Foodie News

New steakhouse to open in CityCentre: The great West side restaurant revolution continues

Restaurants just keep coming to CityCentre, the popular mixed-use complex on Houston's west side. With the energy corridor nearby, it's not surprising that Capital Grille is hungry to open its second Houston location at CityCentre Four, the new tower that will be completed this summer.

The upscale steakhouse, known for dry-aged steaks, fresh seafood and an award-winning wine list, plans a fall opening.

Owners Darden Restaurants will continue to operate a Capital Grille location at 5365 Westheimer, near the Galleria.

Salata has also inked a deal to open a new location in the CityCentre tower this fall. The Houston-based, salad-centric restaurant chain, founded by Berge Simonian and Tony Kyoumjian, is in the midst of expanding not only throughout Texas but also in California. Its create-your-own, tossed-to-order salads come with a wide selection of ingredients and dressings made from scratch.

CityCentre has already announced several new storefronts and restaurants, including the Aggie-approved College Station import, Grub Burger Bar, and Seasons 52, the fresh grill and wine bar restaurant where everything on the menu is 475 calories or less. (Seasons 52 recently opened its first Houston location in Millennium High Street.) The first Houston-area location of Texas de Brazil Churrascaria also recently opened in CityCentre.

With a number of top restaurants also coming to the mixed-use development Gateway Memorial City, could the west side be primed to give the Galleria area a run for its money?

CityCentre continues to attract new restaurants.

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Houston's smallest restaurant?

Michelin-recognized Houston sushi chef fires up 4-seat Japanese skewer spot

Courtesy of Sip & Skewer

Diners sit in front of chefs cooking on a grill.

The team behind one of Houston’s Michelin-recognized sushi restaurants is opening an intimate new izakaya. Sip & Skewer is the newest concept from Hidden Omakase owner Tuan Tran and chef Marcos Juarez.

Opening Friday, February 13, Sip & Skewer is a four-seat restaurant devoted to skewered meats that’s located within Sushi by Hidden, the group’s affordable omakase restaurant in Rice Village. At Sip & Skewer, diners sit across from the chefs as they cook a 10-course, $90 meal on a Japanese binchotan grill.

“Sip & Skewer is small, loud, and intentional. The kind of hidden experience you’d find in Tokyo,” Tran said. “And with Chef Marcos guiding the team at Sushi by Hidden, this space is getting new energy from every angle.”

A four-seat restaurant within a 10-seat restaurant might seem kind of superfluous, but Tran explains that it’s part of a larger plan for his group of restaurants, which also includes West U. hand roll restaurant Norigami. It also builds on the success of Hidden Omakase, the Galleria-area sushi counter that earned a Recommended designation in the Michelin Guide.

“Sip & Skewer is part of a larger vision. It’s designed as a stepping stone toward our next concept, Kōri, a new hand roll and craft cocktail bar opening in the Heights. Our plan is to open Sip & Skewer directly next to our hand roll spot, creating a small alley of Japanese concepts that feed into one another,” Tran explains.

“This allows us to build awareness, train our team in a new format, and introduce guests to Japanese charcoal grilling in a very personal way before we scale the idea into a larger setting with Kōri. The four-seat format keeps overhead extremely low while serving as a live test kitchen and brand builder for what’s coming next,” he adds.

On a related note, Juarez and the other chefs at Hidden Omakase are dividing their time between all three restaurants. Tuam explains that it’s a deliberate strategy to ensure a consistent customer experience.

“The same team that works Michelin-recognized omakase service also runs the grill here, which keeps quality and execution consistent while allowing the chefs a creative outlet in a very different format,” Tran said. “Because Sip & Skewer is only four seats and reservations only, it does not require a dedicated full-time staff. It’s an extension of the team rather than a separate operation.”