A San Antonio restaurant is in the spotlight on Texas Monthly’s list of the 10 best new restaurants for 2026. Published Monday, March 2, the annual roll call is open to restaurants that opened between December 1, 2024, and October 31, 2025.Notably, it’s the first edition of the list written by P aula Forbes, who succeeded veteran writer Pat Sharpe last year. She writes that 2025 was “a lackluster one for Texas restaurants. . . Restaurant experiences that feel truly worth it, that have the power to wow, are hard to come by. But they’re out there,” she continues.Forbes found those “worth it” experiences at restaurants in San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Dallas, and Paris, a small town in far northeast Texas near the Oklahoma border. San Antonio’s Petit Coquin is Forbes’ “favorite” of the three French restaurants on the list, thanks to its “streamlined prix fixe menu and laissez-faire atmosphere,” she writes. Diners are encouraged to try dishes such as country pâté, steak au poivre, and rice pudding, even if they appear “simple on the surface."“[O]ne bite will tell you that chef Max Mackinnon, whose impeccable résumé includes New York City restaurants Roberta’s and Libertine, has put a degree of thought into his techniques that belies their straightforwardness, Forbes writes. “San Antonians have noticed and regularly turn the small dining room into a party.”Houston has the most spots on the list. They are: ...read more read less