TxMo Best New Restaurants
San Antonio Peruvian spot marinates on Texas Monthly's best new restaurants list
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.
San Antonio is graced with one representative in the top 10, Peruvian restaurant Leche de Tigre Cebichería Peruana. Also 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 7th place on Sharpe's list.
The writer calls the dish that gives the restaurant its name "equal parts metaphor and marinade," points out the sibling trio who runs the restaurant and their background in Lima, and shares the central tenet in making the dish perfectly, according to the restaurant.
"[T]he key to a superlative Lima-style ceviche ... is a quick soak in a precisely blended and strained mix of lime juice, bits of raw fish, red onion, garlic, cilantro, celery, and ginger," Sharpe writes. "The selected seafood—kampachi, yellowfin tuna, octopus—is quickly immersed in the bracing liquid, the appropriate garnishes (avocado, plantain, roasted sweet potato, two kinds of Peruvian corn) are added, and then it’s rushed to eager diners."
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.
Bureau de Poste (sixth), a French restaurant from Top Chef contestant Jo Chan, and Ezov, an Israeli restaurant, represent Austin. Top Chef winner Gabe Erales’s Mexican restaurant Bacalar earns an honorable mention.
“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
