Texas (TX)

We have visited a few times already since our family and friends live in Texas (TX). It’s a big state, with tons of food and people. We were supposed to go on this huge family/friends’ cruise trip from TX to Mexico in Jan 2021 but it got postponed due to COVID. Then, we never rebooked and gave away our credits to folks going on another cruise.

Future plans: We definitely plan to go back to visit the Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains national parks, as well as the nearby national parks in NM (White Sands, Carlsbad Cavern). We also would like to check out Corpus Christi to fish one day, it looks similar to the Outer Banks, NC. We also want to check out the largest state fair and Renn Fest in TX, as compared to the one we went to Minnesota. 

I’ve split up each Houston, TX trips into two sections to cover the Food scenes and Attractions. So if you’re in a particular area, you can check out my recommendations by selecting the below buttons and expanding the sections.

Austin/San Antonio (2013)
Houston (2017)
Houston/Austin (2018)
Houston (2021)

Houston & NOLA - Aug 2021

Jackson Square

I made a last minute decision to tag along with folks down to Houston and work remotely for a few days. I stayed with a college friend for the weekend (3 nights) and then 2 nights with family before we drove 2 days back to MD.

We made a quick stop at New Orleans (NOLA) on the way home as I’ve never been before but heard about the yummy food and famous Bourbon street. It is quite a party town for sure. COVID was still around (even if vaccines were available in spring 2021) so we wore masks when in public. Sometimes you forget it’s a pandemic when you take it off to eat/drink.

Northern Houston Eats

  1. Pinkerton’s BBQ – Delicious local BBQ, think they ran out of beef ribs so we had to settle for other meats (1 lb brisket, 1 boudin, 1 jalapeno sausage, 1 qt mac cheese with bacon) and shared a smoked bread pudding with cheese and blueberry sauce.
  2. Granel Spice Market – You can measure out all kinds of spices you want!
  3. Reyes Produce – Local grocery store where we grabbed some meats for the backyard pool party at my friend’s friend house.
  4. Houston Farmer’s Market – It’s an open air but covered market, it houses so many different vendors of cooking pots, clothes, to produce and Mexican brand snacks!
  5. Shipley Do-Nuts (chain, had it back in 2017) – Asked my friend to pick up a blueberry cake donut and Kolache (sausage cheese) for me after she got back from work.
  6. El Bolilo – Bakery of all kinds of treats!! We tried all types of sweets and fresh hot tamales, it was very filling.
  7. Angela’s Oven bakery for breakfast. We walked all the way there and got a pain fromage with egg that morning. It was nice to see all the dif types of houses on the walk.
  8. The Waffle Bus – I was craving some chicken waffles (Chicken Waffle Fryder, 4 chicken tenders and waffles with spicy mayo), but this did not satisfy my taste buds. Waffle fries were good though.

Southern Houston Eats

  1. Our first meal was dim sum carryout. Not sure where I got wontons and Taiwanese popcorn chicken but it was delicious as always.
  2. Ate some homemade dishes for dinner, as I still worked half day on Tues.
  3. Ate the rest of my El Bolilo’s box of treats, including a rich chocolate cake slice.
  4. Went to Galleria mall to shop around and ate the infamous Raising Canes (from food court) – delicious chicken tenders, fries and toast!
  5. It’s not a trip with a visit to ECK Bakery for flaky egg tarts and fresh mango mochi!!!!!!! Cash only! We also got some more dim sum at Ocean Palace and tofu dishes at Thahm Tam Tofu on the way home.
  6. Three Brothers Bakery for delicious pecan pie – it was so sweet though!
  7. It’s also not complete without a carryout dinner from Pho Vn 21
  8. U Village for Taiwanese breakfast food, we ordered 4 fried sticks, 5 soy milk, 2 sticky rice roll, 5 veggies steamed buns, 4x pork/chives pan fried buns, 4x beef pan fried buns, beef noodle soup – stuffed!
  9. Stopped by Tornado Taco as it was busy, thinking it’s good food. But my quesadilla and cheese taco was a bit soggy 🙁
  10. Shopped at a few more grocery stores: Seiwamarket, H mart. I found some more fresh mochi packages!
  11. Beard Papa’s (first time we had it was in CA and tried to find some in NY and DC) – this store is a chain across the nation, fresh cream puffs, filled upon ordering. I got “churros” and “s’mores” flavors.
  12. Also I had to get my fried fish from J&J Seafood, so I ordered#17: catfish and 6 oysters, with shrimp fried rice to share. So sad to hear they had a fire and closed down for now.
  13. We finished fried rice leftovers and took donuts before heading out to NOLA on Fri morning, which I took a day off for.

NOLA Eats

  1. La Boulangerie – Ordered online for pick up on the way into New Orleans, we got ham/cheese and chocolate almond croissants and chocolate bread pudding (it was very dense but delicious) for later.
  2. Willie Mae’s (in the Pythian Market) – Fried chicken tenders with a side of spicy mac/cheese at a stall with others, but it looks like it’s temporarily closed as of 2023. Street parking available. (I thought I took pictures but could not find it!)
  3. Cafe du monde (by riverwalk) – Fresh beignets, there was so much powdered sugar all over my face. It was so delicious. I don’t drink coffee but people say it’s the perfect combo.
  4. Willie’s chicken shack (multiple locations – chain) on Bourbon street. Delicious fresh chicken tenders and biscuits!!
  5. No time for po’boys and gumbo! Maybe next time – but it isn’t at the top of my list to visit again any time soon or ever.

I got to explore a little bit of northern Houston and found suburb streets that look like MD. Except, it’s one floor/level houses with nice pool backyard!

  1. Dan Electro’s for a no-frills casual bar with a $10 cover for live music (Ego Jones, Fishing in Japan). They were just kids!
  2. Partied at my friend’s friend’s pool/house most of Sunday. They were all so nice and welcoming. We also ate a lot!
  3. Shopping at Home Goods and Marshalls – my friend was doing some shopping and I was looking for postcards!

Then, we drove to New Orleans on the way home for quick bites (see the food scenes above). We walked around Jackson Square, saw the steamboats on the Mississippi River, and roamed the famous streets (Bourbon).

It wasn’t a holiday or anything, but people were partying it up on a Fri afternoon. I was quite disgusted by the noise, smell and sights. Also, no one seemed to care about COVID anymore (no mask wearing), I was ready to go after a few hours. We could only eat so much during this short time and booked it north to stay a night in Alabama to rest up.

Houston & Austin - Jan 2018

We took another friend’s trip to visit family and celebrate friend’s birthday in Jan. Much cooler weather and the flight was cheap ($68/1-way)!

Houston Eats

  1. Late dinner at Guadalajara Mexican grille (we tried to go to El Tiempo Cantina, everyone says it’s so good, but the wait was so long on Sat night) – We tried some steak, chicken, and rice/beans.
  2. Singapore Cafe in Sugarland, looks like they’ve closed too (at least it’s marked as permanently closed on Google maps)
  3. HK cafe, ECK bakery, bubble egg and bubble tea afterwards…
  4. Popeye’s and Raising Cane’s – local chicken tenders chain, it is better than chick fil a tenders!! We ordered a platter one night and waited in the parking lot for it. It was still delicious the next morning. I’m so happy to see it’s finally opening up in MD after 5 years!
  5. Pho Vn 21 (closest place that was still open due to the flood)
  6. Best Donuts for breakfast
  7. Gyro King (similar to the Halal Guys carts in Baltimore) for lunch
  8. J&J Seafood for dinner (the usual fried fish, shrimp, rolls and rice!)
  9. Kolaches (at a local place – not recorded where, maybe at Shipley Do-nuts)
  10. Another round of Pho for lunch
  11. Visited both places for drinks before dinner: Anvil Bar (fancy cocktails), Stone’s Throw (sadly they are closed too)
  12. Chama gaucha (similar to Fogo brazilian steakhouse, but apparently it’s better – I don’t eat meat often so I am not a good judge)
  13. Another round of HK cafe and bubble milk tea
  14. Kasian Kitchen Crawfish & Seafood, last meal near airport
  15. I believe Fung’s Kitchen was under reno so we went to another dim sum restaurant. Not sure which one though: Golden Dim Sum (no carts, order on menu) or HK Dim Sum (both small, in Chinatown)

Food & Drinks in Austin

  1. Terry Black’s BBQ (amazing beef ribs!!)
  2. Rainey Street for dinner/drinks
    • The Alibi (no relationship to Shameless tv show but it definitely had drink-inspired named after the characters!)
    • Bangers – awesome place. On Rainey St. Great place to start a night. Outdoor music.

    • Pinthouse Pizza – Indoors. Good pizza. Great beer

    • Hops n Grain – close to Rainey St. Good beer

    • Craft Pride – next to Bangers. Rainey St. Great beer

    • Luigi’s Pizzeria (NY style) next door to eat in their garden while trying their beer

  3. In-N-Out Burger for the famous animal burgers
  4. Texas Honey Home Company (breakfast sandwiches)

We were supposed to go for 2 days to visit Austin and San Antonio but with the forecast of a snow storm, we cut it down to one night in Austin. It still snowed in the morning and all the way back to Houston, what a mess!

  1. Hiked Mount Bonnell, it was about 100+ steps to see the Colorado River (775 ft above sea level, highest point of Austin)
  2. Stopped by the HOPE Outdoor Gallery to see art work, which is now closed and they are building a new space by Austin airport
  3. Rainey Street – famous bar-hopping street with lots of night live and live music (see Food scenes section above for more information)

Houston - Jan 2017

Several years later, we made a trip down with our friends to visit family and celebrate a friend’s birthday. We ate all week! (Note: I didn’t back my original pictures on my Google drive and only found the ones I posted on my social media)

  1. Fung’s Kitchen for dim sum again!
  2. Homemade ramen and bday cake for the first night
  3. Best Donuts for breakfast
  4. Rudy’s BBQ – local TX chain, their rub isn’t my fav but their locations are large enough for big group seating.  We ordered 3lb moist brisket, 3lb baby back ribs, whole chicken, 1 lb turkey, 1lb prime rib, with sides of cream of corn, chili, and potato salad!
  5. I ordered some Margaritas drinks through a drive-thru  for fun, I think it’s called Jo’z Margaritas & More because it’s saved on my Google maps. They expect people to not drink it on the way home with a little tape over the hole/lid). We got the fuzzy navel, strawberry daiquiri, and pina colada to try.
  6. Homemade steaks and veggies 2nd night!
  7. Torchy’s Tacos – another local chain restaurant that sells yummy tacos and other Mexican street foods. We tried the Washingtonian, democrat and trailer park tacos and 5 orders of queso dip!
  8. Shopped at HEB (local grocery store brand)
  9. Pho carry out for 3rd night!
  10. Stopped by an Asian market, Ranch 99, got bubble tea and shopped around (this chain is also found on the East coast)
  11. Strings Noodle for lunch – I just saw they’re permanently closed, but fresh pulled noodles are always delicious. We had their lanzhong noodle soup, stewed lamb pulled noodle, cold appetizers – pork belly, pork shoulder, pork ears, pork bun.
  12. After pedaling around midtown and drinking, we ordered some pizza for late night snacking
  13. The Hot Bagel Shop for breakfast, yum – couldn’t find my picture of a bagel sandwich, but I’m pretty sure I ordered an everything bagel with eggs and cheese.
  14. Top Golf – We ordered beer pitchers, shots, Ketel One mule, and 5 appetizers… while folks hit around
  15. Izakaya-Wa (Japanese eatery) I remember grilled and fried skewers, chicken katsu curry, & sushi
  16. nu ice – had to get more shaved ice dessert!  Taro ice with mochi and condensed milk drizzle  🙂 – see above picture.
  17. Picked up Shipley Do-Nuts for more donuts!! – see below picture
  18. J & J Seafood Market – locally owned fresh seafood market, but you can place dishes to go. My fav were the fried fish filets of all sorts! (It looks like they are temporarily closed due to a fire) We got fried catfish, shrimp, oyster, okra, pickle chips, gumbo and shrimp fried rice!
  19. More pho carryout for 6th night!
  20. ECK Bakery (someone made an unofficial FB page) cash only, crispiest egg tarts and curry puffs are their specialty – we get them every time we visit.
  21. HK Cafe for yummy Asian dishes, such as, fried fish with sweet corn sauce on rice, curry shrimp fried rice, shrimp egg soup on flat noodle, bbq pork and duck rice, sautéed beef noodle, curry balls, peanut butter condensed milk toast – some not pictured
  22. Got ingredients to make homemade cheesesteaks with fresh Banh mi bread for 7th night!
  23. On our last day, we ate at one of the many Pho restaurants in town, it was our last meal before getting on the plane!
  24. We also ordered dozens of egg tarts from ECK Bakery a few days prior to take home with us to share. It smelled so good the whole flight home 🙂 The Hobby airport also was decorated to welcome the 51st Super Bowl that year at the NRG stadium.

Since it was a big group, it was harder to plan events. Everyone has different interests and energy! But we all like to do one thing: eat and drink!

I recall they went gun shooting near Galveston one afternoon but I stayed in and binge watched shows, such as, Shameless and The Magicians! Shameless was addictive and I guess they were already on season 6 so I had a lot of episodes to catch up on.

I also recall stopping by a mall after Rudy’s BBQ lunch to shop at stores. I know we also went to Top Golf to swing a few balls and, of course, we ordered some appetizers and drinks.

We also booked the bike party tour (Houston Bike Bar) and we stopped at a bunch of breweries for drinks. You’re allowed to drink and pedal with the guide, 16 person max. The pedaling was a lot of work (for short legs like mine) and I felt like we were going so SLOW for how much we were pedaling! People were taking pictures of us as we passed. It was ridiculous but when in Texas….

  1. Couldn’t remember the first bar’s name! Just that I had to run in for a bathroom break.
  2. 8th Wonder Brewery & Distillery – outdoor scene since it’s typically warm year-round.
  3. King’s Court – a unique castle bar, sadly they only lasted 6 yrs and closed in 2022.

Houston, Austin & San Antonio - Aug 2013

I’ll try my best to recollect where and what we got at each place but this was 10 yrs ago! I’m using pictures and pieces of memories to put together a list. Most are within Houston, unless specified in parentheses.

I surely appreciate the direct flight to Houston, TX. But I caution about going in summer time (e.g. August), it is typically hot and you’re just running in and out of AC-blasted locations. Since it was our first visit and our family hadn’t explored all the different places to eat, we could only get to a few a day.

  1. Fung’s Kitchen – daily dim sum.  They had pig blood soup! But I’ll stick with the normal dim sum dishes (shumai, shrimp fun, egg tarts are my favs).
  2. Costco sells alcohol! Yes, Maryland does not so it’s exciting to visit other Costco locations when we travel.
  3. Banana Leaf – Malaysian cuisine. It’s most likely this place, all I remember the food was delicious!
  4. nu ice –  They serve flavored shaved ice, you might want to share a bowl…. Super good taro flavor but I was already stuffed from dinner!
  5. Traders Village – Massive outdoor flea market/fairground, I just remember getting a legit Mexican street corn (grilled corn on cob with mayo, cheese, other seasoning) = Elote!
  6. Whataburger – It’s a fast food burger chain in the area, it takes a bit since it’s fresh made to order.
  7. Jack in the Box – Another fast food chain that’s not on the east coast, I believe we tried it on the drive to Austin or from San Antonio.
  8. Salt Lick BBQ (outside of Austin). We stopped here for lunch once and we didn’t realize how popular it was (until we saw youtubers post about it). There’s this huge open pit where the meat is cooked. We got a sampler platter and pecan pie with ice cream to top off my gluttony.
  9. Mexican restaurant by the Riverwalk (San Antonio). I don’t recall the restaurant name but I think it was downstairs and served large taco shells of food. Excuse the poor food pictures – camera phones weren’t great!
  10. Hong Kong cafe – They serve my fav dish, fried fish with corn sauce on top of rice!
  11. Little Daddy’s Gumbo (Galveston). We tried a seafood/meat gumbo and it was tasty as we visited Galveston for a day trip.
  12. Gatlin’s BBQ.  A small family owned BBQ. I recall standing in line inside a small house as soon as it opened and then I forgot to order sauce to go with the meat! I thought sauces came with it, either way – we ate so much meat before we got on the plane, which probably was not a great idea.
    • It looks like business was good because they got a proper restaurant site by 2015 (based on their website/pictures). I’d like to check them out again! (Also I didn’t have pictures this time)

In our week there, we spent some time in Houston and took 2 days to explore Austin and San Antonio. We also took a day trip to visit NASA and Galveston. See below for more info!

  1. Austin (2.5-3h hr northwest of Houston)
    • Barton Springs – A must-visit large natural pool fed by underwater springs (68-70 deg water, year round). Visit for a small fee!
    • San Marcos Premium Outlets – Situated between these two cities, got a few Columbia jackets on sale!
  2. San Antonio (3 hr west of Houston)
    • Riverwalk – Famous attraction of restaurants, shops and hotels along the river
    • The Alamo – Free admission, so we walked around the grounds and learned about the history (Note: there’s a free timed entry nowadays)
    • Historic Market Square – Houses a ton of Mexican vendors, so we bought some gifts for the family back at home. It was early (and hot) in the morning but I bet it’s bustling at night.
  3. Houston
    • Galleria/Galleria Park II – Visited the mall to escape the heat.
    • Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park – Drove by this 64-ft water fountain a few times.
    • Traders Village – It includes shops and food, so I’ll list it here too!
    • NASA – Johnson Space Center (40 mins south of Houston) – We took a tram tour (half day) around the center and then explored the exhibits included in the admission. I don’t recall a parking fee but there may have been, it’s $10 per website as of 2023.
  4. Galveston (1 hr south of Houston)
    • We stopped by for lunch here after NASA. It’s an island on the Gulf coast of TX. Seemed a little rundown and empty when we visited. It reminds me of OC in Maryland. I bet the fishing is great though, maybe not at that time, there was some oil spill incident.
View of Austin from Mount Bonnell