We know Houston is a great restaurant town, so we always get suckered in by national lists of best restaurants to see where our top dining spots rank. So, naturally, Open Table's 2013 Diner's Choice Award winners for the Top 100 Best Brunch Restaurants in the U.S. caught our eye.
And, as usual, the list is so infuriating.
Only five Texas restaurants — and one Houston dining establishment — made the list, which was compiled from more than five million reviews collected from verified OpenTable diners between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013. Qualifying restaurants were then scored and sorted according to the percentage of qualifying reviews for which “great for brunch” was selected as a special feature.
In Houston, Max's Wine Dive made the select list. The brunch menu at the Washington Avenue eatery includes its famous Southern fried chicken, along with a variety of egg dishes, banana crepes and crème brûlée French toast.
The brunch at Bernardo's at the Hotel Galvez in Galveston also made the list, along with Lucile's and Cafe Modern in Fort Worth and Chez Zee in Austin.
We have no quibbles with those choices, but that's it?
As usual, the Open Table list is heavily weighted toward both coasts, with 17 restaurants in California and 13 in New York on the list. But it's hard to believe that Florida, with eight winning restaurants, and Georgia, with seven honorees, have better brunch spots than Texas.
And how could any best brunch list leave off Brennan's? That's a real crime.
Max's Wine Dive's Southern-fried chicken wings with cornbread griddle cakes and maple syrup
