Best of Houston&reg; 2019

Best Category We Forgot — Hair Salon By an overwhelming margin, the Houston Press Readers' Choice voters thought the No. 1 category we forgot was Hair Salon. And in almost identical numbers they said Salon Meyerland should be the recipient of that honor. We'll make sure to get hair salon...

XanaDudes, Now We Are Here will get you out of the seats and onto the dance floor.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Band for Dancing — XanaDudes, Now We Are Here

By Houston Press

Best Band for Dancing: XanaDudes, Now We Are Here The 1980s produced some of the greatest dance crazes of any music decade. In that era, everyday folks took to dance floors to attempt the Cabbage Patch, the Running Man and, of course, the Moonwalk. So any band covering songs from...

Our favorite reading comes with The Hay Merchant's beverage menu.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Beer List

By Houston Press

Best Beer List: The Hay Merchant Perusing a beer list should be like counting sheep. There should be multitudes to tally, but each should be interesting enough to earn more than a passing glance. And, as long as you’re not driving, they should be potent enough to put you to...

It may not be fancy on the inside, but the Bunker Hill H-E-B has spirit.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Grocery Store

By Houston Press

Best Grocery Store: H-E-B at Bunker Hill Restaurants. Breweries. It’s a miracle no one has tried putting a waterslide in a grocery store yet, as eager as some companies are to try and make them destinations to visit instead of places we go out of necessity. You won’t find any...

There are some surprisingly stylish rides at the National Museum of Funeral History.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Museum

By Houston Press

Best Museum: National Museum of Funeral History Anything can be the subject of a museum with the right curation. Houston is home to some truly great museums with huge collections and rotating exhibits, but when it comes to showing someone Houston’s most interesting museum, it’s hard to beat the National...

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Japanese

By Houston Press

Best Japanese Restaurant: Kata Robata When Kata Robata debuted in 2009 as a modest strip mall restaurant in Upper Kirby with executive chef Manabu Horiuchi at its helm, no one could have predicted the heights that it would achieve. In the ten years since it opened, however, Horiuchi has gone...

Kenny & Ziggy's matzo balls are so good the restaurants sold two million of them.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Deli

By Houston Press

Best Deli: Kenny & Ziggy's New York Delicatessen Boasting two locations and rolling its two millionth matzo ball in the early part of 2018, deli man Ziggy Gruber's Jewish delicatessen is unbeatable. It won last year’s Best of Houston "Best Deli" category, and it’s winning this year’s, too. That’s thanks to...

Whether jokes or songs are on tap, this is one of the best small rooms in Houston.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Live Venue (Small) — The Secret Group

By Houston Press

Best Live Venue (Small): The Secret Group The Secret Group’s calendar is rarely empty. Its foundation is comedy, yes, but they’ve got their share of touring acts and dance parties too, and they’ve quietly become one of the best places to see smaller touring acts in the city. Their main...

People from around the world come to George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Place to People Watch

By Houston Press

Best Place to People Watch: George Bush Intercontinental Airport It is the place where optimists and pessimists both get to go full bore for the entertainment of all. The ecstatic reunions once the disembarking passengers have made the long trek from the gate. The tearful departures before the security lines rip...

Lance Zierlein rejoining John Granato on ESPN 97.5 has helped to transform the station and the local media empire behind it.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Radio Station

By Houston Press

Best Radio Station: ESPN 97.5 Terrestrial music radio may be holding on by a thread thanks to streaming, but talk radio, particularly sports talk radio, continues to thrive. And perhaps there is no better story than that of Gow Media, the local company that started out with 1560 AM The...

The "Darlene" breakfast taco at Soliz Casa de Tacos uses fresh, handmade flour tortillas.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Breakfast Taco

By Houston Press

Best Breakfast Taco: Soliz Casa de Tacos Soliz Casa de Tacos is the kind of place that you find, fall in love with, and revisit often. Family owned and operated since 1984, this mom and pop shop has been serving generations of families with a recipe of fresh, handmade flour...

Pepper Twins doesn't apologize for the spicy kick of its "country-style organic Chinese" dishes.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Chinese

By Houston Press

Best Chinese Restaurant: Pepper Twins (River Oaks) Houston has one of the most vibrant Chinatowns in the country, so when a Chinese restaurant manages to be so good that it can lure people away from Chinatown and back into the city, it must be something kind of special. That’s what...

The Houston Public Media News 88.7 news team.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Radio News

By Houston Press

Best Radio News: News 88.7 FM It's not even close really. When it comes to news reporting on the radio in Houston, the absolute gold standard is Houston Public Media, the team of reporters and on-air news personalities for Houston NPR affiliate KUHF 88.7 FM. It's no wonder they have repeatedly...

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Podcast

By Houston Press

Best Podcast: Stories From the Storm Nearly a year after the storm of the century made its devastating landfall in Texas, NPR began releasing a unique storytelling podcast, Stories From the Storm, highlighting individual Houstonians' Harvey experiences. Each episode in this ten-part series by Houston Public Media features two individuals...

Darwin's Finches' Good Morning Creatures II is the latest Artificial Head release

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Record Label — Artificial Head Records

By Houston Press

Best Record Label: Artificial Head Records In 2018, Artificial Head Records released albums by The COPS, Jody Seabody & The Whirls, Darwin’s Finches and its flagship band, Funeral Horse. Those acts command attention in Houston for their sonic bombast, manic live shows and veteran know-how. The label made sure audiences...

The falafel at Aladdin Mediterranean Cuisine is crisp, flavorful, and pairs beautifully with fresh hummus or baba ganoush.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Mediterranean

By Houston Press

Best Mediterranean Restaurant: Aladdin Mediterranean Cuisine It’s hard not to love Aladdin; so popular that they had to rent a separate lot for overflow parking. Walking into the modest, cafeteria style-restaurant in Montrose, and seeing the hot pitas come out of the oven, is enough to make anyone’s mouth water. But...

Keeshea Pratt Band performing at Sambuca.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Singer — Keeshea Pratt

By Houston Press

Best Singer: Keeshea Pratt Keeshea Pratt had almost given up on music. A transplant from Mississippi, she said she considered herself too old to compete with music’s up and comers until getting a fresh start in Houston. Less than two years ago she put together a blues band, one with...

Oxtail pho is topped with thinly sliced Wagyu beef at Saigon House, taking a family recipe and making it even better.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Pho

By Houston Press

Best Pho: Saigon House Pho restaurants and restaurants that sell Vietnam’s famous beef noodle soup are not only ubiquitous in Houston, but are also, on the whole, very good. So much so that to compete, restaurateurs and chefs are constantly upping their game with better recipes and better quality ingredients...

Astros fans aren't afraid to embrace the orange and blue color scheme.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Sports Fans

By Houston Press

Best Sports Fans: Houston Astros Fans It was not always easy to be a fan of the Houston Astros. There were those years where Minute Maid Park felt like a tomb and baseball felt like an elaborate pre-show for a fireworks display. But even in the most dreadful of seasons,...

It’s also a good place to sit and write a poem.

Best of Houston® 2019: Best Place to Relax

By Houston Press