TxMo Best New Restaurants

Houston sushi star's Montrose eatery tops Texas Monthly's best new restaurants list

Texas Monthly editor Patricia Sharpe has published her list of Texas’s Best New Restaurants in 2024. Numbered one to 10, the 23rd edition of the magazine's list is open to establishments that opened between December 1, 2022 and November 30, 2023, and it must be a restaurant's first Texas location.

As it did last year, Houston not only leads the way with three entries in the top 10 but also takes the top spot for the second year in a row. Katami, the upscale Japanese restaurant from the team behind Kata Robata, ranks as the state’s best new restaurant. It’s joined in the top 10 by Gulf Coast seafood restaurant Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition (fifth) and Midtown pizzeria ElRo Pizza & Crudo (ninth). Jūn and Little’s Oyster Bar earn honorable mentions.

Sharpe praises nearly every aspect of Katami, calling it “the most exciting restaurant to open in Texas this past year.” In her review, she hails the “polished and coolly contemporary” environment, its “spectacularly fresh” seafood, and traditional Japanese dishes such as chawanmushi and okonomiyaki.

At Josephine’s, she recognizes chef Lucas McKinney’s redfish dip and barbecue shrimp as well as pastry chef Emiy Rivas’s corn flan. ElRo Pizza & Crudo earns her admiration for its sausage and rapini pizza and the chopped tuna crudo on toast.

Dallas is represented by French restaurant Quarter Acre (third) and Italian restaurant Via Triozzi (eighth). Sushi restaurant Naminohana earns an honorable mention.

Le Margot (second), a French restaurant from former Masterchef judge Graham Elliot, and Italian restaurant 61 Osteria (fourth) give Fort Worth two spots in the top five.

Bureau de Poste (sixth), a French restaurant from Top Chef contestant Jo Chan, and Ezov, an Israeli restaurant, represent Austin. Top Chef winner Gabe Erales’s Mexican restaurant Bacalar earns an honorable mention.

Turning to San Antonio, its sole representative in the top 10 is Peruvian restaurant Leche de Tigre Cebichería Peruana (seventh). Japanese restaurant Nineteen Hyaku and Padadar, a Mexican and Cuban restaurant, land honorable mentions.

“The Texas restaurant scene is as delicious as it’s ever been,” Sharpe declares, but the writer has some concerns about the present dining moment. Her complaints include the push towards ever more prominent (and more expensive) cocktail lists and the vibe dining trend, but her introduction ends on an optimistic note.

“But even though drinking while dining is fast becoming the new normal, I’m glad to report that kitchens are as disciplined and chefs as talented and ambitious as ever,” she writes.

The full list in order is as follows:

1. Katami, a Japanese restaurant in Houston
2. Le Margot, a French restaurant in Fort Worth
3. Quarter Acre, a French restaurant in Dallas
4. 61 Osteria, an Italian restaurant in Fort Worth
5. Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition, a seafood restaurant in Houston
6. Bureau de Poste, a French restaurant in Austin
7. Leche de Tigre Cebichería Peruana, a Peruvian restaurant in San Antonio
8. Via Triozzi, an Italian restaurant in Dallas
9. ElRo Pizza & Crudo, a pizzeria in Houston
10. Ezov, an Israeli restaurant in Austin

Photo by Casey Giltner

Chef Hori-san leads Katami.

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head east

Eagerly-anticipated Houston barbecue joint hosts weekend preview pop-ups

Courtesy of Eastbound Barbecue

Get a first taste of Eastbound Barbecue this weekend.

One of Houston’s most eagerly anticipated new barbecue joints is giving diners a preview of what’s to come. Eastbound Barbecue will host “Sneak Peak Weekends” every Saturday and Sunday beginning this Saturday, December 20, until the restaurant opens in early 2026.

Held at the restaurant’s location in the East End (1105 Sampson Street) from 12-4 pm (or sold out), the weekend service gives diners their first chance to try Eastbound Barbecue’s smoked meats, sides, and desserts. That includes, smoked brisket, baby back ribs, jalapeno & cheese sausage, hatch chili lasagna mac & cheese, herbed potato salad, and more. Save room for the two dessert offerings, salted caramel banana pudding and cookie butter cake.

To distinguish Eastbound’s barbecue, chefs Lopez and Granville use different seasonings than other restaurants, such as rosemary salt in the brisket rub and a miso-caramel sauce that gives its ribs a sweet and savory bite. During the preview, Eastbound’s prices are noticeably lower than many other Houston barbecue joints, with brisket priced at $29 per pound, ribs at $26 per pound, and pulled pork at $22 per pound.

As CultureMap reported in August, Eastbound unites four friends, Ryan Penn, Ryan Powell, Luis Lopez, and Jake Granville, who also held senior roles at various restaurants owned by prominent Houston chef Ronnie Killen. Since then, the four partners have finished many of the improvements they needed to make prior to opening, including closing in the patio and installing offset smokers on the property.

For Penn, leaving the Killen’s organization after almost 20 years was a difficult decision, but one he felt he had to make. “I could have worked for [Killen] forever and been happy. It was more along the lines of, if I don’t do this now, I don’t want to be 70 and wish that I had,” he said at the time.

Courtesy of Eastbound Barbecue

Get a first taste of Eastbound Barbecue this weekend.

news-you-can-eat barbecue openings