20 Terrific Houston Restaurants for Eating Healthy While Staying Social

Photo by Troy Fields

Pondicheri can take all comers.

Indulge in crispy, goat-filled fried samosas and butter chicken, or keep it healthy with an all-veg Yogi Thali and grilled fish marinated in a fragrant blend of turmeric, amchur and ajwain with a side of sautéed greens and raita.

RDG + Bar Annie

It's said you can never be too rich or too thin. I happen to disagree, but it makes sense that the concentration of wealth found at RDG + Bar Annie would demand delicious, low-calorie, low-carb or low-fat dishes alongside the New York strip steaks and Cobb salads. RDG delivers with roasted rainbow trout, grilled salmon, grilled redfish, a roasted Gulf crab and seared avocado salad, ahi tuna with roasted beets and much, much more.

Roost

Go nuts with lamb heart tartare and cured foie gras, or keep it simple with lean-and-mean dishes like a quinoa-and-spinach-stuffed poblano pepper with red beet mash and baked Patagonia salmon.

Roots Bistro / Roots Juice

Your friends can tear into a skillet of coppa mac 'n' cheese or salami flatbread from the wood-fired oven while you can enjoy smoked fish with vegetables, raw beet ravioli, half a smoked chicken or a creamy kale-and-avocado salad.

Ruggles Green

Perhaps one of the best places in town for healthy eaters to take their friends, and vice versa, Ruggles Green offers a color-coded menu showing which items are dairy-free, vegetarian and gluten-free. Try the quinoa mac 'n' cheese for a serious indulgence, or grab a lean buffalo burger.

Photo by Troy Fields

Sammy's Wild Game Grill offers plenty of - you guessed it - wild game.

As at Cafe TH, it's easy to adhere to a paleo diet (if that's your thing) at Sammy's thanks to the prevalence of paleo-approved wild game on the menu. You've had a salad topped with grilled chicken, but what about grilled kangaroo, llama, antelope or ostrich? For everyone else, the Sammy's Wild Fries (topped with a fried egg) and wild game hot dogs are surefire wins.

Vinoteca Poscol

The finger sandwiches ("tramezzini") are a fun, light way to indulge in pairings like smoked salmon and robiola, but the real draw here for healthy eaters is Poscol's terrific verdura menu of vegetables for only $6 each: roasted parsnips and carrots with a sprinkling of salty reggiano cheese, for example, or beets roasted in cartoccio. For something more substantial, there's baked cod and braised calamari in a red wine sauce.