Where to eat on July 4

Have a blast at Houston restaurants and bars serving 4th of July deals — from 50-cent oysters to $2 hot dogs

Home Run Dugout will offer a cornhole tournament and a hotdog eating competition.

Photo by Alex Montoya

Like Memorial Day, celebrating July 4 calls to mind a lazy day of lounging by the pool, meat on the grill, and fireworks. Of course, Houston restaurants have plenty of tempting options for those who feel like venturing out.

The list below offers a range of choices, from a steakhouse prix fixe to $2 hotdogs.

a’Bouzy
The champagne-obsessed River Oaks restaurant will serve 50-cent Gulf oysters on both July 3 and July 4 while supplies last. On Tuesday, It will also offer a $46 takeout special with a half rack of ribs, Cornish game hen, smoked sausage, sides, and choices of wine (Château Greysac Le Blanc, Bordeaux, France '18 or Mommessin Gamay Beaujolais Nouveau, Burgundy, France '18).

Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company
Watch the fireworks from the brewery’s rooftop patio. A $20 ticket provides access to the party and one beer. Additional food and drinks may be purchased a la carte.

Christian’s Tailgate
The Houston burger favorite will serve $2 hotdogs (toppings available for an additional charge), $2 tacos, and $3 draft pints of Bud Light.

Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse
The Galleria’s popular steakhouse will serve a three-course, $67 prix fixe menu July 2-6. Start with choices such as lobster bisque, Caesar salad, or wagyu meatballs. Entree choices include pan roasted salmon, sesame-crusted tuna, and a 6-ounce filet mignon. Finish with choice of dessert.

Heights & Co.
Brian Doke’s bar in the Heights will feature a queso-topped hotdog ($6) and the Bomb Popsicle Slush — a red, white, and blue popsicle served with frosé ($12).

Home Run Dugout
The baseball activity center, bar, and restaurant in Katy will celebrate the holiday with a build-your-own hotdog and burger station, a cornhole tournament, and a hotdog eating contest. Register for the cornhole tournament ($30) to get $5 Karbach Love Streets and the opportunity to win gift cards. Fireworks will take place after dark.

Kirby Ice House
All three locations of the massive indoor-outdoor bar with off $1 off draft beers all day, $5 Deep Eddy cocktails, and happy hour from 2-7 pm. Each location will also have food trucks on site to keep people fed.

Liberty Kitchen & Oysterette
Both locations will feature a surf-and-turf cheeseburger made with wagyu beef that’s topped with grilled lobster ($33).

State Fare Kitchen & Bar
All three locations of the Texas comfort food restaurant will serve a special "Freedom Board" that includes elote corn ribs, blackened shrimp and andouille skewers with bell pepper, dill pickle dip and BBQ chips, brisket firecrackers, and Southern deviled eggs ($55).

Traveler’s Table
Available only from 5-9:30 on July 4, the restaurant’s specials include fried quail with sweet potato grits, cast iron-seared ribeye with vegetables, and the Cape Cod lemonade cocktail.

Photo courtesy of a'Bouzy

River Oaks staple a'Bouzy brings back 50-cent oysters.

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New York Times critic awards Houston restaurant 2 stars in glowing review

Courtesy of ChòpnBlọk

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Let’s just call 2025 the year of ChòpnBlọk. In a review published Tuesday, December 16, the New York Times has awarded the Houston restaurant two stars (“very good”).

Written by chief restaurant critic Tejal Rao, the review touts many of the same qualities that the Times already praised when it included ChòpnBlọk on its list of America’s 50 best restaurants.

Rao writes that she usually avoids restaurants that serve food in bowls, but she’s impressed by the way that chef-owner Ope Amosu has put a West African spin on the concept.

“For inspiration, Ope Amosu looked to the kind of chain restaurants that were built to scale, where flavors are often subdued to appeal to the broadest possible audience, focus-grouped to death. But the delight of ChòpnBlok is in its sure sense of self, its lively, multidimensional cooking and clear, delicious vision for modern food from the Black diaspora,” Rao writes.

She singles out specific dishes, including the Nigerian red stew with short rib, the Black Star bowl with shrimp, and the signature Motherland, made with chicken, greens, and plantains. “It’s utterly simple, but draws you in for more with the mouthwatering twang of not-too-much MSG — an international shortcut to building umami that tends to be used carefully, and layered with other forms,” she writes.

The review also touches on the way Amosu switched the restaurant from counter service to full service — described as “warm, informal, and quick with the jokes” — and his time working at Chipotle to learn the basics of the restaurant operations.

A two-star review is only the latest instance of ChòpnBlọk receiving national attention. In addition to the Times 50 best list, Esquire recently named it one of America’s best new restaurants. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand designation for 2025. Amosu earned a semifinalist nomination for Best Chef: Texas in the 2025 James Beard Awards.

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