TxMo Best New Restaurants

3 high-flying Houston eateries make Texas Monthly's best new restaurants list

Experience a theatrical tasting menu at Ishtia.

Photo by JIA Media / © ISHTIA

Texas Monthly has published its list of the state’s best new restaurants for 2025. Numbered one to 10, the 24th edition of the magazine's list is open to establishments that opened between December 1, 2023 and November 30, 2024, and it must be a restaurant's first Texas location.

Houston once again leads the way with more spots on the list than any other Texas city, although the city failed to take the top spot for the third year in a row. Three restaurants earned a place in the top 10: They are:

Kira, a sushi hand roll restaurant in Upper Kirby (No. 4)
Ishtia, a Native American tasting menu restaurant in Kemah (No. 5)
Ema, a Mexico City-inspired breakfast and lunch restaurant in the Heights (No. 6)

Three more Houston restaurants earned honorable mentions:

Auden, a globally-inspired restaurant in Montrose
Credence, Levi Goode’s Texas-inspired live fire restaurant in Memorial
Milton’s, the Italian American restaurant in Rice Village from the team behind Local Foods

Recently retired food critic Pat Sharpe and senior editor Courtney Bond share a byline for the article. They praise Kira for its “dinner party” atmosphere as well as its well-executed sashimi, temaki (hand rolls) and donburi (rice bowls). Ishtia earned its spot thanks to chef David Skinner’s theatrical presentations and innovative use of Native American flavors. Ema, which earned a Bib Gourmand designation in the Michelin Guide, gets hailed for the same berliners that earned it a shoutout in the New York Times.

Locally, the most obvious omission is Bar Bludorn, Aaron Bludorn’s tavern in Memorial. Sharpe had praised both of Bludorn’s existing restaurants, featuring Bludorn in the 2021 edition of her list and naming seafood restaurant Navy Blue as the state’s best new restaurant of 2023. March, Houston’s Mediterranean tasting menu restaurant, earned similar praise in the 2022 edition of the Texas Monthly list, but the Marigold Club, its London-inspired sister concept, didn’t make this year’s article.

Austin is represented by Craft Omakase (No. 1), which was one of two sushi restaurants in Texas to earn a Michelin star, and Mexican restaurant Mexta (No. 7). Recently-closed Italian restaurant Poeta earned a honorable mention.

Dallas follows with Radici Wood Fired Grill (No. 2), an Italian restaurant in Farmers Branch from Top Chef alum Tiffany Derry, and Japanese restaurant Mābo (No. 3). American restaurant Goodwins and French restaurant Le PasSage make the honorable mentions list, as does South Indian vegetarian restaurant in nearby Irving.

San Antonio takes No. 8 with Texas-inspired Isidore and No. 10 with Mezquite, a Mexican restaurant from the same hospitality group behind Isidore. The Chumley House, an England-inspired restaurant in Fort Worth comes in at No. 9.

“What does all this say about dining in Texas as we approach the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century? Maybe just this: We need to make room for more fun,” the duo write in the article’s introduction. “The hospitality industry knows hard times all too well, with the ever-rising costs of raw ingredients and labor and the hollowing out of once vibrant restaurant-centric neighborhoods. Given all that, who wouldn’t opt for a break from the real world?”

The full list is as follows:

1. Craft Omakase, a sushi restaurant in Austin
2. Radici Wood Fired Grill, an Italian restaurant in Dallas
3. Mābo, a Japanese restaurant in Dallas
4. Kira, a Japanese restaurant in Houston
5. Ishtia, a tasting menu restaurant in Kemah
6. Ema, a Mexican restaurant in Houston
7. Mexta, a Mexican restaurant in Austin
8. Isidore, a Texas-inspired restaurant in San Antonio
9. The Chumley House, an English restaurant in Fort Worth
10. Mezquite, a Mexican restaurant in San Antonio

a CultureMap Exclusive

Houston's 'Chinese takeout bar from the future' touches down in Webster

Courtesy of The Rice Box

A rendering previews The Rice Box's new location in Webster.

Houston’s Chinese takeout bar from the future is coming to the Bay Area. The sixth location of The Rice Box will open in Webster later this summer.

Located at 114 El Dorado Blvd, the new location will be called Rice Box Space Center after NASA’s headquarters at the nearby Johnson Space Center. Founder John Peterson tells CultureMap that it’s a bit of a homecoming for him and his wife/business partner, Jenny Vo, as they grew up in the area. As with every new location, the restaurant created a movie-style poster to announce its opening.

Rice Box Webster movie poster The Rice Box Space Center is expected to open later this summer.Courtesy of The Rice Box

For its first truly suburban location, Peterson plans to offer a more efficient pickup system for to-go orders. Dubbed The Rice Box Pickup Reactors, the system applies Rice Box’s sci-fi aesthetic to curbside ordering. As seen in the rendering above, the building will have six slots that drivers will pull into to get their orders.

“The goal is to have guests in and out with food in hand in around 90 seconds,” Peterson writes in an email. “It’s still pickup, but we’re trying to make that moment feel more intentional and more connected to the digital side of Rice Box instead of treating it like an afterthought. We’re looking at this opening as both a new store and a prototype for how Rice Box can work in more suburban markets without losing the part of the brand that makes it feel like us.”

Bay Area-area diners can expect the same menu as the Rice Box’s other locations. That includes staples such as General Tso’s chicken, sesame chicken, beef with broccoli, and orange peel beef. The restaurant also serves traditional Chinese-inspired fare such as Chongqing chicken, cumin beef, mapo tofu, and chow fun noodles.

Recently, Peterson rolled out a new version of Rice Box’s dumplings. Available in chicken, pork, or vegetable, each style of dumpling comes with a different wrapper that enhances the filling’s flavor. They’re also available either steamed or fried.

The Rice Box started as a food truck in the early 2010s. After moving to a permanent location in the Greenway Plaza food court, it has opened brick-and-mortar locations in the Heights, River Oaks, Rice Village, and Memorial.

openings news-you-can-eat the rice box