Predicting Michelin’s favorite Texas restaurants

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This month, the Michelin Guide — the eponymous French tire company’s renowned international restaurant star rating system — will arrive in Texas for the first time ever. The newly announced guide will bring a magnifying glass to the dining scenes across five of the state’s largest cities: Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Fort Worth.

As Nadia Chaudhury, editor of Eater Austin explains, there are four ways to be included in the Michelin guide:

There’s the famous prestigious star ratings, which indicate high-caliber dining and service experiences through one- to three-star scores.
Then there’s the Bib Gourmand awards, which highlight comparatively more affordable great restaurants and food experiences.
The Michelin Green Star designations are given to restaurants with high standards for sustainable and eco-friendly efforts.
Finally, there are Michelin’s recommended restaurants, a list of places that are good but not good enough for stars or the other labels.

Although the final list of the recipients who have earned one-, two-, or three-star ratings will not be announced until later this year, Eater’s Texas-based city editors couldn’t wait to discuss just what Michelin’s arrival could mean for the state and restaurant industry at large. Here, Chaudhury, along with Eater editors from Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth area highlight a few of the restaurants they’re keeping an eye on.

Which restaurants in your cities do you believe deserve Michelin recognition?

Courtney E. Smith, Eater Dallas editor: I’m thinking about which restaurants not only raise the bar regionally but nationally too. Don Artemio in Fort Worth is my strongest pick in that city. Every dish in this excellent Mexican restaurant is Michelin-worthy. The care that it takes to represent the culture and the personality in the food (see the bacon fat–fried cactus dish) from executive chef Rodrigo Cárdenas Garza and founder/chef Juan Ramón Cárdenas make it a standout immediately deserving of stars.

In Dallas, it is El Carlos Elegante. Sure, I’m partial to it because it was our Eater Awards pick for Dallas Restaurant of the Year in 2023 due to its fantastic food and the story behind it. A recent trip back yielded only the best of the best dishes as the menu has evolved.

Choosing these two is wild because I always talk about how important it is for local reporters to have high standards for the Tex-Mex here, especially compared to other cities in Texas or along the U.S.-Mexico border. But there’s one thing I never fail to say: Our nice Mexican restaurants are damn good.

As always, some frontrunners emerge because they’re independently excellent but might be successors to a chain or series of restaurants that have already received recognition, while others are wildcards. Are there any Houston restaurants that fit this bill? Which ones could feel like a welcome surprise?

Brittany Britto Garley, Eater Houston editor: Le Jardinier feels like an obvious pick for exactly that reason: You can find beautiful, Michelin star- and exhibit-worthy dishes at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s fine dining restaurant. Chef de cuisine Felipe Botero creates an inventive menu that displays seasonal fruits, vegetables, and herbs and locally sourced meats and seafood that are pleasing to both the eye and palate, like the feather-light heirloom squash carpaccio, made with romesco, almonds, and caper berries; and Sakura pork chop served with polenta and piperade.

Gao Jing/Xinhua via Getty Images

Personally, I’m most excited about Tatemó and March receiving some form of recognition. The former showcases the beauty and breadth of masa in a reservation-only, multi-course tasting menu restaurant that gives many diners a whole new appreciation for Mexican cuisine. Though the menu at Tatemó constantly changes, diners can find masa-fueled bites like the fan-favorite quesadilla or a version of the enmolada, which features a plantain tortilla, mole negro, and masa tempura sweet potato.

Meanwhile, March is chef Felipe Riccio’s reservation-only tasting menu restaurant which aims to transport diners to various regions across the Mediterranean. The menu spotlights a specific area for a few months at a time, and then the restaurant closes to regroup and relaunch with a new focus after the brief hiatus. Most recently, March captivated diners with the flavors of Països Catalans, a region influenced by Mediterranean, Pyrenean, and French cuisine, in six- and nine-course tastings.

Oftentimes, great contenders are also the most obvious. Are there any Austin standouts hiding in plain sight?

Chaudhury: The Mueller omakase at Tsuke Edomae is Austin’s hardest reservation to book for good reason: Chef Micheal Che deeply honors the ingredients he serves his guests through the edomae-style menu, and it’s always worth the splurge.

Lille Allen/Eater

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