For these of you watching intently, this 12 months’s roll name of nominees for the Tastemaker Award for Greatest Restaurant has no repeats from 2023. We reside in a brand new San Antonio heyday, and the variety of nice eating places has grown from a scant teaspoon to an overflowing cup.
That makes this 12 months’s course of tougher than ever. With so many standard-bearers to select from, we zeroed in on what defines the town now.
Learn our reasoning under, then be a part of us on April 4 once we reveal the winners on the Briscoe Museum. (Scorching tip: Just a few tickets stay earlier than promoting out.) Within the meantime, make amends for our particular editorial collection profiling all of this 12 months’s nominees.
Listed here are the nominees for Restaurant of the 12 months:
Bar LorettaWhen Bar Loretta took over the previous Madhatters Tea Home house, it had some large footwear to fill. Months later, it emerged as one thing simply as beloved. Whereas the funky bric-a-brac of the previous is lengthy gone, the conviviality nonetheless lingers. Although the Southtown spot routinely whips up tony lobster risotto and Frenchy pan-roasted cod, it has not overlooked humor. Routinely, the cocktail program will get curiousier and curiouser.
Cullum’s AttaboyIn a world beleaguered by fleeting TikTok microtrends and tribal bickering, Attaboy affords a gentile escape into yesteryear. The cooks put on paper hats, and the soundtrack swings as an alternative of thumping. Most significantly, the dishes present no indicators of the fussy arsenal many up to date cooks insist is innovation. American fare as soon as had integrity. Chef Chris Cullum argues for a reset.
Curry Boys BBQCan we lastly rid our language of phrases like “fusion” and “East-meets-West?” Curry Boys meals is a narrative of how Texan heritage shouldn’t be a monolith. Sure, “authenticity” is a slippery time period for one thing as ever-changing as meals. Cooks Andrew Samia, Sean Wen, and Andrew Ho acknowledge that the palate is private — and that barbecue and Thai delicacies are equally American.
Leche de TigreThere’s a way of discovery on this King William charmer’s cebiches, all a far cry from the lime-thwacked fish of its extra frequent cousin. Texturally various with immaculate seafood, every challenges the vocabulary to provide you with adjectives as an alternative of brilliant. However brilliant they’re, dazzling of their complicated character.
MixtliThough this Southtown stunner is nary over a decade outdated and has solely been in its present constructing for 3 years, it has change into a eating elder. That does not imply that it would not nonetheless skate the culinary edge. The present menu traces the Eastward enlargement of Spanish Colonial rule, a proposition which will appear mental. We won’t deny the strategy can learn like a dissertation on paper. It is nothing however ambrosial on the tongue.
Naco Mexican EateryNaco’s two areas — a meals truck and a nook of the SA Yacht Membership complicated — are tiny. However that does not fairly communicate to the proprietor’s ambition. Cooks Francisco Estrada and Lizzeth Martinez have created River Metropolis’s most present taqueria, conscious of recent consuming habits and conventional flavors in measure.
NONNA OsteriaThe clamorous eating room is normally stuffed with oohs and ahhs, particularly when big wheels of Parmesan are rolled out to make Nonna’s signature tableside presentation. Fact be informed, it would not want such stagecraft. With a mighty Bolognese and pull-apart arancini, this downtown osteria saves all of the drama for the plate.
Reese Bros BarbecueSan Antonio has gone to nice lengths to show it is not only a barbecue and Tex-Mex city, however perhaps that ought to be extra some extent of pleasure than an insult. This East Aspect joint might not current its brisket in sculptural stacks, however the method is not any much less worthy of admiration. And the queso fundido hyperlink insists there’s nonetheless a brand new peak to climb on the town’s culinary pillars.
ShiroThe native sushi scene has lengthy suffered from gatekeeping. Alamo Metropolis has suffered by way of limp rolls drenched in Kewpie and gelatinous hamachi due to a cynical perception that Alamo Metropolis would not know higher. This downtown scorching spot volleyed a pointy rejoinder with Tokyo-flown fish, electrical small plates, and a refusal to utter “adequate.”
The MagpieIf it’s one’s first time visiting this East Austin secret, they need to sit on the tiny bar. Watching chef Jungsuk “Sue” Kim work conjures up surprise. With the agility and pace of a short-order cook dinner, she cooks up a number of the metropolis’s most defiantly eclectic fare. True to the restaurant’s title, one can twirl a superlative carbonara, then change course with a energetic dak galbi.
