food news roundup

10 things to know in Houston food: Openings, closings, and barbecue discount

School is back in session for most Houston kids, but Houston restaurants keep the summer vibes alive with new restaurant openings, meal deals, and upcoming events. Read on to see what you need to know about the city’s culinary scene this week.

Openings and closings

Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant CAVA has opened a new location at 5401 Bellaire Boulevard. The popular eatery’s menu features bowls, pitas, dips, and dressings. The Bellaire location is open daily from 10:30 am-10 pm.

Pour Decisions Craft has opened in the Heights. Here, locals will find more than just a cup of joe — Pour Decisions also provides a selection of craft beers, serving a draft as early as 7 am. Specialty drinks include an ube cream Vietnamese coffee, a peanut butter latte, and a banana matcha.

The location aims to be a community gathering space with future plans to partner with local DJs, bakeries, food trucks, and small businesses to host family-friendly events. Pour Decisions Craft is located at 555 W. 19th Street, Suite 100A, and is open Monday-Wednesday, 7 am-6 pm, Thursday-Saturday, 7 am-9 pm, and Sunday, 7 am-5 pm.

Wah Coffee Kitchen has opened its third location in the Houston area and first in Sugar Land at 6560 Greatwood Parkway, Suite 100. Patrons of the Richmond and Montrose locations know Wah Coffee Kitchen for its unusual flavor pairings such as a tiramisu and banana latte, along with its full kitchen cranking out burgers, crispy chicken sandwiches, and Korean fried wings. Wah in Sugar Land is open Sunday from 8 am-10 pm, Monday-Thursday from 7 am-10 pm, Friday from 7 am-12 am, and Saturday from 8 am-12 am.

Shiva Indian Restaurant has quietly closed its location at 5220 Buffalo Speedway, according to a tip from a CultureMap reader. The restaurant's online ordering has been turned off, and its phone number is disconnected. Recently featured on the Houston Chronicle's social media for its affordable lunch specials, the West U. area restaurant first opened in Rice Village in 1990.

Upcoming Events

Saturday, August 29

¡Adiós Summer! Fiesta at Lyric Market
Say farewell to summer on Saturday, August 29, at Lyric Market with a fiesta sponsored by Hornitos Tequila. From 2 pm-6 pm, attendees can enjoy complimentary tequila tastings, mariachi music, Lotería, and giveaways. Drink specials include classic margaritas, palomas, and ranch waters for $8, with Mexican candy shots for $6, and Hornitos tequila shots for $5. Mexology will offer free chips and guacamole with the purchase of any meal. Lyric Market is located at 411 Smith Street.

September 26-27

Chefs for Farmers
Tickets are now available for the 2026 Chefs for Farmers Houston Food & Wine Festival on Saturday, September 26, and Sunday, September 27. Early bird pricing is available through August 18, with tickets starting at $125 for a general admission single day ticket to the Autry Park event. The two-day festival highlights Houston’s restaurants and chefs, with participating restaurants such as Belly of the Beast, Boo’s Burgers, Burmalicious by Suu, and Traveler’s Table. The event also includes wine and spirit pairings, craft cocktails, local vendors, and live DJs. Visit chefsforfarmers.com to purchase tickets.

Restaurant Specials

Killen’s Barbecue in Pearland is offering a “Working Man’s Special” from Tuesday through Friday, from 11 am to 2 pm. The $14 deal includes a two meat plate of four ounces of both brisket and sausage link, with beans and potato salad. Normally priced at $25, Killen's Working Man’s Special is available throughout the month of August and for in-person ordering only.

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Grab a quick breakfast on weekdays at Dish Society with its new $10 combo. From 7-10:30 am, patrons can pair one breakfast item with a regular-sized specialty coffee, matcha latte, or small juice. The combo is available for dine-in, delivery, and pickup, with the options such as avocado toast, breakfast tacos, buttermilk pancakes, gluten-free power pancakes, half granola bowl, or a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit.

Federal American Grill's newly-launched Mondays Uncorked offers patrons half off the restaurant’s entire wine list at all six of its locations.

Pizaro’s Pizza and Saint Arnold Brewing Company are partnering for a limited-time pizza collaboration. The Zesty Asparagus and Prosciutto pizza’s dough is crafted with Saint Arnold’s biscuit barley malt, before being topped with fresh lemon slices, mozzarella, asparagus, lemon cream sauce, feta, and prosciutto. A 16 inch pizza can be ordered at Pizaro’s from August 13-31 for $24, while Saint Arnold will offer a 12 inch pie for $18 beginning August 18.

Photo by Dave Rossman

Tickets are available now for the 2026 Chefs for Farmers Houston Food & Wine Festival at Autry Park on Saturday, September 26, and Sunday, September 27.

news-you-can-eat openings closings chefs festivals

what's next for chef sunny

Exclusive: Outspoken Houston sushi chef sounds off on ghost kitchen pivot

Sunny Bertsch Chefs Bowls Three Fish Bowls

Courtesy of Sunny Bertsch

Chef Sunny Bertsch recently closed Kaisen Sushi.

Chef Sunny Bertsch is moving on from his embattled ghost kitchen concept. On Sunday, August 30, he closed Kaisen Sushi and will soon replace it with two more affordable concepts.

Like Kaisen, the ghost kitchen sushi restaurant that earned a Best New Restaurant nomination in the 2026 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, Bertsch's new projects, called Chefs Bowls and Three Fish Bowls, will both be ghost kitchen concepts that operate in Third Ward’s Blodgett Food Hall. Bertsch explains that new concepts reflect the lessons learned from operating Kaisen for just over a year.

“Ghost kitchens are really designed for a particular kind of business, which is essentially lower ticket average QSR food,” Bertsch says. Kaisen, where a standard order could run $60 or more per person, never did enough business to be sustainable, an issue that Bertsch spoke about regularly on social media.

“Long story short, I didn't know what I was getting myself into by trying to put a really super nice concept in that my particular location. It was really difficult to overcome,” he says.

Bertsch acknowledges that his inexperience in the restaurant business also played a role in the decision to close Kaisen. For example, he says he pays his staff more than traditional restaurants, but Kaisen doesn’t generate the same revenue a brick-and-mortar restaurant does due to factors such as its lower prices and lack of alcohol sales (among others).

So he’s pivoting to two new concepts that will be more similar in price with the other concepts at Blodgett, roughly $15-25 per person. Although they’re similar and operate out of the same kitchen, listing them separately is necessary, because delivery platforms limit the radius of raw versus cooked concepts, Bertsch explains. Both are expected to launch the week of September 7, after Bertsch completes renovations to his space at Blodgett and gets the menus uploaded to third-party delivery services like Uber Eats and DoorDash.

Courtesy of Sunny Bertsch

Chef Sunny Bertsch recently closed Kaisen Sushi.

Chef’s Bowls will serve rice bowls topped with proteins such as chicken teriyaki, salmon teriyaki, and steak, which will be cooked sous vide and seared to order. Bertsch hopes to stand out with a little more attention to detail than his competitors.

“We've had access to rice bowl concepts that operate within our vicinity, and we see the kind of food that's being put out,” Bertsch says. “I want to see if I could do better. I'm not saying I am better, but I think there are some intangibles that are missing with the rice bowl space. I want to make my honest attempt at seeing if I can provide food at a lower price, and see if we can just make something from scratch that's of quality.”

That same spirit will power Three Fish, which is named for the three proteins that are the top sellers at every sushi restaurant — salmon, yellowtail, and bluefin tuna. Bertsch intends to use the same fish that he used at Kaisen, just prepared differently. Using bluefin will differentiate Three Fish from similar concepts that use less expensive yellowfin tuna, Bertsch explains.

“I'm really not a personal fan of yellowfin tuna. It's tasteless, and you’ve got to do a lot of dressing up of yellowfin tuna to make it taste interesting,” he says. “I'd rather have bluefin tuna. We've been testing it in the kitchen here and there when we have time, and it's so much tastier. Tuna should taste like tuna.”

As for Kaisen, it could come back in the future. Bertsch says he’d like to find a brick-and-mortar location that would allow him to serve both dine-in and to-go customers. For now, he’s focused on making Chefs Bowls and Three Fish as successful as possible.

news-you-can-eat kaisen sushi openings closings

10 things to know in Houston food: Openings, closings, and barbecue discount

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