Best Restaurants in Alief, Houston: Pho, Dim Sum and Crawfish
Date Published
Alief used to be called Dairy. County surveyors gave the farm settlement that name in 1894, and a year later a post office application renamed it for its first postmistress, Alief Ozella Magee. Rice and cotton fields came and went, Houston had annexed much of it by the 1970s, and today the old dairy stop is where you can eat pho for lunch, dim sum off a rolling cart, and Viet-Cajun crawfish for dinner without leaving one boulevard.
In Alief, the strip mall is the restaurant row, and the parking lot is the line.
This guide covers the restaurants we'd send you to first: a Michelin-recognized Hue specialist, a pho name that has been around since 1983, a two-story dim sum hall, the crawfish house that calls itself Houston's original Viet-Cajun, plus African grilled fish, Mexican pan dulce and Vietnamese chè. Most meals here are cheap. A few are sit-down feasts for a crowd.
Where Alief starts and stops
Alief isn't a city with official limits anymore, so here's how we drew the map. For this guide, Alief runs west of Beltway 8 to Highway 6, south of the Westpark Tollway, down toward the Fort Bend County line. The spine is Bellaire Boulevard, with Wilcrest Drive, Beechnut and Bissonnet crossing it.
Locals and restaurant signs use plenty of other names for the same stretch: west Chinatown, Asiatown, Little Saigon. If a restaurant sits east of the Beltway on Bellaire, it's in our Bellaire and Chinatown restaurant guide instead. North of the Westpark Tollway, see our Westchase restaurant guide.
The quick list
- For pho: Pho Binh on Bellaire.
- For central Vietnamese cooking: Nam Giao.
- For Viet-Cajun crawfish: Crawfish & Noodles, then Crawfish Cafe for round two.
- For a big dim sum morning: Ocean Palace.
- For dim sum after noon: Crown Seafood.
- For hot pot: Shabu Zone (solo pots) or KPOT (grill and pot at once).
- For something different: Chez Michelle, for grilled fish and ndolé.
- For dessert: Bambu for chè, El Bolillo for pan dulce.
Vietnamese: start here
Pho Binh (Bellaire)
10827 Bellaire Blvd · pho · $
Pho Binh is a family-owned pho name that says it has been serving pho since 1983, and the Bellaire Boulevard shop is its Alief outpost. The family runs several Houston-area locations now, but this one puts you right on the strip where you can roll from soup to dessert on foot.
What to order: a big bowl of pho with everything, plenty of herbs and lime on the side.
Good to know: the website doesn't post hours, so call ahead if you're going early or late.
Nam Giao
6938 Wilcrest Dr · cooking of Hue, central Vietnam · $
Nam Giao specializes in the cooking of Hue in central Vietnam, and it's recognized in the MICHELIN Guide, which lists it at the single-dollar-sign price level. This is where to go once you've had pho and want to know what else Vietnamese cooking does.
What to order: the small steamed rice cakes topped with fried pork rinds and chives, the pork and shrimp crystal cakes steamed in banana leaves, and banh khoai, a crisp rice pancake with shrimp, bean sprouts and herbs. Add the grilled flank steak wrapped in vine leaves with vermicelli if you're two or more.
Insider tip: order a spread of small plates and share. That's how Hue food is meant to land on the table.
For more pho, banh mi and broken rice across the city, see our best Vietnamese restaurants in Houston.
Viet-Cajun crawfish
Crawfish & Noodles
11360 Bellaire Blvd, Suite 990 · Viet-Cajun · $$
If you only eat one meal in Alief, our pick is this one. The restaurant was established by chef Trong Nguyen and calls itself Houston's original Viet-Cajun crawfish: his recipe is rich garlic butter and a house blend of spices. The menu also leans hard on Gulf oysters, raw, chargrilled or cheesy.
What to order: crawfish in season with the house garlic butter, plus a round of Gulf oysters. Out of season, go for chargrilled oysters.
Good to know: it's typically closed Tuesdays and runs a weekday happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m. Check the official site before you go.
Crawfish Cafe
11209 Bellaire Blvd · Viet-Cajun · $$
Crawfish Cafe opened in Houston in 2013 and calls its cooking a fusion of Cajun spice and Vietnamese soul. Besides Alief, it lists locations in the Heights, Shenandoah, Cypress and Pearland. Its site lists 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Sunday, for this location.
What to order: boiled crawfish, then crawfish beignets and chargrilled oysters while you wait.
Why it's here: it's open on Tuesdays, when Crawfish & Noodles isn't, and it's a short hop down the same road.
Our Houston crawfish guide explains the season, the sauces and how much to order per person.
Dim sum and Cantonese seafood
Ocean Palace
11215 Bellaire Blvd (Hong Kong City Mall) · dim sum and Cantonese seafood · $$
Ocean Palace opened in 1999 at Hong Kong City Mall and says it has the largest variety of dim sum in Houston. It fills a two-story, 38,000-square-foot building, so even a big weekend crowd has somewhere to go. Dim sum typically runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, and on weekends the restaurant rolls traditional dim sum carts through the dining room.
What to order: wave down the carts for shrimp dumplings, ribs, sticky rice, taro puffs and buns, then order congee if anyone at the table is still hungry.
Insider tip: Ocean Palace and Crawfish Cafe belong to the same Houston restaurant group, so you can do dim sum and crawfish from one family in one day. The restaurant also runs an online waitlist on its website. Join it before you leave the house on a Saturday.
Crown Seafood
10796 Bellaire Blvd, Suite C · Cantonese seafood and dim sum · $$
Crown is the answer for late risers: it serves dim sum all day on most items, so a 2 p.m. dumpling run is fine. It's a Cantonese seafood house first, with striped bass, Dungeness crab and lobster on a dinner menu of more than 100 dishes, and lunch specials typically run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
What to order: a round of dim sum, then a whole fish or crab for the table.
Want to compare? Our best dim sum in Houston guide ranks the field.
Hot pot for a crowd
Shabu Zone
11201 Bellaire Blvd, Suite 2 · all-you-can-eat individual hot pots · $$
At Shabu Zone everyone gets their own pot, which ends the argument about spice levels before it starts. It's all-you-can-eat, with a choice of spicy and mild broths and a long run of meats, seafood and vegetables. It takes online reservations, which is worth doing on weekends.
What to order: split your broth choice: one spicy, one mild. Then work through the meat list.
KPOT Korean BBQ and Hot Pot
10790 Bellaire Blvd · all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ and hot pot · $$
KPOT lets your table pick Korean barbecue, hot pot, or both for a few dollars more per person. Last seating is typically an hour before closing, and weekday lunch is the cheaper ticket, so check current prices on the official site.
Why it's here: it's the easiest sell for kids and skeptics, and it's right on the Bellaire strip.
More pots across town in our best hot pot in Houston guide.
Beyond Bellaire Boulevard
Chez Michelle
6991 S Highway 6 · African, fish-focused · $$
Chez Michelle calls itself the "House of Fish," and it sits out on the Highway 6 edge of Alief. The menu runs from a grill section to soups and pepper soups, with ndolé and eru, two Cameroonian staples, among the soups.
What to order: grilled drum fish or tilapia with fried plantains, plus ndolé. Add a pepper soup with goat or oxtail if it's cool out. The menu lists jollof rice and pounded yam as sides.
Good to know: online pickup and delivery aren't always running, so call before you drive out. More West and Central African cooking is in our best African restaurants in Houston.
Something sweet
El Bolillo Bakery (Mission Bend)
6704 S Highway 6 · Mexican bakery · $
El Bolillo started in 1998 as a small Mexican bakery in the Greater Heights and says it's known for 150 varieties of handmade pan dulce, pan salado, pastries and desserts. The Highway 6 shop is typically open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., so it works for breakfast on the way in or a box of pastries on the way home.
What to order: a mixed box of pan dulce from the cases, plus a cake pre-order if there's a birthday coming.
Bambu
10613 Bellaire Blvd, Suite 150 · chè and drinks · $
Bambu was started in 2008 by four Vietnamese sisters in the Vietnamese community of San Jose, California, and its specialty is chè, Vietnamese dessert drinks built on fresh coconut. It's the right finish after a bowl of pho on the same stretch of Bellaire.
What to order: a chè first; boba milk tea or a Vietnamese coffee next time.
Save this: eat your way across Alief in one day
Screenshot this. Most stops sit on or just off Bellaire Boulevard, so you'll spend more time eating than driving.
- 7 a.m.: pan dulce and coffee at El Bolillo on Highway 6.
- 10:30 a.m.: dim sum carts at Ocean Palace (join the waitlist from the car).
- 1 p.m.: small plates at Nam Giao on Wilcrest. Share everything.
- 3 p.m.: chè at Bambu.
- 5 p.m.: a pho reset at Pho Binh.
- 7 p.m.: crawfish and garlic butter at Crawfish & Noodles (or Crawfish Cafe on a Tuesday).
- Optional overtime: a solo hot pot at Shabu Zone.
Before you go: bring napkins, bring friends, and bring cash as a backup at smaller counters. Check each restaurant's hours on its official site, because several don't post them.
How we chose
Every pick here had to be inside our Alief boundary and confirmed open on its own official website, or in the MICHELIN Guide's listing, in October 2026. We favoured places that do one thing very well, mixed counter-service cheap eats with sit-down meals, and left out restaurants whose official sites we couldn't reach rather than guess.
Keep eating
Alief is one stop on Houston's southwest food corridor. Map the rest with our Chinatown and Asiatown guide, the food crawler's guide to Houston's international districts, or the editors' best restaurants in Houston.
Last verified: October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Alief in Houston?
Alief is in southwest Houston. For this guide we define it as the area west of Beltway 8 to Highway 6 and south of the Westpark Tollway, with Bellaire Boulevard as its main restaurant street. Houston had annexed much of it by the 1970s.
What food is Alief known for?
Vietnamese and Chinese cooking above all: pho, central Vietnamese dishes, Cantonese dim sum and Viet-Cajun crawfish. You will also find hot pot, African restaurants and Mexican bakeries.
How did Alief get its name?
The community was first named Dairy by county surveyors in 1894. A post office application the next year renamed it Alief, after its first postmistress, Alief Ozella Magee, according to the Texas State Historical Association.
Where can I get dim sum in Alief?
Ocean Palace at Hong Kong City Mall (11215 Bellaire Blvd) typically serves dim sum from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, with carts on weekends. Crown Seafood (10796 Bellaire Blvd) serves dim sum all day on most items.
Is Viet-Cajun crawfish from Houston?
Houston is closely tied to it. Crawfish & Noodles in Alief calls itself Houston's original Viet-Cajun crawfish and says chef Trong Nguyen pioneered the style here.