TxMo Best New Restaurants

2 Austin eateries shine on Texas Monthly's best new restaurants list

Bureau de Poste and Ezov represented Austin among Texas Monthly's top 10 new restaurant picks.

Texas Monthly editor Patricia Sharpe has published her list of Texas’s Best New Restaurants in 2024. Numbered 1-10, the 23rd edition of the magazine's list is open to establishments that opened between December 1, 2022 and November 30, 2023, and it must be a restaurant's first Texas location.

Austin is graced with two representatives in the top 10: Bureau de Poste (sixth), a French restaurant from Top Chef contestant Jo Chan, and Ezov, an Mediterranean restaurant in the Emmer and Rye Family with a special interest in Tel Aviv (10th). Bureau de Poste and Ezov are also among the nominees for Best New Restaurant in CultureMap's Tastemaker Awards.

Sharpe commends the rich offerings at Bureau de Poste while pointing out diners are "kidding themselves" with any attempts to "be sensible" and order just a few menu items, such as the Gruyère-topped French onion soup or the classic ratatouille.

"[W]hen the server arrives, they will in fact kick willpower to the curb and demand the scandalous pommes dauphine, four perfectly fried globes of whipped potato topped with crème fraîche," Sharpe writes. "And when they’re finished with that, they will indulge in a fourteen-ounce ribeye in peppercorn sauce (avec frites, s’il vous plait). By dessert, all pretense will be gone. They know they should order the clafouti, a demure, cakey French custard, but are helpless before the lure of dark chocolate mousse."

At Ezov, Sharpe was enchanted by the "unbridled flavors," and her summary touches on influence from around Southwest Asia and North Africa.

"I was taken with the Smashed Cucumber, the chunky slices atop a bed of smoked labneh enhanced with Aleppo chiles and amba (a tart fermented-green-mango condiment)," she writes. "The Moroccan-tinged cigarim (looking rather like long, thin flautas) came stuffed with sweetbreads and chicken heart, all kicked up with schug, a piquant herbal sauce popular in Yemen."

Top Chef winner Gabe Erales’s Mexican restaurant Bacalar also earned an honorable mention.

Representing San Antonio is Peruvian restaurant Leche de Tigre Cebichería Peruana, a triple nominee in CultureMap's Tastemaker Awards (for Best New Restaurant, Restaurant of the Year, and Chef of the Year). The restaurant came in seventh place on Sharpe's list. Also in San Antonio, Japanese restaurant Nineteen Hyaku and Mexican-Cuban restaurant Padadar land honorable mentions.

As it did last year, Houston not only leads the way with three entries in the top 10 but also takes the top spot for the second year in a row. Katami, the upscale Japanese restaurant from the team behind Kata Robata, ranks as the state’s best new restaurant. It’s joined in the top 10 by Gulf Coast seafood restaurant Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition (fifth) and Midtown pizzeria ElRo Pizza & Crudo (ninth). Jūn and Little’s Oyster Bar earn honorable mentions.

Sharpe praises nearly every aspect of Katami, calling it “the most exciting restaurant to open in Texas this past year.” In her review, she hails the “polished and coolly contemporary” environment, its “spectacularly fresh” seafood, and traditional Japanese dishes such as chawanmushi and okonomiyaki.

Dallas is represented by French restaurant Quarter Acre (third) and Italian restaurant Via Triozzi (eighth). Sushi restaurant Naminohana earns an honorable mention.

Le Margot (second), a French restaurant from former Masterchef judge Graham Elliot, and Italian restaurant 61 Osteria (fourth) give Fort Worth two spots in the top five.

“The Texas restaurant scene is as delicious as it’s ever been,” Sharpe declares, but the writer has some concerns about the present dining moment. Her complaints include the push towards ever more prominent (and more expensive) cocktail lists and the vibe dining trend, but her introduction ends on an optimistic note.

“But even though drinking while dining is fast becoming the new normal, I’m glad to report that kitchens are as disciplined and chefs as talented and ambitious as ever,” she writes.

The full list in order is as follows:

1. Katami, a Japanese restaurant in Houston
2. Le Margot, a French restaurant in Fort Worth
3. Quarter Acre, a French restaurant in Dallas
4. 61 Osteria, an Italian restaurant in Fort Worth
5. Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition, a seafood restaurant in Houston
6. Bureau de Poste, a French restaurant in Austin
7. Leche de Tigre Cebichería Peruana, a Peruvian restaurant in San Antonio
8. Via Triozzi, an Italian restaurant in Dallas
9. ElRo Pizza & Crudo, a pizzeria in Houston
10. Ezov, an Israeli restaurant in Austin

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Whoops

Michelin goofs on a few restaurants honored in first Texas guide

Kau Ba/Facebook

Houston's Kau Ba has been removed from the Michelin Guide.

Texans' reactions to the first Michelin Guide in the state have ranged from glowing to unimpressed, but a few notable mix-ups are more concrete than differences in taste. The November 11 ceremony honored more than 100 restaurants across the state, but at least two were in error. In Dallas the guide confused two restaurants with each other, and in Houston one of them had closed.

Starting in Dallas: The Guide's release announcing the list of restaurants who'd won awards included The Charles, an award-winning Italian restaurant in Dallas' Design District, as one of 57 restaurants that earned a "Recommended" rating.

The Charles is a surely deserving restaurant that opened in 2018, the first concept from acclaimed food & beverage group Duro Hospitality, which has since gone on to open other restaurants such as El Carlos Elegante, Sister, and Cafe Duro.

But the Guide got the wrong Charles: The real recipient was Mister Charles, a sibling Duro Hospitality restaurant that opened at 3219 Knox St. in early 2024.

The Charles specializes in Italian and Texas-inspired dishes.

Mister Charles features French and Italian-influenced dishes.

It wasn't just an incorrect name; it listed the accompanying (incorrect) address.

A spokesperson for Michelin Guide verified that Mister Charles was the winner and said that the listing of The Charles was a mistake.

“This was an internal error caused by our geolocation process. The problem will be corrected in the most expeditious manner,” the spokesperson said. The Guide website has since updated the list and replaced The Charles with Mister Charles.

Having a difference of opinion about a critic's choices is one thing — but having an error of this magnitude is something else entirely.

And blaming "geolocation" as the source of the error is a curious excuse. Geolocation refers to the ability to track the whereabouts of an electronic device using GPS, cell phone towers, WiFi access points or a combination of these.

The Houston mix-up was also disappointing, but only involved one restaurant: In a press release issued Thursday, November 14, the Guide announced that it had removed Montrose Vietnamese restaurant Kau Ba from the list of Bib Gourmand recipients.

The reason: "Upon further investigation, our team has discovered the restaurant has been permanently closed since our Inspection team's visits occurred," the statement reads.

As has been widely noted in local media, Kau Ba closed earlier this month. The restaurant’s Instagram account now belongs to Alora, which is described as “a fresh Peruvian-Vietnamese fusion concept inspired by travels to Saigon.” It is expected to open soon.

Open since 2018, Kau Ba served an innovative take on Vietnamese fare created by Nikki Tran. The restaurant built on the notoriety Tran had achieved after being featured in two Netflix series: Somebody Feed Phil and Ugly Delicious. It earned considerable acclaim, including a spot in the Houston Chronicle’s top 100 restaurants as recently as 2023 and a nomination for Best Neighborhood Restaurant in the 2021 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

The restaurant went through a number of iterations during its tenure. For three-and-a-half years, Tran partnered with Aya Sushi owners Minette Corpuz and Bruce Kish to oversee operations, but they parted ways in February 2023.

In an email sent to Houston Public Media, Tran expressed regret over Michelin's decision.

“But we understand and respect Michelin’s decision to remove Kau Ba from its selection,” Tran said to HPM. “Exercising an abundance of caution from a legal position, I am not able currently to share further details of our situation but I do hope to follow up soon with more information.”

“Until then, on behalf of the entire Kau Ba team, we want to thank the entire culinary community for the recognition and support,” Tran added. “Kau Ba is proud of the dishes we created and look forward to sharing very soon what’s next.”

Thankfully in Austin, things seem to be going okay. The capital city swept the competition with seven stars (one more than Houston now that the change has been made), and two green stars for sustainability — in fact, the only green stars in the state.

Austin also had four of the first-ever barbecue restaurants to be awarded stars. Houston also had one.

Austin's winning restaurants were Barley Swine, Craft Omakase, Hestia, Olamaie, InterStellar BBQ, John Bates, La Barbecue, Alison Clem, and LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue.

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