TEXAS TASTEMAKERS

Texas' top restaurants and chefs crowned at the 2026 Tastemaker Awards

After months of hard work and culinary determination, CultureMap has completed its statewide journey to honor the best chefs, restaurants, and more with the 2026 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

The series kicked off April 9 with our Austin Tastemaker Awards at Distribution Hall, then we moved to Houston on April 16 for our tasting event at Silver Street Studios. Next up was North Texas, for the Fort Worth celebration at Social Space on April 30 and Dallas fête at Astoria Event Venue on May 7. Our Texas culinary tour finished strong with a San Antonio extravaganza at the Briscoe Museum on May 14.

The 2026 Tastemaker Awards celebrated Texas' diverse culinary landscape and honored those who've made the biggest impact in Lone Star State dining in the past year. A host of nominated chefs and restaurants showcased their flavorful bites and treats during each of the celebrations, and winners were revealed in an onstage ceremony.

Guests dined on chef-created dishes and sipped on a variety of creative cocktails. But nothing could take away the focus from our acclaimed nominees and winners, who are the reason we bring these celebrations to life each year. Readers in each city got to know all the nominees through a special editorial series for weeks leading up to the events.

Nominees were, as always, determined by a panel of local industry experts, including previous Tastemaker winners and CultureMap editors. They voted on winners in categories such as Chef of the Year, Restaurant of the Year, Bar of the Year, and more. The champion in the Best New Restaurant category was determined by our readers in an online, bracket-style tournament. Our 2026 "wild card" category celebrated the Best Sandwich in each city.

Let's raise a glass to our 2026 CultureMap Tastemaker Award winners all across Texas, listed by city:

Houston:

Restaurant of the Year: Casaema
Chef of the Year: Manabu Horiuchi; Kata Robata, Katami, Sushi Horiuchi
Bar of the Year: Donna's
Best New Restaurant: Barbacana
Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: ChòpnBlọk
Rising Star Chef of the Year: Adrian Torres, Maximo
Bartender of the Year: Julia Miles, Refuge
Dessert Program of the Year: Barbacana
Coffee Shop of the Year: Un Caffe
Best Sandwich: B'Tween Sandwich Co.

Dallas:

Restaurant of the Year: Mamani
Chef of the Year: Peja Krstic; Mot Hai Ba, Pillar
Bar of the Year: Ayahuasca Cantina
Best New Restaurant: Frenchie
Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: Beverly's Bistro & Bar
Rising Star Chef of the Year: Eduardo Osorio, Meridian
Dessert Program of the Year: Lucia
Coffee Shop of the Year: Ascension
Best Sandwich: Trades Delicatessen

Fort Worth:

Restaurant of the Year: Cattlemen's Steak House
Chef of the Year: Jon Bonnell; Bonnell's, Waters, Buffalo Bros., Jon’s Grille
Bar of the Year: Crystal Springs Hideaway
Best New Restaurant: Cocodrie's Bayou Kitchen
Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: Rex's Bar & Grill
Rising Star Chef of the Year: Levi Gardner, Westland Hospitality
Dessert Program of the Year: FunkyTown Donuts & Drafts
Coffee Shop of the Year: Buon Giorno Coffee
Best Sandwich: Carshon's Deli

Austin:

Restaurant of the Year: Odd Duck
Chef of the Year: Daniela Landaverde and Rosa Landaverde, La Santa Barbacha
Bar of the Year: Parley
Best New Restaurant: Moderna Bar & Pizzeria
Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: Allday Pizza
Rising Star Chef of the Year: Ale Kuri, Este
Dessert Program of the Year: Rockman Coffee + Bakeshop
Coffee Shop of the Year: Palomino Coffee
Best Sandwich: Mum Foods Smokehouse & Delicatessen

San Antonio:

Restaurant of the Year: Cullum's Attaboy
Chef of the Year: Sue Kim, The Magpie
Bar of the Year: Jue Let
Best New Restaurant: Honey's Chicken Joint
Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: Con Huevos Tacos
Rising Star Chef of the Year: Matt Garcia, Gigi's Deli
Dessert Program of the Year: Nicosi
Coffee Shop of the Year: NoFi Slow Bar
Best Sandwich: Beacon Hill Market & Deli

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The Houston Tastemaker Awards ceremony was brought to you by Maker's Mark, Culinary Khancepts, Herradura Tequila, Ritual Zero Proof + Seedlip, Shutto, and NXT LVL EVENT. A portion of proceeds benefitted our nonprofit partner, the Southern Smoke Foundation.

Photo by Vivian Leba

Houston Chef of the Year winner Manabu Horiuchi.

tastemaker awards houston restaurants bars chefs texas

Cream of the Crop

Michelin-starred Houston restaurant collabs with acclaimed Austin eatery

Photo courtesy of Tatemó

Tatemó is kicking off this summer's collaborative dinners at Hestia.

A returning dinner series is bringing together Michelin-recognized restaurants from across Texas in a unique sustained effort. Hestia, the most formal of Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group's Austin restaurants, will host three collaborative dinners in its Lone Star Dinner Series this summer: one each with restaurants from Austin, Houston, and newly, Dallas.

This is the second year for the series, which started with all-Austin collaborations, sold out, and later extended to work with March, a restaurant from Houston. Although it is not new for the Michelin-praised crowd to work together, this summer's efforts expand the series into something much harder to find, an ongoing project to connect the growing class of fine dining honorees across the state.

The three dinners on deck are:

June 16: Hestia and Tatemó from Houston
July 21: Hestia and Mamani from Dallas
August 25: Hestia and InterStellar BBQ from Austin

“The Lonestar Series allows us to tighten our relationship with other Michelin-starred restaurants in Texas,” said Hestia chef de cuisine Paul Wensel in a press release. “It is great to share experiences and different techniques across other incredible restaurants. Additionally, it's just fun to bring other chefs into our space for one night and do a different style of service; our team loves it, and it makes the summertime more interesting.”

Menus are not yet available for any of the dinners, but it is easy to guess that Tatemó's will heavily feature masa, the cornerstone ingredient that led to the restaurant's formation and still informs nearly everything it does. It's even in Tatemó's mission statement: "Our mission is to restore the cultural value of maíz, and its nutritional value in Houston, Texas by showcasing the diversity of heirloom corn, from different landscapes and purveyors of Mexico via masa products like tortillas."

“The passion behind why they do so much with masa and trying to teach people the importance of it all is something that I really look forward to learning more about,” said Wensel.

The next two dinners with Mamani and InterStellar will focus on French cuisine and barbecue, respectively.

Mamani, led by Parisian chef Christophe De Lellis, combines the culinary influences of Paris and the French and Italian Rivieras. Its Michelin Star was awarded just 60 days after it opened in 2025 (and it won Restaurant of the Year at the CultureMap Dallas Tastemaker Awards this spring).

Most Texans who follow barbecue at all know InterStellar, which is known for mostly traditional barbecue with some unexpected culinary twists like peach tea glazed pork belly, lamb tacos, and brown butter mac and cheese. That makes it well-suited to the collaborative format, where it can once again run with ideas that hardly cross paths with barbecue.

"They do a lot of cool interpretations of classic BBQ dishes," said Wensel. "It's going to be really interesting to see what they create in a tasting menu format."

Appropriately for this diverse set of culinary perspectives, Hestia is more attached to a technique — live-fire cooking — than to any one place or ingredient. Executive chef Kevin Fink and partner Tavel Bristol-Joseph have developed a tasting menu that responds to the seasons and utilizes Texas ingredients above all.

Reservations for each dinner are available on OpenTable, with seatings ranging from 5:30-10 pm. Each menu costs $225 per person, with optional wine pairings for $125 per person. Hestia is located at 607 W. 3rd St.

michelin guide fine dining tasting chefs dinner dinner series news-you-can-eat

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