4 Best Restaurants in Texas, USA

Based on a distinctive Australian-style Thai cuisine, Sway has provided Austin with an injection of modern Thai fusion in a chic, sexy setting. The South Austin hotspot, which opened in 2012, has received high acclaim from luminaries like Bon Appetit, who ranked it as one of the “50 Best New Restaurants in America” in 2013. The alluring menu offers tasty starters like prawn miange, followed by options including stir fry, curry, wok noodle, and grilled and fried rice preparations. We recommend the Jungle Curry, with wagyu beef, eggplant, and red chilis, or the lemongrass-perfumed tom kha gai soup. Reservations are required for the twice-nightly Moo Sway dinners, featuring off-menu specialties like whole roasted pork shoulder, all served family-style. To drink there's wine, sake, and beer, plus custom kombuchas and drinking vinegars (with flavors like tamarind and apple), mixed with Topo Chico and served over crushed ice. Seating is mainly communal and quickly fills up on weekends. Take-out orders are now accepted online, making the elevated cuisine more accessible.

Relaxed and locally sourced, this no-frills café is a staple for lovers of high-quality Thai food in a casual neighborhood setting. Part grab-and-go market and coffee bar, part café, and part cooking-class destination, Thai Fresh is a popular breakfast, lunch, and dinner spot, with a diverse range of curries, stir-fries, and noodle and fried-rice dishes. Homemade breakfast tacos are also available throughout the day. Locals drop by for their iced chai lattes and sparkling Thai basil lime aguas frescas, or stick around to indulge in one of their organic vegan ice creams and kombucha cocktails with sake, sparkling rosé, or white wine. Brunch is served on weekends.

This popular Thai trailer opened a physical restaurant in Johnson City, where the staff serves a short but stellar menu of dishes like the "Crying Tiger," featuring char-grilled steak and served with Thai dipping sauce, rice, and salad greens. Other tasty options include "Banh Mi in a Bowl" with your choice of grilled protein, a stellar Green Curry, and a wide range of create-your-own wok stir-fries. A local favorite.

Don't let the strip-center location or the dreary brown-and-grey interior fool you: this may be the best Thai restaurant in Houston. From the moment you walk in, you're greeted warmly and served attentively. Menu standouts include pad Thai in all its rich peanuty goodness, along with a top-of-its-class chicken satay served with a zesty cucumber relish. Warning: if the server asks you if you'd like your dish "Thai hot," you might as well bring along a fire extinguisher. The wine list is kind of disappointing, but you're here for the food.