TOP 27 places to order chile con queso in Houston

The River Oaks Tex-Mex is using the same 45-year-old recipe for its chile con queso made with green chiles and fresh diced tomatoes. The restaurant also makes its own tortilla chips daily to provide the perfect crunch to creamy queso.

Not every Houston Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant offers queso flameado, an indulgent dive into cheese, and perhaps a cousin to chile con queso. At Picos, the melted Chihuahua cheese is topped with poblano pepper rajas and a choice of house-made chorizo or sauteed mushrooms.

The chile con queso here is classic stuff; a bowlful of creamy cheese that chef/owner Sylvia Casares includes as a recipe in her “The Enchilada Queen Cookbook.” Customers can add ground meat to the dip or, better, pair with classic guacamole.

The food menu at this heavenly Heights bar perfectly matches the laid-back, Texas-proud vibe. Grab a beer or frozen cocktail and settle in with a bowl of the house’s white queso, a fantastically rich dip whose creamy consistency borders on pudding. The dab of pico is great; next time we’re going for the dollop of chile con carne.

The queso, made with white cheddar and buttermilk, is shot through with serrano chile and charred onions at the icehouse (original location and new EaDo outpost), served with most excellent tortilla chips or fresh chicharrones.

Chef Ronnie Killen offers queso at his Killen’s TMX in Pearland (classic queso that can be topped with smoked brisket, ground beef or fajitas). But we like the creamy queso at his Killen’s Heights location, a rich elixir invested with ground beef, mushrooms, and pico de gallo. You won’t be able to stop dipping.

A classic chile con queso can be found at the Goode family’s Tex-Mex cantina restaurants. It can be augmented with picadillo and served with pico de gallo, sour cream, and guacamole.

Houston’s classic Tex-Mex restaurant and its beloved Club No Minors serves two types of queso. The first is a classic chile con queso cheese dip that can be had with with taco meat or fajitas. The second is the famous queso from the historic Felix Mexican Restaurant (El Patio owns the recipe). The Felix queso, enjoyed by generations, may be an acquired taste, but it lives in full glory here.

The haute Mexican restaurant set in a beauteous space in Buffalo Bayou Park offers a lovely queso with house-made chorizo and a fiery roasted tomatillo salsa, served with righteous tortilla chips.

The EaDo barbecue joint has a new beer garden menu that includes queso made with a blend of sharp cheddar and Swiss cheeses and topped with smoked brisket and pico de gallo, served with house-made tortilla chips.

Ford Fry’s Heights restaurant serving classic Tex-Mex includes, of course, chile con queso. Order it straight up, topped with chorizo, garnished with chicken fajita, or “compuesto” style with picadillo, guacamole, and sour cream. Superica also had queso fundido, broiled Chihuahua and Jack cheeses.

This new night spot from The Kirby Group is packing them in on Washington. Yes, for the beer and cocktails, but also for chef Teddy Lopez’s barbecue-inspired food menu that includes smoked queso served with pico de gallo and the option to smoked brisket. Order the chicharrones to go along.

The Tex-Mex mainstay with multiple locations offers a great straight-ahead chile con queso dip, made even better with the optional addition of picadillo, chorizo or beef fajitas. The house salsas and standout chips make this queso a pleasure; the kitchen also does a variety of quesos flameados.

The “blanco” chile con queso at Escalante’s is a winner — a bowl of supple cheese dip you must order with wonderful roasted poblano peppers, pico de gallo and taco meat. Blend it all together yourself and dig in. Queso heaven.

We can’t help but love the menu here (we could eat the creamy jalapeño cilantro dip on everything), especially the house queso made with a blend of melted cheeses. We order our bowl of molten cheese with taco meat, guacamole, and pico de gallo, naturally.

This new restaurant on Navigation makes its home in queso territory but holds its own with a rather uptown version of white cheese gussied up with jumbo lump crab, avocado and house pico de gallo.

The old school Tex-Mex joys at Los Tios are many. We love the nostalgia of the house classic chile con queso, even better in the guise of Katie’s T-Sip Dip larded with guacamole and taco meat. That same essential cheese sauce gets ladled over the restaurant’s famous puffy queso shells.

The restaurant that celebrates the glories of Texas foodways rightly offers a classic queso served with house-made green salsa and/or nopales salad. Order with corn tortilla chips or vegetarian-friendly potato chicharron.

We come, as we must, for the tacos al carbon, the dish Mama Ninfa made famous. But we stay for the queso, a spicy slurry of cheese, peppers and onions. We can’t stop scooping into the dip and the house red and green salsas. Ninfa’s also makes a memorable queso flameado prepared tableside.

The oldest locally owned and operated Tex-Mex restaurant in Houston excels at so many staples of the Tex-Mex repertoire, including chile con queso. The original “Jose’s Dip” is a queso-lover’s masterpiece, served with spicy taco meat and a side of pickled jalapeños. Can’t be beat.

The home-grown Tex-Mex brand with locations far and wide offers both traditional chile con queso (yellow molten goodness) and queso blanco, both shot through with tomato, onion, and green chile and served with the house’s light-as-air chips. The blanco also can be ordered with chicharrones.

It might be unthinkable to begin a typical blowout meal at El Tiempo without first digging into the chile con queso. Here, the queso is studded with bits of onion, tomato and chile. The house “Joey” dip is queso with ground beef. Familiar; essential.

The Montrose Tex-Mex that makes the city’s best composed nachos also dishes up a crave-worthy chile con queso. Don’t pass up the many optional toppings: chile torreados, taco meat, chopped brisket, beef or chicken fajitas, or Texas red chile. That same queso is part of the can’t-stop-eating strata that is the house’s 7 Layer Bean Dip.

One of our favorite taco joints caters to deeply held queso preferences by offering both traditional yellow dip and queso blanco made with a blend of white cheeses. The traditional yellow gets an upgrade in Queso Quintero with the addition of chorizo, pico de gallo, and scallions.

We like the menu’s Southwestern flair at this casual restaurant, especially when it comes to familiar appetizers including the house’s addictive queso blanco. The chicken fajita fries and crispy chicken taquitos are served with green chile queso.

This newish Bellaire brewpub sports a menu that neatly marries Mexican and Korean culinary traditions including the house’s play on queso, here called K-So: a cheese dip with chorizo, a gochujang glaze, and roasted jalapeños served with abundant tortilla chips (or substitute soft pretzel sticks).

One of our favorite Midtown bars has an impressive menu that leans on Gulf and New Orleans flavors (think oysters and po’boys). There’s also a nifty twist on queso here, a dip made with pimento cheese that offers the option of crawfish tails. H-Town meets the Big Easy.