A Chef Powered New Houston Restaurant With Only Eight Seats Intrigues — Your First Look at Jantra and Its Street To Kitchen Magic

The accolades have stacked up for chef Benchawan Jabthong Painter, affectionately known by her peers and customers alike as Chef G, the woman behind the lauded Thai restaurant Street to Kitchen in the hopping East End section of Houston.

Now Benchawan and her husband Graham Painter are collaborating on an intimate new Houston tasting restaurant dubbed Jantra, poised besides their bustling Street to Kitchen. Set to open this Friday, May 8, it is named for Benchawan’s surname — meaning “from the moon” in Thai.

Jantra centers around earthly ingredients combined with that vivid imagination of Chef G and her ability to conjure up an array of unexpected, otherworldly dishes.

“Jantra is about seeing everything as if for the first time,” Benchawan Painter says in a statement. “The world is a small place when you approach it from outer space.”

While Street to Kitchen tells the story of Benchawan’s life in Thailand through boldly flavored food, Jantra allows her to explore ingredients culled from every corner of the globe, not just those in her Southeast Asian pantry. Note her dishes at Jantra aren’t necessarily rooted in Thai cuisine or defined by any traditional technique, but by thrill of contemplating what else an ingredient can become.

The eight seat tasting restaurant will have just one seating nightly — 7 pm Tuesdays through Saturdays — is priced at $175 per diner. If desired — and I’d suggest it — you can add the option of pairing cocktails and wines ($120 additional). Those are curated by talented beverage director Graham Painter who shares colorful commentary with every course.

Chef G’s Food Journey

The Thai native’s path to cooking professionally actually began at her grandmother’s restaurant in Central Thailand and continued in restaurants and pastry shops throughout Bangkok. When she emigrated to Houston with her husband Graham Painter in 2015, Benchawan Painter put her nose to the proverbial grindstone, working behind the line with some of Houston’s top chefs at the then Clark Cooper group’s since closed Salt Air Seafood Kitchen and Justin Yu’s Theodore Rex.

Homesick for the food she once shared with her family, the Painters began hosting Thai pop-ups to share the sort of authentic dishes they both missed.

After Chef G opened her first incarnation of Street to Kitchen in 2020, a humble fried chicken joint next to a gas station — albeit with a decidedly, unapologetic approach to Thai food (read: no alterations or substitution granted) — the James Beard Foundation took notice and crowned her with the title Best Chef: Texas in 2023. Wowed by her current, and admittedly more stylish environs and Thai food, those newcomers to Texas — the critics at the Michelin Guide — gave Street To Kitchen their nod of approval too, awarding it with a Bib Gourmand designation, two years running.

Now it is time for Jantra.

Jantra is located at 3401 Harrisburg Boulevard in the space that used to be Street To Kitchen’s private dining room. Reservations are available here for the one 7 pm seating Tuesdays through Saturdays.