Houston’s Best New Year’s Day Brunch Spots: 25 Restaurants That Understand How to Make 2018 Start Right

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?