Houston’s Best New Year’s Day Brunch Spots: 25 Restaurants That Understand How to Make 2018 Start Right
BY Annie Gallay // 12.29.17It's a new year. Time to go get some brunch.
This New Year’s Day, if you’re not cleaning up bottles like Taylor Swift and you’re hoping to begin again like Bono, head to brunch first thing. Get your year started off right with friends, family, and fried eggs (or even French fries!)
PaperCity has rounded up Houston’s best New Year’s Day brunch spots. Put 2017 in your rear view and Xochi or B&B Butchers in your GPS. Some of these restaurants will stay open for dinner, but we all know that brunch really is the culinary crown jewel of this extended holiday weekend.
Cheers to the only tolerable Monday of the year!
AMERICAN
1. FM Kitchen & Bar
1112 Shepherd
Swing on by FM Kitchen & Bar New Year’s Day to watch college football games and enjoy drink specials all day.
2. Rainbow Lodge
2011 Ella
It’s a new year, but it’s not exactly out with the old, in with the new. Rainbow Lodge is honoring tradition with a New Year’s Day Brunch from 11 am to 3 pm. The a la carte menu will feature the tried-and-true Southern New Year’s Day meal of black-eyed peas and greens. Wash it down with mimosa and eggnog specials.
3. Bosscat Kitchen & Libations
4310 Westheimer
The cat’s out of the bag. Bosscat will be open from 11 am to 3 pm for brunch on New Year’s Day. You may have to get up for it, but the Breakfast in Bed Shot will get you going — it’s maple bourbon, some OJ, and bacon.
Kick it old school with meatloaf hash + eggs or chicken fried steak.
4. The General Public
797 Sorella
Count yourself among the general public and get your brunch on from 10:30 am to 3 pm at The General Public. The tavern’s making an exception and hosting brunch on a weekday in honor of 2018’s debut.
Choose from a variety of breakfast toasts — burrata and pistachio, peanut butter and banana, the millennial-favorite avocado — or go for a full on-entrée. Try out crispy quail and hot cakes or sunny enchiladas.
5. Kenny & Ziggy’s
2327 Post Oak; 5172 Buffalo Speedway
Celebrate the New Year like you’re in New York. Starting at 10 am New Year’s day, the authentic deli will start serving its sizeable sandwiches. Nosh on “sandwich stars” like the triple-decker Fiddler on the Roof of Your Mouth or Luck be a Latke, brisket sandwiched between two potato pancakes.
6. Weights + Measures
2808 Caroline
Don’t measure your waistline first, and definitely don’t start your new year’s diet before brunch at Weights + Measures. From 10 am to 4 pm, sample the toasted everything pretzel bagel, cake donuts + fried cheeseburger, and their famous carrot cake.
7. LePeep Restaurant
Multiple locations
New Year’s Day brings breakfast and lunch at all five LePeep locations. Go light in the morning with a Health Nut egg white scramble, or go hearty with the Lumberjack Breakfast of eggs, bacon or sausage, short stack, and grilled potatoes.
As a special treat, the Galleria-area and Memorial City LePeeps are serving alcohol during the holiday season for the first time in 30 years. Take advantage with bellinis, mimosas, bloody Marys, and more.
8. Max’s Wine Dive
4720 Washington; 214 Fairview
Dive into 2018 at MAX’s with brunch from 10 am to 3 pm. Take a ride on the sweeter side with sweet potato donuts with bourbon caramel or King Cake French Toast.
You can’t go wrong with the time-honored Famous Southern Fried Chicken. The fried chicken batter is gluten-free!

STEAKHOUSES
9. B&B Butchers
1814 Washington
B&B knows you’ll need some R&R the day after. The Washington Avenue steakhouse’s “Hangover Cure Brunch” from 11 am to 3 pm will get you fixed up with live music on the rooftop patio, brunch dishes and an updated mimosa — “Manmosas,” served in a pilsner glass.
B&B honors tradition with New Year’s Day with a black-eyed pea dish, but adds a new spin with kale, instead of the classic greens.
10. Smith & Wollensky
4007 Westheimer
Smith & Wollensky continue their winter menu on Day 1 of 2018. Seasonal presentations include the Slider Bar, which runs the gamut from Buffalo Fried oyster to beef, bacon and bleu cheese.
Classic filets will be available, along with adventurous items like the gorgonzola-crusted filet and coffee & cocoa rubbed filet.
ITALIAN
11. Hotel Granduca
1080 Uptown Park
Start your new year off right with New Year’s Day brunch from 11 am to 2 pm. The menu boasts salads, antipasti and Italian cheeseboard, iced raw bar, and Italian brunch helpings like ricotta gnocchi.
12. Quattro
1300 Lamar
Quattro brings on the New Year’s Day Brunch from 11 am to 2 pm. For $75 per adult and $42 per child, you can enjoy their standard fare and some TBD extras.
13. Prego
2520 Amherst
Rise, shine, and mambo Italiano. Prego will be open from 11 am to 10 pm. You know what that means — brunch.
Settle in for three courses, covering items like cream of porcini mushroom soup, Texas blue crab cake, and butterscotch bread pudding, for $25.
Or go a la carte with two options for frittatas or a waffle and scrambled eggs.
14. Osso & Kristalla
1515 Texas
Ditch your downstairs kitchen table and head Downtown for brunch at Osso & Kristalla. The modern trattoria’s making an exception and serving its full weekend brunch menu on Monday.
From 10 am to 2 pm, get mimosa carafes for just $10 and get your fill of wood fired brunch pizzettas with sweet fennel sausage or artichoke hearts, share polento tots, or take on smoked steelhead salmon rillettes.
SEAFOOD
15. Liberty Kitchen Oyster Bar
1050 Studewood Street
Liberty Kitchen & Oysterette
4224 San Felipe
Liberty Kitchen at the Treehouse
963 Bunker Hill
Welcome to Liberty Kitchen’s last “Morning After Brunch” of the season. Red velvet waffles and fried chicken will get you going from 10 am to 2:30 pm.
But that’s only the beginning. Liberty Kitchen will be open until 10 pm, serving up an out-there burger.
There’s nothing quite as liberating as giving into indulgences. Liberty Kitchen will introduce the Slightly Stoopid “Commitment” Burger for one day and one day only.
The burger starts off with a Meats by Linz prime-rib/brisket grind patty. It’s stacked with chicken fried sugar-cured bacon, pimento cheese dip, and more, all on a Kaiser onion-poppy bun.
It’ll set you back $39.18, but it comes with a side of Kona Town pork belly, chicken fried spam, and lobster tempura gravy fries.
16. Star Fish
191 Heights
Make a wave and eat New Year’s Day lunch or dinner at Star Fish in the Heights. It will be open from 4 to 10 pm, serving lively apps like puffy crispy lobster tacos and fried flounder strips.
Get your fork and knife ready for Wood Grilled Ora King Salmon and get your soup spoon out for Starfish Bouillabaisse.
EUROPEAN
17. Lucienne
1070 Dallas
This brunch will satisfy grown-ups and kids alike. There’s a three-course prix fixe meal for adults for $55, and an a la carte children’s menu from 11 am to 2:30 pm.
Adults can take on the more mature selections like the apple foie gras soufflé and quail with potato cakes, pear, and cardamom. The little ones can chow down on items like chicken and waffles or bite into Black Hills Ranch beef burgers.
FRENCH
18. Toulouse
4444 Westheimer
You win some, you lose some. At Toulouse, you’ll be a winner with this River Oaks District hotspot’s New Year’s Day brunch, starting at 11 am.
Enjoy brunch items with a distinct French flair, like duck confit hash, or go full-on French with the escargot Toulouse, chicken paillard, Croque Madame or Quiche du Jour.
19. La Table
1800 Post Oak
On January 1st, La Table is setting the table for a family style brunch featuring specialty stations. Meals for adults will be $69 per person, and the meals for children are $35 per child. La Table is donating $3 from every guest’s meal to the Hospitality for Houston relief fund.
MEXICAN
20. Caracol
2200 Post Oak Blvd
Tuck in for Caracol’s a la carte brunch from 11 am to 3 pm. If you’re sleeping in, you can head on over for dinner until 9 pm. Satisfy your seafood cravings with unique dishes like bass wrapped in banana leaf, fried squid in chipotle-tomatillo sauce, and mussels with chorizo verde.

21. Hugo’s
1600 Westheimer
“Return to Life” at Hugo’s with their Vuelve a la Vida buffet. Enjoy from 11 am to 3 pm for $42 per adult and $15 per child.
22. Xochi
1777 Walker
Xochi will offer an a la carte brunch menu from 11 am to 3 pm. After 3, it will stay open until 9 serving its regular menu. Get adventurous with homemade queso made with a trio of insects, or go tame with corn soup or the day’s enchilada offerings.
TEX-MEX
23. Edgar’s Hermano
1700 Smith
The Southern comfort/Tex-Mex fusion restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Come in early for fajita steak and eggs or house breakfast quesadillas. Lunch could look like a Manchego and smoked bacon burger or braised oxtail soup. For dinner, fuel up on mac & queso, topped with chipotle grilled shrimp.
24. The Original Ninfa’s on Navigation
2704 Navigation
The Original Ninfa’s has been hand rolling fresh tortillas since 1973. That’s not changing in 2018. On New Year’s Day, the Tex-Mex institution will be open from 11 am to 10 pm.
Get creative with octopus tacos or adobo rabbit tacos, or go classic with fajitas. Order for two if you want, and eat it yourself. We won’t tell.
JAPANESE
25. Kata Robata
3600 Kirby
Get your small plates on at this sushi + grill spot on New Year’s Day from 5 to 10:30 pm. This revered spot is known for its 72-hour slow-cooked Texas Kobe beef skewers, signature rolls such as the Yellowtail Rising Sun, sushi and of course, its ramen.
After all, who wants to go into a new year hungry?