroom on Toast and Lettuce Wraps.

I bit into the Mushroom on Toast with a burst of flavors filling my mouth from goat cheese to egg to the salty kick of soy sauce. What a well-blended display of mushrooms, I tell you. I don’t know if we were exceptionally hungry or what it was, because we gobbled down the generous serving within the first two minutes.

Mushroom on Toast

The lettuce wraps were DIY that were served with lettuce, grilled chicken, fried onions, cilantro and a Down House made sweet chili sauce. I smiled when the lettuce wraps came to our table because the first thing that caught my eye were the fried onions. Used in almost all Eastern dishes, freshly fried onions aka “tali hui pyaz” is a daily feature in every Pakistani home kitchen. I successfully assembled a non-breaking wrap for myself and thoroughly enjoyed the different flavors that were enclosed in a crisp leaf of lettuce.

Lettuce Wrap

 Majority of the reviews about Down House raved about the Kimchi Burger, which is exactly what my uncle and I decided to order for ourselves.

I’ve often pondered over what I would do if I ever reached a point where I would have to choose between burgers or a life partner. This Kimchi Burger has given me my answer. A burger topped with an egg is already a treat; now imagine world-class kimchi layered between that and the melted slice of cheese. Boy, that was one heck of a party in my mouth I tell you. Every ingredient found its way to tickle my palette and the perfectly cooked patty made this brilliantly executed dish simply marvelous! Full points!

Kimchi Burger

 My sister-in-law, the chef’s other half, ordered the Bistro Steak which came with a complementing sauce of Cilantro Raita! Hurray, more eastern variety!

Raita, FYI:

 I absolutely loved this fusion surprise. Typically, the idea of steak is very sophisticated and is normally served with peppercorn or mushroom sauce, but this cilantro raita made it minty cool and totally fantastic to the tongue! Also, the medium steak was cooked perfectly.

Bistro Steak

My aunt went for the Chicken Fried Portobello. Sometimes you really don’t need meat, interestingly cooked vegetables can be just as tasteful and filling. Non-greasy, fresh, hot, crisp and delicious batter, with creamy and melt-in-the-mouth mashed potatoes on the side. Great choice.

Chicken Fried Portobello

Everything was served in pretty decent portions and I was so stuffed that I was expecting to see Homer Simpson opposite me if I stood in front of the mirror.

But what a meal it was, enjoyed every bit of it. I even sat there and expressed my dream to live in Houston so I could out here and hang out every single day! I get overexcited about things, okay?

Bummed that my brother was too busy in the kitchen and couldn’t come out to even say hello, I declined the dessert offer. Whad’ya know, the door opened and my sweetheart of a brother walked out with a plate of a beautiful brownie dessert topped with a candle. An early birthday surprise!!!!! Eek, I was shrieking like a little girl when everyone sang to me including Chef Fahd – I felt so special. I could tell he was a fidgeting to get back inside to work but there was no way I would let the chef get away without a selfie!

Chef Fahd - My bro <3

We devoured in the moist and unbelievably tasty, and hot brownie. So glad we got to have a dessert, I would have definitely missed out on it! Perfect way to conclude our meals.

Super sweet servers wished me a very happy birthday and we headed out home. Down House has to be one of my favorite restaurant experiences. Great food, wonderful ambience, efficient service and ofcourse awesome chefs ;)

Here’s a secret note that I asked to be delivered to Chef Fahd:

Thank you, God for all the amazing food and reminding me that love is all around me!

PS: Instagram @hangrywords