Oysters and clams at Navy Blue. The seafood restaurant is among the participants in this year’s Houston Restaurant Weeks.
Annie Mulligan/Contributor
More than 200 restaurants will serve multi-course specials as a fundraiser for the Houston Food Bank during this year’s Houston Restaurant Weeks.
The annual event, which runs Aug. 1 to Sept. 7 this year, is the food bank’s biggest annual fundraiser. It also encourages diners to support local restaurants during traditionally slow months.
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The lineup of about 230 restaurants announced Wednesday morning includes restaurants like Aaron Bludorn’s seafood spot Navy Blue, the rustic Heights Italian restaurant Coltivare, globally inspired Indian restaurant Kitchen Rumors and the Malaysian street food specialist Phat Eatery. Restaurants can still sign up, though, and a news release said more than 350 are expected to participate in total.
Katie Stone, who leads the event, said that HRW is especially needed now, as diners eat out and drink less. Many restaurants have told her 2026 sits among their toughest years on record.
“HRW is once again coming at a time where they really, really, really need it,” Stone said of restaurants. “And so they’re embracing it. They’re going all in with their menus, and then it’s the diners that benefit, because they see the value in the menus.”
Classic Banana’s Foster dessert at Brennan’s of Houston, another Houston Restaurant Weeks participant.
Brennan’s of Houston
Every restaurant that participates offers multi-course meals at a fixed price, normally with a few options of dishes for diners to choose from. Two-course brunches and lunches cost $25 a person. Three-course dinners go for either $39 or $55, depending on the menu a restaurant settles on.
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At Rainbow Lodge, for instance, you could get a dinner of cast-iron Texas quail, agnolotti with English peas and croissant bread pudding for $55. At Michelin-starred Spanish restaurant BCN Taste & Tradition, you could order a $25 brunch of suckling Iberico pig and chocolate cake with raspberry sorbet. And at the Portuguese spot Oporto Fooding House & Wine, ceviche do mar and Goan-spiced pork curry will run you $25 for lunch.
All the participating establishments begin by giving $1,000 as a baseline, Stone said. Then, for every lunch or brunch sold, restaurants agree to donate an additional $1. Each $39 dinner includes a $3 donation, and $55 dinners include a $5 donation.
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The Houston Food Bank shares some of the donations with partner banks in Galveston and Montgomery counties. Each dollar, the food bank says, can provide about three meals for people in need. And last year, Houston Restaurant Weeks raised $1,651,698.
“It really is truly a win-win for Houston,” said Julie Voss, the chief development officer for the Houston Food Bank. “You’re getting a fantastic menu for a great price and also helping the food bank at the same time.”
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Mil Hojas, an ice cream and apple dessert at Zaranda. The restaurant will participate in Houston Restaurant Weeks.
Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle
Before last year, restaurants used to give $3, $5 or $7 per meal during Houston Restaurant Weeks. But in 2025, as the hospitality industry faced declining foot traffic and rising costs, HRW scaled back its expected donation amounts. Stone said she decided to maintain the lowered per-meal donation amounts this year.
The event first kicked off in 2003, when Cleverley Stone — Katie’s mom — established it as a one-week affair that raised just under $6,000. She grew it into a million-dollar yearly fundraiser. And after she died of cancer in 2020, her daughter stepped in to keep HRW going.