CITY GUIDES | TEXAS
The Best Restaurants in Odessa, Texas, Run on Smoke, Steak, and Salsa
By Rebecca Thompson
Updated July 27, 2026
El Sinaloense
AUTHOR BIO: Rebecca Thompson has held many jobs, from newspaper writer to middle-school teacher. As a restaurant critic, she’s reviewed the Michelin-starred to gas station BBQ.
The best restaurants in Odessa, Texas, understand exactly where they are. This is a city of mesquite smoke, handmade tortillas, thick burgers, old-school steakhouses, and dining rooms where the mariachi band may arrive before the check. Odessa’s food scene also has more range than its roughneck reputation suggests, with wood-fired pizza, Italian-American comfort food, polished hotel dining, and chefs who traded the oil fields for smokers and restaurant kitchens. These are the Odessa restaurants worth knowing, whether you’re crossing West Texas, working the Permian Basin, or simply looking for dinner that tastes like it belongs here.
Barrel & Derrick
$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Barrel & Derrick occupies the Odessa Marriott downtown, which means it handles plenty of expense-account dinners, but executive chef Rakeem Samuel has given the restaurant ambitions beyond feeding the conference crowd. The menu runs from bluefin tuna poke and Black Angus steak salad to steaks and seafood, with sushi nights that have become their own draw. The dining room is sleek, the bar is lively, and the oil-field touches make sure nobody forgets this is Odessa.
Best for: Dinner and drinks downtown
Brantley Creek BBQ & Co.
$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Odessa native Brandon McPherson left the oil fields for barbecue, first rolling out Brantley Creek BBQ as a food truck and then giving the smoker a permanent home. The restaurant turns out brisket, ribs, jalapeño-cheddar sausage, and vinegar slaw with the confidence of a place that knows the meat will sell out whether you planned ahead or not. Go early, order more than seems reasonable, and save tomorrow’s dietary restraint for tomorrow.
Best for: West Texas barbecue
Cork & Pig Tavern
$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Chefs Felipe Armenta, John Nestor, Virginia Dalbeck, and Ed Buenaventura opened Cork & Pig Tavern with a wood-fired oven, a serious bar, and a menu broad enough to settle most group-text arguments. The ultimate pepperoni pizza remains the obvious order, though the pastrami sandwich and double-cut pork chop make a strong case for looking beyond the pies. The industrial dining room stays busy from business lunch through cocktails, with brunch waiting to restart the cycle.
Best for: Pizza, cocktails, and groups
Curb Side Bistro
$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Chef-owner Alejandro Barrientos began Curb Side Bistro as a food truck, then built it into one of Odessa’s most recognizable restaurants and himself into a regular on Food Network competitions. The El Tejano Borracho burger first brought national attention, while buffalo fries and a rotating lineup of loaded burgers keep the menu operating at the point where restraint becomes somebody else’s problem. The dining room is loud, colorful, and appropriately proud of a hometown chef who won Chopped and kept cooking for West Texas.
Best for: Burgers, sandwiches, and loaded fries
El Sinaloense Mariscos & Bar
$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Fernando Rodriguez, his brother, and their cousin opened El Sinaloense just as the pandemic shut down Texas, beginning with takeout and eventually building an Odessa restaurant successful enough to expand into Midland. Their family comes from Sinaloa, and the menu follows the seafood-heavy cooking of that Mexican state with aguachiles, ceviches, fish tacos, fried tilapia, and the towering Torre de Mariscos. The platters arrive dressed for a party, and the overnight seafood shipments pull off the considerable trick of making the coast feel much closer to West Texas.
Best for: Sinaloan seafood and oversized platters
Hacienda Vieja
$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Hacienda Vieja serves the kind of Mexican dinner that can begin with chips and end with a mariachi band standing beside the table. The menu is enormous, but the mole enchiladas deserve a direct route, ideally followed by a michelada cold enough to survive an Odessa afternoon. The colorful dining room has the energy of a family celebration, even when nobody at the table has a birthday.
Best for: Mole enchiladas and mariachi
La Guadalupana Xpress
$$ | MAP | WEBSITE
La Guadalupana Xpress keeps the furniture simple and puts its effort into the tortillas, which is the correct division of labor. The menu includes al pastor tacos, birria mulitas, carne a la tampiqueña, and camarones a la diabla, all served quickly and in portions designed to eliminate later snack plans. Regulars tend to order before they’ve fully reached the counter.
Best for: Tacos and a quick lunch
La Margarita Mexican Food
$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE
Owner Trina Moralez runs La Margarita as the sort of family restaurant where regulars receive recognition before they receive a menu. Carnitas, enchiladas, guacamole, and handmade tortillas form the backbone of the home-style cooking, with the kitchen sticking to dishes people came specifically to eat. The dining room has the comfortable rhythm of a place that has fed the same families through several generations of appetites.
Best for: Home-style Mexican cooking
The Legendary Barn Door
$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE
The Legendary Barn Door opened as Jay’s Barn Door in 1963, and Odessa has spent the decades since gathering there for steaks, birthdays, business deals, and the occasional plate of calf fries. Roy and Tami Gillean now oversee the restaurant, where mesquite-grilled steaks, chicken-fried steak, and warm loaves of the house bread remain the main event. Wagon wheels, antiques, and the adjoining Pecos Depot give the dining room the look of West Texas history that never got packed into storage.
Best for: A classic Odessa steak dinner
Maria’s Mexican Kitchen
$$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Chef Felipe Armenta created Maria’s Mexican Kitchen around his family’s recipes, while Odessa executive chef Luis Cisneros runs the kitchen at the polished Parks Legado restaurant. Tuna tostadas, Maria’s mole famoso, seafood enchiladas, and wood-fired garlic ribeye push the menu well past the usual fajita-and-margarita routine, though the bar handles those margaritas quite seriously. The modern dining room has the sheen of a restaurant built for celebrations, corporate dinners, and anyone ready to spend considerably more on Mexican food than they did at lunch.
Best for: A dressed-up Mexican dinner
Red Oak Kitchen
$$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Chefs Felipe Armenta, John Nestor, Virginia Dalbeck, and Ed Buenaventura opened Red Oak Kitchen in Odessa in 2015 as the more casual sibling to Cork & Pig Tavern. Fried green tomatoes and pecan-crusted chicken have become signatures on a Southwestern menu that also covers tacos, pizzas, salads, and wood-fired meats. The open kitchen keeps the dining room moving, even when lunch stretches suspiciously close to happy hour.
Best for: Southwestern comfort food
Whitehouse Meat Market
$$ | MAP | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM
Whitehouse Meat Market began as a family butcher shop in 1956 and eventually learned that putting its beef between two buns was very good for business. Jane and Olan Maney now run the Odessa institution, where cheeseburgers, barbecue sandwiches, and BLTs share space with steaks and packages from the butcher counter. The burger is thick, straightforward, and entirely uninterested in whatever trend currently requires tweezers.
Best for: A classic Odessa burger
Best of the Big D: Top Restaurants and Chefs in Dallas Now
All of our coverage of the Dallas restaurant scene, including the best restaurants and interviews with the hottest chefs.
The Michelin Guide Should Absolutely Be Eating in Hudson
James Beard talent, tasting menus, and serious neighborhood cooking make Hudson ready for stars, Bibs, and recommendations.
