HRW Newcomers

Houston Restaurant Weeks dishes out fresh newcomers and to-go options

Loch Bar's lobster roll is available for an additional fee.

Photo by Kirsten Gilliam

Houston Restaurants Weeks will operate a little differently in 2020 than it has in previous years. While the month-long dining event, which runs from August 1 to Labor Day, still features restaurants across the city serving prix-fixe, multi-course menus at set price points, HRW has had to adapt to the realities of the coronavirus pandemic.

For the first time, diners will have the option to take their meals to-go. In addition, HRW has diminished the donation restaurants are required to make to the Houston Food Bank. Instead of the usual $3 to $7 per meal sold, restaurants will only donate $1. That change will undoubtedly cut the event’s usual donation to the Food Bank — an amount that’s exceeded $2 million the past few years — but recognizes that restrictions designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 have sharply diminished restaurants’ revenues.

On another somber note, this year will be the first time Houston Restaurants Weeks happens without founder Cleverley Stone, the event’s founder and organizer who died in May. Stone’s daughter Katie will lead HRW in her mother’s stead.

“It has been a great comfort to me to hear from so many of my mother’s friends and supporters as we gear up for this year’s restaurant weeks,” Stone said in a statement. “With COVID such an obvious factor in this year’s preparation and planning, we are still very hopeful that Houston Restaurant Weeks will benefit both the restaurant industry and the Houston Food Bank. This year’s donation of $1 per meal will allow many restaurants to participate, and adding take-out and delivery options makes it particularly appealing to diners who wish to partake at home.”

The HRW website launches today, Friday, July 17 with over 150 individual locations that are each serving one or more of the usual prix fixe menus: lunch, $20; brunch, $20; or dinner, $35 or $45. As always, the event features a mix of returning favorites (Brennan’s, Hugo Ortega’s restaurants, Del Frisco’s, etc) as well as a few newcomers. Below, CultureMap takes a closer look at some of those first-time participants.

BB’s Tex-Orleans
All nine Houston-area locations of the Cajun-Creole restaurant are offering a four-course, $35 dinner menu. Start with a choice of gumbo, crawfish etouffee, or red beans and rice before choosing from two different salads or cold boiled shrimp. Entree choices include blackened redfish, shrimp and grits, or a fried seafood platter. BB’s offers three dessert choices, but keep things Tex-Orleans by opting for bread pudding.

Carrabba’s
Both the Kirby and Voss locations of Johnny Carrabba’s Italian restaurant are serving a three-course, $20 lunch and a three-course, $35 dinner menu. Highlights from the lunch menu include fried calamari, Carrabba’s signature Sicilian chicken soup, and chicken marsala. Dinner also features three savory courses; choices include fried shrimp in garlic-herb butter sauce, choice of soup or salad, meat ravioli, and chicken stuffed with sausage, spinach, and pecorino.

Guard and Grace
The downtown steakhouse will serve a three-course, $35 dinner meun that begins with choices such as a country ham “tartine,” chilled Gulf shrimp, or peach gazpacho. Entree options include beef short rib, grouper with salsa verde, or, for an $8 supplement, koji-cured New York strip. Peach melba, blackberry custard, or pot de creme end the meal on a sweet note.

Kin Dee Thai Cuisine
The recently-opened Thai restaurant in The Heights will serve a four-course, $45 HRW dinner menu. First course options include papaya salad and the “Golden Basket” of stir fried chicken and vegetables. From there, choose chicken satay, beef meatballs, or pork skewers before deciding on an entree of pad Thai, BBQ pork noodles, or two different curries. Finish up with mango sticky rice or one of two ice creams.

Loch Bar
The East Coast-inspired seafood restaurant will serve lunch, brunch, and dinner menus during HRW. Lunch choices (two courses, $20) include Caesar salad, gumbo, a cheeseburger, and fish tacos. Brunch (two courses, $20) options include deviled eggs and fried oysters; those willing to pay a little more may opt for chicken and waffles or a crab cake Benedict as their entree. At dinner (three courses, $35), we recommend opting for the fish and chips or paying the supplement for a lobster roll.

Mastrantos
The South American-influenced restaurants in The Heights will serve both a $20, two-course brunch menu and a three-course, $45 dinner menu. At brunch, the choices include the restaurant’s signature Texqueño, fruit parfait, tostadas, and a Caesar salad with salmon. Dinner starts with salad, crudo, or carrots followed by linguini carbonara, salmon with black beans and corn, or pork with baked root vegetables.

Mastro’s
No, the HRW menu at Tilman Fertitta’s ultra-luxe steakhouse doesn’t include its signature seafood towers, but the three-course, $45 menu does give people a taste of what the hype’s all about. Start with French onion soup, mambo salad, or tuna sashimi. Entree options include a six-ounce filet, blackened salmon, pork chop, and lemon pepper chicken. Three dessert choices are available, but the butter cake is the only correct one.

Ouzo Bay
Like its sister restaurant Loch Bar, this upscale seafood restaurant is also serving lunch, brunch, and dinner during HRW. Highlights from the lunch menu (two courses, $20) include lamb meatballs, a Greek gyro, and a salmon BLT. Brunch (two courses, $20) options feature spanakopita, short rib hash and eggs, and avocado toast. Dinner (three courses, $45) entrees include grilled salmon and lamb osso bucco, but it’s hard to resist paying the supplements for lamb chops ($18) or branzino ($12).

Safina
This Mediterranean restaurant inside the Medical Center’s InterContinental Hotel will serve both a two-course, $20 lunch and a three-course, $45 dinner. Appetizer choices are the same for both meals: salad, hummus, or Brussels sprouts. Lunch entrees include chicken shawarma and cacio e pepe ravioli; highlights from dinner consist of short ribs with sweet potato and broccoli rabe or seafood cioppino. Dinner concludes with cheesecake or a chocolate crunch strip.

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Trend News

America's hottest food trend is going bananas in Houston

Photo by Vinn Koonyosying on Unsplash

Banana dessert and latte.

After centuries of being taken for granted, the everyday banana is having its moment. This tropical fruit, long prized for its rugged built-in packaging, has emerged on the foodie front as the viral It Flavor, surfacing in some unexpected food and drink, and acquiring the sacred ranking of "buzzy."

In the past two years, banana has risen from lunchbox staple to starring role in upscale desserts, cocktails, and even coffee drinks. That ascent just officially peaked with its debut as a Starbucks flavor for fall '26, appearing in two beverages inspired by freshly baked banana bread: Iced Banana Bread Latte and Iced Banana Bread Chai, available through the fall season and beyond.

When you've scored a flavor designation from Starbucks, you have arrived — and will be embraced by every other coffee chain, from banana bread cold brew at 7 Brew to banana cold foam at PJ's Coffee of New Orleans to banana cold foam at Dunkin'.

According to menu research company Technomic, banana-flavored specials have surged by 70 percent in 2026. Banana bread is being hailed as an “extra hot” trend; after steadily rising since 2024, the flavor has surpassed pumpkin spice over the last two years in online searches.

Old school banana
Banana is hardly new to the dessert world, ruling in classics like bananas Foster, banana bread, banana pancakes, and banana pudding — a dessert that's been championed by Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn, whose passion for the pudding has helped get it on the menu of pretty much every barbecue restaurant across Texas.

"I love banana pudding because of the payoff it provides for such a simple recipe," Vaughn says. "Banana pudding requires just three basic elements: The pudding, fresh banana slices, and some sort of cookie, most popularly Nilla wafers. Layer them in the right order, and you'll get layers of textural variation and different intensities of sweetness from each layer."

Vaughn acknowledges that most barbecue joints have added banana pudding.

"Yes, the popularity of banana pudding has grown a bit, but more importantly the banana pudding gets greater attention from barbecue fans and the pitmasters who make it," he says. "The artificial flavors of boxed banana-flavored pudding are nearly extinct, thankfully, so the flavor comes from real bananas."

Using "better" banana is a big factor in its newfound popularity, says chef Casey La Rue, co-founder of La Rue Doughnuts in Dallas and Frisco. La Rue, who worked in top fine-dining restaurants for years, has witnessed the evolution of banana from not hot to ultra hot first-hand.

“Banana used to be a difficult flavor because people associated it with artificial candy, overly sweet syrups, and that fake-banana taste," La Rue says. "Now chefs and coffee shops are using real banana, roasted banana, and more balanced combinations with coffee, caramel, chocolate, and spice."

"It still feels nostalgic and familiar, but the flavor is finally being treated with more restraint and sophistication," he says. "People didn’t suddenly start liking banana — they started getting better versions of it.”

Terrible Love Trrble Latter Terrible Love's Trrble Latte adds banana and chocolate syrups, whipped cream, and crumbled Nilla Wafers. Photo courtesy of Terrible Love

Banana in coffee
Another major influence behind the boffo banana comes from the growing popularity in the U.S. of Asian cuisine — tied specifically to banana-flavored milk, an iconic drink introduced by Korean food & beverage company Binggrae in 1974. Sold in a cute little bottle, it's a childhood staple for generations of Koreans, who were the first to add banana as a flavor to coffee drinks — inspiring Starbucks as well as Coffee Mate and Califa Farms, who both just came out with banana-flavored coffee creamers.

Banana in coffee is now everywhere. Every coffee shop across Texas has a banana latte of some kind: Cafe Duro in Dallas, Smoking Tiger Korean bakery in Carrollton, Bruvana Coffee House in Flower Mound. Cafe Carola, new in Houston, serves a banana bread latte with their own house-made banana purée. Bright Coffee in San Antonio does a popular banana milk latte with espresso and banana sauce they make in house. Terrible Love in Austin features banana in its signature Trrbl Latte, with banana & chocolate syrups, whipped cream, and Nilla wafer crumbles. Matcha shops like Kissa Matcha in Grand Prairie are on the bandwagon, adding banana to their matcha lattes.

banana sundae hai hospitality hai for her Banana sundae from Uchi and Uchiko. Photo by Hai Hospitality

Banana manana
The banana latte trend has spawned a banana rebound in other food groups, like the new banana bread pudding M&Ms and the banana-Nutella bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes. Sonic is all in with a banana pudding shake, banana-pudding soft-serve (blended with vanilla wafer crumbles), and banana pudding cream slush, combining vanilla soft serve with banana flavor and ice.

Habaneros Fresh Mex Cantina in Fort Worth just added banana pudding soft serve; owner Lawrence Caldwell says it's already a smash hit. Austin plant-based restaurant Fabrik recently featured banana creatively in its summer menu with a banana miso mousse with roasted banana compote. Hai Hospitality — whose restaurants Uchi and Uchiko have always been "fruit-forward" — recently whipped up a banana sundae for a charity event in Houston combining banana sorbet with coconut, caramel, plantains, and brûléed banana.

La Rue Doughnuts has had banana on the menu for three months in a row; their September menu features a chocolate-banana-almond croissant, and in August, they did a banana cream pie doughnut.

"My whole life, guests have said they hated banana desserts," La Rue says. "If guests saw a menu prior to dinner and it had banana, they'd request a different dessert. Now, the No. 1 selling items at our shops are all banana."

banana flavor coffee trends