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.
Of course the restaurant which consistently wins top honors at the huge Chicken Soup Cookoff each year at Congregation Emanu El would place on our list as well. Kenny & Ziggy's simple yet enormous chicken soup with matzo balls is straight-up comfort food, the deli version of chicken and dumplings but with extra schmaltz.
4. Niko Niko's
This isn't just chicken soup -- it's a silky, tangy, almost creamy bowl of citrus-scented heaven thanks to its base of eggs and lemon. It's great for a cold in the dead of winter, but it's even better chilled on a hot summer day. And if you just can't get enough of the stuff at Niko Niko's, take a shot at making it yourself with Dimitri Fetokakis's own recipe.