Eat our way around Texas

Starting from half of September my husband and I (we live in the Netherlands) will visit Texas for three weeks.
We will arrive at Dallas Fort Worth airport. The first 2 nights we will stay in Arlington but after that everything is open.
We will at least visit San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, Houston, Amarillo (and their surrounding areas) but not in this particular order.
Through this website we already decided we should at least visit places like the Little Diner in Canutillo and the Blue Bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls.
Does have anybody some suggestions on where to eat? Also, what are specialties in Texas? (besides steaks I guess).
What should we avoid?

Sounds like a great trip. Texas is well represented in this website's listings. I don't think you'll go wrong at any of the dozens of restaurants listed by the Sterns on the pull-down menu for this state. Each city you named has its own specialities. You will especially enjoy yourselves if you are meat eaters, although good seafood is not hard to find, particularly in the Houston area.

My top recommendation is brisket or any of the other meats served for lunch at Kreuz Market in Lockhart. I also like the Salt Lick Barbecue in Driftwood. Both of these places are within a short drive of Austin.

quote:

Originally posted by Aïda

...what are specialties in Texas? (besides steaks I guess).
What should we avoid?

It's a big state, with a lot of specialties. Among my favorites that may not be unique to Texas, but are generally at their best there are: chicken-fried steak, bbq brisket and sausages, pecan pie, anything Tex-Mex, and Gulf seafood in and around Houston. You'd think that chili would be a specialty, too, but we've found precious few restaurants that make great Texas chili. If you find any, please post news of them here!

Hi jpatweb,

Thanks for your response. I had already printed all the reviews from this site but am looking for additional recommendations.
As said we will visit the places already mentioned and to get from one place to another we will drive the best route according to the recommended restaurants along that route (if you understand what I mean).
I found the site for Salt Lick Barbecue. Looks very appealing!
Thanks again!

A couple of comments, then I'll make some Austin recommendations:

Blue Bonnet Cafe is a great choice (I haven't tried the Little Diner.) Salt Lick is a great choice, and the sauce is the "star" there. In Lockhart, you can choose Kreuz, Smitty's, Black's, or Chisholm Trail. I still like Kreuz, but try their homemade sausage. (Order it with crackers instead of white bread, and get a Big Red; they'll think you're a "native". )

Michael is right about the chili; although it's our official state dish, most of the good ol' chili parlors have gone by the wayside, so the best chili you can get is in someone's home. However, in Austin, you could try Texas Chili Parlor on Lavaca.

A few places in Austin:

A "specialty" breakfast here is Migas or Huevos Rancheros. The best for both is Joe's Bakery on east 7th. They also have great coffee.

Go to Martin's KumBak (AKA "Dirty's") on Guadalupe for burgers, fries, and shakes/malts.

For chicken fried steak, go to Hill's Cafe on south Congress. Many people also like Threadgill's, north on Lamar (the original), or south at Riverside and 1st. Both have lots of good food to offer besides CFS, and both are old Austin institutions.

You have many choices for Mexican. I like Guero's on south Congress, Nuevo Leon on east 6th, Jaime's on Red River, Curra's on Oltorf, El Patio on Guadalupe.

BBQ; the previous recs are good. In Austin, Sam's BBQ is great, or drive to Taylor for Louie Mueller's, considered by many to be the best in Texas.

There's an old steakhouse on west 6th named the Hoffbrau. This is not affiliated at all with the national chain of the same name. Great for simple steaks, and they make a salad with a killer green olive dressing.

If you want to experience a real Texas dancehall, go to the Broken Spoke on south Lamar.

Looks like you've already searched for the Texas restaurants from the homepage on this site, and I'm sure others will chime in. Have fun!

Mi Tierra in San Antonio is the best Mexican dining experience I've had. Great food, festive atmosphere and very interesting bakery. Be prepared to wait for a table.

In Dallas you should not miss the original Sonny Bryan's on Inwood just northeast of Harry Hines Blvd. For chicken fried steak my 2 top suggestions are Gennies Bishop Grill in the Oak Cliff area south of downtown, and my favorite, the Mecca, on Harry Hines Blvd. just north of Northwest Highway (loop 12). Mecca has great breakfasts too. They all close by midafternoon, so go early.

On the drive from Waco to Austin, you'll want to go via Taylor, Texas for a stop at Louie Mueller BBQ. This is one of the top 3 BBQ places in the state. You already know about Kreuz in Lockhart. While there you may as well go to Smitty's which is the original location of Kreuz, and Blacks. The courthouse square in Lockhart is a classic.

"The" place in Amarillo is the Big Texan Steak Ranch. The main attraction is a 72 oz steak with all the trimmings that costs $50 but is free if you can eat it all in 60 minutes. I have a great article about this to forward. E-mail me with your address.

I'm sure Bushie will be chiming in with his suggestions. He will be your best resource. There are other topics on the boards for Texas. Look under Where to Eat.

I'm jealous of all the good eating you're going to do.

And there's Bushie, snuck in while I was typing[:)

I found good chili at a little lunch only place called "Jenn's" on the corner of Alpha and Omega near the Galleria north of Dallas near Addison.

quote:

Originally posted by signman

And there's Bushie, snuck in while I was typing[:)

I'm sneaky that way.

Aida - I am so glad that you and your husband are coming to visit our beautiful state. I hope you have a wonderful time!

I can make some recommendations for you in the Houston area
The Spanish Village on Almeda has been open since 1947. It serves the kind of Tex-mex food we grew up on, you won't find any "nuevo" cuisine there! The food is delicious, the decor early 1950's Tex-mex, the magaritas are great as well. The walls are covered with photographs of happy diners wearing a sombrero for the picture of their birthday, anniversaries etc....My husbad and I try to meet for lunch there at least twice a month.

This Is It! Is an absolutely fabulous soul food restaurant that was opened by a retired Houston firefighter. It is served cafeteria style and in HUGE amounts. Excellent people watching. Here is the website-
www.thisisithouston.com

For seafood, one of my favorites is Gaido's at 3800 Seawall Blvd. 409-762-9625 in Galveston. It has been in business for I believe 80 years and has fabulous food. You can get a table overlooking the gulf. If you stay in Galveston, there are several wonderful old mansions to tour. They are all of the Victorian period and survived the hurricane of 1900. There is the Moody mansion, Ashton Villa (which is haunted and has a great story to it), and the Bishop's palace.

A tour of the houses, shopping in the strand and ending with a wonderful meal at Gaido's would be a perfect day!

There are many other seafood restaraunts in Houston and Galveston, and you really can't go wrong with the Pappadeux chain.

Please let me know if you need other suggestions!

Lone Star, What do you know about Thelmas BBQ?

Wow everybody! Thanks a lot for all the information. I have been a regular reader at this forum since its start (living in the Netherlands no contributions though) but am still surprised at all the information I got. I am sure I can build a great itinerary using all of your information.
When we return home I will let you know how it was.

Signman -

I have not been there, but I have talked to a lot of people who used to escape the downtown lunch scene to eat at Thelma's. Her food is fabulous and generous, but since all of the publicity, they have been swamped and are having a hard time coping with it. It really is just Thelma and a couple of other people in this little house, and apparently the wait is very long now.

Hopefully she will adjust to the "growing pains" so everyone can enjoy her barbeque.

Hi Signman,

Look here for reviews for Thelma's. Some are great, some not, do not know exactly what to make of it....
http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaurants/reviews/rsv2318.asp

What a great site for Houston reviews. Thanks for sharing.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Stern

quote:

Originally posted by Aïda

...what are specialties in Texas? (besides steaks I guess).
What should we avoid?

It's a big state, with a lot of specialties. Among my favorites that may not be unique to Texas, but are generally at their best there are: chicken-fried steak, bbq brisket and sausages, pecan pie, anything Tex-Mex, and Gulf seafood in and around Houston. You'd think that chili would be a specialty, too, but we've found precious few restaurants that make great Texas chili. If you find any, please post news of them here!

There is a little resturant called "The Grill" in Dalhart, Tx. that serves great Chili, a lot of snowbirds stop there on their way down to Arizona.

Top attraction in Central Texas is Round Rock Donuts. They are in Round Rock four blocks from I-35 and open from 4AM to about 3PM. 15 miles north of Austin.
Their website is www.roundrockdonuts.com

For barbecue here, I would reccommend Green Mesquite on Riverside Drive near Lamar in Austin.

There will be an article on Round Rock Donuts in the August. 2003 Southern Living (magazine).

AIDA

You are talking about covering at least 3000km in 21 days and that is driving federal interstate and major state highways where the food and the view is generic and will give you no clue as to the cuisine, vistas, and character of this great state

Please post your plans in more detail and I, a fifty five, life long, well traveled resident of Texas will assist to the best of my abilities

Hi Bookem,

Thanks for your kind offer! Although it is only a little more than 5 weeks away I must admit that, due to various reasons like a death in the family, we have not yet figured out our complete itinerary yet.
However, I will tell you where we would like to go, what we like and don't like etc. I don't know, but maybe the things we would like to see are "to touristy" for your liking.
Also, I would hope to avoid the interstate highways and like to use scenic routes wherever possible. So here goes:
We will be landing in Dallas, first two nights will be spend in Arlington to fight the jetlag. We want to go to the place where JFK got shot and see what there is to do in Fort Worth. We will go to Houston for the space center, Austin for the capitol and maybe take in some music, San Antonio for the Alamo and the River walk, Amarillo for the Helium Ranch (maybe try to take a detour to Oklahoma City to see that memorial for the bombing), El Paso, I have no idea what there is to see over there except that I heard there is some kind of scenic route through the Franklin Mountains, from El Paso we would like to make a detour (or what do you call it) to go to Carlsbad Caverns, which are obviously not in Texas, maybe go to South Padre Island since I do (yeah I admit it is strange!) collect sand, also I would like to find some shells. All of this not in this particular order of course!
We like a lot of stuff. We like to see how things worked in the old days, for instance I heard there is an oil museum in Kilgore. So things about the state and how it came about. I heard there is a museum about the history of the state, if I remember correctly it is in Austin. We like to see "real American stuff" so no 'paintings of European masters' since there is enough of that overhere.
Further we like aquariums and zoos, basically anything with animals.
We would like to visit some festivals. Two years ago we were at the "Apple Harvest Festival" in Pennsylvania. Stuff like that, you get the picture.
We love to do factory tours, two years ago we were at Snyders of Hanover in Pennsylvania, last year we were at Budweisers and Jelly Belly in California.
Besides that we love to shop and eat. We are not seafood lovers. We love to discover were the locals go.
Also as said before we love driving scenic routes. We love to drive, period. We like nature in general but are not hikers or anything.
In Arlington we will go to a Texas Rangers game. We went to baseball games before but are still not exactly sure about how it works with the innings etc.
Never mind, we love the atmosphere and everything that happens in the stadium.
Hope this gives a picture of what we like.

Regards,
Aïda

Hi,

Let me just dash off a few lines and maybe I'll have more later. Thanks for your specific lists of interests. I hope you like to drive like you say because you're going to be doing a lot of it if you're going to cover all that territory. For festivals, here's a link (I'm new to this site but I believe we're not actually supposed to post links): go to houstonchronicle.com, click on 'Lifestyle and Features,' then click on 'Texas Magazine.' There's a monthly list of festivals, statewide. No such list can be comprehensive in a state as big as TX, but that'll give you some ideas. The list is published only once a month in the paper, but I think it stays up on the internet all month. I guess you won't actually be here until sometime in September so you can return after the first of the month to find those that'll be going on while you're here. You're missing a chili cookoff in Lewisville and the World Championship Goat Cook-off in Brady this month.

Aquaria: the Texas State Aquarium is at Corpus Christi, the Sea Center of Texas is at my home town, Lake Jackson, 50 miles south of Houston. I'm not really sure what the difference is between the two facilities.

Yes there is a state historical museum at Austin; relatively new; I haven't been. Also to see there, State Capitol, LBJ Library and many other things. There's a museum of the Pacific War (WWII) at Fredericksburg and Admiral Chester Nimitz museum; LBJ ranch is not far away. I'll let others more familiar with the area comment on places to eat other than BBQ: I think City Market in Luling is the best all round BBQ place in the state, Black's in Lockhart is my second choice. Louie Mueller in Taylor wins in the 'atmosphere' ratings and ain't bad barbecue at all. You have to understand, in Texas, we take barbecue as seriously as Guide Michelin takes haute cuisine and we squabble endless about who does it best.

There's lots of places of historical interest concerning German settlement in Texas in the 1830s and 40s around New Braunfels, between Austin and San Antonio (also out around Fredericksburg). While in NB, stop at Naegelin's Bakery, just off the square, and stock up on some delicious pastries to snack on as you travel. It's the oldest bakery in Texas and it's good stuff.

Besides the Alamo, Goliad was a major battle of the Texas Revolution, 'Remember Goliad' is as familiar a battle cry to Texas school children as 'Remember the Alamo.' Visit the Goliad State Historical Park, Presidio la Bahia and Mission Espiritu Santo de Zuniga just south of Goliad. (There are of course several missions in San Antonio to visit besides the Alamo). I don't know of any eats around Goliad but along US 90 between Houston and San Antonio, stop at the Spoetzel Brewery in Shiner for a tour.

At San Felipe de Austin, along Interstate 10 around Sealy, is a little historical park, tho I can't recall right now what happened there! The Star of Texas Museum, Barrington Living History Farm and Anson Jones house (last president of the Republic of Texas) are located at Washington-on-the-Brazos, near Navasota. This is where the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico was crafted and signed. While you're there you're not far from a tour of the Blue Bell Creamery, our home state ice cream, at Brenham, and Ruthie's in Navasota, an excellent place to get some East Texas/Southern Black falling-off-the-bone style BBQ.

As you travel the roads of TX you'll notice signs that say 'Historical Marker ahead, 1 Mile.' These would be one way to learn a little about history as you pass thru, altho most commemorate history that's of interest mainly locally, rather than for it's impact on the history of the state. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of these markers and there's even a book published about them, 'Roadside Markers of Texas' or something like that.

It's way past my bedtime! I'll post later more recs about the Houston area and S. Texas.

Thanks Hermitt! All that typing you did, it is amazing! I'll put your info to good use. Will let you and the others know how it was when we get back.

You sound like you will be in Austin for the Austin City Limits Music Festival. I highly reccomend it. Also, while many people covered great restaurants, how about an amazing grocery store? While it is no longer unique to AUstin, Central Market is someplace that has to be seen to be believed.

Also, for that real Texas Dancehall deal I reccomend Gruene Dancehall in Gruene, Tx and the John T Floore's Country Store in Helotes. Both of these are short drives (and beautiful drives) from Austin or San Antonio and you will be primarily with locals having a great time, as they are a little off of the tourist beaten paths.

Head for the Continental Club on S Congress in Austin. It's been open forever and is about as real a version of a honky tonk as you can find in Austin. On Tuesday night is Hippy Happy Hour. A great singer named Toni Price appears at 5:30. You can see two hours of music and still go to dinner at a decent hour.

Sorry about the non food related talk, but music and food are both equally important to me and as far as I am concerned go together like beer and crawfish.

Aida,

The problem/beauty of Texas is that it is so huge it is hard to cover. Based on your itinerary, when you are travelling from Houston to Austin (I assume via 290) you MUST stop by Royers Round Top Cafe! Mr. Stern has a review on this site with a link to their web page and directions (it's actaully only about 6-7 miles off of 290). Their food is very atypical considering their location and their pies are the best I have ever eaten. But the big secret about this place that I luckily discovered on our last visit was the OUT OF THIS WORLD Bread Pudding smothered in a buttery-caramel sauce. Incredible!

For beautiful drives in Texas, you have to head to the Texas Hill Country. Here you will find several great barbecue places (Cooper's in Mason and Cooper's in Llano [family ties]) along the way. Fredericksburg is a must. Blue Bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls, for breakfast (voted best breakfast in Texas by Texas Highways) is a must as well (also reviewed on this site). Let us know how it goes when you are done.

Wow, y'all have done a good job describing the sights!

If you are going to the Space Center, then you will want to end your day at the Kemah boardwalk. It is an area filled with many good seafood restaurants, my favorites being the Flying Dutchman and Pappaduex's.

The Aquarium restaurant is there as well, and although I would not say it has the best seafood, it is really a wonderful dining experience. The aquariums are floor to ceiling and surround you as you dine. The aquarium in the lobby as you enter is cylindrical and two stories high. It is really beautiful, and I would recommend it as you love aquariums.

After dinner, you can stroll around the boardwalk, look in the shops, and ride the ferris wheel!

Don't forget the Goode Company BBQ and the Cadillac Bar in Houston.

I second the suggestion to visit Central Market while in Austin. Although it IS a grocery store, it's quite a place. The last time I visited, I counted 25 kinds of potatoes. They have a website listing all their locations. They are now in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio as well. The south Austin location is sort of on the way to Lockhart, and I know you are not planning to leave the Austin-San Antonio area without a stop there for the best BBQ brisket anywhere.

Aida,
I noticed you mentioned the Oil Museum in Kilgore. I highly recommed it and seeing what's left of the East Texas Oilfield. Check it out, really! You might try Bodacious BBQ while you're in the Kilgore area also.