Foodie News
Esquire admits Houston is a Top 10 restaurant city, the only one in Texas
It's a fact universally acknowledged by every Houston resident: This city is an amazing place to eat.
But it's a reality only beginning to be acknowledged by the rest of the country. But John Mariani, Esquire's roving restaurant reporter, is one of Houston's biggest boosters, and he's given the city a plum spot on his list of the top restaurant cities in the country.
Houston, the only Texas city on the list, ranks a respectable No. 7. New York, Chicago and San Francisco predictably rule at the top, with New Orleans, Los Angeles and Las Vegas rounding out the top six.
Unlike Chicago's focus on gastropubs and molecular gastronomy or New Orleans' Creole and Cajun fare, there's no specific genre that earns Houston its place, according to Mariani — it's about being "solid across the board," with Goode Co. Barbecue, RDG, Hugo's, Tony's, Américas and Vietnamese cuisine getting shout outs.
Some might say that for the fourth-biggest city in the country, coming in seventh place is still underperforming. But Houston's ranking vaults it above Washington D.C., Boston and Seattle, stomping grounds of the illustrious José Andrés, Ming Tsai, and the Pike Place Market respectively.
It's a significant moment. And we think lucky number seven has a certain ring to it.
