Best Asian Restaurants in the Heights, Houston: 10 Verified Picks

The best Asian restaurants in the Heights are Moon Rabbit and Pho Binh Heights for Vietnamese, Kin Dee for Thai, Tarka and Da Gama for Indian and Goan cooking, Agnes and Sherman and JŪN for Chinese-American and Houston-Asian cooking, Chi'Lantro for Korean-Mexican, and 5Kinokawa and Sushi by the Heights for Japanese. All ten sit inside the Greater Heights in Houston, and every one was confirmed as operating on its own official website in October 2026.

You can eat a Thai royal-family dumpling dyed blue with butterfly pea flower, a Goan pork vindaloo, and a plate of egg foo young under gumbo gravy without ever leaving the neighborhood. This is the shortlist we'd hand a friend who lives off 19th Street and is tired of hearing that the good Asian food is all on Bellaire Boulevard.

What counts as “the Heights” in this guide?

For this guide, the Heights means the Greater Heights: Loop 610 to the north, I-10 to the south, T.C. Jester Boulevard to the west, and the North Main Street and Airline Drive corridor to the east. That takes in the historic Houston Heights, Woodland Heights, Norhill and the M-K-T development on North Shepherd Drive just north of I-10. Places outside those lines, however good, aren't on this list. For the wider neighborhood, start with our Heights area page.

The quick list

• For a sit-down Vietnamese dinner: Moon Rabbit on West 19th Street.
• For a fast bowl of pho any day of the week: Pho Binh Heights on White Oak Drive.
• For regional Thai curries and noodles: Kin Dee on North Shepherd Drive.
• For a quick Indian lunch: Tarka Indian Kitchen on West 19th Street.
• For Goan and Portuguese-Indian cooking: Da Gama at M-K-T.
• For kimchi fries and Korean-Mexican bowls: Chi'Lantro on North Shepherd Drive.
• For Asian-American diner comfort food: Agnes and Sherman on West 19th Street.
• For a chef-driven dinner that mixes Asian, Salvadoran and Texan flavors: JŪN on East 20th Street.
• For a reservation-only omakase: 5Kinokawa on White Oak Drive.
• For rolls and happy hour: Sushi by the Heights on Studewood Street.

How we chose

We looked for restaurants that cook one Asian tradition with real character, or blend several in a way you won't find elsewhere. Each pick had to be inside our Heights boundary and show a current address, hours and menu on its own official website as of October 2026. We left out places we couldn't confirm from an official source and places just over the line.

Hours change, so treat every schedule below as “typically” and check the restaurant's site before you go.

Where to eat Vietnamese food in the Heights

The two Vietnamese picks in the Heights are Moon Rabbit for a full dinner and Pho Binh Heights for a fast, everyday bowl.

Moon Rabbit

Houston Heights, 605 W 19th St · Vietnamese · lunch and dinner daily

Moon Rabbit on West 19th Street in the Heights cooks Vietnamese food built for sharing. Order the shaken beef, made with filet mignon, onion, garlic and jalapeños, plus the roasted oysters with bone marrow butter and ginger fish sauce. The menu also runs to pho, bun bo hue, bun rieu, a banh xeo tostada and a miso-marinated claypot fish. It typically serves lunch and dinner on weekdays with a break in the afternoon, and stays open straight through on weekends.

Best for: a group dinner where everyone wants to try a bit of everything.

Pho Binh Heights

White Oak Drive, 2916 White Oak Dr · Vietnamese · open daily

Pho Binh Heights on White Oak Drive is a branch of a Houston family business that, by its own account, started as a single family-owned restaurant known for its northern-style “Pho Bac” taste and has grown to eight Houston-area locations. It's typically open seven days a week from late morning to 10 p.m., which makes it the dependable answer when you want pho on a Monday night. The bar side is the surprise: the menu lists a lychee martini and a Vietnamese coffee martini.

Best for: a weeknight bowl. Compare it with the citywide list in our Houston pho guide.

Where to eat Thai food in the Heights

Kin Dee on North Shepherd Drive is the Heights' standout Thai restaurant, with dishes labeled by region of Thailand.

Kin Dee Thai Cuisine

Houston Heights, 1533 N Shepherd Dr, Suite 160 · Thai · lunch and dinner daily

Kin Dee in the Heights is where you take the friend who thinks Thai food stops at pad thai. The “I didn't know that” dish is the Thai Flower Dumpling, or chor muang: the menu describes it as a Thai Royal Family recipe of hand-crafted butterfly pea flower dumplings, and the flower is what turns them blue. Follow it with the Northern Style Curry, khao soi, egg noodles in coconut chicken curry topped with crispy noodles, or the Southern Style Green Curry served over rice noodles. Kin Dee typically splits lunch and dinner on weekdays and serves all day on weekends.

Best for: showing off. For the rest of the city's Thai and Lao kitchens, see our Thai food guide.

Where to eat Indian food in the Heights

The Heights has two very different Indian picks: Tarka for a quick counter-service curry and Da Gama for a sit-down Goan and Portuguese-Indian meal.

Tarka Indian Kitchen

Houston Heights, 721 W 19th St, Suite 7 · Indian · open daily

Tarka Indian Kitchen on West 19th Street is fast-casual Indian food done with care. The chain's first store opened in Austin in 2009, according to its site, and the Heights location is typically open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Order the tikka masala with your choice of protein and spice level, the samosa chaat, or the tikka masala fries. There are vegan options such as Beyond keema, and fresh lassis to cool things down.

Best for: a quick, filling lunch between 19th Street shops.

Da Gama

M-K-T, 600 N Shepherd Dr, Suite 520 · Goan and Portuguese-Indian · lunch, dinner and weekend brunch

Da Gama at the M-K-T development on North Shepherd Drive cooks the food of a place where India and Portugal met: the restaurant says it draws on the former Portuguese-Indian territory of Goa, plus Gujarat and Portugal. You can taste the crossover in the menu's names, like the Vada Pão, a play on Mumbai's potato-fritter sandwich using the Portuguese word for bread. Order the crab pani puri, the Goan-style pork vindaloo, and Mum's Chicken Curry, which the menu calls the house favorite. Da Gama is typically open daily, with weekend brunch and a weekday social hour; the same husband-and-wife team runs OPORTO in Midtown.

Best for: a long weekend brunch. More Indian picks across town are in our Indian restaurants guide.

Is there Korean food in the Heights?

Yes, but it's a Korean-Mexican mash-up rather than a Korean barbecue house: Chi'Lantro on North Shepherd Drive is the Korean pick we could verify inside the Heights.

Chi'Lantro

Houston Heights, 1324 N Shepherd Dr, Suite 150 · Korean-Mexican · open daily

Chi'Lantro in the Heights is the home of what it calls The Original Kimchi Fries, and the name is a mash-up of kimchi and cilantro. The company's own story says founder Jae Kim started the Austin-based company with a food truck in 2010 and later won a deal with Barbara Corcoran on ABC's Shark Tank. Order the kimchi fries, then a bowl or tacos. The Heights location is typically open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Best for: a cheap, late-ish dinner. For tabletop grills, head to Long Point with our Korean restaurants guide.

Where to eat Chinese-American and chef-driven Asian food in the Heights

Agnes and Sherman and JŪN are the Heights' two chef-driven restaurants that fold Asian cooking into something that could only come from Houston.

Agnes and Sherman

Houston Heights, 250 W 19th St, Suite A · Asian-American diner · Wednesday to Sunday

Agnes and Sherman on West 19th Street calls itself “just a diner,” and the name has a sweet backstory: Chef Nick Wong named it for his parents, a mother who came to the U.S. from Hong Kong for college and a father raised in San Francisco. The menu is the most Houston thing on this list. Order the egg foo young with crawfish and gumbo gravy, the cheeseburger fried rice, and the savory scallion waffle; there's also tteokbokki-style rice cakes with beef ragu. It's typically open Wednesday through Sunday for lunch or weekend brunch and dinner.

Best for: brunch with people who can't agree on a cuisine.

JŪN

Houston Heights, 420 E 20th St · Houston-Asian · dinner, closed Tuesdays

JŪN on East 20th Street is run by chef-owners Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu, and the restaurant describes itself as a celebration of Houston, inspired by the traditions that shaped the city and state. That means brisket in peanut curry with mustard greens and lotus root, chilled sesame noodles with burnt-end XO sauce, carrots with salsa macha and Salvadoran cheese, and a Salvadoran tamal on the chef's choice menu. Dinner typically runs 5 to 10 p.m., and it's closed on Tuesdays.

Best for: a special night out. It pairs well with our Heights date night guide.

Where to eat sushi and Japanese food in the Heights

For Japanese food in the Heights, book 5Kinokawa for a chef-led omakase or walk into Sushi by the Heights for rolls and happy hour.

5Kinokawa

White Oak Drive, 3119 White Oak Dr · Japanese omakase · reservation only, Thursday to Sunday

5Kinokawa on White Oak Drive is a reservation-only, multi-course dinner led by Chef Billy Kin, with ingredients the restaurant says are flown in weekly from markets such as Toyosu Market in Japan. It typically seats dinner Thursday through Sunday, and reservations are made by phone; the full restaurant can also be booked for private parties. Ask about the omakase to-go boxes if you can't get a seat.

Best for: a celebration. See how it compares in our Houston omakase guide.

Sushi by the Heights

Houston Heights, 1111 Studewood St, Suite B · Japanese · open daily

Sushi by the Heights on Studewood Street is a contemporary Japanese restaurant serving sushi, robata, steak and three styles of hand roll, with fish the restaurant says comes from Scotland, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and Santa Barbara. Order the By the Heights roll or the Studemont roll, named for the neighborhood's own crossroads. Happy hour typically runs daily from 3 to 7 p.m., and the restaurant is open seven days a week.

Best for: an easy weeknight sushi fix.

Save this: a 19th Street Asian food crawl

This four-stop route stays on or near West 19th Street and North Shepherd Drive, so you can do it on foot or with one short drive.

1. Snack at Tarka Indian Kitchen, 721 W 19th St: split a samosa chaat.
2. Small plates at Moon Rabbit, 605 W 19th St: roasted oysters and a banh xeo tostada.
3. Dumplings at Kin Dee, 1533 N Shepherd Dr: the blue Thai Flower Dumplings, then khao soi if you're still hungry.
4. Finish at Agnes and Sherman, 250 W 19th St (Wednesday to Sunday): cheeseburger fried rice for the table.

Before you go, check each restaurant's hours on its official site, because several split lunch and dinner on weekdays. Want more? Our Heights restaurant guide covers every cuisine, and Things to Do in the Heights fills the afternoon.

What about dim sum and Cantonese food?

For dim sum, hot pot and the deepest Chinese menus, Houston's Chinatown on Bellaire Boulevard is still the place to go; see our Bellaire and Chinatown restaurant guide. In the Heights, Agnes and Sherman is the closest thing to Cantonese comfort food, by way of a Houston diner.

Last verified: October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best Asian restaurants in the Heights, Houston?

Our picks are Moon Rabbit and Pho Binh Heights (Vietnamese), Kin Dee (Thai), Tarka Indian Kitchen and Da Gama (Indian and Goan), Chi'Lantro (Korean-Mexican), Agnes and Sherman and JŪN (Asian-American and Houston-Asian), and 5Kinokawa and Sushi by the Heights (Japanese).

Where can I get pho in the Heights?

Pho Binh Heights at 2916 White Oak Dr serves northern-style pho and is typically open daily until 10 p.m. Moon Rabbit at 605 W 19th St also has pho on its Vietnamese menu.

Is there Indian food in the Heights?

Yes. Tarka Indian Kitchen at 721 W 19th St serves fast-casual curries and is typically open daily, and Da Gama at 600 N Shepherd Dr in the M-K-T development cooks Goan and Portuguese-Indian food.

Is there a Korean restaurant in the Heights?

Chi'Lantro at 1324 N Shepherd Dr serves Korean-Mexican food, including its kimchi fries. For traditional Korean barbecue, most Houston options are along Long Point Road in Spring Branch.

Do I need a reservation at 5Kinokawa?

Yes. 5Kinokawa on White Oak Drive is reservation only, typically Thursday through Sunday, and its website asks guests to call to book.

What part of Houston counts as the Heights?

In this guide, the Heights means the Greater Heights: Loop 610 to the north, I-10 to the south, T.C. Jester Boulevard to the west, and the North Main Street and Airline Drive corridor to the east.