Restaurant Reviews

Almond croissants
Dining Guide |
December 18, 2019

Dining Guide: Highlights From Our January 2020 Issue

Texas Monthly adds and updates approximately sixty restaurant listings to our Dining Guide each month. There’s limited space in the print issue, but the entire searchable guide to the best of Texas cuisine is at your fingertips online!Below are a few highlights from the new restaurants reviewed in our January 2020 issue.

By Texas Monthly

Food & Drink |
January 20, 2013

On the Menu: Cafe 290

A few years ago, rumors flew that four distinguished chefs from around the globe had converged at Cafe 290 in Manor, Texas, transforming a smoky pseudo-truck stop into a world-class restaurant. While this isn’t exactly true, owners Robert Guillory and Liz Lynch have done time in the kitchens of

By Meredith Phillips

Food & Drink |
January 20, 2013

State Fare

At Austin’s Majestic Diner, co-owner and chef Mick Vann gives the royal treatment to even the simplest entrée. Vann has been cooking for twenty years (the last seven at Clarksville Cafe in Austin), and he still has a knack for the unexpected: whole leaves of spinach in spanakopita and a

By Patricia Sharpe

Food & Drink |
January 20, 2013

State Fare

This vigorous melding of ricotta, Gorgonzola, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses with assertive herbs epitomizes the free-and-easy style of EZ’s, Cappy Lawton’s newest San Antonio restaurant. The Lawtons’ dinnertime joke was, “Let’s go someplace easy,” but few nearby restaurants fit that description. So when the Waitz Model Market relocated, Cappy nabbed

By Patricia Sharpe

Food & Drink |
January 20, 2013

State Fare

After Bruce and Susan Molzan bought the Ruggles Grill four years ago, they revitalized the menu at the sleepy Montrose landmark with his brash cooking style and her luxurious desserts. Both Molzans are graduates of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and their approaches to

By Patricia Sharpe

Food & Drink |
January 20, 2013

State Fare

In 1980, when Armando Miranda took his first job in America as a line cook, he barely knew a muffin from a mousse. That has changed. In his peregrinations through prominent Houston restaurants, including the River Cafe, he taught himself to cook. Even today he’s a free spirit. “I don’t

By Patricia Sharpe

Food & Drink |
January 20, 2013

State Fare

Chef Stephan Pyles grew up in the food business—his parents owned the Big Spring Truck Stop Cafe—and despite a degree in music and the best intentions, he’s still cooking. With two restaurants in Dallas and two in Minneapolis, Pyles and partner John Dayton have enthusiastically spread the word about Southwestern

By Patricia Sharpe

Food & Drink |
January 20, 2013

State Fare

Evan Daily wants to improve the environment; so when he opened Evan’s at 3939 Montrose in Houston the week of Earth Day 1990, he took steps beyond using recycled-paper menus and business cards. At Evan’s, organic produce and chemical-free meats are the basis of the meal, not just food for

By Patricia Sharpe

Food & Drink |
January 20, 2013

State Fare

Don’t judge Cuisine Actuelle by its pictures. The glamorous cookbook, written by Victor Gielisse, the chef at Dallas restaurant Actuelle (the Crescent, 500 Crescent Court), might well daunt the quotidian cook. But, in fact, most of its 150 recipes are as easy as pie. Rich, heavy sauces are conspicuous by

By Patricia Sharpe

Food & Drink |
November 1, 1990

State Fare

Dallas’ Parigi restaurant owes its forthright demeanor to chef and co-owner Andree Falls’s hands-on attitude toward cooking. Instead of learning her trade in an academic setting, Falls practiced in restaurant kitchens while traveling around the world. Many of Parigi’s offerings reflect the casual gusto of bistros in the South of

By Patricia Sharpe

Food & Drink |
December 1, 1986

On the Menu: Castle Hill Cafe

ONE OF THE FEW COMPLAINTS we have ever heard about Castle Hill Cafe is that it is too loud—which is true. But the acoustics in this former grocery store built in 1896 are only partly at fault. Blame instead the multitude of loyal customers who flock to this low-key and

By Helen Thompson

Food & Drink |
November 1, 1986

On the Menu: Wildfire

It’s probably not fitting to call Georgetown a small town anymore. With incredible growth brought on by development in north Austin and Round Rock, a considerable university population and a burgeoning cultural scene, it’s hardly Mayberry, USA. But it does have a town square, a lunch counter, a historic

By Jen Scoville

Food & Drink |
September 30, 1986

On the Menu – Cappyccino’s

Cappyccino’s 10 Ideas To Improve Life Say please and thanks Avoid malls, discounters, and mass merchants Take Sundays off Plant seeds Enjoy sunrises and sunsets Make 100 year decisions Mass media only in moderation Balance high-tech and high-touch Reward teachers, artists,

By Helen Thompson

Recipes |
June 30, 1986

On the Menu: EatZi’s

FOOD HAS PLAYED prominent role in some of history’s most momentous upheavals — mention tea and the American Revolution comes to mind. Or cake: Marie Antoinette’s snide directive, “Let them eat cake,” symbolizes the issue around which the French Revolution swirled. It may not be going too far to say

By Texas Monthly

Food & Drink |
May 31, 1986

On the Menu: The Landmark Restaurant

The Warwick Melrose Hotel, Dallas is proud to showcase a culinary team led by Chef Jeff Moschetti. This creative team has been honored with the AAA Four Diamond award the prestigious DiRoNA award and the Wine Spectator award. In a city that boasts the highest number of restaurants per capita,

By Helen Thompson

Food & Drink |
December 1, 1985

On the Menu: La Griglia

EVEN IF LA GRIGLIA were completely empty—which is highly unlikely—the enormous bawdy murals, busy mosaics, and bustling wait staff would give the impression of great activity. This popular eatery, located in the River Oaks Shopping Center, is a place to see and be seen—inevitable, since the restaurant is one of

By Helen Thompson

Libations |
November 1, 1985

On the Menu: Johnny B’s Old Fashioned Soda Fountain

IT WASN’T BECAUSE I was touring West Texas that I ate a cheeseburger for breakfast. It was after stumbling upon Johnny B’s for lunch the day before. Never mind the open sky and distant mesas, the cheeseburger at this inviting luncheonette was all I could envision.Open only since November (and

By Jen Scoville

Food & Drink |
September 30, 1985

On the Menu: Josephine St.

JOSEPHINE STREET CAFE is a classic Texas roadhouse in an era where there are no more roads, just freeways. In fact, the freeway—Highway 281—roars over the patio, but that doesn’t seem to deter the loyal patrons of this popular neighborhood hangout. Nor did the recent collision of a truck with

By Helen Thompson

Food & Drink |
August 31, 1985

On the Menu: Liberty Bar

SAN ANTONIO’S LIBERTY BAR is a landmark for many reasons: it has been in continuous operation since 1890 and the building has been owned by the same family for just as long. But also the Liberty Bar has a certain status as one of the world’s “leaning“ landmarks, perhaps eclipsed

By Helen Thompson

Food & Drink |
July 31, 1976

Behind the Lines

Some days it seems like the complaints about restaurant reviews will never stop: “My family and I drove all the way from * * * on the strength of your good ole Anonymous and, like him, we received no special services—all to the tune of $35.15 for four of us.

By Patricia Sharpe