Tastemakers Best Restaurants

Houston's Best Restaurants: These 7 eateries lead city's dining scene to greatness

The final category reveal in the CultureMap Houston Tastemaker Awards 2015 is the most prestigious of all: Restaurant of the Year. As selected by our panel of industry insiders, these are the seven establishments that are leading Houston's culinary movement.

What's striking is how new they are collectively. Four of them opened in 2014, which once against bolsters the argument that last year saw another leap forward for the city's dining scene. Even Kata Robata only opened in 2010, but it already feels like a staple that will be around for many more years to come.

Without further ado, here are the nominees. We'll be celebrating them at a party Wednesday night. Advance tickets are sold out, but 50 general admission tickets will be available at the door on a first-come, first-served basis.

BCN Taste & Tradition
Chef Luis Roger moved to Houston from Spain, along with his wife and three children, to bring Spanish fine dining to Houston at a converted house near the intersection of Richmond and Montrose. In an era when casual neighborhood restaurants seem to be the norm, BCN has emerged as a Montrose hotspot by being distinctly fine dining. Suit-wearing servers populate the understated dining room and the guests are similarly attired. Dining on BCN’s authentic Spanish fare feels very upscale, but the atmosphere isn't stuffy — just elegant.

Caracol
As the follow-up to Hugo's, diners had sky-high expectations for this coastal restaurant from four-time James Beard Award finalist Hugo Ortega, but, of course, Caracol's creative menu overcame any skepticism. The ceviches, seafood entrees and the instant classic roasted oysters with chipotle butter have blown diners away since day one. The restaurant is both popular — it's a bona fide hot spot that's routinely packed for lunch, brunch and dinner — and really good. A beverage program that features creative cocktails and a well-chosen wine list means that every dish has a perfect pairing. Hugo's and Backstreet Cafe are already local staples, and Caracol looks to be well on its way to achieving a similarly beloved status.

Coltivare
As promised in the article that profiled the Tastemaker Awards Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year nominees, Coltivare is back. This Italian-inspired spot from Revival Market principles Morgan Weber and chef Ryan Pera features an evolving menu, reasonable prices and a sophisticated selection of wine, beer and spirits. Coltivare charms diners by being casual and comfortable, especially when the weather is nice enough to sit on the patio adjacent to its 3,000 square-foot garden. The sourdough pizza crust may not be traditional Italian, but it serves as a flavorful, hearty platform for the flavors that Pera and his chefs place atop it. That's why Coltivare is the current holder of the unofficial title of "the restaurant Houston chefs are most likely to dine at on their own time." The only downside is famously long wait times that tag Coltivare as the victim of its own success. Go early (before 6 p.m.), late (after 9 p.m.) or during the week to mitigate them.

Kata Robata
Under the direction of chef Manabu Horiuchi, usually known as Hori-san to friends and diners, Kata Robata has become Houston's premier destination for sushi. Of course, the kitchen excels beyond raw fish; dishes like the lobster mac and cheese or uni chawanmushi make it appealing for just about anyone. No wonder Kata's dining room regularly hosts Houston chefs in search of Hori-san's clean flavors. While an omakase tasting allows the kitchen to show off, going in for a bowl of ramen at lunch shows that even the most humble dishes are well-prepared.

Oxheart
Outside of Underbelly, Oxheart continues to be the Houston restaurant that receives the most critical acclaim: chef Justin Yu earned his second James Beard Award nomination for Best Chef: Southwest; Oxheart appeared as one of only two Houston restaurants on Eater's list of the country's 38 most essential restaurants; and it's at the top of Chronicle critic Alison Cook's list of the city's top 100 restaurants. While all the acclaim could lead to complacency, Oxheart continues to evolve; last year, Yu slimmed down the menu, dropping the four-course option and focusing on two, six-course menus: one vegetarian, one omnivore. Experience has also allowed Yu to pickle and preserve ingredients and then reuse them in interesting ways a year or more later. Oxheart's subtle flavors aren't for everyone — radio and television personality Cleverley Stone was apparently so underwhelmed that she ate dessert at Del Frisco's steakhouse after her recent meal there — but enough Houstonians and visitors are intrigued by the restaurant to keep its 30-seat dining room full.

Pax Americana
This Montrose hotspot has been packed since day one thanks to Rising Star chef nominee Adam Dorris's creative cooking. Under the direction of owner Shepard Ross, the fast-moving service staff brings order to Pax's boisterous dining room while guiding diners through the menu. Newcomers are advised to go in a group of six and order, well, pretty much everything that sounds interesting — and the things that sound challenging. They'll be rewarded with balanced flavors, precise cooking and combinations that don't exist at other Houston restaurants. That doesn't mean Ross can't execute classic fare, too. The restaurant's massive, two-pound, 30-day dry aged ribeye that's cooked precisely medium rare and served sliced for the table might be the city's best steak. That's why Pax landed on GQ critic Alan Richman's list of 2015's 25 most exciting restaurants.

Underbelly
Chris Shepherd's restaurant that tells "the story of Houston food" has emerged as the symbol of Houston's rise as a nationally prominent food destination; after all, Shepherd ended the city's 22-year-long James Beard Award drought. For food-obsessed visitors, a meal at Underbelly may be more important than shopping at the Galleria or visiting the Menil. Shepherd has reloaded with new talent in the kitchen; he calls pastry chef Victoria Dearmond "my 23-year old grandmother" for the way she organizes the rest of the kitchen. The menu continues to offer lots of interesting flavors that are inspired by restaurants on Bellaire, Hillcroft and Long Point and executed using the best locally-sourced vegetables, meat and fish. Even the bar menu has received some tweaks thanks to new offerings that are "covers" of famous dishes from other Southern restaurants. Now diners can wait with fevered anticipation for the inevitable collaborations that will occur once Mala Sichuan opens across the street.

BCN Taste & Tradition.

BCN Taste & Tradition/Facebook

BCN Taste & Tradition.

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Chris Cusack explains

Houston bar owner speaks out about surprise arrest for health code violations

Photo by Sergio Trevino

Chris Cusack owns two locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse.

Certainly one of the most unusual interactions between a restaurant and City of Houston officials took place on Wednesday, May 6 when Betelgeuse Betelgeuse owner Chris Cusack was arrested for health code violations at his location on Washington Avenue.

News of the arrest spread quickly across social media over the weekend. Now, Cusack is ready to tell his side of the story.

Cusack, whose time operating restaurants in Houston goes back more than 15 years to Down House and its affiliated restaurants such as Hunky Dory and D&T Drive Inn, tells CultureMap the problem began on Monday, May 4 when a health department inspector came to Betelgeuse Betelgeuse and asked to see the restaurant’s grease trap.

The only problem is that location has never had a grease trap. Prior to becoming Betelgeuse Betelgeuse, it was Liberty Station, a pioneering bar in Houston’s craft beer and craft cocktail scenes. In the early days, Betelgeuse served food from a food truck. More recently, it prepares its food next door at The Bell and Crane. Cusack acknowledges he didn’t share this information with the inspector.

“Usually I’m a charmer with the health department, but I was a little defensive. She kept asking me. I said, ‘ma’am, we don’t make food here,’” he explains. “The tone wasn’t my finest moment, but there was no name calling or anything like that. She said, ‘where does the food come from?’ I said, ‘it doesn’t matter where it comes from. It’s produced in a commercial kitchen.’”

Cusack says he knew there would be a follow up, but he was shocked when the inspector returned two days later with more colleagues from the health department, TABC inspectors, and Houston Police Department officers.

“I got somewhere between 21 and 25 citations,” Cusack says about the return visit. He got dinged for everything from graffiti in the bathroom to a missing Harris County tax stamp on the photo booth he leases from a vendor (it has both State of Texas and City of Houston stamps, Cusack says).

One inspector told Cusack he needed a food dealer’s permit. He showed the inspector that a food dealer’s permit had been issued for the restaurant's address under the former food truck’s LLC but not to the LLC that operates Betelgeuse Betelgeuse. Cusack says he had renewed the food truck’s permit in March, but that wasn’t good enough for the inspector. In Cusack’s telling, he was arrested for not having the permit, since it was also flagged as missing in an inspection from October 2025. He's the only person he knows who has ever been arrested for a misdemeanor violation of the health code.

Cusack says he spent 21 hours in the Harris County Jail. When he got out, he says he was contacted by a more senior official within the Health Department. Once Cusack confirmed he owned both LLCs, he was told he could reopen. Both locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse have been operating normally since Friday, May 8.

Cusack maintains he never knew about the October 2025 inspection, which is why he renewed the food dealer’s permit for the food truck’s LLC rather than applying for one under Betelgeuse Betelgeuse’s LLC. “There’s no paper trail that shows I was given this information,” he says. “I did not get the email [from the Health Department].”

As for why things got so out of hand, Cusack theorizes he was a victim of Houston Mayor John Whitemire’s crack down on “reckless behavior” on Washington Avenue and stepped up enforcement on bars generally that led to the temporary closure of near northside cocktail bar Rabbit’s Got the Gun.

Cusack says he’s a “huge supporter” of efforts to reduce crimes like street racing, drug dealing, and sex trafficking along Washington and in its surrounding neighborhoods. Still, he feels targeting by the city for being impolite to a health inspector.

He plans to fight both the arrest and the citations in court. “I want the charges dropped, and I want it expunged completely from my record. That’s the first thing, and I’m going to try very hard to do it,” he says.

“That’s going to end up costing thousands of dollars just to deal with the sheer volume,” he adds.

CultureMap contacted Mayor Whitmire’s office. A representative said the mayor was not aware of the situation and has no comment on an open investigation.

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