Nelore is the name of Brazil's most famous breed of cattle, so it's no wonder that it's all about the meat here, and lots of it. Oh sure, there's a fabulous salad bar with copious amounts of smoked salmon, extra-large shrimp, huge asparagus stalks and Brazilian cheese puffs galore. But why bother? It's about the meat. This churrascaria has waiters dressed as gauchos who visit each table armed with three-foot-long skewers, each containing one of the 18 meats they offer here. They keep on coming until you can't take it anymore. Favorite cuts include the filet mignon, beef tenderloin doused with garlic sauce, lamb, chicken hearts and the pork sausage known as linguiça. There is one dessert that is worth leaving room for, and that is a smooth papaya cream topped off with a splash of Crème De Cassis...mmm!

The wet-aged USDA Prime porterhouse here is one of the best steaks in the city. But it's the lack of snobbery that puts Bob's ahead of the steakhouse pack. The Houston Bob's is a clone of the original Bob's in Dallas, where the bar always seems to be crowded with flirty blonds and Bubbas in cowboy boots who laugh real loud. At the Houston location, the guys in starched shirts and ties, the ladies in sexy designer dresses and the guys in pastel hip-hop shorts and sandals all seem to get along just fine. Try a martini — the house gin is Beefeater. There's sports on the television, free pickles on the table and your choice of potatoes on the plate with your steak. Best of all, the waiter seems just as happy to bring you a beer as a $200 bottle of wine. READERS' CHOICE: Pappas Bros. Steakhouse

Nestled into a small Montrose-area strip mall, this place has been a favorite of neighborhood patrons for some time. Osaka serves up some of the largest and freshest pieces of sashimi a person can find in the city. The salmon is always so magically fresh, you can't believe it's served at a sushi restaurant in Houston. But if you prefer rolls, they have you more than covered. The menu is filled with unique house items like the Osaka roll or the crunch roll, a spicy one that's covered with tempura bits. And it always helps that they regularly treat customers to the occasional freebie.

Sure, they might not be the most authentic tacos in town — and heck, the entire establishment is puro bolillo — but we can't get enough of the tacos verde at Tacos a Go-Go, and we're not just talking about the times we stumble over there drunk from a night of carousing at the Mink or the Big Top. Filled with zucchini, yellow squash, red onion, carrots, mushrooms and black beans, these hunger busters are best topped off with the house sauce (a blend of red peppers, mayo and sour cream) and, if you're feeling ritzy, a dash of guac. This is bastard Tex-Mex at its best.

The bistek taco and the cochinita pibil taco at the Jarro taco trailer are transcendental. After the cook in the Jarro uniform passes your taco through the window, the real fun begins. On the stainless-steel counter that runs along the front of the trailer, there are assorted salsas and condiments in decorative Mexican three-legged bowls. There's a green salsa of chopped jalapeños and cilantro, a bright orange sauce made with hellishly hot chile de arbols and a neon lime-colored tomatillo and serrano slurry that will rip your tonsils out. If you're having a steak taco, you might try the dark chocolate-colored salsa made with dried chilies in oil and a dash of orange juice for sweetness. If you're eating cochinita pibil, don't miss the "Mayan escabeche," electric-purple onion slices marinated in lime juice, flecked with Mexican oregano and chili powder. The combination of flavors you select will define the taste of the taco, so you have to choose wisely.

Decent Tex-Mex may be as plentiful as traffic jams here in Houston, but when it comes to authentic Mexican tamales, one need look no further than 25-year-old La Mexicana. Their homemade tamales are nothing short of spectacular. They always taste fresh and have generous doses of pepper and chile powder. Calling these "kinda spicy" is like calling Beyoncé Knowles "kinda hot": It all depends on your taste, son. The casual atmosphere of the outdoor patio is also a nice change of pace from the eternally overcrowded new kids on the block. Be sure to order a full dozen: They're so addictive, you're going to want more than six.

If you're looking for a swanky wine bar that'll impress a date, Oporto is your place. The tapas here aren't snacks; they're huge. There's nothing better to nibble on while quaffing a glass of wine than the "Oportobello." It's a marinated portobello mushroom topped with spinach and artichoke gratin and finished with white truffle oil. If you're still hungry after that Texas-size "tapa," go for the linguiça oporto com batatas, a Portuguese-style sausage sautéed with onion, roasted peppers, potatoes, garlic, port wine and piri-piri oil. Great wines and delicious tapas will surely impress your date, but looking at all the hot River Oaks MILFs walking into Dark Tan next door will not. Saúde!

Matamoros Meat Market used to sell the best carnitas and barbacoa in the city, but you could only get them by the pound to go. Then they added the taqueria a few years ago, so now you can get your barbacoa or carnitas on a taco and then sit down and eat it. The dining area consists of six high tables furnished with barstools, and a long stainless steel counter that runs under the windows looking out on Washington Avenue. The carnitas taco comes on a hot flour tortilla smeared with refried beans and dotted with a little rice. The carnitas, which are pork chunks boiled in lard, are crispy on the edges and falling-apart tender in the middle. A taco costs $1.69, and the tortilla is so overstuffed, half of the filling falls out onto the aluminum foil. Luckily, plastic forks are provided. The barbacoa, or barbecued cow head, is sublime with green salsa, onions, cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Ask for the cheek meat.

There's a Schlitz beer poster with a photo of a caballero in a huge sombrero astride his horse hanging above La Fiesta's front door. (When was the last time you saw a Schlitz ad?) And then there's a mural of a Mexican village on the back wall. The original La Fiesta at Katy Freeway and Bunker Hill Road is one of those Tex-Mex time capsules that are fast disappearing. The little 30-table joint opened in 1972, right around the time that Houstonians discovered a new drink sensation, frozen margaritas. A year later, sizzling fajitas became the rage. As a result, La Fiesta's menu straddles two eras. There are plenty of Tex-Mex combination plates, and old-fashioned favorites like chalupas and tostadas, and then there's the "modern style" menu items such as sizzling fajitas and frozen margaritas. After 35 years of practice, La Fiesta does it all incredibly well, and at unbelievably cheap prices.

The menu may not be strictly vegetarian, but most of the second page of Baba Yega's menu is devoted to meat-free fare. It's not all soy protein, either, although the veggie club, stacked with provolone and fake bacon and turkey, is one of the best choices. If actual vegetables are what you're after, there's plenty of pastas, sandwiches and even a veggie loaf — all made with everything from asparagus to zucchini. The place also serves a nice array of salads that are so tasty you'll pay $1 to substitute them for your French fries, if you know what's good for you.