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Best Pasta

Pappardelle Campagnolo

Handmade, one-inch-wide ribbon pasta, handmade fennel-laced, spicy sausage (made by "Mr. C," Johnny Carrabba's father), sweet red peppers, onions, tomatoes, a big slice of goat cheese that slowly melts as you eat the dish, creamy sauce, lots of Parmesan cheese...Need we say more about the Pappardelle Campagnolo? This fettuccine's name comes from the Italian word pappare, which means "to gobble up." And that's precisely what you'll do with this entre. It comes in a huge bowl, with enough to share. Assuming, of course, that you'd consider such a thing.

Best Spanish Restaurant

Rioja Tapas

Tasty tapas, an award-winning paella, an affordable wine list, the use of many homemade and imported ingredients and unparalleled European hospitality from the Spanish chef and owner make this the best in town. Homemade ingredients include a delicious, soft cow's-milk cheese, sweet quince jelly and a wonderful chorizo. From Spain they import the rice, white asparagus, Serrano ham, all their cheeses, anchovies, olives, oil and sardines, among other things. And if you like what you taste, load up: They sell 'em all by the pound. Live music on weekends and a nice outdoor dining area add to the delightful atmosphere. The gambas al ajillo and empanadas are among the best hot tapas, while the pate de salmon and queso de burgos are the best of the cold offerings. The restaurant's pera rioja, a pear soaked in Rioja wine, is legendary.

Best Expense Account Restaurant

The Capital Grille

Photo by Houston Press Staff
Nothing says "big spender" like a big hunk of meat, a big, expensive wine and a big cigar. There's no place better to blow a couple of Gs on two people than at The Capital Grille, that clubby bastion of the expense account crowd, the ultimate meat market. Start out at the bar by sipping some Auchentoshan 21-year-old single malt ($24 a shot). Move to your table and order a magnum of Joseph Phelps Insignia 2001/2002 champagne ($505) followed by a bottle of Chteau Mouton-Rothschild, Pauillac, 1995 ($640). For your appetizer, a cold shellfish platter ($44), and for the main course, a dry-aged, hand-sculpted, steak lover's dream -- a 24-ounce porterhouse with both the filet and sirloin ($48) along with some au gratin potatoes ($9), creamed spinach ($7) and roasted mushrooms ($10). For a final flourish, a flourless chocolate espresso cake ($6.50), a snifter of Rmy Martin Louis XIII cognac ($195) and, of course, a Padrn Aniversario cigar ($45). Just don't forget your credit card.

Best Tart

Coconut almond cream cheese tart

The coconut almond cream cheese tart at Tart Cafe contains almost everything people love, with the exception of chocolate. The dessert has a thick pastry shell, giving it the appearance of a mini-quiche at least an inch thick and four inches in diameter. The moist coconut cream cheese is mixed with a delicious almond paste in such a way that each of the flavors is distinguishable. Get one early in the morning, and you won't be able to stop thinking about it all day long.

Best Italian Restaurant

Da Marco

Photo by Houston Press staff
A recent expansion means more tables and more room to move at Da Marco -- which is a welcome change, since the dining room was sometimes a little too intimate. But whatever the seating plan, Houston is lucky to have an Italian restaurant this good. Chef Marco Wiles has adapted Mario Batali's cutting-edge concepts to the ingredients and sensibilities of the Gulf Coast. We get fig compote and fig gelato when the local fruit is in season. And we get fresh area treats such as Gulf shrimp alongside rare imported ingredients like branzini, flown in from Italy. We also get a wine list with both big-dollar Barolos and inexpensive discoveries from Slovenia. It all adds up to a world-class restaurant experience. Even better, Da Marco practices true democracy at the reservations desk. The restaurant once refused to stay open late to accommodate Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. So you know that River Oaks riffraff waving fifties won't be seated before folks with legitimate reservations.

Best Wings

Jazzie Cafe

"Jazzie Cafe Famous Hot Wings and Po-Boys," reads the sign on top of the newly painted red, blue and yellow building on 19th Street near Beall. And if they're not famous yet, maybe they will be someday. Jazzie's sweet-hot chile chicken wings are coated with a thick sauce that tastes like a combination of oranges, hoisin and Vietnamese ground chiles. They aren't served with celery and blue cheese dressing, and with these Asian flavors, fried rice would probably be a better accompaniment, anyway. And the staff can fix you up with all the fried rice you need: There are three kinds on the menu, along with poor boys, gumbo and boudin. This sort of Cajun-Asian fusion comes naturally to owner Beth Nguyen, a Louisiana Vietnamese-American who opened Jazzie Cafe after she realized she wasn't going back to New Orleans anytime soon. There are two tables and a walk-up counter inside the tiny establishment, but mostly people stop by and pick up their wings and poor boys to go.

Best Salsa

Taqueria Tacambaro

There are two salsas available at this taco truck located behind Canino Produce on Airline. One is iridescent green with a tart tomatillo base and the fiery flavor of fresh serranos; it's superb on chicken gorditas and on the sublime tacos de tripita (tripe). The other sauce is a deep, dark chocolate-colored salsa that looks like it's going to be hellishly hot, but turns out to be astonishingly rich and mellow. Head chef Maria Rojas says it's made with nothing more than cascabel chiles. The dried cascabels are soaked until soft, pureed and lightly seasoned with salt, pepper and maybe a touch of garlic. It's a purist's salsa with a simple but deep chile flavor. Try it on the fabulous sweetbread tacos for a gourmet taco-truck treat.

Best South American Restaurant

Churrascos

The signature dish there is, what else, churrasco, a charcoal-grilled, center-beef tenderloin steak. From a petite six-ounce serving to a platter-sized 16-ounce slab, these are some of the best steaks in town. But there are plenty of other tasty delights to be sampled at Churrascos as well, including doblones (chargrilled salmon with an achiote-shrimp salsa) and the "owner's cut" (filet mignon served with fire-roasted pasilla sauce and goat cheese salsa). The side dishes are just as delicious -- grilled lobster tail, jalapeos and onions flambed tableside, and yucca empanadas with cilantro dressing. The restaurant also serves Sunday brunch and hosts a series of special wine dinners, during which a different wine accompanies each of four courses. All this in a sophisticated but low-key atmosphere with excellent service.

Best Mojito

Beso

Call us purists, but we love enjoying a good mojito in distinctly South American environs. And when we want to sip on the pretty, minty cocktail and watch pretty people, we head to Arturo Boada's Beso (Spanish for "kiss"). Downtown scenesters, young professionals and hip South Americans flock to the restaurant, where the bubbly, effervescent Amy tends bar. With the efficiency of an assembly-line worker and the skill of a lab scientist (and the zeal of a cheerleader), she fills tall glasses with large fresh mint leaves and muddles them down. Then come the fresh lime juice, sugar, ice, light rum (Bacardi for a light refresher, or Meyers's Dark for a mellow sipper) and a splash of soda. For a fruitier spin, Amy whips up a berry mojito, featuring fresh raspberries and mint mixed with Citadel vodka. Want a little more sugar? Just ask Amy, who's got plenty herself. "I try not to touch the glass too much when I make them," she says with a giggle, "or they're too sweet to drink." Awwww.

Best New Restaurant

Glass Wall, The Restaurant

Glass Wall is a great new American bistro just where we needed it most: in the restaurant-deprived Heights. Predictably, the eatery has been packed since it opened in early April. Lance Fegen, former co-owner of Zula and chef at Trevsio, has left behind the overwrought designs and menus of his previous ventures and found his own cleaner, simpler style. Fegen is a surfer, and "glass wall" is surfer slang for a big wave -- it's also the name of a 1965 Jim Freeman surfing movie. The restaurant's interior design, which is built around a wall of glass and black stones, is light and airy. The open kitchen, visible from anywhere in the restaurant, invites spectators. The menu is heavy on seafood, although, oddly, hardly any of it comes from the Gulf of Mexico. With meats garnished with butter, vegetables accented with bacon, and boldly flavored sauces, the food manages to be sophisticated and hearty at the same time. The wine list, though short, is composed of a spectacular array of hard-to-find bottles. The menu changes monthly, to take advantage of seasonal ingredients.

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