Korean-Mexican Barbecue Restaurant Comes to The Heights — Chi’Lantro Brings Kimchi Fries and Loads of Bowls

One of the fastest-growing sectors of the restaurant industry is the fast-casual market — and Asian food is gaining a lot of traction within it. Contributing to that area’s growth is the Texas-born-and-based Chi’Lantro BBQ, a Korean/Mexican fusion restaurant brand created in Austin by CEO and founder Jae Kim. Now, Houston has its very own Chi’Lantro BBQ restaurant in The Heights

This first Houston Chi’Lantro BBQ is expected to be joined by nine more in the greater Houston area within the next few years.

A Korean immigrant who moved to the United States with his sister and single mom when he was 11 years old, Kim started Chi’Lantro BBQ (a conjunction between kimchi and cilantro) with just one food truck back in 2010. The then 25-year-old maxed out his credit cards and depleted his savings to start the engine of his first food truck and bring Austinites what would become a trademarked dish — Original Kimchi Fries. It is traditional French fries topped with the rather untraditional toppings of caramelized kimchi, shredded cheese, onions, cilantro, siracha, magic sauce and your choice of Korean barbecue meats.

A popular late-night treat, Kim estimates his fries are served more than 200,000 times a year. In addition to those formidable fries, Chi’Lantro BBQ offers an array of curated rice and noodle based bowls (you can even customize your own), plus salads, ssä.ms (wraps), and chi’jeu queso, a hatch chile-spiced queso served with tortilla chips.

Today, Kim runs 11 brick-and-mortar Chi’Lantro BBQ  restaurants and several food trucks. He can also boast mentions in Food & Wine, and appearances on The Food Network, and ABC’s Shark Tank. Interestingly Kim initially accepted Barbara Corcoran’s offer in the tank, but after the two winnowed down the deal to the details, Kim decided to take a pass. After three attempts to make the cut on the popular prime-time show, it turns out that even without a deal the exposure brought Kim lots of new hungry diners not to mention eager investors.

And now his first Houston restaurant with many more in the works.

Houston’s new Chi’Lantro BBQ restaurant is located at 1324 N. Shepherd Drive in The Heights.