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Best Carrot Cake

Dessert Gallery Bakery & Cafe

Robert Z. Easley

You can debate ad infinitum as to the "proper" composition of carrot cake (is coconut really always necessary?), but it's hard to argue that Dessert Gallery's version is anything but absolutely spectacular. Alternating layers of moist spiced cake (chock-full of raisins and pecans) and dense cream cheese frosting make for the sweetest striations found on this side of the Mississippi. A dessert, that is to say, that will make you forget about chocolate.

Best Wine Store

Trader Joe's

When Trader Joe's opened up in the old Alabama Theater in September 2012, foodies, hipster parents and bargain shoppers squealed with delight. Not only is the store known for its good deals and unique eats, it has an amazing wine selection — and it's cheap as all get-out. Its famous Charles Shaw wines, more commonly known as Two-Buck Chucks, are incredibly easy on your wallet but also taste like they cost you triple the price. Trader Joe's has a wide variety of sparklings, reds, whites and summer's favorite wine, rosé, that won't put a dent in your wallet but will impress your friends at your next dinner party.

Best Sushi

Kata Robata

You're always in for a treat when you dine at Kata Robata. There's a reason this restaurant is a two-time winner for Best Sushi in Houston. Chef Hori doles out spectacular and stunning sushi masterpieces each day (he's a 2011 James Beard Award semi-finalist for Best Chef: Southwest, after all). Sure, the menu items aren't the cheapest, but they are of the highest quality. Kata Robata gives you the opportunity to try the best of the best, like uni (sea urchin), amaebi (sweet shrimp), maguro (tuna) and aji (horse mackerel). You can see Hori's passion in his plate presentation and the quality of the fish he uses.

Best Breakfast

Fountain View Cafe

The pancakes at Fountain View Cafe are the stuff of legend: as thin as crepes, with a wispy lace of a crust on the outer ring and a soft, dense, vanilla-scented middle that requires neither butter nor syrup (which doesn't stop us from slathering them on anyway). This is one reason there's always a line at the 1980s throwback cafe — that and quick, efficient counter service that delivers your cheesy omelets and crispy hash browns tout de suite while allowing you to kick back over a paper and bottomless cups of coffee for as long as the morning lasts.

Best Chicken Salad

Hobbit Cafe

Jeff Balke

Despite the fact that chicken salad isn't a staple food of the Shire, the Hobbit Cafe's version is one of the best things on their menu. Thanks to a hearty infusion of curry powder, their salad sports a sunny hue and a slightly spicy flavor that's further complemented by big slices of almonds and crisp red grapes. Such a diversity of tastes as well as textures, not to mention generous chunks of tender white-meat fowl, make this chicken salad the stuff of picnic dreams. Try it in the Dwalin sandwich or just by the scoopful. Even Samwise Gamgee would forgo a second breakfast of 'tatoes and sausages for this.

Best Burger

Brooklyn Athletic Club

Photo by Troy Fields

Brooklyn Athletic Club doesn't mess around when it comes to burgers, though your juice-soaked chin and hands may disagree. The restaurant's moderately seasoned, loosely packed patty, best enjoyed in pure, medium-rare form, is entirely juicy without being greasy. Along with the simple trio of lettuce, tomato and red onion, a healthy smear of house-made jalapeño and tomato jam brings the perfect balance of sweet and heat to the succulent monstrosity before you. A lightly griddled Slow Dough bun holds its fillings best it can, but don't forget the napkins.

Best Chinese Restaurant

Shanghai Restaurant

Shanghai Restaurant is possibly one of Houston's best-kept secrets. Owned and operated by the Ng family, this is your classic mom-and-pop Chinese restaurant. Mom and Dad met while she was a waitress and he was a cook. Mom is usually at the cash register or waiting tables. Son and daughter often come in to help out. Dad is in the kitchen making delectable dishes. They've been making Chinese food in Houston — the classic Cantonese kind you'll find in Hong Kong — for more than 30 years. Though Shanghai Restaurant is well-known in the Chinese community, it's still a low-profile place that gets most of its customers through word of mouth. This year that changed. It was recognized by Travel + Leisure magazine as one of the best Chinese restaurants in America. Just watch as the steaming hot plates of glistening sautéed greens, house special lobster, sizzling beef, Peking duck or Shanghai's famous spicy salted pork spareribs come out of the kitchen, and you'll see that the restaurant totally deserves it. Shanghai offers top-notch Chinese food that's well prepared and consistently delicious.

Best Vegan Restaurant

Doshi House

Vegan restaurants aren't the easiest places to find in Houston, but there is a bevy of excellent eateries spread across the city — often in undertraveled and underserved neighborhoods. Doshi House, owned by Deepak Doshi and settled in the southwest corner of the Third Ward, is the best among them. Functioning as a neighborhood coffee bar (with coffee program overseen by Blacksmith's David Buehrer) and pastry shop by day, at night Doshi House serves up a single dish each evening — from vegan red beans and rice to vegan Thai curry, often for under $7. Here you can find comfort in a simple, hearty meal in a ragtag neighborhood art gallery-turned-cafe. Whether you're vegan or not, Doshi House's food is just plain good.

Best French Fries

Fat Bao

Jaff Balke

Come to Fat Bao for the bao, but stay for the fries. The signature steamed Chinese dumplings are good, but the french fries are out of this world: hand-cut, perfectly fried and excellent all on their own. We recommend dipping them in Fat Bao's homemade kimchi mayonnaise if you're feeling fancy, or ordering the Yummy Fries for a couple of extra bucks: They're tossed with fresh rosemary and a dusting of Parmesan cheese.

Best Restaurant

Uchi

No two dining experiences at Uchi are exactly the same, because every meal reveals a previously unknown ingredient or a newly conceptualized dish straight out of the imaginations of talented and creative chefs Tyson Cole, Philip Speer and Kaz Edwards. Speer's delicate desserts bursting with combinations of familiar and exotic flavors and textures are miniature works of art, while every ingredient on each plate of sushi is carefully considered and cultivated. Uchi succeeds at drawing diners into unexpected gastronomic territory with playful concoctions like hamachi nabe or uchiviche while still considering local, seasonal and readily available but often unused ingredients.

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