RESTAURANT NEWS
Texas Michelin Guide 2026: A First Star for Fort Worth, but Still No Two-Star Anywhere
Three restaurants joined the one-star ranks. The more telling changes in the 2026 Michelin Guide to Texas are quieter—including whether the guide will be back.
By Rebecca Thompson
2:20 p.m. CT, Oct. 8, 2026
Fabrik
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 Michelin Guide's third Texas selection, released Thursday, rewards a close read. Nineteen restaurants now hold a star — every one of them a single star — and 25 more names joined the guide as Bib Gourmands and Recommended restaurants. But the totals matter less than the movement underneath them. One city finally broke through. Another swapped its stars without gaining any. Houston's depth grew where nobody was looking, one rung down. And the guide's own future in Texas, once a given, is now an open question. What follows is what actually changed this year, and what it means.
Start in Fort Worth, the one city in the guide that had never had a star. Goldee's Bar-B-Q carried a Bib Gourmand in both previous Texas guides — the designation Michelin gives restaurants it considers good value. This year, the inspectors promoted it to a star. Goldee's is a Central Texas barbecue joint run by childhood friends Jalen Heard, Lane Milne and Jonny White, who opened it in 2020. It cooks over post oak, a few days a week, until the meat runs out, and Texas Monthly once ranked it the best barbecue in the state. It is not the guide's first Texas barbecue star — InterStellar BBQ and Leroy and Lewis in Austin and CorkScrew BBQ in Spring already held one. But it makes four of the state's 19 stars places where dinner comes off a smoker.
Kappo Kappo
Austin, which has had the state's deepest bench since the guide arrived, added two stars and quietly lost two. The new names are Fabrik, a plant-based tasting-menu restaurant that opened in 2023 and recently relocated across town, and Kappo Kappo, a 25-seat French-Japanese counter inside the Austin Proper Hotel, opened late last year by twin brothers Haru and Gohei Kishi, who grew up in Paris. Against those gains, Olamaie — starred in both previous guides — closed in July after 12 years, and la Barbecue slipped from a star down to the Recommended list. Austin's star count didn't change. Its membership did, the more honest picture of how the guide works. A star here is a lease, not a deed.
Everywhere else, the starred list held still. Dallas kept Mamani and Tatsu. Houston kept its five, plus CorkScrew just up the road in Spring. San Antonio kept its three. The movement came one rung down. Houston added five Bib Gourmands, more than any other city — as good a signal as any of where that city's dining energy is pooling. Dallas watched Lucia slide from Bib Gourmand to Recommended, and Georgie, a fixture of the guide since it arrived in Texas, dropped out of it altogether. Dallas added a Bib Gourmand for Resident Taqueria, and Austin's Stefan Davis of Barley Swine took home the Outstanding Service Award. No Green Stars, Michelin's sustainability designation, were announced this year.
Chef Christophe De Lellis of Mamani
Then there is the number that didn't change. Three guides in, Texas still has no two-star restaurant, let alone a three. The inspectors keep widening the base — 25 new names this year — without promoting anyone past one star. Maybe no Texas kitchen has shown them the consistency across a full menu, visit after visit, that they ask for. Maybe the guide is in no hurry. Either way, after three years the ceiling has become its own story.
Murray’s Pizza
Resident Taqueria
The larger question hangs over next year. This was the final selection under the three-year, $2.7 million arrangement that brought Michelin to Texas, paid for by state and city tourism agencies. A reveal by email costs the guide little and commits it to less. Michelin, for its part, has said that once the guide arrives in a place, the intent is for it to remain, and that its inspectors will keep eating in the five Texas cities. The chefs who waited on Thursday's email will hold it to that. A guide that arrived with a party in 2024 doesn't have to stay loud. It does have to stay.
Goldee's Barbecue
THE NEW ADDITIONS TO THE 2026 MICHELIN GUIDE TO TEXAS
Every restaurant added to the guide this year, by city:
DALLAS–FORT WORTH
One Star: Goldee's Bar-B-Q (Fort Worth)
Bib Gourmand: Resident Taqueria (Dallas)
Recommended: Fond (Dallas), Jashan (Plano), Mābo (Dallas), Olōyō (Dallas)
HOUSTON
Bib Gourmand: Bar Buena, Khói Barbecue, Kitchen Rumors, Murray's Pizza & Wine, Xolo
Recommended: 1111, Angie's, Di An Pho, Jantra, Levant BBQ, Mayahuel, Oru, Osteria de Mercato, Sushi Horiuchi
AUSTIN
One Star: Fabrik, Kappo Kappo
Recommended: Din Ho Chinese BBQ
SAN ANTONIO
Recommended: Lovers Pizzeria, Petit Coquin
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