Restaurants

One of Houston’s Very Best Restaurants Undergoes a Drastic Change

Meat’s Out and Seafood and Veggies Are In

By Jailyn Marcel // Jun 21, 2017

Photography Julie Soefer

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The Nuoc Cham Marinated Crab Fingers at Underbelly are mixed with crushed peanuts, onions, and herbs.

Underbelly's Cobia Ceviche, fashioned with corn milk pickle, tomatoes, and chiles

Underbelly's UB seafood tower is jam packed with Alabama oysters, Gulf shrimp, UB tamarind cocktail sauce, jalapeno lime mignonette, jumbo lump crab with chile mayonnaise, lime and crispy shallot; char siu tuna tartare, pickled lotus root, benne seed; garam masala smoked fish salad; dried chile lime marinated shrimp salad; and Nuoc cham marinated crab fingers, crushed peanuts, onions, and herbs.

Chris Shepherd, of Underbelly, left, knows that change can be good.

Crispy Gulf Royal Red Shrimp

Szechuan peppercorn cured cobia crudo

Underbelly's grilled Texas oysters raise the bar with pork belly, peanuts, and green onion.

The Vietmanese-Style Crawfish Boil Toast is topped with corn, potatoes, and cucumber salad.

Grilled Gulf fish and braised oxtail with fried rice

Vietnamese peanut pesto-crusted red fish served with lemongrass-glazed potatoes

Gochujang roasted fish collar ssam

Seared tuna served with Thai-style cucumber, tomato and long bean salad

Underbelly's seared red snapper is accompanied by Gulf shrimp handi, okra, and eggplant.

Fried softshell crab over corn maque choux, topped with green tomato relish

Roasted mushrooms with bacon, egg, and toast

When James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Shepherd‘s Houston restaurant Underbelly exploded onto the scene five years ago, it transformed both the local and national culinary scene with its bold vision: use whole animals, local produce, and fish from surrounding waters to tell the story of Houston food.

But following a half decade of rotating seasonal menus dominated by bovine-centric dishes, Shepherd is ushering his Westheimer restaurant into a new era.

This week marked the start of Underbelly’s revamped summer direction, which completely eliminates the use of whole steers. Instead, Shepherd will focus more on seafood — sourced from Southern waters from Galveston to Virginia — and vegetable dishes while sourcing sustainable beef as needed from 44 Farms.

Underbelly will continue to butcher whole pigs, goats, chickens and fish.

“No one wants a giant beef shank in the middle of a hot Houston summer, but in the past we’ve had to serve it because we had an entire cow in the butcher shop cooler,” Shepherd says. “Our cooks want more variety, and frankly, so do your guests.”

On the refreshed menu: the UB seafood tower, ceviches, crudos, crispy Royal Red shrimp atop Thai-style summer squash salad, and fish collar Ssam alongside a variety of vegetable-heavy plates.

While a bevy of new dishes now fill Underbelly’s menu, one thing that won’t change is Shepherd’s commitment to telling Houston’s story through myriad cuisines, a fitting mission considering Houston’s diverse collection of cultures from around the world.

“We’ve had a broad focus for the last five years, and now we’re going deep. I want my cooks to know the history of Bo Ssam or Masala,” Shepherd says. “It’s more than just adding flavor to a dish, it’s the thought process behind the dish, understanding the history and culture.

“Underbelly has always been a learning kitchen, and I’m asking the cooks to take it a step further.”

If all goes well, the new menu may even last past the summer. But don’t fret, Shepherd’s signature Korean braised goat and dumplings are here to stay.