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Best Pork Chop

Perry's Steakhouse & Grille

To call Perry's Steakhouse & Grille's dish a pork chop is almost a misnomer, because it's more like three courses of pork in one. When you order "Perry's Famous Porkchop," it arrives at your table on a cart, and the server uses gloves to break the pork chop into three parts. You'll get four of the tasty, melt-off-the-bone ribs, a leaner center filet and a juicier side portion. Seasoned with Perry's proprietary blend, the flavor is sweet and salty with a slight kick, and utterly delicious. Tasty, impressive, large enough for two and finger-licking good, it easily blows away any competition. On Fridays, Perry's famous pork chop lunch, which is a smaller cut without the cart service, is just $11.95.

Best Late-Night Restaurant

Tan Tan

Open until 3 a.m. on Saturdays, 2 a.m. Fridays and midnight the rest of the week, Tan Tan is a favorite among the late-night crowd for consistently serving up an extensive menu of Chinese-Vietnamese food ranging from rice plates and pan-fried noodles, to wonton soup and Vietnamese hot pot, to their most popular dish, the banh bot chien, or fried rice patty cakes with eggs. Tan Tan's food is particularly good as a hangover-helper, drawing in the after-clubbing and after-bar crowd. This is a go-to after-hours food destination not just because of the food, but also because of the great people-watching.

Best Mojito

Truluck's

The bar at Truluck's may not be the go-to destination for mojitos, but it should be. Strong, with a good dose of lime juice, and the requisite fresh aroma of well-crushed mint leaves that every mojito should have, just one sip will transport you to a beach in Cabo San Lucas. It's even better because it's so unexpected. The bartenders here follow a strict recipe, so no matter who makes it, it tastes the same. During happy hour, the entire bar menu is discounted 50 percent, so if you go during that time, you'll not only get a great-tasting mojito, you'll pay less than $5 for it, too.

Best Middle Eastern Restaurant

Kasra Persian Grill

This Westchase-area restaurant located in a strip mall has been around since 1999, but the Parsa family has been in the restaurant business going on five generations, and they wisely haven't changed anything about how they cook classic Persian cuisine, such as the beef kubideh and chicken barg. The house-made flatbread called taftoon is a treat all on its own, but is made even better accompanied by a plate of the intense garlic hummus. Kasra will keep getting high praise as long as they keep it all in the family.

Best West African Restaurant

Afrikiko Restaurant

It's a bit of a zero-sum game to pick the Bayou City's best West African restaurant, especially considering Houston's already stacked scene for fufu and spicy soups. However, Afrikiko is about as close to a bona fide African experience (an experience, by the way, that usually includes soccer on the eatery's satellite TV) as you're going to get here in the States. Owned by a Ghanaian family, the eatery that's inconspicuously tucked behind a Burger King makes authentic fufu (the thick-paste, doughy-like staple of that particular region of the planet) with goat meat, palm nut soup and jollof rice. If you don't see your favorite dish on the menu, such as red-red stew, the restaurateurs will gladly make it for you. Additionally, if you're an obruni (the Twi language term for "white person"), the cooks are conscious enough to tame down the hot factor. So if you like it spicy, tell them and you'll be sweating like mad, much like you would be on a hot day under the African sun.

Best Tex-Mex Restaurant

El Real Tex-Mex Cafe

El Real was one of the most anticipated restaurant openings of the year, in part because of the star power behind it — celebrity chef Bryan Caswell and former Houston Press food critic and author Robb Walsh. The restaurant has proved that it takes Tex-Mex seriously with its tasty old-school fare. This means queso and refried beans made with lard, enchiladas served with chili con carne, chalupas and puffy tacos. As for seafood, try the "Wholefish" Fajitas, consisting of a whole wood-roasted Gulf Snapper — the dish is a real standout. The best part? This restaurant will only get better with time.

Best Salsa

Jarro Cafe

Batli Joselevitz
Working your way through the six salsas at Jarro Cafe is like taking a master class on the Scoville scale. The offerings range from eye-opening (the chunky oregano and chile-accented onion salsa) to sneaky-hot (the sweetened chile arbol paste) to volcanic (the bright green tomatillo-serrano slurry). Beneath the heat lurk complex flavor profiles, perfectly matched to the peerless Mexico City-style fare turned out by Memo Pinedo's kitchen. Not for nothing has this Spring Branch favorite already been written up this year in both The New York Times and Texas Monthly. It's also the perfect place to test the mettle of visiting guests who claim they like to eat spicy food.

Best Seafood Restaurant

Danton's Gulf Coast Seafood Kitchen

Photo by Troy Fields
The oysters alone win this award for Danton's. Served any way — fried, Rockefeller or baked — the fresh, plump, straight-out-of-the-Gulf oysters are a must-have. But the best way to enjoy them is to belly up to the bar and order a dozen raw on the half shell, especially on Oyster Mondays, when a dozen is half price. Danton's seemingly has broken the curse of its corner of Chelsea Market, and the freshness of the seafood combined with classic Cajun flavor and flair has much to do with that.

Best Veggie Burger

Beaver's

Photo by Houston Press Staff
For many, Beaver's sets the pace when it comes to non-traditional barbecue in Houston, so it is still a challenge to get vegetarians to walk through the door — until they learn about The Nut Burger. The patty is concocted from a brown rice base with nuts mixed throughout and seems to be held together by static cling. Topping it with cheese not only makes it taste great but also helps hold it together. Meatatarians will not be fooled; the burger is not shredded flesh. But that delicious, delicately constructed patty is delicious and falls apart in your mouth.

Best Burger Joint

Hubcap Grill

Tucked away in a tiny compartment in the middle of downtown, Hubcap Grill is maybe the easiest place in the world to drive by without even seeing. Yet vast and ample rewards await therein. The burgers, oh Lord, the burgers: The patties are hand-formed, never-frozen beef, and the buns are homemade artisan bread. The meat is thick and juicy, with just enough spice to enhance the flavor without masking it. Among the best is the Philly Cheese Steak Burger, which comes with both a beef patty and shredded, Philly-style beef. The Frito Pie Burger is amazing and deliciously crunchy. Hubcap's aptitude for excess — they feature both the Triple and the Quadruple Heart Clogger, the latter with chili and a grilled wiener — stops just short of becoming a total train wreck. All the ingredients mingle well, and have been assembled with more deliberation than the kind of "I dare you!" mentality that plagues some specialty burgers at inferior burgerias. They're ballsy, but they're knowledgeable too; where else could you find a Mediterranean-style Muffaletta Burger with homemade olive mix and Swiss cheese? Hubcap is a true Houston jewel.

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