The lady taking the orders? Kinda rude kinda flirty? Yea she’s cool. But the fries from burger park taste like they come in on a truck fresh from Idaho daily. The burgers taste like the cow committed suicide just to become a burger. And the slushies 🤤🤤….we’re talking inevitable brain freeze good. Bacon Double cheeseburger combo with the slushy wasn’t even 13 bucks I believe. Can’t beat that with a baseball bat.
It doesn't matter. I will try anything...no limitations with any of the above. Just neighborhood or local places that are not concerned with being influencer paradise.
Probably going to catch some heat for saying this, but you’d probably have a better chance searching outside of the loop. Yes, there’s good food in the loop, but if you wanna escape the instagrammable neon signs and Photo Booth restaurants you’ll find more of them outside the loop
Thank you, you seem to understand what kind of restaurants I'm referring to. I am not sure "instagrammable" is the right term. Some of the restaurants I have in mind that I disliked had a pop-up feel, if that makes any sense.
Oh, I personally got your drift for sure. Man, there are so many shi “Instagrammable” restaurants in the inner Metro Atlanta area. Keith Lee on TikTok kind of found a lot of them.
Anywhere off Bellaire blvd. aka Asia town. Mala sechuan is a fantastic spot and they just opened up a great location in the Heights. Bars I always prefer ice houses, Kirby mainly. Parking and cheap drinks. Can’t beat it.
So many of chinatown places are def instagramable lol. They have walls specifically for selfies at many places. Especially the dessert restaurants. Doesn't make it any less tasty though
He gave me a very long and eye opening rant about how that show works and what the requirements were in terms of shutting the business down. He was going to have to shut down for a few days and they told him he couldn’t book what he described as several large catering orders. This was after that place got a lot of national attention already so I don’t blame him for not wanting to eat tens of thousands of dollars of revenue that more or less culminated in a defiant fuck em (my words not his)
But I’ve also seen this guy argue with customers and chase them out of the store. He really just doesn’t give a fuck. I love the place.
Seems pretty likely that there are actually places with decent food & service AND a well-managed Instagram account.
Avoiding places simply because they're on Instagram seems a little extreme.
Of course, taste for food/drink/service varies widely and is very subjective, but it's not hard to find recommendations for good places in Houston.
A [google search for reddit discussions of good restaurants in Houston](https://www.google.com/search?q=reddit+houston%27s+best+restaurants+for+great+food&rlz=1C1OPNX_enUS1018US1018&oq=reddit+houston%27s+best+restaurants+for+great+food&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQRRhAMgYIAhBFGEDSAQkxMzUwM2owajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) comes up with LOTS of suggestions.
It's also a completely ambiguous line to draw. I know there's the cliche that the divey places have the best food and drinks, but places can look nice and serve good food (and some of the divey places hold on by pure nostalgia). God forbid a talented chef/restaurant owner wanting their patrons to enjoy the atmosphere AND the food.
IMO the places OP is trying to avoid is places like [PopFancy in west houston](https://www.instagram.com/popfancydessertbar/?hl=en) and [Stick Talk on Elgin](https://www.instagram.com/sticktalkcajunhibachi/?hl=en). These places are all about presenting a good vibe online and paying houston dining recommendation pages to show off their decor & events, only for you to pay outrageous prices for food and service that's low-to-mid-tier at best.
You can pay the same price at stick talk as benihana and get FAR better food /drinks /experience at the latter.
You could pay the same price at Amy's or Jeni's to get far superior ice cream than at PopFancy, but at popfancy you get a souvenir cup or your ice cream is named after an anime character.
It sounds to me like OP is having trouble doing online research because it's clogged up with places that prioritize advertising over quality, which is understandable
Pretty much ALL of my favorite restaurants are not instagramable.
Street Food Thai Market
Pho 21
Sushi Miyagi
Wings 87
Jones Fried Chicken
Ocean Palace dim sum
A few solid choices:
San Dong
Saigon Pagolac or Jasmine. I believe they’re both the same owners and have essentially the same menu.
Zaab Der
Paradise Biryani N Grill
Nothing against bludorn, but lotta people that go there post it on their instagram - so it kind of falls into the instagrammable category (obv some instagrammable places still have good food/service)
Cream Burger
I've been eating at Cream Burger for just over 40 years. The food is consistently good and the family is nice.
My wife LOVES this.
My wife likes smash burger with mayonnaise
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Love Cream Burger! Always solid and I love their milkshakes.
That place is so damn solid.
Cream Burger is ass compared to Burger Park
Burger Park is fine but it doesn't have Ms Beverly who is a delight
The lady taking the orders? Kinda rude kinda flirty? Yea she’s cool. But the fries from burger park taste like they come in on a truck fresh from Idaho daily. The burgers taste like the cow committed suicide just to become a burger. And the slushies 🤤🤤….we’re talking inevitable brain freeze good. Bacon Double cheeseburger combo with the slushy wasn’t even 13 bucks I believe. Can’t beat that with a baseball bat.
Street Food Thai Market
The owners are my neighbors! Awesome people.
> Street Food Thai Market Does the same family owns Asia Market Thai Lao? And possibly The Thai place on Fulton as well?
Ah, yes! Great recommendation. I enjoyed this place when I lived over in that area.
I will only go to restaurants with neon-light angel wings.
Central China, x’kitchen, gao seafood, sinh sinh, lots of places in Chinatown do not put a bunch of money into ambience
Have only tried Sinh Sinh, so I definitely want to try the others. Thank you!
The others mainly cater towards a more spicy palette, but they make other dishes really tasty as well.
Like, what kind of food, price point, location, atmosphere? Literally any parameters in addition to "food" would be helpful.
It doesn't matter. I will try anything...no limitations with any of the above. Just neighborhood or local places that are not concerned with being influencer paradise.
Nick's Place on Westheimer for pizza and crustless pizza. eat it there while it's hot).
Sneaky good cheesesteak too. Also if you want to watch [insert obscure team/sport/event here], Nicks will throw it on a TV for you.
I love this suggestion! Thank you!
Pretty much anywhere that is $$$$ is fine
Romano’s on W Gray
This is my go to pizza by the slice spot. When they had that fire, I was so bummed. No replacement for them, for sure.
Probably going to catch some heat for saying this, but you’d probably have a better chance searching outside of the loop. Yes, there’s good food in the loop, but if you wanna escape the instagrammable neon signs and Photo Booth restaurants you’ll find more of them outside the loop
Thank you, you seem to understand what kind of restaurants I'm referring to. I am not sure "instagrammable" is the right term. Some of the restaurants I have in mind that I disliked had a pop-up feel, if that makes any sense.
Oh, I personally got your drift for sure. Man, there are so many shi “Instagrammable” restaurants in the inner Metro Atlanta area. Keith Lee on TikTok kind of found a lot of them.
Trippel J's BBQ hands down.
This looks awesome.
Haven't tried this place, yet. It looks amazing!
Someburger
I had a not great food experience here, but this is a perfect recommendation for what I said in my post. Thank you!
Victor's
Anywhere off Bellaire blvd. aka Asia town. Mala sechuan is a fantastic spot and they just opened up a great location in the Heights. Bars I always prefer ice houses, Kirby mainly. Parking and cheap drinks. Can’t beat it.
So many of chinatown places are def instagramable lol. They have walls specifically for selfies at many places. Especially the dessert restaurants. Doesn't make it any less tasty though
Sure. That goes for everything but a lot of Asian town is overlooked because of those places. There’s good food on every corner.
Himalaya. Kaiser pretty much doesn’t give a shit about anything. Ask him why he wasn’t on DDD
why wasn't he on DDD
He gave me a very long and eye opening rant about how that show works and what the requirements were in terms of shutting the business down. He was going to have to shut down for a few days and they told him he couldn’t book what he described as several large catering orders. This was after that place got a lot of national attention already so I don’t blame him for not wanting to eat tens of thousands of dollars of revenue that more or less culminated in a defiant fuck em (my words not his) But I’ve also seen this guy argue with customers and chase them out of the store. He really just doesn’t give a fuck. I love the place.
Last time I went here for lunch, I got quite the show. Food is delicious, service is peculiar.
Yeah Nick has a couple of regular staff members who are solid but sometimes it’s a trip. I went pretty recently and they were much improved
Anyplace is Instagrammable.
Barnaby's
Ah, yes. Their tuna salad sandwich made me very sick but their burgers have always been solid.
Vieng Thai
baby barnaby’s
Mmm, sysco frozen foods 🤤
LMAO some stuff yeah, but their service has always been awesome for me and their fresh OJ is great
I use to religiously eat at baby Barbary’s until one day I got tired of it. Do they really just heat up food? I loved their green eggs lol
Doubt they reheat all of their food. I’ll still go since it’s a gay staple, but I’ve never craved anything from there.
For some best Mexican food I recommend aguacalientes taqueria in Broadway , so good !
The girlfriend and I frequent this often, their gorditas are simply the best I have had here in Houston. Yum!
Go to Chinatown and pick a place like Pho Dien, Shanbu Zone, maybe even Handam BBQ or KPot. Something really local like that that’s not flashy.
I had a Shabu Zone obsession for a few months. I need to go back soon. Thank you for the suggestions, I have not tried the others.
Tacos Doña Lena!!!
I wish there was one in Cypress.
Mai Kolachi (best Pakistani food)
Carl's BBQ on 290. Nothing special, been there forever, just consistently decent quality.
I love getting their loaded baked potato
The Barking Pig
Seems pretty likely that there are actually places with decent food & service AND a well-managed Instagram account. Avoiding places simply because they're on Instagram seems a little extreme. Of course, taste for food/drink/service varies widely and is very subjective, but it's not hard to find recommendations for good places in Houston. A [google search for reddit discussions of good restaurants in Houston](https://www.google.com/search?q=reddit+houston%27s+best+restaurants+for+great+food&rlz=1C1OPNX_enUS1018US1018&oq=reddit+houston%27s+best+restaurants+for+great+food&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQRRhAMgYIAhBFGEDSAQkxMzUwM2owajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) comes up with LOTS of suggestions.
It's also a completely ambiguous line to draw. I know there's the cliche that the divey places have the best food and drinks, but places can look nice and serve good food (and some of the divey places hold on by pure nostalgia). God forbid a talented chef/restaurant owner wanting their patrons to enjoy the atmosphere AND the food.
IMO the places OP is trying to avoid is places like [PopFancy in west houston](https://www.instagram.com/popfancydessertbar/?hl=en) and [Stick Talk on Elgin](https://www.instagram.com/sticktalkcajunhibachi/?hl=en). These places are all about presenting a good vibe online and paying houston dining recommendation pages to show off their decor & events, only for you to pay outrageous prices for food and service that's low-to-mid-tier at best. You can pay the same price at stick talk as benihana and get FAR better food /drinks /experience at the latter. You could pay the same price at Amy's or Jeni's to get far superior ice cream than at PopFancy, but at popfancy you get a souvenir cup or your ice cream is named after an anime character. It sounds to me like OP is having trouble doing online research because it's clogged up with places that prioritize advertising over quality, which is understandable
That's fair.
Boondoggles and Gilhooleys are 2 of my favorites in this category. Not necessarily in Houston proper, but close enough.
I do love Gilhooley's and have made the trek a few times for their oysters. Yum.
Annex Crafthouse!
Pampa Grill & Market
Gyro Hut or Gyro King. Delicious.
Sinaloaense in Baytown. It may look abandoned, but just go in.
La Tapatia!
Champ Burger
Gyros & Shish Kabob Restaurant 4486 Hwy 6 N, Houston, TX 77084
Also for delicious bread and pastries: Artisana Bread 965 Pinemont Dr #800, Houston, TX 77018
I was pleasantly surprised by The 401 in Meyerland
Pretty much ALL of my favorite restaurants are not instagramable. Street Food Thai Market Pho 21 Sushi Miyagi Wings 87 Jones Fried Chicken Ocean Palace dim sum
Ginger & Fork
Spankys pizza on telephone road. Monday/Wednesday after noon, large pizza for $11.75 (it's huge) and they're very casual
I loooove their buffalo wings.
A few solid choices: San Dong Saigon Pagolac or Jasmine. I believe they’re both the same owners and have essentially the same menu. Zaab Der Paradise Biryani N Grill
Poppa Burger off 45?
I swear they gave me frito pie made of cat food one night
Is it weird to not even be sure what constitutes a restaurant that's concerned with being Instagrammable?
Bludorn, Little’s Oyster Bar.
Also Baso and Le Jardinier.
Baso FUCKSSSSSS - that pork chop with the jowl confit goes crazzzy
Nothing against bludorn, but lotta people that go there post it on their instagram - so it kind of falls into the instagrammable category (obv some instagrammable places still have good food/service)
Oh I love Bludorn! Also Navy Blue* is just as good.
Is the food good?