Burger Bodega, the halal smash burger spot that turned a backyard pop-up into one of Houston's most talked-about restaurants, has locked in an opening date for its long-awaited Katy location. The new restaurant at 21904 Franz Rd. will open its doors at 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 19, with a grand-opening vendor market and a menu of smash burgers, chopped cheese sandwiches, loaded fries, and specialty milkshakes.
The Katy expansion was first announced back in 2024, according to CultureMap Houston, and the wait has given chef-owner Abbas Dhanani time to scale up his concept considerably. The Katy restaurant sits at 3,000 square feet, according to Community Impact's coverage of the site's licensing filings, nearly double the footprint of the original Washington Avenue location, which opened in November 2022 inside a converted 1,600-square-foot fire station that served Houston from 1937 to 1991, per Houston Food Finder. The new build carried an estimated $1.5 million construction budget, and it seats just over 100 people, per CultureMap Houston, with an outdoor patio, indoor seating, and curbside pickup that the original firehouse space never had room for.
From Instagram Reviews to a Second Storefront
Dhanani's path to opening a restaurant began online. He built his local following by launching the Instagram review account @houstoneatz in 2011 and running 22 pop-up events across Houston in 2021 before ever opening a physical storefront, according to My Neighborhood News. That grassroots groundwork paid off: Burger Bodega won Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year at the 2024 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, and The Infatuation named it one of the best burgers in America as part of its 2023 roundup, a recognition also noted by the Southern Smoke Foundation. The Houston Chronicle later included the restaurant on its Top 100 Restaurants of 2025 list, following what the Southern Smoke Foundation describes as an A-plus review from former food critic Alison Cook shortly after the 2022 launch.
“Katy is one of the most vibrant, food-loving communities in the Houston area,” Dhanani said, according to CultureMap Houston. He added that the grand opening is for everyone who supported Burger Bodega from its backyard pop-up days. Dhanani has kept building out his food ventures since then, launching Bas's Cheesesteak Window in June 2025 to run pop-ups and recurring cheesesteak specials directly out of Burger Bodega, per the Southern Smoke Foundation.
A Menu Rooted in Houston Culture
The Katy menu carries over the flagship's signatures: smash burgers, New York-style chopped cheese sandwiches, and sandwiches made with halal beef. Fries come loaded and thin-cut under the names “Chopped” and “Screwed,” an explicit homage to Houston's chopped-and-screwed hip-hop culture, topped with cheese sauce, onions, and bodega sauce, according to Houston Food Finder. Milkshake flavors include mango lassi and Vietnamese coffee, rounding out a drink menu built around the same cultural references that shaped the food.
The Katy space also gets its own visual identity. Houston artist Matthew Tabor, known for designing logos at several high-profile local restaurants, created Burger Bodega's bubble-letter branding and built a wall of faux bodega products for the new location, the Houston Chronicle reports. Muralist Donkeeboy commissioned local artists Mister G and Space City Art Kreations to create a mural for the site as well.
Part of a Bigger Katy Building Boom
Burger Bodega's move west places it among a wave of inner-loop Houston brands chasing suburban growth. The restaurant was registered as one of 10 commercial development projects along the Franz Road corridor in Katy in late 2024, according to Community Impact, a sign of how the area's rapid population expansion has turned it into a destination for established local restaurant groups. That suburban pull mirrors a broader shift in Texas fast-casual dining: halal smash burger concepts have been expanding statewide, with brands like Smash City running late-night food truck operations in both Houston and Austin this year.
For the grand opening, Burger Bodega will host a vendor market alongside its Saturday morning debut, with additional details being shared on Instagram. Fans of the original Washington Avenue firehouse location will find a familiar menu at Franz Road, just with more room to eat it.
