10 Houston Restaurant Openings to Know Right Now, October 2024 (2024)

This periodic column highlights notable restaurant openings in and around Houston. Catch up on more news about Boston restaurant openings right here.

Know of a new or soon-to-open restaurant that should be on Eater Houston’s radar? Get in touch by emailing houston@eater.com.

October

Blacksmith

MetroNational announced Wednesday, October 9, that it opened Blacksmith coffee shop’s second location in Memorial City. Located in the lobby of the 18-story Two Memorial City Plaza office building (820 Gessner Road), the new coffee shop serves freshly brewed coffee and drinks, including lattes, espressos, and teas, plus hot breakfast items such as biscuits, bagels, tacos, and kolaches. Grab-and-go lunch items, including sandwiches, salads, and bowls are also available along with catering services.

​​Memorial City, the 300-acre mixed-use development managed by private real estate management company MetroNational, is heating up with several new restaurants. In the past year alone, the area has welcomed an outpost of the Pit Room, Dallas-based restaurant Haywire, and Levi Goode’s first solo restaurant, Credence, and his adjacent speakeasy Sidebar.

MetroNational

Mi Luna Tapas Restaurant & Bar

This Spanish tapas restaurant, which initially opened in Rice more than 20 years ago, has gotten a revival in the buzzing Montrose Collective. Youssef Nafaa, Mi Luna’s original owner, reopened the restaurant on Monday, October 7, bringing to the neighborhood a lively and communal atmosphere with small plates, including a paella Valenciana that’s loaded with a mix of seafood, rabbit, and chicken baked in saffron rice; braised oxtail with chickpeas, patatas bravas, and B’Stilla, a Moroccan-styled chicken dish made with cinnamon almonds and wrapped in crispy phyllo dough. In addition to a robust beverage menu featuring over 100 Spanish wines, sangria, and a variety of cocktails, diners can enjoy weekend entertainment. Starting Friday, October 11, Mi Luna will feature flamenco dancing by Houston-based dancing company Solero Flamenco, which will perform Fridays and Saturdays from 10 p.m. to midnight, and acoustic guitar performances held during weekend brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

ChòpnBlọk

James Beard Award semifinalist and chef Ope Amosu branches out beyond his Post Houston food hall with the first standalone restaurant of his fast-casual West African restaurant. The new Montrose flagship, which opened on Tuesday, October 1, showcases the breadth of the African diaspora with an expanded menu featuring combination bowls with red beef stew, yassa curry, and Ikoyi shrimp, plus appetizers like Polo Club Suya — beef skewers served with a peanut spice imported straight from Nigeria and plantain bread pudding. Cocktails also get the diasporic treatment, with Old Fashioneds blended and garnished with plantain and sips mixed with special spices and African spirits.

StuffBenEats

Piper’s Cantina

Piper’s Hospitality, the restaurant group behind local restaurants and bars like Woodland Social and Preslee’s, opened a new Tex-Mex restaurant in Spring Branch on Thursday, October 3, according to a Culturemap Houston report. Piper’s Cantina serves a menu of Tex-Mex staples, including tacos, tortas, sides, and frozen drinks likemangonada.

September

Milton’s

Replacing the now-shuttered French-European restaurant Eau Tour, this new Rice Village restaurant offers a variety of classic and modern Italian American dishes in a ritzy yet familial space. Pasta is undoubtedly a focus, with dishes like 100-layer lasagna, a creamy pasta once served at the now-shuttered but still beloved Pass and Provisions, a massive lobster raviolo, and decadent desserts like tiramisu and a frothy cocktail consisting of pistachio and amaretto.

Julie Soefer

Okto

Housed in the Montrose Collective in the former location of Chelsea, this new restaurant is a fun place to grab a drink and enjoy a fusion of Mediterranean cuisines. Highlights include memorable Moroccan-style Frena bread service, refreshing crudo, and steak Rossini, a tenderloin topped with a tender chunk of foie gras. The breezy outdoor patio is a prime place to unwind.

Buttermilk Baby

Carvel’s signature ice cream is officially served in Texas for the first time at this new-school diner. Berg Hospitality’s newest all-day cafe in MKT Heights dishes out breakfast items like pancakes and biscuit sandwiches, smash burgers, and corn dogs. The cafe also offers 10 Carvel soft-serve flavors that fuel icy creations, including boozy adult milkshakes and sundaes with customizable toppings. The opening was such a hit that Carvel and Berg are teaming up for another 10 locations of Buttermilk Baby in Texas, including a second outpost slated for Sugar Land.

Kirsten Gilliam

Dandelion Cafe - the Heights

As a follow-up to its Bellaire flagship and satellite location at Rice University, the all-day breakfast location has opened its most prominent and central location in Houston’s Heights. Diners can enjoy breakfast favorites like its lauded chicken and waffles, blueberry lemon curd blueberry French toast sticks, cover-the-plate pancakes, and paninis — all in its new bright digs, which feature a spacious outdoor patio that seats 20. There are plans to debut grab-and-go products and market goods sometime in the future.

The Fox Trap Restaurant & Lounge

Located at 11470 Westheimer Road, this massive new sports lounge announced its opening in September, just in time to fully enjoy football and patio season. The Fox Trap features a spacious dining room and bar area with over 50 HD screens, reserved spaces for VIPs, a patio, and a game room, which features billiards, ping pong, and a stage for live music and entertainment. Executive chef Jimmie Farley, a New Orleans native, leads the dining experience with a menu featuring bar bites like flatbreads, boudin egg rolls, and sliders, in addition to entrees like jambalaya and shrimp and crab alfredo, and New Orleans-style beignets for dessert. Drinks are just as festive with blackberry basil sangria, lavender lemon drops, and grilled pineapple margaritas.

Loro - Upper Kirby

Austin-based pitmaster Aaron Franklin and chef Tyson Cole opened the first Houston outpost of his Texas Asian smokehouse in the Heights in 2022 and recently followed it up with another location in Upper Kirby. Along with staple dishes like its cold sesame noodles and herb-laden brisket, the Upper Kirby outpost will exclusively debut dishes, including pork tostadas served with creme fraiche and shishito salsa verde, smoked shishito queso served with wonton chips, smoked pulled pork sandwiches, double smash burgers stacked with yuzu, Thousand Island dressing, cheese, and grilled onions, and Dole Whip soft serve served with yuzu marmalade and candied pineapple. Diners can also indulge in its new lunch feature, the Lunch Two Step, in which guests can choose a sandwich and half a side for $15.