What are the best pizza and Italian restaurants in Texas ? (Houston: to eat, oil)

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by justme02

Its an honest question. I genuinely want to know what kinds of food are available in the Houston area that arent in the Dallas area.

In my opinion, both are top notch in the food department. The only noticeable difference Ive found has to do with seafood.

In my opinion, it's not so much about what can't be found in Dallas, but the quality and quantity found in Houston. For example, both cities have an endless sea of Mexican food, but Houston is often seen as having the better restaurants for that cuisine.

Of course it's all relative and easily arguable, but I personally believe Houston is easily the best food city in Texas, and several publications tend to say the same.

[colcat]

Grimaldis has awesome pizza.

[debzkidz]

Originally Posted by jayshoota

Star Pizza in Houston is yummy.
DaMarco Italian in Houston got a 29 out of 30 from the folks at Zagat.
Zagat, USA TODAY Road Warriors pick top Italian restaurants - ABC News

When I lived in Dallas, I ate at Patrizio in Highland Village at least once a week. Their Chicken and Mushroom Lasagna is a little piece of heaven.

Oh I miss Star Pizza. We need to make a trip to Houston and not tell our family we're there so we can go eat at all our favorite places like Star Pizza.

[sxrckr]

Originally Posted by colcat

Grimaldis has awesome pizza.

Where is that? Never heard of it.

[BstYet2Be]

Originally Posted by colcat

Grimaldis has awesome pizza.

Originally Posted by sxrckr

Where is that? Never heard of it.

Texas - Grimaldi's Pizzeria

Grimaldi's Pizzeria - official site
.

[ETex2]

Eddie's Napoli's restaurant in Garland is hard to beat for Italian. Not fancy, but their Chicken Carcioffi is to die for. Next best to me is Maggiano's in Northpark (Dallas). For pizza, I've never had any better than Zanata in downtown Rockwall.

[itchyfeet68]

Maybe if you like American type pizza. I found their pizza to be dripping with oil, cheese and salt. If you want good Italian pizza, go to an Italian restaurant, not a pizza place.

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[itchyfeet68]

I was referring to Grimaldis

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[TXNGL]

We loved the pizza at Dough in Preston Forest, but be warned it is expensive! My all time favorite would have to be Marco's in Preston Royal. I've been eating that since I was a kid. IFrattelli on Greenville makes a good pizza.

[homeinatx]

There was never much Italian emigration to Texas and there are no substantial Italian or Italian-American communities in the state. Consequently Italian food is mostly ersatz, clueless and inauthentic. Looking for great Italian food in Texas is like looking for great Mexican food in the northeast: 90% of it is awful, and the good stuff tends to be more expensive. The overwhelming majority of Italian restaurants don't make their pasta from scratch, make sauces like Alfredo which Italians have not eaten in 50 years, if ever, put corn starch in their pizza to cheat on the crunch, hardly ever make pizza in a wood-fired oven, cook out of season vegetables, have no sense of terroir or locality, don't smoke their own meats or bake their own bread, and generally do the things that make my Italian mother contemptuous or enraged.

As a principle, one should not eat Italian food in the U.S., south of Kansas City, except for Los Angeles and San Francisco which have some great Italian restaurants and New Orleans which has a few. There is nothing like the fantastic Italian food culture in Texas cities like what you can find in New York, Boston, Philly, small town New Jersey and Chicago.

That said after extensive and depressing sampling, I have found one very good Italian restaurant - DaMarco's in Houston - and one excellent Italian restaurant - Il Sogno in San Antonio.

I don't recognize all the recommendations above, but with the exception of Damarco's, all the ones I have eaten at were nothing short of appalling. There have never been enough Italians in Texas to teach Texans what good Italian food is, so most Texans happily consume the bad stuff. Great Tex-Mex or Mexican food or BBQ in Texas would produce a much much longer list. You would be mad to come here looking for Italian food.