For the next 20 weeks, we'll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2011 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year's winner is no easy task. We'll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which the winner had hefty competition from other Houston bars and restaurants.

Milkshakes -- otherwise known as ice-cold, creamy, dreamy goodness in a cup -- are grand. Whether you drink (eat?) them as a dessert, side dish, meal, beverage, treat or dip for french fries, it's really hard not to like love them.

For this very reason, finding Houston's top milkshakes was an endeavor more challenging than it sounds. Lucky for you, we completed the agonizing task of sampling countless shakes to bring you a list of the best. So, without further ado, the cream of the crop of Houston's milkshakes: