In November 2023, the Michelin Guide made its Texas debut in a three-year deal. Staged at Houston’s event-capable 713 Music Hall, the inaugural ceremony recognized 117 restaurants in and around Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Houston and San Antonio.
Fifteen establishments earned one star, for “high-quality cooking worth a stop.” Two received Green Stars for sustainable gastronomy. Michelin’s anonymous inspectors deemed 45 contenders as Bib Gourmand-worthy (after the Michelin Man mascot, Bibendum, denoting “good quality, good value cooking”), “Recommended” 57 for meeting the Michelin standard and handed out four special awards.
Spanning 26 different cuisines, here are select honorees that welcome private functions and/or cater events with the Michelin touch.
Austin’s Appetite for Excellence
Texas’ state capital is a confirmed seat of gastronomy alongside the government after its runaway haul of 47 total Michelin awards for 44 restaurants.
Seven establishments received stars, including three barbecue restaurants (see sidebar), plus 14 Bibs, both Green Stars, 23 Recommended and one special award.
Featuring a 20-foot hearth and open kitchen, Hestia won a star for its live-fired steaks, oysters and other dishes. Full buyouts for 150 standing or 82 seated include the secluded garden, with private 24-capacity seated affairs or 60-person receptions.
Hestia’s sibling Emmer & Rye celebrated its 10th anniversary with a Bib award and Michelin Green Star for its daily locally sourced farm-based menu and sustainability practices. Semi-private options include inside dining for 12 or 40 outside on the covered patio, with full buyouts for 65 seated or 150 standing.
Even the olive oil, wine and beer are from Texas at eco-friendly Dai Due, which similarly relies on fresh, locally sourced fare from area farms and ranches. Recognized for its preservation, fermentation and whole animal butchery initiatives, the restaurant, offering private indoor and outdoor dining for 10 or more, also netted a Bib and Green Star.
Edgar Rico took his Culinary Institute of America degree from New York to Los Angeles and Mexico before launching Nixta Taqueria in Austin. Centered on heirloom maíz (corn) from Oaxaca, Mexico, his tostadas, tacos and quesadillas earned Rico a Bib and the Young Chef/Culinary Professional Award. Partial and full buyouts include a tented outdoor pavilion with picnic tables.
Bib-winning food truck Cuantos Tacos delivers Mexico City-style tacos and tortillas to events.
Houston’s Star Orbit
From Houston’s globe-spanning dining constellation of more than 13,000 restaurants featuring cuisines from 70-plus countries and U.S. regions, Michelin’s inspectors handed out 25 awards in all, including 17 Bibs. Six restaurants won stars, including CorkScrew BBQ (see sidebar) in nearby Spring. The five Houston honorees are all international.
Musaafer is Executive Chef Mayank Istwal’s stage for innovative and interpretative regional cuisine from across India. The palatial space, located inside Houston’s massive Galleria shopping center, offers six distinct spaces for private lunches and dinners, with full buyouts for 150-180 guests or cocktail receptions for 250-300, plus catering.
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Fine art meets fine Spanish cuisine at BCN Taste & Tradition. Both from Barcelona (BCN is the city’s airport code), owner Ignacio Torras and Chef Luis Roger, formerly at Spain’s iconic El Bulli, celebrate jamón Ibérico, rare vermouths and other Spanish signatures amid the trappings of a 1920s bungalow. Unique features include original Picasso works from Torras’ private art collection. Private dining venues include the 12-capacity Dali Room.
Housed inside the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, elegant Le Jardinier is Chef Alain Verzeroli’s canvas for seasonal French dishes with connections to nature. Private dining options include the 90-capacity main dining room and full buyouts.
March explores Mediterranean gastronomy, history and culture with creative six- and nine-course “discovery” menus, drink pairings and private dining for 12. Rounding out the star quintet is Chef-Owner Emmanuel Chavez’s 16-seat Tatemó.
Celebrating 50 years in 2026, event-capable Pappas Bros. Steakhouse took home Recommended honors and the special Sommelier Award for Stephen MacDonald.
Michelin in the Metroplex
Dallas earned 24 Michelin nods, including a star for fourth-generation sushi chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi’s 10-seat Tatsu Dallas in historic Deep Ellum.
In 1984, Dean Fearing and his four fellow “Texas Mafia” renegades revolutionized Lone Star cuisine by infusing Texas tradition with Mexican, French and other regional styles and giving the world Southwestern cuisine.
The guitar-playing maestro is still making the scene at Fearing’s Restaurant inside The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, one of 16 Recommended restaurants in town.
Other Recommended notables include Crown Block. Conceived by hospitality industry leader Elizabeth Blau, this panoramic steak and seafood showcase, crowning the iconic 50-story Reunion Tower and featuring 360-degree floor-to-ceiling cityscape views, is prized for private events and catering. The Crown Room can seat 230 for dinners and 270 for receptions, with versatile small group options.
Restaurateur Charles Martin earned Recommended honors for his Mexican-driven El Carlos Elegante and stylish French-Italian concept Mister Charles. Both flexibly host private dining and buyouts. Housed in the landmarked former Highland Park Soda Fountain Building, the former features soaring 38-foot-tall ceilings.
Julian Shaffer, bar manager of the classy group-capable Rye restaurant, received the Exceptional Cocktails Award.
Savory San Antonio
Originated 13,000 years ago by Indigenous people who foraged roots, harvested pecans and hunted game along the San Antonio River, Alamo City’s culinary heritage, later blending Mexican, Spanish, German, French and other cultural influences, earned this group powerhouse recognition in 2017 as America’s second UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.
The Culinary Institute of America has an event-capable campus here, focused on Latin American culinary heritage. Six local restaurants were James Beard Award-nominated this year, continuing an annual trend. Dining diversity defines entire neighborhoods, including the Pearl District, Southtown and King William.
San Antonio is now also a Michelin town, scoring a dozen honors in the inaugural round, including a star for group-capable Mixtli. Launching in a 12-seat rail car in 2013 and relocating in 2021 to a permanent space in Southtown, chef-owners Diego Galicia and Rico Torres pay homage to Mexico’s historic foodways with progressive regional tasting menus. Sommelier Hailey Pruitt, who oversees Mixtli’s 1,200-bottle wine program, and Bar Director Lauren Beckman took home Michelin’s Outstanding Service Award.
Pearl District anchor Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery is one of four Bib winners. It’s connected to Hotel Emma, a historic former brewhouse turned two-Michelin Key property. The restaurant offers 200-capacity buyouts and evocative private spaces such as the Silo, and serves Gulf Coast-inspired “cross-cultural” Texas fare, craft beer brewed onside and award-winning oysters from Chef-Founder Jeff Balfour.
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“The Bib Gourmand award perfectly reflects our goal of creating excellent, approachable food with a commitment to sustainability and thoughtful sourcing,” Balfour said.
His French partner and co-founder, Philippe Placé, has a luminous background, from serving Queen Elizabeth II and five-star Gulf War generals to working in Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris and Europe’s finest hotels.
“This accomplishment is just as thrilling here in Texas,” he added.
Other Bib winners include event-friendly Ladino, also in the Pearl and serving tasty Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Balkan cuisine; Jamaican-style The Jerk Shack, from U.S. Army veteran and Culinary Institute of America graduate Nicola Blaque, offering in-restaurant events and food truck catering; and charming retro diner-meets-bistro concept Cullum’s Attaboy on the resurgent historic St. Mary’s Strip north of downtown from San Antonio-born Christopher Cullum, with selective buyouts for up to 60 and group seating for up to 20.
Event-capable Little Em’s Oyster Bar is a highlight of one of seven Recommended restaurants.
Smokin’ Hot Stars
Texas-style barbecue is at the heart of Lone Star State cuisine, and slow-smoked brisket is at the heart of Texas-style barbecue.
In the hands of expert pitmasters, the tough fat-tipped beef cut is rubbed with salt and pepper, maybe some spice, and then goes into an offset smoker. The wood varies by regional availability—pecan or hickory in north Texas, mesquite south and west of San Antonio, and in central Texas, the cradle of Texas-style barbecue, post oak.
Offset from the direct flame, the meat emerges tender and juicy after bathing in smoke for eight-plus hours. Over time, smoked sausages and ribs joined the papered barbecue tray, along with classic sides such as white bread, pickles, coleslaw and mac and cheese.
Michelin’s inspectors were duly impressed, awarding stars to four barbecue restaurants and recognizing 28 joints in all.
Three of the one-star winners are in Austin, including pioneering la Barbecue, the first woman- and lesbian-owned BBQ restaurant in Texas. Founder LeAnn Mueller passed away in 2023, but her wife Ali Clem maintains the flame on the succulent oak-fired menu, with indoor and covered outdoor patio spaces for private dinners, buyouts and happy hours.
InterStellar BBQ pairs oak-smoked brisket with zesty sides and private events for 50-plus people, plus catering. At Leroy and Lewis Barbecue, inventive “New School BBQ” comes with “Old School Service” and flexible event hosting.
In 2015, Aaron Franklin gained national attention as the first-ever pitmaster to win a James Beard Award, for Best Chef: Southwest. His still sizzling Franklin Barbecue was one of six barbecue Bib winners in Austin, along with Micklethwait Craft Meats, which provides barbecue buffets, food trucks and custom experiences at private venues for up to 5,000 guests, and international standouts Kemuri Tatsu-Ya and KG BBQ.
The former is an event-capable combo of a Texas smokehouse with a classic Japanese izakaya, while the latter is the vision of Egyptian émigré Kareem (“KG”) El-Ghayesh.
Inspired by his first taste of brisket, KG left his corporate finance career in Cairo for Austin in 2016. Learning from sources including Franklin Barbecue’s book, A Meat-Smoking Manifesto, his menu, with catering available, uniquely blends Egyptian and Middle Eastern flavors with Texas barbecue tradition.
Michelin smiled big on Houston barbecue with eight Bibs and a star for CorkScrew BBQ in tiny Spring, north of the city. In 2010, owner Will Buckman, then with AT&T, so wowed the crowd with his barbecued meats at a company retirement party that he and wife Nichole went into catering. Opened in 2015, their sellout restaurant still services events.
Event-ready Bib winners include Blood Bros. BBQ in nearby Bellaire from brothers Robin and Terry Wong and pitmaster Quy Hoang. Since starting out with backyard hangouts with friends in 2013, the childhood friends have redefined southeast Texas barbecue with Vietnamese, Chinese, Mexican and Cajun tastes in reflection of Houston’s rich multicultural landscape.
Another unique area fusion is Tejas Chocolate & Barbecue in Timball. Country-style Pinkerton’s Barbecue hosts backyard events and provides full-service catering. Houston-born owner Grant Pinkerton has a third location in San Antonio, where Barbecue Station was Michelin-Recommended.
Billed as “the world’s only Tex-Ethiopian BBQ experience,” nationally acclaimed Bib winner Smoke ‘N Ash in Arlington marries Texas smoke with authentic Ethiopian flavors, vegetarian sides included. Chef-Owners Fasicka and Patrick Hicks were also James Beard semifinalists for “Best Chef: Texas” this year.
Fort Worth’s three Michelin honorees include Panther City BBQ and Goldee’s Barbecue, which offers brisket-making classes for groups of 20.
