12 Best Restaurants in Houston and Galveston, Texas

A colorful mosaic-tiled, multistoried room delivers outstanding New World cuisine that includes roasted pork filet mignon with grilled shrimp and lump crabmeat and the crowd-favorite Encamisado, a chicken breast crusted with plantains and Chontaleno cheese over black-bean sauce. The executive lunch, available weekdays, is just $15.95 and includes a signature entrée and dessert, plus your choice of soup or salad.

Don't look for the sign—there isn't one at this clubby, see-and-be-seen River Oaks sorta-Tex-Mex favorite. Armando Palacios's eponymous eatery—fashioned after 1920s Mexico City—is consistently packed with friends and regulars who love the clean, simple signature fajitas, queso flameado (a cheese dip made with chorizo and served with flour tortillas), and fresh lime-juice margaritas. The bar is always hopping, and not with the young and the restless, either. Reserve the private room in the back for your next air-kissing celebration.

"Timeless" is the word for this sophisticated, authentic Tuscan restaurant located where downtown becomes midtown. It's been a business luncheon favorite for more than 20 years, and at night couples and families come to enjoy the cozy, old-world interior; extensive menu offerings; comprehensive wine list; and leisurely pace. The menu is huge; if you're having trouble deciding, try the deftly grilled veal chops or the ravioli del giorno (of the day). Chef Napoleon Palacios creates weekly specials, too, so there's always something new to try.

Even though Landry's has taken over this harborside institution, locals keep coming here for the reliably fresh seafood and reasonable prices. Dine indoors or watch the boat traffic (and waiting cruise ships) from the patio. Start with a cold combo, like boiled shrimp and grilled rare tuna. For entrées, the fried fish, shrimp, and oysters are hard to beat.

You know you've come to a dining hot spot when you're greeted by the cement handprints of local notables outside the front doors of the ebullient La Griglia. Even after all these years (it opened in 1991), no other Houston restaurant can match its buzzy social energy. Dramatic decor, an open kitchen, imaginative and dependable food, and fair prices make this River Oaks favorite a touchstone among those in the know (and in the gossip columns). This place fills by 7 pm, so arrive early or prepare to enjoy the scenery for a while. Try the seafood cheesecake, maybe the richest appetizer in town and worth every calorie or smooth, silky shrimp bisque. Soft-shell crabs and fillet of red snapper are excellent entrées. La Griglia has open-air dining on a covered side patio.

You could forget you're in the city at the grand hacienda of Las Alamedas, which overlooks a peaceful wooded ravine in Memorial. The menu is upscale Mexican (not Tex-Mex!) cuisine, and the kitchen is sometimes uneven, but generally very good. Two splendid entrées are tacos de cochinita pibil (chunks of pork simmered in achiote sauce) and huachinango à la azteca (red snapper stuffed with corn mushrooms in poblano sauce). There's a kids' menu.

At Elouise "Ouisie" Adams Jones's casually elegant, ersatz preppy restaurant, American cuisine is prepared with eclectic, Southern accents. Dine in the main room, or request a table on adjoining Lucy's Porch for a view of the herb plantings snipped daily by the kitchen staff. Fine dinner choices include a brace of roasted quail with apple-smoked bacon, and a shrimp curry with lemon-ginger rice. There's a fabulous weekend brunch and an afternoon "little bites" menu.

Houston's first family of restaurateurs, the Mandolas, have put their stamp on this casual eatery (they also own Nino's) that offers classic Italian dishes in a warm, vibrant atmosphere. The affordable offerings include a fantastic spinach salad with pancetta, chopped eggs, and goat cheese, plus the house specialty: wood-roasted lemon-garlic chicken, served with garlic mashed potatoes and Italian-style green beans. There's also a great selection of pasta dishes, and a decent wine list. Sit outside when the weather's nice, or order ahead to-go—they'll bring it right out to your car.

Chef Bryan Caswell, late of Bank at the Hotel Icon, re-emerges at Midtown's bustling Reef, a loud, showy seafood house packed to the gills with movers and shakers and their friends. Although the food is often a mixed bag, when it's good, it's great. Shrimp wrapped with bacon and stuffed with avocado; crispy-skin Gulf Coast snapper; and the jumbo crab cake served with taqueria-style pickled vegetables are good choices. Fish not regularly seen on conventional menus, from amberjack to wahoo, make a splash here as well. For a seafood joint, Reef has a mean "naked" rib eye, served with brown-butter gnocchi. Check out the glass-enclosed wine wall, filled to the ceiling with remarkably well-priced, unusual selections.

In downtown Houston's thoughtfully designed city park, you'll find The Grove, an airy, modern eco-friendly restaurant from the people who gave the Bayou City the famed Cafe Annie. Though the space might look contemporary, the food is decidedly hearty and homespun, with locally-sourced organic ingredients and "why-didn't-I-think-of-that" combinations like a deviled egg appetizer made with Spanish chorizo and tapenade, or mesquite-smoked Texas quail with baby turnips and local peaches. For a more casual vibe, head upstairs to the Tree House indoor/outdoor lounge and patio (open Thursday through Saturday) for cocktails and appetizers with a great view of Houston's skyline.

It's a strange fact of Houston life that many of the city's finest restaurants are found in strip shopping centers, albeit the more glamorous ones. Tony Mandola's, in the art deco–themed River Oaks Shopping Center, is an upscale restaurant that proves, with loads of tastebud-pleasing menu choices, that the concept of a Texas-, Italian-, and (some) Mexican-influenced seafood restaurant is here to stay. Off-the-menu items, such as Calamari a la Mama, lightly battered with lemon-butter sauce, may make you see stars. You'll see everyone you know at this neighborhood joint, if everyone you know is rich, famous, and well connected. There's open-air dining and a kids' menu.

This adult playground is the place where deals get done, life celebrations are marked, and people keep an eagle eye out for the next boldfaced type (as in boldface type in the social columns) to walk through the water-wall-surrounded front doors. Oh right, the Euro-Italian food is excellent, too, and the über-elegant surroundings, complete with contemporary artworks by Jesus Moroles, Robert Rauschenberg, and Donald Sultan, are sensory overload. Tony Vallone and his trained staff take excellent care of each and every customer. Watch for him and wife Donna moving around the room at lunch and dinner, personally greeting diners. Call ahead to order the towering molten white-chocolate soufflé, a local favorite. The cellar holds more than 1,000 labels, and is particularly strong in wines of France, Italy, and California. Lunch is a prix-fixe steal.