Besides the beautiful tourist spots, food is another thing that excites tourists when visiting Texas. When it comes to great food, Houston and Austin never disappoint!
Austin is regarded not only as the home to the enormous state of Texas but also as a cultural melting pot. If you enter this vast city, you’ll find a wide variety of Barbecues, Donuts, Breakfast Tacos, Kolaches, Tex-Mex, Donuts, and combos of those and other food.
On the other hand, Houston is also a famous foodie city in Texas. It even dominates Yelp’s 2021 list of best places to eat in Texas, with 19 restaurants from the city that made on the list.
Almost all of Texas’ iconic restaurants showcase the state’s vibrant diversity and multiculturalism. Vietnamese-Cajun crawfish soups, Italian bread rolls with braised vegetables, duck breasts, and Indian thalis with specialties such as vinegar-flavored Goa meat and turmeric stew have become the crowd’s new favorites.
Here are the best restaurants in Texas that will surely come in handy when visiting the Lone Star State.
Contigo
Contigo is a traditional Austin outdoor restaurant with ranch-inspired food. With all the al fresco dining options in the state, this restaurant owned by chef Andrew Wiseheart indeed stands out. Contigo possesses classic and strong Texan vibes, with a selection of modern bar food that people would want to savor outdoors.
Contigo’s menu includes ox tongue sliders, cast-iron pans of rabbit and dumplings, crispy green beans, and the superb house specialty charcuterie surrounded with Texan fruits and vegetables. You can relax on the large terrace under the beautiful lights, sipping a mezcal drink and taking in the Austin ambiance.
101 By TeaHaus
If you want to unwind in the state while drinking a nice cup of coffee, then 101 By TeaHaus would be your go-to restaurant.
The 101 by TeaHaus began as a simple boba store in Austin, where each of their boba drinks and other products on the menu is homemade. They acquire their teas straight from Taiwan and brew them fresh each day.
The small boba store expanded greatly in the last few years, and its menu now includes authentic Asian cuisine. Some crowd favorites are their Mint Mojito Coffee, Sea Salt Crème Coffee, and Jasmine Green Milk Tea with Boba.
Franklin Barbecue
It is the best brisket in town! Aaron and Stacy Franklin have been selling brisket from a trailer all along the freeway for a while now.
They then expanded to a brick-and-mortar, served US’ previous president, and Aaron Franklin earned a James Beard prize in that short period.
They have not only built the most famous BBQ place in the country, but they also influenced several pitmasters all over the world. You may now find “Franklin-style” barbeque on nearly every continent, thanks to videos and their best-selling book.
Even though they experienced a fire in the pit area last year, the barbecue place still gets many customers. And despite the long lineups outside their Austin eatery, the wait is still worthwhile if you get to taste the most excellent brisket in Texas.
Revolver Taco Lounge
This restaurant is a game-changer for all the Mexican cuisine in Texas. Revolver Taco Lounge, a taqueria in Dallas, is more than just a taco place. Revolver Taco Lounge serves octopus in the carnitas style, topped with chopped and fried leeks, delicious wagyu carne asada, Kermit from Bangkok, and Degenerado- aged chorizo with grilled carne asada, served with quail eggs. They serve the food on stale tortillas and eaten casually on shared tables or bar stools.
Behind the Taco lounge is the Purépecha Room, which serves an eight-course flavourful meal with a venue designed to look like the owner Regino Rojas’ mother’s Michoacán kitchen. Doña Juanita herself, the owner’s mother, makes the Purépecha’s menu, an ever-changing combination of traditional Mexican dishes presented in unusual ways. However, the Purépecha Room is strictly for booking only.
Fred’s Texas Cafe
The original Fred’s Texas Café, located in Fort Worth, Texas, shines like a spotlight for traditional Texas food.
The owner, Terry Chandler, expanded the restaurant to two more locations. Still, his primary purpose remains the same: to serve a “cold-ass” beer ideal to partner with the yummiest chicken fried steak in Fort Worth, covered in sourdough batter and fried just until the crust turns into a golden color, which offers the right crunch. This massive platter is genuinely fulfilling, with hand-cut fries plus a lovely green salad to help you recover from all the oily food you savored earlier.
Crawfish & Noodles
The distinctive Houston combination of Cajun crawfish boils, and Vietnamese cuisines are brilliantly displayed in the delicious restaurant Crawfish & Noodles. The Vietnamese-Cajun crawfish they serve at Crawfish & Noodles is genuinely exceptional.
They cook the crawfish then toss them in a buttery, smoky, garlic-flavored, lemongrass-infused salsa that coats every crayfish. The resto also serves whole fried crabs per kilo and pots of noodles cooked with shrimp and grilled pork and garnished with a quail egg.
Pho Dien
Pho restaurants became easy to locate in Texas, courtesy of Houston’s vast Vietnamese immigrant community. However, only a few restaurants serve some authentic-flavored pho, and Pho Dien is undoubtedly one of them. The restaurant gained fame by providing raw, marinated filet mignon as a side dish.
Pho Dien emphasizes high-quality ingredients, which is why many people genuinely like the dishes they serve. Tony Dien Pham, the restaurant owner, makes sure that he simmers all-beef bone broth at least 12 hours to make a smooth, gently flavored, and tasty bowl that is certainly one of the best in the whole state.
