Texas Monthly adds and updates approximately sixty restaurant listings to our Dining Guide each month. There’s limited space in the print issue, but the entire searchable guide to the best of Texas cuisine is at your fingertips online!

Below are a few highlights from the new restaurants reviewed in our November 2020 issue. Click “More Info” for further detail on each restaurant:

Houston

Bludorn

Superstar chef marries a daughter of the local Pappas restaurant family, quits NYC for Houston, and opens an eponymous restaurant—great news in the midst of COVID-19. Order this to go: tender squash blossoms filled with creamy basil-tinted ricotta and topped with sweet pepper jam; cioppino, a silky smooth broth stocked with snowy white crabmeat, snapper, tender shrimp, mussels, clams, and mashed tomatoes. Also a great bet: ravioli stuffed with predictably rich beef from short ribs set off with sweet figs, red onion, and blue cheese. Skip the undercooked carrots. Pro tip: The dining room is open, but the food is just as good to go.

New American | ⭑⭑ | $$$$ | More Info

McAllen

Container Taco Factory

Two repurposed shipping containers imaginatively transformed into an eclectic eatery, Container Taco Factory is part art piece, part taqueria, part juice and smoothie bar, and entirely cool. Order this to go: We kept it simple with an order of five mini bistek tacos with grilled onions and cilantro and their hearty homemade salsa. Pro tip: You can call in your order to take home, but we opted to enjoy our food at one of the comfortably spaced outdoor tables.

Mexican | ⭑⭑ | $ | More Info

San Antonio

Delia’s

When this Rio Grande Valley favorite opened in August, lines of cars 75 deep and two-hour waits were not unusual, but things calmed down pretty quickly (at least in off hours), and we waited only a few minutes for our sack of steaming-hot, foil-wrapped bounty. Order this to go: tamales, period. “Specializing in tamales” is the tagline, after all, and that’s about all they’ve got (though you can order menudo on weekends). Choose a half dozen or dozen of almost twenty varieties, including cream cheese and jalapeño, banana leaf–wrapped veracruzana, and finely shredded lean pork with just the right bite of masa. Some, like the fresh corn, aren’t served in San Antonio. Pro tip: Holed up beyond the RGV or San Antonio? Delia’s has a mail order business, shipping frozen tamales to your door. The website includes handy and appropriate reheating instructions (a comal is the way to go).

Mexican | ⭑⭑ | $ | More Info

Houston

Musaafer

This posh new restaurant in the Galleria serves classic Indian cuisine—and some new dishes—with flair. The chefs visited 29 states of India to research their menu. The name, appropriately, means “traveler.” Order this to go: Mithu’s Coriander Prawns come with a little loaf of buttery bread, perfect to mop up a complex, luscious coriander-laced sauce topped with six giant prawns. Butter chicken served on skewers afloat in a rich tomato-based sauce is great with basmati rice and garlicky naan. Tasty though a bit salty is their version of palak paneer, two log-shaped bars of cheese in a deep green puree of spinach. Pro tip: For curbside pickup, turn from Westheimer into the entrance nearest Saks Fifth Avenue. Just east of Saks, near the Fig and Olive, will be a valet, who will alert the staff to bring your order down.

Indian | ⭑⭑ | $$$ | More Info

Houston

Kin Dee Thai Cuisine

New to Houston, this polished Heights spot is named for the Thai phrase “eat well,” and indeed you will. Anticipate traditional Thai classics: satay skewers, steamed dumplings, soulful soups, curries, and artfully arranged main plates starring noodles (including pad thai of course). Order this to go: Creamy—and righteously spicy—green curry chicken with breast meat, slightly sweet caramelized eggplant, and a kiss of Thai basil alongside bundles of vermicelli noodles. Also good, Thai fried rice aromatic with garlic and packed with shrimp, pork, scallions, and broccoli. Another winner: shrimp casserole slow-roasted in a clay pot with plump steamed shrimp, tamarind sauce, sprouts, and snap peas over glass noodles. Expect a liberal amount of oil in most dishes. Pro tip: Choose your heat level; “medium” suits us. Plan to pick up right after you order online—they do not offer future times for pickup. All parking is behind the building.

Thai | ⭑⭑ | $$$ | More Info

 

Rating System

Our reviews are written by critics who live in the cities and regions they cover. They remain anonymous to ensure that they receive no special treatment. The magazine pays for all meals and accepts no advertising or other consideration in exchange for a listing. Comments? .