The first U.S. location of this international all-you-can-eat Korean restaurant serves a buffet of tteokbokki, a type of simmered Korean rice cake that’s customizable with a variety of sauces, broths, proteins, hot fried foods, and rice cakes — all cooked right at your table. It wouldn’t be “dookki” (literal translation: “two meals”), without a second experience. The restaurant offers a two-part experience, encouraging diners to use the remaining broth and other ingredients to cook kimchi fried rice — another popular and traditional Korean meal. Have room left? Visit the other food stations, including the bulgogi bar and the ramen bar. It’s included in the 90-minute experience, which is just $20 to $23 for adult, $14 to $17 for children, and free for kids under 4.

The seventh outpost of this popular Korean restaurant chain is serving up its customizable yukgaejan rice soups made with diners’ choice of tofu, tripe, seafood, fresh pasta, or ramen. Diners can also choose their spice level and three complementary banchan side dishes a part of the experience. Don’t miss out on its sharable dishes, like its bo ssam, a pork belly dish eaten in lettuce wraps and served with various types of kimchi, fermented soybean paste, and slices of jalapeno and garlic for a boost of flavor.

James Beard Award-nominated chef Christine Ha adds sandwiches to her repertoire, with this new Spring Branch sandwich shop. Indulge in crispy tuna sandwiches, an Eggwich with the crusts carefully cut off, smash burgers, and a Sichuan hot chicken sandwich, served with your choice of chips or tater tots. Dine-in and stay awhile at its limited indoor seating, or take it to go thanks to the easy access drive-thru.

Though many miss Little Pappas Seafood House, Pappas’ newest seafood restaurant Little’s Oyster Bar at its former location is a fine replacement. California chef Jason Ryczek brings a fresh take to Gulf Coast cuisine, with dishes like lobster gnocchi, the most tender grilled octopus served with an herbacious schug and marble potatoes, and a flaky, succulent Yellowedge Grouper plated with brown butter sauce. Caviar service here is also top-notch. Using roe Ryczek harvests from his own white sturgeon, Little’s accompanies a delicacy with pillowy fried potato dumplings and a rich creme fraiche topped with pickled radish and chives.

Houston hip-hop legend Bun B finally opened a brick-and-mortar, albeit temporary, for Trill Burgers after operating as a traveling pop-up for more than two years. The Montrose smash burger joint stays true to its roots — with crispy all beef or vegan smashed patties topped with American or vegan cheese, caramelized onions, and a special Trill sauce on a potato bun and fries. Take heed, though: Even after a month of service, lines are still long, but they tend to move fast.

Underbelly Hospitality’s newest restaurant promises a vibe quite different than its existing restaurants. Pastore draws from the Italian coast, with bright and airy decor, and a seafood-focused menu, with dishes like roasted calamari stuffed with farro verde and topped with piquillo pepper sauce, swordfish amatriciana, and squid ink linguine. The beverages also adhere to the theme, with a variety of spritzes, frozen limoncello, and martinis.

Sister to Toasted Coconut and Nobie’s, this Montrose pizza place serves nostalgia realness, with 90’s tunes blasting from two reel-to-reel machines, an arcade area with pinball machines, and spiffy booths with vintage light fixtures, including two Pizza Hut lamps that throwback to dining in the pizza chain palace. Another novel draw, of course, is the Midwestern tavern-style pizzas sliced in thin cracker crust square shapes with combinations like the sweet, spicy, and smoky Maui Wowee, topped with sliced spam, pineapple, and smoked jalapeno, and the sausage, pepperoni, and capicola-loaded Meat Head. Experience the cocktails at the full-service bar, which offers select frozen cocktails and espresso martinis on tap.

The cosmic-themed bar’s second location lands in Montrose, bringing an endearing quirkiness, cheesy ironclad-style pizzas, and expertly-made cocktails to boot. Those familiar with Betelgeuse Betelgeuse’s menu will enjoy its signature items like its doughy Space Balls, and its Classic Nuovo pizza, which is topped in natural-cased pepperoni, mushrooms, feta cheese, and chili flakes. But newer additions unique to the Montrose outpost promise to be out of this world, too. Try the spicy buffalo chicken pizza drizzled in ranch dressing, or the a Three Sauce pie made with a trifecta of basil pesto, pizza sauce, and vodka sauce.

The former location of Izakaya sticks with seafood as its forte, but this time with a Southern twist. Celebrating Gulf Coast cuisine, Josephine’s stuns with seafood packed po’ boys, boiled seafood, and entrees like shrimp and grits, redfish grilled on the half shell, and so much more.

Ben Berg’s latest establishment brings New York-style Cantonese cuisine to Houston in an opulent setting perfect for celebrations. Find classics like dim sum, uni shu mai dumplings, Beijing duck, and Berg’s favorite — cold sesame noodles. Texas touches also make appearances in the dishes, with egg rolls made with Truth BBQ’s smoked brisket; a Holy Trinity fried rice made with smoked sausage, brisket, and char siu; and a half-fried General Tso’s chicken.

It’s likely that if you’ve copped a croissant from coffee shops like Tenfold Coffee, Un Caffee, or Forth and Nomad, you’ve likely experienced the dream that Love is. If not, now you can visit Weights and Measures strictly for chef Omar Pereney’s baked goods. Open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, croissant connoisseurs can find divine savory options like butter, ham and asiago, or the crolache, a combination of a croissant and kolache that’s stuffed with jalapeño cheddar beef smoked sausage and three-year aged cheddar, plus sweet classics like pan au chocolate and twice-baked almond cardamom. Find them fresh at 7 a.m., 9 a.m., and 11 a.m. on days that it’s open, and be sure to visit on weekends when cruffins — muffin-shaped croissants made with rotating and seasonal flavors like hot chocolate tiramisu and raspberry passionfruit — are up for grabs.

With Street to Kitchen chef Benchawan “G” Jabthong Painter and lauded Eculent chef David Skinner at the helm, this tasting menu restaurant in Kemah is a true meeting of the minds. The rare multi-course experience travels back in time to explore Thai and Native American cuisine at its core and features an edible display of ancient cooking techniques and indigenous ingredients. Diners begin the journey with dishes like fermented foraged plants, Skinner’s blue cornbread served with sunflower butter and leatherwood honey, and chef G’s delightful red snapper Gaeng curry. As colonialism, new techniques, and technology are introduced on the menu’s chronological timeline, the dishes, too, evolve, delivering tender Thai venison with a red curry that packs incredible heat (thanks to the red chiles the Portuguese brought to Thailand in the 1600s), and Skinner’s bison steak with a fermented wild ramp sauce, and duck fat confit potatoes with shards of jerky. The desserts, including Skinner’s “Memories of Fallen Snow” — a butternut squash preserve topped with Tonka bean ice cream, spruce tip syrup, and housemade snow — are equally as thoughtful.