webster's new taco shop

Street-style taco shop's Baybrook-area location sets opening date

Taco lovers in Clear Lake, Webster, Friendswood, and other points south will soon have a new option to satisfy their cravings. A second location of The Taco Stand will open near Baybrook Mall this Thursday, May 16.

Located at 118 El Dorado Blvd., the new Taco Stand will be less than two miles from the Baybrook Mall location of The Burger Joint, its burger-obsessed sibling. Like the original Taco Stand that opened in the Heights in 2021, the new restaurant will offer both dine-in and drive-thru ordering.

Founded by restaurateur Shawn Bermudez and chef Matthew Pak, the Taco Stand serves street-style tacos with a range of fillings that include meaty options such as pastor, carnitas, carne asada, and barbacoa, as well as seafood options including shrimp and fish, and a number of vegan and vegetarian choices. They're wrapped in housemade corn or flour tortillas and paired with five different salsas: everything from a mild red table salsa to a smokey chile de arbol to fiery jalapeño and habanero-based options.

All of its taco fillings are also available as a burrito, quesadilla, or bowl. In addition to its lunch and dinner menu, the Taco Stand serves breakfast tacos daily.

Both the restaurant’s frozen margaritas and canned cocktails use 100 percent blue agave tequila. Other beverage choices include agua frescas, Mexican and domestic beers, and sodas.

“Our team is excited to bring our second Taco Stand location to Webster,” Pak said in a statement. “Looking forward to kicking off patio season with plenty of tacos and tequila.”

This year will be a busy time for Bermudez and Pak. In addition to this new location of The Taco Stand, the prolific duo will soon open Happy Go Lucky, a concept in the Heights devoted to Hawaiian-style shaved ice and frozen cocktails; a fourth location of The Burger Joint near Rice Village; and The Pizza Place, a new restaurant in the Heights that will serve pizzas, pastas, salads, and gelato, all of which will be made in-house.

Photo by Becca Wright

Webster's location of The Taco Stand opens Thursday.

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Aga's on the move

Cherished Houston Indo-Pak restaurant opens to-go only location in Katy

Courtesy of Aga's

Aga's To Go opens Wednesday, June 24.

Goat chops, curries, and naan are coming to Katy. Aga’s Restaurant & Catering, the cherished Indo-Pak restaurant that’s a staple of Houston’s South Asian community, will open its first new location in 25 years on Wednesday, June 24.

Called Aga’s To Go, the new restaurant will be located at The Shoppes at Grand Crossing (102 W. Grand Parkway S., Suite 100). As it names implies, the restaurant is a to-go only facility that’s designed for both takeout and delivery via third party apps. While diners won’t be able to eat at the restaurant, they will be able to enjoy Aga’s cuisine at home in a more convenient than by traveling to the original location in Southwest Houston.

The new restaurant will serve about 100 of the original location’s most popular offerings — all in compliance with the standards of zabiha halal. Customers can look forward to ordering kababs, boti, biryani, curries, freshly baked breads, and, of course, the signature goat chops.

“This new location is a direct response to the growth of our business and the tremendous support we’ve received from customers throughout Katy and west Houston,” Zain Maredia, Aga’s head of growth and strategy, said in a statement. “Many of our guests make a considerable drive to enjoy Aga’s, and we’re excited to bring our food closer to them while creating new opportunities for our team and our company. Katy has been one of our strongest customer bases for years, making it a natural next step as we continue to grow.”

Aga’s has plans for additional to-go only locations, according to press materials. Long term, the restaurant has its eyes on full service locations in other Texas cities such as Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, CEO Shaukat Maredia tells the Houston Chronicle.

The Maredia family purchased Aga’s in 2010. Since then, they’ve grown the restaurant’s location at 11842 Wilcrest Dr. into a more than 16,000-square-foot behemoth that serves hundreds of diners every day. Along the way, Aga’s has earned wide acclaim, including multiple nominations for Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year in the CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, a no. 1 rating in the Houston Chronicle’s list of the city’s top 100 restaurants, and a spot on the New York Times’ list of The 26 Best Dishes We Ate Across the U.S. in 2024.

Writing for CultureMap in 2023, Burger Bodega owner Abbas Dhanani hailed Aga’s as “the best Pakistani restaurant not just in Houston, but in the nation.” His top recommendations include the goat chops, chicken shinwari karahi, butter chicken handi, and white kabab karahi

All that attention has drawn considerable interest from other media, including this deep drive from YouTube superstar Mark Wiens that’s racked up more than 1.7 million views.

The restaurant funds college scholarships for high school seniors. This year, 25 students, including some from Katy, received a total of $100,000.

“We’re incredibly grateful for the support we’ve received over the years,” Maredia said. “Houston has embraced our food, our family, and our story. Food has a unique way of bringing people together, and we’re excited to continue sharing that experience with even more guests through our new Katy location.”

Courtesy of Aga's

Aga's To Go opens Wednesday, June 24.

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