NYT best dishes
San Antonio barbecue joint makes NY Times' 2025 best dishes list
The New York Times called 2M Smokehouse's picadillo mac and cheese a punchier Hamburger Helper.
The New York Times included four Texas restaurants among its favorite dishes of 2025, including one San Antonio favorite famous for its brisket, 2M Smokehouse.
Divided into two lists — The 23 Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S. in 2025 and The 14 Best Restaurant Desserts We Ate Across the U.S. in 2025 — the dishes are:
- Picadillo Macaroni and Cheese at 2M Smokehouse
- Bad Honey Bunny at Mercado Sin Nombre (Austin)
- Ketan Hitam at Yeni’s Fusion (Austin)
- Konafa Naama at Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen (Houston)
Times food writer Priya Krishna, who authors the entries for all four Texas dishes, traveled to the Southeast Side to 2M Smokehouse. The picadillo mac and cheese showcases how the San Antonio restaurant incorporates Mexican flavors into traditional Texas barbecue.
“Imagine Hamburger Helper, but spicier, punchier, and even more luxuriously creamy. It’s not easy to one-up the singular, thickly spiced brisket here, but the picadillo mac and cheese — which runs as an occasional special — holds its own and then some,” Krishna writes.
The year-end list also made a stop in far west Houston to visit Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen. “The konafa, a signature here, arrives with a molten layer of cheese under a sticky-sweet layer of golden, nutty semolina. The craft is evident, the konafa gone in a few bites,” she writes.
In Austin, Krishna praises the rice pudding at Yeni’s Fusion. “This barely sweet version, lush with coconut milk, aromatic with pandan, and as soothing as warm porridge, is the gentlest way to end a meal,” she states.
Krishna also singles out a honey bun at Mercado Sin Nombre, already hailed as one of America’s best breakfast spots by Bon Appétit. “The coiled honey bun at this semi-clandestine cafe looks almost cartoonishly perfect, and the heady scent of cardamom and honey hits you before you even take a bite. Somehow, it tastes every bit as plush and elegant as it appears,” says Krishna.
