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Best Deli

Kahn's Deli

Alfred's in the Village was once Houston's favorite New York Jewish deli -- legendary for its overstuffed sandwiches, kosher-style pickles and box lunches. Today, Alfred Kahn's son, Michael Kahn, carries on the tradition at Kahn's Deli in Rice Village, not far from his father's original location. The walls are decorated with old photos of Alfred and Houston celebrities of yore along with dozens of write-ups from newspapers and magazines. There are a couple of places to sit, but Kahn's business is primarily takeout. The tiny walk-up sandwich counter serves a spectacular oversize Reuben that sells for $7.50 and is best approached with a knife and fork. Other popular sandwich combinations include roast beef, turkey and cheese with Russian dressing. But for the deli purists, there are also plain sandwiches, including corned beef, pastrami and chopped liver, not to mention the excellent half-sour pickles.

Best Dim Sum Restaurant

Kim Son

On the weekend, Kim Son's carts carry an average of 70 dim sum items. Don't miss the velvety eggplant stuffed with shrimp paste, mushroom-capped meatballs, Chinese broccoli, golden-fried turnip cakes, slurpy rice noodle rolls, cylinders of shrimp paste wrapped in seaweed and deep-fried in tempura batter, pork dumplings with quail eggs inside, or the sweet taro roll covered with almonds. But wait, you say, dim sum is Chinese, so how could the best dim sum in Houston be served at a Vietnamese restaurant? "I was born here in the States, but like the owners of Kim Son, my family is Chinese-Vietnamese," explains Andy Troung, the manager of the Stafford location. "Chinese people ate dim sum all the time in Vietnam. So eating dim sum in a Vietnamese restaurant in Houston makes perfect sense to Chinese-Vietnamese-Americans like me."

Best Ethiopian Restaurant

Blue Nile Ethiopian Cuisine

Resist the temptation to ask for a knife and fork. When you eat Ethiopian-style, the spongy flatbread called injera serves as both your plate and your eating utensil. You pull off a chunk of bread and wrap it around the food, turning everything into an injera taco. There's even Ethiopian salsa, not that you need it -- the food at Blue Nile is all incredibly hot. Green beans, potatoes and carrots in a spicy sauce are a favorite vegetable combination, as are the lentil stews. Other standouts include the lamb cubes with onions and peppers and a lamb in a turmeric-heavy sauce. It's easy to share dishes here. All of your orders are combined on one big platter set in the middle of the table and everybody digs in. The atmosphere is pleasantly unusual. Try the Ethiopian honey wine.

Best Expense-Account Restaurant

Capital Grille

Capital Grille is the perfect place for you, if: a) you are male, b) you like a clubby atmosphere, c) you like your meat well hung, and d) you're spending $100 of someone else's money. Start out with the Grille's steak tartare ($9.95), which is the best there is. Skip the soup or salad and head straight for the dry-aged, 24-ounce, bone-in porterhouse ($32.95). Dry-aged means that the steak was cut from a loin that was hung in a climate-controlled room for a minimum of 21 days -- that's what gives the meat its unmistakable taste and high price tag. The must-have sides are cottage fries and onion strings ($5.25), creamed spinach ($5.25) and roasted mushrooms ($7.95). The sides are meant to be shared, but no one will mind if they tend to gather on your side of the table. Wash it all down with any of the wines on the outstanding list, which boasts close to 400 choices. Follow this up with the Berries Capital Grille infused with a dash of your favorite liqueur ($9.95), and an espresso. A C-note is easy to drop.

Best French Restaurant

Café Rabelais

François Rabelais's writings were known for combining earthy humor and sophisticated themes. And this tiny French cafe honors its namesake with delicious irony. Though located in a sophisticated urban shopping center in Rice Village, Café Rabelais features rustic peasant dishes from the French countryside. Try the astonishing mussels in cream sauce, the merguez et frites (lamb sausage and french fries) or a goat cheese and olive tart. The blackboard menu might also include steak salad, bavette frites (flank steak and french fries) or an old-fashioned vegetable potage. The mottled cream-colored walls look like old plaster, and somehow the French rural look is absolutely charming despite the parking lot outside the window. Maybe the French rustic thing works so well because the employees are actually French.

Best Indian Restaurant

Restaurant Indika

Grilled mustard shrimp with tomato chutney and a sensational seafood mulligatawny are just a couple of the new Bombay-on-the-Gulf of Mexico seafood dishes you'll find here. All of the food is remarkably innovative. Owner and head chef Anita Jaisinghani once worked as a pastry chef at Cafe Annie, and the sensibility shows. This isn't a typical Indian restaurant with a couple of special dishes, this is a complete departure from the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet concept of Indian cuisine. Try the crab samosas with papaya ginger chutney, and the Maple Leaf Farm duck grilled tandoori-style and served in a toasted almond curry with fluffy white basamati rice. And don't miss the exquisite nan bread and the unassuming yellow lentil dahl, which is flavored with garlic, ginger and cumin. Renowned sommelier Paul Roberts, now of the French Laundry in Napa, put together the short but intriguing wine list.

Best Chef

Scott Tycer

Among the smiling faces on the cover of July's Food & Wine magazine is Scott Tycer, the chef and co-owner of Aries restaurant. Tycer and nine other young chefs were chosen by the magazine as "America's Best New Chefs 2003." According to the magazine, Tycer's work at Aries fits in with a movement going strong in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere: chef-run restaurants with a dedication to fine ingredients and craftsmanship. Perhaps his awards and national reputation will help quiet local fussbudgets who fault Tycer for refusing customer requests for tomatoes out of season, sauce on the side and vegetarian remakes of existing dishes. Let the chef do what he does best.

Best Italian Restaurant

Da Marco

When The New York Times reviewed San Domenico, a restaurant thought by many to serve the best Italian food in Manhattan, the critic raved about an incomparable pasta dish that was so good it was unfair to the competition. It was a giant ravioli stuffed with a poached egg yolk and drenched in truffle butter. Sound good? Well, you're in luck. You can get that same "incomparable" pasta dish any night of the week at Da Marco. Which just goes to show, Da Marco's competition isn't in Houston -- it's in New York. The food here is a radical departure from the old-fashioned red sauce-smothered fare that's served in most Houston Italian restaurants. But sophisticated palates will recognize chef Marco Wiles's take on Italian as truly world-class.

Best Late-Night Restaurant

Cosmos Cafe

You're out having fun. You've had a few. You get the munchies. But you want to keep partying (or a member of your party wants to keep partying). Cosmos Cafe will keep everyone happy. The bar/live music venue/eatery serves food until midnight Mondays through Thursdays, until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and until 10 p.m. on Sundays. And we're not talking typical bar food here. Try the grilled tuna fillet sandwich with wasabi mayo, the pork chops with rosemary or the Thai beef salad. All go down well with alcohol. And you better believe you can light up that after-dinner smoke right at your table.

Best Long Lunch

Rainbow Lodge

The wine room at the Rainbow Lodge will seat six, but to enjoy a really long lunch, it's better to go just as a pair. The cozy room is actually the wine steward's office, so you'll be luxuriating next to some of the all-time great bottles of wine. (Don't be tempted to lift one, since any suspicious-looking packages may be inspected.) The waitstaff is expertly trained, meaning they know when to take their leave and allow you some privacy to enjoy the wild game that the restaurant is famous for -- or perhaps even a wild game of your own. Along one wall is a comfortable bench seat where you can have a nice tête-à-tête with your guest. The menu is heavy with venison, quail, duck, elk and buffalo, but the chef does an equally outstanding job with salmon, trout and lobster. With the perfect food, elegant surroundings, outstanding wines and a good companion, lunch could turn into dinner before you know it.

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