Five of Texas’s Best Restaurants

Texas has long been a foodie destination, known for everything from roadside barbecue joints, where diners wipe their hands on white butcher-paper tablecloths, to fine-dining establishments helmed by James Beard Award recipients and Top Chef winners. 

The state is home to countless craft breweries, a scenic wine region, lots of cattle, and diverse communities cooking recipes from all over the world. Some of the country’s best tacos, gorditas, and tortas come from towns along the Rio Grande, where Mexican and Central American cultures flourish. In Austin, the land of food trucks, Cajun gumbo, Venezuelan empanadas, and Lebanese crepes pass from chef to customer through little windows. Then there’s Dallas and Houston, where the restaurant scenes are so competitive, it’s tough to find a mediocre meal; and East Texas, where fine-dining restaurants, artsy cafés, and craft breweries have begun sprouting among the pine trees.

Even amid such an abundance of top-shelf gastronomy, the establishments on this list are standouts that score the Restaurant Hat Trick: great food, great ambiance, and great service. No matter where you’re traveling in the Lone Star State, you’ll likely be close to one of these places. And even if you have to go a few miles out of your way, you won’t be disappointed. 

Tonight & Tomorrow

1. Tonight and Tomorrow, Houston. This restaurant’s wonderful crab ravigote sums up its aesthetic: minimalist—it’s just Gulf crab and ravigote sauce with a salt-and-pepper cracker—and impossibly high quality yet totally approachable. The restaurant’s décor mirrors the menu: understated and elegant, with rich green velvet chairs, paintings in gilt frames, and splashes of exposed brick.

Start with a cocktail, probably the Deep Search (rum, aquavit, carrot, lime orgeat, curaçao, angostura), since crab pairs well with sweet rum. Move on to any of the entrees, whose ingredients are fresh and simple—steak frites, red snapper, rack of lamb—and finish with the chocolate cake topped with homemade popcorn ice cream.

Even breakfast dazzles at Tonight and Tomorrow. Chef Jonathan Wicks prepares biscuits fresh daily. And you might find him just outside, clipping herbs in the on-site garden. 

The Moon's Daughter

2. The Moon’s Daughters, San Antonio. The Moon’s Daughters is a party spot but a chic one, an establishment you might expect to see in Los Angeles. The best tables at this indoor-outdoor restaurant on the 20^th floor of the Thompson San Antonio are on the terrace, where you can enjoy 360-degree skyline views and watch an aerialist performing on her “lollipop hoop.” Arrive just before sunset, so you can catch her routine while the sun casts pink and gold on the skyscrapers over the River Walk. And when the moon rises and the stars start to twinkle, you’ll experience a whole new postcard view.

There’s a lot to ogle in this 300-seat Mediterranean-inspired eatery, where diners come dressed to impress and executive chef Robert Cantu’s plating begs to be photographed. The hazelnut and lemon-butter octopus, Cantu’s pride and joy (the preparation takes days), resembles an artful bouquet of flowers. So do the hot braised chicken wings served with local radish and shishito peppers. Part of the fun here is building your own mezze plate, choosing three or five items from the list of 10, which includes labneh, artichoke hummus, roasted carrots, and delicious wild mushrooms. 

Fearing's

3. Fearing’s, Dallas. Dallas’s beloved Dean Fearing is not what you’d expect from a celebrity chef. Wearing a white coat embroidered with a cowboy boot, he makes the rounds nightly in his seven-room Ritz-Carlton restaurant, which includes outdoor seating and a wine cellar for private parties. Befriending every guest, even giving away his secrets (he told me how to prepare his halibut!), he couldn’t be less pretentious. So, you might not guess that he’s a James Beard Award winner, cookbook author, and owner of what Zagat once listed as the number-one hotel dining establishment—not just in Texas, but in the entire country. 

Handblown glass chandeliers, rich leather furniture, and oversized wall art create a warm, elegant ambiance while an open kitchen and familiar Southwestern flavors lend transparency and coziness to the luxurious setting. Another plus is the attentive, experienced staff. (My server had been at Fearing’s since it opened in 2007.)

Even small touches—like the butter that accompanies the breadbasket—are memorable. When the server lifts the glass dome that covers the butter, a delicious puff of smoke wafts into the air. (Who knew that smoky butter could make fresh-baked sourdough bread even better?) From the tortilla soup Fearing began perfecting in 1981 to the barbecued shrimp tacos that utterly deconstruct anything you might have thought you knew about a shrimp taco to the “Achiote Glazed Broken Arrow Ranch Nilgai Antelope,” the recipes elevate traditional Southwestern dishes to haute cuisine. 

Though the restaurant offers several hundred fine wines, the ones from Texas are front and center—and that’s probably the sharpest metaphor for Fearing’s I could write. 

Kiepersol

4. Kiepersol, Tyler. It’s tough to find fault with a steakhouse on the grounds of a winery. Go for the peaceful views of 63 acres of vineyards, stay for a good rib eye once the sun has set. Texas’s most robust wine region, the Hill Country, sits west of Austin, so Kiepersol in East Texas is an outlier and a hidden treasure.

South African farmer Pierre de Wet immigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1984 and started Kiepersol in 1998. When he died, his daughters took over the business and they remain at the helm today, honoring his legacy, making some of the best wine in Texas (try the 2016 Malbec), serving filet mignon and crab-encrusted sea bass with white wine butter sauce, and recently, distilling their own spirits.

Kiepersol has more to offer than food—scenery, winery tours, a bed and breakfast, even an RV park—but if you have only one evening, spend it at the restaurant, which delivers a beautiful and very East Texas experience. Think classic steakhouse ambiance—white tablecloths, mood lighting—minus typical steakhouse stuffiness. 

The service is friendly, warm, and personable: not only will your waiter assist with wine and spirit pairings; he’ll go the extra mile. When I asked for hot sauce, my server told me that his friend in the back, head chef Robbie Bravo, makes world-class salsa. Then he went to the kitchen and got me some. And he was right—it was the spiciest, most perfect homemade salsa I’ve ever had in Texas. 

Ambar

5. Ámbar, El Paso. One of the most fun things to look at in this upscale Mexican restaurant where everything is fun to look at is the 800-plus-bottle collection of agave spirits behind glass. Gentle Spanish-language music, handwoven throw rugs, a sprawling light sculpture on the ceiling fashioned after the dark starry skies of the West, and leather furniture and accent pieces lend texture to this historical space inside the Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park.

The contemporary recipes that chef Andres Padilla whips up in the open kitchen hail from all regions of Mexico—crispy pig trotters in escabeche, grilled nopal salad, duck in mole. Start with the crema de chile verde (creamy green chile soup) with toasted pumpkin seeds. Then mix and match items from the taco menu or enjoy a carnitas platter from the wood-fired grill. 

Ámbar’s bar affords you a view of the agave spirit collection and the fun of chatting with travelers from all over the world who have descended on one of the most fascinating cities in Texas. Or, if you prefer your nightcap with some scenery, make your way to the hotel’s 17^th floor, where the three-terrace bar La Perla—once the penthouse of Elizabeth Taylor and her first husband—offers a wide-open view of palm-tree–dotted El Paso as well as Mexico and the state of New Mexico.