Houston Restaurant Week kicks off with nearly 400 restaurants

Nearly 400 restaurants joined Houston Restaurant Weeks, which ran from Aug. 1 through Sept. 1 and offered curated brunch, lunch and dinner menus across Greater Houston. The 22nd annual event kept its most accessible prices at $25 for brunch and lunch, with dinner menus set at $39 or $55, while sending $1, $3 or $5 from each meal sold to the Houston Food Bank.

The Cleverley Stone Foundation produced the promotion, and the food bank calls Houston Restaurant Weeks its largest annual fundraiser for America’s largest food bank. The campaign’s long-term tally passed $22.5 million this year, and the 2024 event raised $2,013,318 for the nonprofit, giving the 2025 run a clear financial benchmark as diners were invited to eat out and give back at the same time.

For Harris County residents, the biggest value sat in the lower-priced brunch and lunch tiers, where $25 prix fixe meals made it easier to sample restaurants without a full dinner tab. Dinner still carried a range of choices for bigger nights out, and the participating list stretched from Houston into nearby Sugar Land and The Woodlands, widening the geography of the event beyond the city’s core dining districts.

Organizers lowered the donation amounts to $1, $3 and $5 per meal sold because rising food and operating costs were squeezing restaurants, a reminder that the fundraiser also had to work for the businesses serving it. That adjustment kept the promotion in line with the summer restaurant economy, when a citywide dining event can help fill tables, move traffic into neighborhood corridors and channel more money toward hunger relief across the region.