Houston’s vast array of cultures melding together means there’s a huge variety of food options in the Bayou City.
The fact that Houston’s a great place to eat is no real secret. But what has been under wraps, until now, is new ranking from the Houston Chronicle of the city’s top 100 restaurants.
The Chronicle’s restaurant clinic, Bao Ong, led the effort to put together this list and joined the Standard to dish on the details. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: So the Houston Chronicle started putting together this list, I gather, back in 2012. But this is the first time a new team has taken on the challenge. Is that right?
Bao Ong: Correct. Alison Cook launched this list on her own in 2012. I’ve helped with it in the past three years since I joined the Chronicle, but this is the first year that I’ve led the project.
Very cool. Well, now, as I understand it, you actually rank like a top 25 and then the other 75 are in alphabetical order and it’s quite an honor to appear on this list. What’s the reasoning there with going top 25 and the other 75?
You know, I think top 25, which we’ve done the last few years in terms of ranking those restaurants, it’s to help readers get a sense of how are we ranking restaurants and what’s the best of the best at the moment in Houston.
And it’s a lot of work. It takes a lot resources. It’s lot of driving, a lot of calories. So to actually rank them in a way that we felt most confident, 25 was a good number for us.
Let’s call out some of the restaurants on this list. Are there any that made the cut that surprised you or your staff?
You know, about, I think about 25% of the list is actually new this year, which was surprising. I didn’t think there would be that many considering how many restaurants have closed in the past year and just how tough it has been for the restaurant industry.
So that was surprising, and also we ended up with a number of restaurants concentrated in the Heights neighborhood, and that was very surprising.
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Let’s talk about some of the names of these restaurants. Give us a few that are in the top 25. Give us some names and some rankings.
You know, Agnes and Sherman and Camaraderie are two restaurants in the Heights. They’re not too far away from each other. They’re both completely different. They opened around the same time, but they’re both very exciting.
Agnes and Sherman is a so-called Asian-American diner and such a fun place to be at. The menu is so fun and creative.
And at Camaraderie, you have this chef who has worked at many Michelin-starred restaurants serving a $75 tasting menu, which is just really refreshing in this time in dining when it’s expensive, even if you’re not going to a fine dining restaurant. And all the work that he’s doing to really kind of bring all this experience to the menu Camaraderie that’s very approachable, but also done at a very high level.
I have to ask you about the number one on this list. This is a place with just, like what, one- to two-dollar signs by its name. Is that a theme here in Houston, that you can find great food without paying a ton? And tell us who the number one is, by the way.
So our number one restaurant is Aga’s. It’s a halal Pakistani restaurant. And I think it does reflect what a lot of Houstonians are proud about of their city, which is that you can find great food at all different price levels. You can find these like one- and two-dollar sign type of places. And Aga’s checks off all these boxes that I think really makes it a strong number one.
It’s a really hard list to come together. It is always difficult to answer these questions about, you know, what’s the best restaurant? What’s the number one restaurant? And I feel really confident that Aga’s is a restaurant that people agree with across the board.
You know, I mentioned that restaurant sign that I saw coming into town with Louisiana gumbo halal, right? Seems like a lot of times you have restaurants that are presenting menus with a real collection of cultures coming together in the kitchen.
It is. And that’s the best part of Houston is, you know, this diversity of cuisine and that really reflects kind of the culture of the city as well. And I think the restaurants are kind of best representation of all of this.
