I'm moving to Houston! (Looking for recommendations on stuff to do in Houston)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I just graduated from in December with, and will be taking a job as a project engineer in the Northwest area of Houston.

I’ve only been to Houston a few times for interviews or to visit friends, so I don’t know much about it. Therefore, I was wondering if any of y’all had advice or recommendations on stuff to do in Houston. Especially nice would be:
[ul]
[li]good restaurants to try[/li][li]good arthouse movie theaters[/li][li]good book stores (especially for used books)[/li][li]good places for a young single girl like myself to meet people[/li][li]any other fun places that you’d recommend[/li][/ul]

I’m mainly looking for recommendations on fun stuff to do (I’ve never lived in a big city before and I’m pretty excited), but if you have practical advice (what roads to avoid, what grocery stores to use, etc.) I will gladly accept any advice you have. Thanks in advance for your help!

2

I’m pretty NW, to Cypress actually, and don’t know the singles places but will help where I can. 290 is the main NW highway but I do try and avoid it like the plague during peak traffic. It backs up pretty bad. If you can avoid having to use it for your work commute you’ll be a happier person for it.

Food Town and Fiesta are I guess the lower end grocery stores. Randalls and Rice Epicurian are the higher end. HEB World Market and Kroger are the two middle-of-the-roaders I prefer.

Restaurants… what kind are you looking for, both type and price? Roughly how far NW will you be?

3

My condolences :smiley: (I lived there for 15 years).

Ditto on the NW freeway commute. I used to go out to 34th Street (from the Heights) at 6am, then come back in at 8am. The commute out? 10 minutes. The commute back? At least 30 minutes (without an accident - just people slowing down).

Most of the places I know are down in Montrose/Heights/River Oaks.

Mexican food:
Spanish Flower (Heights, relatively cheap, open 24 hours)
Cafe Adobe (Montrose/River Oaks, on Westheimer, OK food, great “funky” atmosphere). Warning, it can get busy, so plan ahead.
Tila’s (on Shepherd, GREAT food, GREAT margaritas - especially the El Tesoro Anejo ones, moderately priced)
Hugo’s (on Westheimer just east of Dunlavy, *real * cabrito, margaritas made with mescal that are so good you’ll go blind - no, really, bring a designated driver).
La Jaliscience (on Montrose, inbetween Fairview and West Gray, cheap, OK food).

The best damn chicken-fried steak is in River Oaks at a place called Ouisie’s Table. Call and ask for chicken-fried steak night (I think it’s Tuesday) and bring a BIG appetite. It is a pretty pricey place - where River Oaks goes for comfort food.

Mo Mong (on Westheimer, west of Montrose) is Vietnamese fusion and is very very tasty. There’s also Van Loc (closer to downtown) which has more authentic Vietnamese food.

You’re making me very hungry. :frowning:

Half Price Bookstores has several locations throughout the city. The biggest store is down in Rice Village. It’s a great place to waste a LOT of time and spend some cash.
There is the River Oaks Theatre (on West Gray near Shepherd); it’s the art-housy independent theatre in the Montrose/River Oaks area. They also do midnight movies (at least they used to).

If you rollerblade (and are good at it), see if you can find a listing for Urban Animals. They go terrorize downtown on blades. Warning - if they invite you to skate the “Jesus Saves” parking garage, do NOT do it unless you’re REALLY good.

Traffic is a right bitch, if you’re a freeway user. Best idea is to stay away from freeways entirely during rush hour. If you’re living closer to or inside “the loop” (610), you can get around pretty easily on surface streets. If you’re out 290, well, not as easy.

There’s plenty more stuff … lots of theatre around, concerts (out at Cynthia Woods Pavilion, which is about an hour north of town), live music. Ask if ya wanna know.

Where are you going to live?

4

For art house movies there the River Oaks Theater and Greenway, both run by Landmark. There are two Alamo Drafthouses, one out Westheimer and one near Katy, they show a mix of mainstream and odd movies and have great beer. They also show movies at the Museum of Fine Arts.

For traffic, use this site

Half-Price is the big chain of used bookstores in town, there are quite a few locations, two with-in easy driving distance of where you live.

Public transportation is joke, oh well.

Houston is restaurant city, name your country or style, and you’ll find it.

I’m an old married man, no idea where young single girls go. If I did I probably would have dated more after college.

Downtown is actually developing a nightlife after being a graveyard on the weekend. There’s a great symphony, opera, ballet and theatre group all next to each other downtown.

There’s quite a few small musical places and cafes, but most are in town. Outside of rush hour it’s only 20 minutes or so to drive in.

The Heights and Rice Village are interesting places to shop, eat, and hang out. The Galleria is a huge mall with a skating rink.

Any specific things you’re looking for?

5

Houston has a nice museum district with museums and art galleries, which will be impressive if you’re new to big cities. There’s a thriving concert scene here, with a terrific local band scene and tons of national tours. There are three major league sports teams and several universities, if you like sports.

Also, there’s me. :cool:

  • I live in northwest Houston.
  • I’m single.
  • I’m young, but probably less so than you. (33)
  • I like museums, concerts, arty and foreign movies, craft beers and walks in any of Houston many and varied parks.
6

My condolences :smiley: (I lived there for 15 years).

Ditto on the NW freeway commute. I used to go out to 34th Street (from the Heights) at 6am, then come back in at 8am. The commute out? 10 minutes. The commute back? At least 30 minutes (without an accident - just people slowing down).

Most of the places I know are down in Montrose/Heights/River Oaks.

Mexican food:
Spanish Flower (Heights, relatively cheap, open 24 hours)
Cafe Adobe (Montrose/River Oaks, on Westheimer, OK food, great “funky” atmosphere). Warning, it can get busy, so plan ahead.
Tila’s (on Shepherd, GREAT food, GREAT margaritas - especially the El Tesoro Anejo ones, moderately priced)
Hugo’s (on Westheimer just east of Dunlavy, *real * cabrito, margaritas made with mescal that are so good you’ll go blind - no, really, bring a designated driver).
La Jaliscience (on Montrose, inbetween Fairview and West Gray, cheap, OK food).

The best damn chicken-fried steak is in River Oaks at a place called Ouisie’s Table. Call and ask for chicken-fried steak night (I think it’s Tuesday) and bring a BIG appetite. It is a pretty pricey place - where River Oaks goes for comfort food.

Mo Mong (on Westheimer, west of Montrose) is Vietnamese fusion and is very very tasty. There’s also Van Loc (closer to downtown) which has more authentic Vietnamese food.

You’re making me very hungry. :frowning:

Half Price Bookstores has several locations throughout the city. The biggest store is down in Rice Village. It’s a great place to waste a LOT of time and spend some cash.
There is the River Oaks Theatre (on West Gray near Shepherd); it’s the art-housy independent theatre in the Montrose/River Oaks area. They also do midnight movies (at least they used to).

If you rollerblade (and are good at it), see if you can find a listing for Urban Animals. They go terrorize downtown on blades. Warning - if they invite you to skate the “Jesus Saves” parking garage, do NOT do it unless you’re REALLY good.

Traffic is a right bitch, if you’re a freeway user. Best idea is to stay away from freeways entirely during rush hour. If you’re living closer to or inside “the loop” (610), you can get around pretty easily on surface streets. If you’re out 290, well, not as easy.

There’s plenty more stuff … lots of theatre around, concerts (out at Cynthia Woods Pavilion, which is about an hour north of town), live music. Ask if ya wanna know.

Where are you going to live?

7

Thanks for all the advice so far.

Mexican or Barbeque are my favorite places to eat, but I’m looking for any good local restaurants. Pricewise I’m looking for places that are relatively cheap, with entrees being $20 or less.

Also, my company is just south of the Sam Houston Tollway, a few miles west of 45. I’m going to Houston this weekend to look for apartments, and am hoping to find something relatively close to work, and to the south of it. One of the girls who currently works at my company said she lives more towards the inside of Houston, so she’s always going the opposite of the majority of rush hour traffic.

8

The girl who mentioned this to you is very smart. I work pretty close to where you will be (I-45, about 4 miles north of Sam Houston Tollway), and I commute up from town, like to your co-worker. If you can arrange something similar, you will be eternally grateful as you see the thousands of deadlocked cars trying to go the other way every morning and evening.

Houston traffic is nasty, nasty, nasty.

9

Second the nomination to go to Half Price Books. And there’s a cool little mexican restaurant somewhere in that area as well, but I can’t remember the name of it right now; it’s got a giant Carmen Miranda-head over the door.

10

Got it! Tacos a Go-Go.

11

Another (young, single) NW Houstonian here, living and working near 290 and the loop.

-290 has the worst traffic, but there really aren’t any “good” freeways for traffic. Even living south of where you’re working, if you’re going up and down 45, you’re going to run into delays during rush hour.
-Chuy’s is at Westheimer and Shepherd, and they have excellent Mexican food. Be sure to go during their annual Green Chile Festival.
-Niko Niko’s (on Montrose just north of Westheimer) has the best Greek food.
-Agora (Westheimer and Dunlavy) is a great little coffeehouse (very smoky, though), and has free bellydancing Wednesday nights around 10:30.
-Hickory Hollow (in the Heights) has the best chicken fried steak, and their barbecue is pretty good, too.
-If you’re at all into things Asian, Hong Kong City Mall on Bellaire is a blast to wander around in.
-If you like shopping, go to the Galleria. Also great fun to just wander around and spend way too much money.

12

Geez, there are quite a few of us, no? If Clothahump’s movie premiere doesn’t materialize soon, we need to have a mini-Dopefest. Maybe go to the Flying Saucer and bring Trivial Pursuit. :smiley:

13

BBQ…

Hickory Hollow is very good, and they sometimes have musical acts, singing cowboys, etc.

Goode Company BBQ on Kirby is great, hmm, getting hungry.

County Line on the NW side is great too, and has the best bread of all of them. There wheat bread is worthing going for alone. I’l sometimes buy their day old white bread for $1 a loaf to make french toast.

You may want to check this site

for recommendations on neighborhoods and apartment complexes.

14

Went to Niko Niko’s this weekend before seeing the Chieftains, still just as busy as even even though they’ve expanded I think three times. Still worth the trip.

Will the smoking ban taking affect next Sept cover coffe shops like Agora?

Bellaire at the Beltway is also great location for Vietnamese sandwich shops.

15

I’ve always wanted to go to a Dopefest! I won’t be moving to Houston until the end of January, but I would be up for a mini-Dopefest in February.

16

God, I hope not. Part of the charm of that place is the perpetual haze of ten million cigarettes. I know it originally was going to cover all businesses (I remember the Briar Shoppe handing out flyers last time I was in there warning about this), but I think they modified it. I’m not sure what the specifics are, but I’ve heard nth-hand (so I’m unsure of its reliability) that at least tobacconists, cigar bars, and hookah bars are going to be exempt.

17

Oh, man. If you think Goode Co. and County Line are good, how can we trust your other recommendations?!? (These are the spots where I think rich guys and tourists go.)

Nah. You want to go to Luling City Market. Every time I go to Houston I make a trip down to 610 and Richmond for the stuff!

Finding a local Tex-Mex place is important, but you can’t go wrong with Chuy’s (there was one in UK-Upper Kirby) or Ninfa’s. Ninfa’s is a Houston tradition but I think Chuy’s is better.

I used to live in Montrose and the Galleria, so my knowledge of the city is limited to those areas. Hermann Park is awesome, and the medical center is apparently the most concentrated acres of hospitals and research labs in the world. (So they claim.) Rice Village, as mentioned previously, is a good young 'n hip area to hang out as well.

I was a teacher and had no cash, so I pretty much did happy hours for cheap grub (all have buffet-style food as well - all you have to do is buy a beer). Houston is incredibly cheap, and I lived really well there on $21,000 in 1995.

18

beowulf573, I should have included one of these in my first sentence: :wink:

BBQ is a very personal thing and dissing someone’s favorite spot, well, them’s fighting words.

(But if you say you like Drexler’s I’m going to be really suspicious!)

19

I’m SW in Sugarland so I can’t help you on the the living arrangements too much, but definitely heed the advice to try to go opposite traffic. Being married with a new little one at home I don’t get out much anymore, however I have a couple suggestions.

We tend to eat Asian a lot, there are lots of places in Chinatown (Bellaire, basically from 59 all the way to Highway 6). Sinh Sinh just inside the beltway is one of my favourites, Cafe 101 just across the street is also good. Good Korean places are found north of I-10 on Longpoint.

For nightlife my favourite has always been Friday nights at #'s in Montrose on Westheimer just before downtown when it turns into Elgin. I think it’s one of the oldest continuous clubs in Houston (about 30 years) and Friday’s are their alternative 80s nights. I hope to make it out to #'s again sometime this month or next. Downtown is really growing with almost any type of place you’re looking for. It’s been several months since I’ve been downtown and only make it there a couple times a year now. I always enjoyed hanging out at Dean’s on Main St.

Btw OneCentStamp a Trivial Pursuit night at Flying Saucer sounds like a good excuse for me to get out. I can even bring my Canadian version Trivial Pursuit. :slight_smile:

20

Count me in (probably) as well. I’ve said for years that I needed to attend a dopefest, and I might just do so next time one happens.

BTW, Ice Machine, do you have slime?