Where to Eat Filipino Food in Houston, From Halo-Halo to Lechon
Marcy de Luna is a Houston-based food journalist with more than a decade of experience covering dining trends, restaurant culture, and the hospitality industry.
Houston's diverse culinary landscape continues to reflect its multicultural roots, and its Filipino food scene has a well-earned moment in the spotlight. Whether you're craving sizzling sisig, rich kare-kare, or the nostalgic desserts like ube cake and leche flan, Houston offers several spots serving authentic and modern interpretations of Filipino comfort food.
From family-run cafes tucked into supermarkets to immersive supper clubs serving multi-course tastings inspired by the Philippines' rich history, each establishment celebrates the bold, tangy, sweet, and savory flavors that define Filipino cuisine. Here's where to find some of Houston's best Filipino restaurants, bakeries, and food stalls. Marcy de Luna is a Houston-based food journalist with more than a decade of experience covering dining trends, restaurant culture, and the hospitality industry.
Houston's diverse culinary landscape continues to reflect its multicultural roots, and its Filipino food scene has a well-earned moment in the spotlight. Whether you're craving sizzling sisig, rich kare-kare, or the nostalgic desserts like ube cake and leche flan, Houston offers several spots serving authentic and modern interpretations of Filipino comfort food.
From family-run cafes tucked into supermarkets to immersive supper clubs serving multi-course tastings inspired by the Philippines' rich history, each establishment celebrates the bold, tangy, sweet, and savory flavors that define Filipino cuisine. Here's where to find some of Houston's best Filipino restaurants, bakeries, and food stalls.
Held at Kitchen Studio Downtown, this casual Filipino-inspired supper club features a five-course tasting menu that explores Filipino cuisine from an elevated perspective. Highlights include oyster kinilaw, quail dinuguan, and octopus kare-kare. Each course is paired with complimentary beverages, such as a lychee-based palate cleanser, curated red and white wines, and non-alcoholic sips made with calamansi and guava or mango. Reservations are required, so be sure to book ahead.
Launched initially as a food truck in 2012, this relaxed Filipino American burger joint offers a mix of street food and comfort fare. Try the chicken pupu plate, featuring garlic rice and soy-glazed chicken, siopao steamed buns filled with a choice of pork or chicken, or go big with the wagyu beef patty-stacked Amboy Burger, topped with bacon, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, onion, butter pickles, and a homemade mayonnaise.
One of Houston's best-kept Filipino secrets is tucked inside an H-E-B on Bellaire Boulevard. This family-owned restaurant offers diners a variety of options. Think silog-style plates like tocilog with tocino (sweet fried pork), itlog (fried eggs), and sinangag (garlic fried rice), plus crispy chicken wings and platters of fried fish or a fried half-chicken served with diner's choice of rice or fries. Take your fare to go or settle in at a table on-site and dig in.
Beyond just a bakery, Godo's serves classic savory dishes like pancit palabok and grilled pompano alongside a variety of traditional Filipino sweets. At this casual spot, located near the Texas Medical Center, the kakanin (sticky rice cakes) are especially popular. The soft, fluffy mamon sponge cakes make for an ideal afternoon merienda, or snack.
With a location off Houston's Main Street not far from Filipino fried chicken joint Jollibee, and another adjacent to the Seafood City complex in Sugar Land, Baker's Son is a dessert haven for anyone with a sweet tooth. Diners will also find plenty of ube treats, including purple-hued ube cheese rolls and ube coffee cake topped with cream cheese. Be sure to try the custard egg pie, a sweet Filipino dessert reminiscent of egg custard, or the puto flan, a rice cake muffin that combines leche flan and puto into one delightful dessert.
This casual buffet-style restaurant is ideal for those who want to sample various dishes in one sitting. Make your way through a generous selection of Filipino staples, including crispy lechon, flavorful kare-kare, and fried lumpia. Save room for the sticky-sweet biko and chewy pichi-pichi for dessert, and sip refreshing drinks like kalamansi citrus juice and sago't gulaman made with sago or tapioca pearls, agar-agar jelly, and a brown sugar syrup. 9671 Bissonnet St, Houston, TX 77036
(713) 272-8888
(713) 272-8888 Visit Website
Though this is definitely a supermarket, Seafood City offers some of the best Filipino cuisine in the state. Shoppers are almost immediately greeted by its bustling food court, which features Halo Halo's assortment of fruity drinks, shakes, and juices; rice bowls and Filipino bolognese from Sizzle; a self-service station with hot foods, including slices served from a whole roasted pig; and the ever-popular Grill City, which serves a seemingly endless selection of grilled proteins, including whole squid, fish, skewered and barbecued meats, and chicharones fried fresh. If it's your first time, give the food court and Seafood City's many aisles a once-over to explore a storeful of options before committing to one. Finish the trip by stopping into the Baker's Son on the way out. This Sugar Land outpost of this Florida-founded Filipino bakery is filled with some of the most indulgent treats, with a special focus on ube. You'll find shelves and shelves of goodies, including ube cheese rolls, pan de ube, and trays of ube coffee cake iced with cream cheese frosting. 15237 North Southwest Freeway, Sugar Land, Texas 77478
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