Travelling to Texas? Check out these top 15 Michelin-starred restaurants, from high-end Mexican to 10-seat Sushi bars
Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio—and plenty of barbecue—feature in Michelin’s first fine dining guide to the Lone Star State.
In 2023, Texas cities dominated the list of top 10 growth areas in the US: Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio all featured in the rankings.
Now they’re also the newest cities with Michelin-starred restaurants.
On Monday the established guide announced its inaugural Texas list in those four cities, with 15 dining spots earning one star. Austin was the winning city, getting seven spots; Houston had six, and Dallas and San Antonio each earned one.
Barbecue—a cuisine not often associated with Michelin—dominated the Texas rankings. Four of the places have some version of the word in their name.
Winners include the Houston area’s cult favorite CorkScrew BBQ, which specialises in red-oak-smoked brisket and peach cobbler from Will and Nichole Buckman, plus three in Austin. There, LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue takes a new-school, global view of slow-cooked meats, with beef cheeks and hop-infused pork sausage, plus “burnt end” cauliflower and homemade kimchi. Pitmaster John Bates’ InterStellar BBQ has options such as pork belly glazed with sweet peach tea, as well as brisket rubbed with salt, pepper and garlic. La Barbecue, from Ali Clem, one of the few women running a barbecue joint (her late wife, LeAnn Mueller, founded the place), offers monumental beef ribs on the weekends and a handful of house-made sausage variations, including chipotle and jalapeño.
“The inspection team’s evaluation of the dining scene made it very clear that Texas’ dining scene offered very impressive efforts in American BBQ. The team was delighted by what they experienced,” the chief inspector of the Michelin Guide North America, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of his position, said in an email. “The American BBQ scene in Texas honors traditions, while highlighting the personal and unique flavors of each chef’s heritage and culinary experience.”
Another cuisine that Michelin paid particular attention to was high-end Mexican. At the newly minted one-star Mixtli in San Antonio, chefs Diego Galicia and Rico Torres serve a $125 themed tasting menu that might focus on the year 1519, for example, when Spain arrived in Mexico. At Houston’s Tatemó, another spot with a $125 tasting menu, chef Emmanuel Chavez highlights corn in forward-thinking dishes such as tacos stuffed with eggplant, pickled ramps and shiso leaves.
The stars don’t come free. Local and state tourism agencies in Texas paid a total of $2.7 million to have Michelin rate restaurants for three years, according to Eater. That includes $450,000 annually from Travel Texas and $90,000 each per year from agencies in Houston, Austin, Dallas and San Antonio.
Among the notable nonwinners—restaurants that might have been on people’s betting list to get a star—is Emmer & Rye, the dynamic European-leaning restaurant in Austin where chef Kevin Fink serves pastas made from house-milled grains such as French ravioli with Parmesan and whey. That received a Bib Gourmand, Michelin’s version of a mention for notable cheap eats. (It’s often hard to figure out how that math works: The unofficial cost of a Bib Gourmand meal is about $50 for a starter, main course and dessert or drink. At Emmer & Rye almost all the entrees are $36-plus.)
Also receiving a Bib Gourmand instead of a star: Texas’ most well-known smoked meat destination, Franklin Barbecue. “The inspection team is always looking for evolution and development across the selection,” said the chief inspector, regarding the lack of a star for Franklin or Emmer & Rye.
In all, Michelin doled out Bib Gourmand rankings to 45 Texas restaurants, including the Jerk Shack in San Antonio and Dai Due, the meat-centric dining-room-in-a-butcher-shop in Austin. Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen in Dallas also got a Bib Gourmand.
Tex-Mex and non-tasting-menu Mexican food, which both help define the state, were given short shrift on the list. And in general, Michelin ignored Texas’ exceptional Asian restaurants, particularly in Houston, which is famed for Vietnamese spots like the Blind Goat from MasterChef winner Christine Ha. Korean food was barely recognized in the rankings.
It’s seemingly impossible for Michelin to produce a list that doesn’t have a fancy Japanese place on it, and indeed, the sole recipient of a star in Dallas is the 10-seat sushi counter Tatsu Dallas. (Still, to have more starred barbecue joints than sushi spots on a Michelin list is double-take-worthy.) The guide did ignore another Dallas spot—the city’s Carbone outpost; the New York flagship restaurant lost its Michelin star in 2022.
Among the special awards given out were two Green Stars: One went to Emmer & Rye, for using organically fertilized produce from local farms, and the other went to Dai Due, for its notable recycling and composting programs.
The stars in Texas represented a better showing than other cities and states have seen when Michelin first arrived. Colorado had only five starred restaurants among five cities in its inaugural guide, in 2023, and Toronto had 13 starred spots in its premiere guide, in 2022. And Texas has the same number Florida got in 2022, the first year it got stars (though one of the places received two stars).
Here’s the list of Michelin’s newly starred establishments in Texas.
One Star
Austin
Barley Swine, Craft Omakase, Hestia, InterStellar BBQ, La Barbecue, LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue, Olamaie
Houston
BCN Taste & Tradition, CorkScrew BBQ, Le Jardinier Houston, March, Musaafer, Tatemó
Dallas
Tatsu Dallas
San Antonio
Mixtli