Texas Monthly has published its list of the state’s best new restaurants for 2025. Numbered one to 10, the 24th edition of the magazine's list is open to establishments that opened between December 1, 2023, and November 30, 2024, and it must be a restaurant's first Texas location.
One Austin restaurant snagged the top spot: Craft Omakase. The sushi restaurant was one of two in Texas to earn a Michelin star, so it's having a big year — with a little more than a year under its belt. Mexican restaurant Mexta earned the No. 7 ranking and recently-closed Italian restaurant Poeta earned a honorable mention.
Recently retired food critic Pat Sharpe and senior editor Courtney Bond share a byline for the article.
It can be hard for non-sushi fanatics to discern what makes one slice of raw fish better than another. In this write-up, Sharpe and Bond praise the "gorgeous slices of pale pink hamachi" and yellowtail that arrived from Japan that morning and was cut "mere seconds before" and lightly dressed with grape and plum juice.
Even someone who doesn't catch every flavor and texture nuance on their own should appreciate the restaurant, since the authors say "[i]ts scope and sensibility honor the long history of sushi" while allowing playfulness. Plus, the 22-course menu goes well beyond raw fish.
Mexta charmed the pair of food writers with its beautiful old-world looks, especially the "soaring ceilings and massive copper-sheathed columns." They appreciated how "time-honored dishes take unexpected turns" — like a chile relleno with huitlacoche — and pointed out that the restaurant is a collaboration between three highly accomplished chefs.
There's not much information publicly available yet on Poeta's closing, but Texas Monthly included a note saying it's looking at opening in a new location. Regardless, the writers enjoyed the old-fashioned decor and "Italian standards [with] a generous dollop of inventiveness."
Both ranked Austin restaurants also secured nominations this February in CultureMap's Tastemaker Awards. Mexta will go head-to-head in a fan-voted competition with other new restaurants, and Craft Omakase immediately graduated to the lofty level of Restaurant of the Year contenders, chosen by a panel of judges. Poeta won the fan-voted category in 2024.
Those three are all Austin can technically take credit for, but two San Antonio restaurants with Austin ties made the list: Isidore (No. 8) and Mezquite (No. 10). Both are part of the impressive new Pullman Market by the Austin-based Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group.
The writers praised Isidore for its inventiveness, saying "[t]he ambitious menu takes familiar ingredients in brave new directions, but diners need not fear being subjected to half-baked culinary experimentation..." When it comes to Mezquite, they enjoyed the "open and airy" restaurant with its "concise" menu and "beautiful" aguachiles.
Outside of San Antonio, Houston once again leads the way with more spots on the list than any other Texas city, although the city failed to take the top spot for the third year in a row. Three restaurants earned a place in the top 10: They are:
- Kira, a sushi hand roll restaurant in Upper Kirby (No. 4)
- Ishtia, a Native American tasting menu restaurant in Kemah (No. 5)
- Ema, a Mexico City-inspired breakfast and lunch restaurant in the Heights (No. 6)
Three more Houston restaurants earned honorable mentions:
- Auden, a globally-inspired restaurant in Montrose
- Credence, Levi Goode’s Texas-inspired live fire restaurant in Memorial
- Milton’s, the Italian American restaurant in Rice Village from the team behind Local Foods
Dallas follows with Radici Wood Fired Grill (No. 2), an Italian restaurant in Farmers Branch from Top Chef alum Tiffany Derry, and Japanese restaurant Mābo (No. 3). American restaurant Goodwins and French restaurant Le PasSage make the honorable mentions list, as does South Indian vegetarian restaurant in nearby Irving.
The Chumley House, an England-inspired restaurant in Fort Worth comes in at No. 9.
“What does all this say about dining in Texas as we approach the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century? Maybe just this: We need to make room for more fun,” the duo write in the article’s introduction. “The hospitality industry knows hard times all too well, with the ever-rising costs of raw ingredients and labor and the hollowing out of once vibrant restaurant-centric neighborhoods. Given all that, who wouldn’t opt for a break from the real world?”
The full list is as follows:
1. Craft Omakase, a sushi restaurant in Austin
2. Radici Wood Fired Grill, an Italian restaurant in Dallas
3. Mābo, a Japanese restaurant in Dallas
4. Kira, a Japanese restaurant in Houston
5. Ishtia, a tasting menu restaurant in Kemah
6. Ema, a Mexican restaurant in Houston
7. Mexta, a Mexican restaurant in Austin
8. Isidore, a Texas-inspired restaurant in San Antonio
9. The Chumley House, an English restaurant in Fort Worth
10. Mezquite, a Mexican restaurant in San Antonio
