1. Hunan on Post Oak and Orient Express in the Galleria (both owned by the Huang family)- loved their Return of the Phoenix dish, their spin on sesame chicken, which is not duplicated anywhere. Orient Express had the best lunch specials in town and uniquely served salad as an included appetizer with this great soy/miso salad dressing they made.
2. Texas Tumbleweed - steakhouse that closed in the late 80s. Fond memories of going there as a child. Mesquite grilled steaks, great nachos and salads (ranch dressing was incredible). They had a dance floor and live band playing the Cotton Eyed Joe with a mock gun fight between guys dressed up as old school cowboys every few hours.
3. Ta Hua - closed in the 90s. Couldn’t beat their steamed vegetable dumplings and special green hot sauce and scallion pancakes. Dumpling King opened after Ta Hua closed and has the same recipe for dumplings but Ta Hua was a nicer place to go to dinner and their main courses were much better than Dumpling King.
4. Fuddruckers on Chimney Rock - great memories going there from childhood. Back in the 80s and 90s, their burgers were a cut above the competition and it was a special treat to go there since they had just 1 location in Houston before their original owners sold out and over expanded. The building it was in and patio was very nice.
5. The old Texadelphia on Westheimer (not the Dunvale location) - it opened around the time I was at UT in the late 90s and was so excited to have a location in Houston to visit when back home. Food was a as good as the original on the Drag.
6. Lalo’s Pizza - another old school place that closed a long time ago in the 80s next to my childhood home in the Fondren Southwest neighborhood. It was a hole in the wall next to a Stop N Go owned by a very nice Argentinian. Remember the pictures of Maradona, Argentina national team and of the country itself plastered all over the walls. Great pizza.