Texas Monthly’s 2026 list of the 10 Best New Restaurants just gave Houston a major food-world flex: four of the ten picks are from the Bayou City, and the magazine tapped Agnes and Sherman as its Restaurant of the Year. The list highlights restaurants that opened between Dec. 1, 2024 and Oct. 31, 2025, and its picks stretch from Houston all the way to Paris, Texas. For local diners, the honors underscore a familiar beat: Houston’s blend of pop-up incubators, immigrant kitchens and polished neighborhood spots keeps turning out places critics cannot ignore.
Texas Monthly’s list and Houston’s showing
Writer Paula Forbes assembled the rankings, and the feature puts Agnes and Sherman at the top while also naming Zaranda, Di An Pho and Latuli among the ten statewide standouts, according to CultureMap Houston. The CultureMap summary notes that this year’s picks are spread across Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and a curveball entry in Paris, Texas, signaling that the magazine’s spotlight is not fixed on any one metro.
Four Houston restaurants named
Houston’s quartet of honorees covers a lot of ground. Agnes and Sherman, an Asian American diner in the Heights, leads the pack as Restaurant of the Year. Zaranda is Hugo Ortega’s downtown seafood project that blends California and Baja influences. Di An Pho brings chef Hung Van Tran’s take on pho to Chinatown, while Latuli is Bryan Caswell’s neighborhood restaurant in Memorial. Local guides have been tracking these openings from the start; Eater Houston has mapped out the newcomers and offered context on how each one broke through the noise.
Why Houston keeps showing up
Houston’s strong performance in the rankings is not exactly a fluke. The city’s restaurant pipeline, from pop-up experiments to full brick-and-mortar launches, combined with recent nods from national tastemakers, has kept it front and center on year-end lists. Agnes and Sherman, for instance, has been on critics’ radar since opening and picked up a Michelin Guide recommendation, part of a wave of coverage detailed by the Houston Chronicle, which helps explain why it emerged as the state’s headliner.
For anyone who wants to dig into every restaurant on the list, KHOU has an itemized segment and breakdown available from KHOU. CultureMap Houston carries a written summary that links directly to the original Texas Monthly feature, and for deeper background on Agnes and Sherman’s opening and early buzz, readers can look back at earlier Hoodline coverage.
