Best Chicken Parm in Houston, TX

Chicken parm in Houston, TX: our top picks

Houston’s Italian story is mostly a Sicilian one. Families came in through the Port of Galveston starting in the late 1800s, and many of them farmed: more than twenty Sicilian families owned land around Post Oak, where the Galleria stands now, and trucked their tomatoes and peppers to a downtown market. Their children and grandchildren ran neighborhood groceries, and a good share of the city’s red-sauce cooking grew out of those stores.

Mandola’s Deli is the clearest case. Frank A. Mandola opened his first deli in 1975, and the Leeland Street location in the East End followed in 1977, run at first by his brother Sam; Frank later bought him out, and his son Joseph joined in 2008. The chicken parm comes as a plate or as a po’ boy on garlic bread, which is about as Gulf Coast as a parm gets.

The same web of families produced Carrabba’s. Johnny Carrabba, who grew up working in his grandparents’ and parents’ grocery stores in the East End, opened the original on Kirby Drive with his uncle Damian Mandola in December 1986, then a second restaurant at Voss and Woodway. The chain that grew from them now belongs to Bloomin’ Brands, but the founders kept those two Houston rooms. One loss worth knowing about: Nino’s on West Dallas, opened by Damian’s brother Vincent in 1977, closed with its sister restaurants in 2022.

Not every good plate here comes with a dynasty attached. Collina’s began in 1993 as an eight-table storefront near Greenway Plaza, run by Lisa and Paul Hill; it now has two locations, on West 19th Street in the Heights and on the Katy Freeway in Memorial, and you can bring your own bottle of wine. In a city this spread out, the nearest good parm usually beats the most famous one.

1. Mandola's Deli (Houston) — Parm Score 85. Chicken parm comes up in 1 of the recent Google reviews we sampled, and the tone is positive. It is on the menu, too. 4.7 on Google across 1,339 reviews.
2. Collina's Italian Cafe (Houston) — Parm Score 85. Chicken parm comes up in 2 of the recent Google reviews we sampled, and the tone is positive. It is on the menu, too. 4.2 on Google across 1,032 reviews.
3. Prima Pasta Italian Restaurant (Houston) — Parm Score 79. Chicken parm comes up in 2 of the recent Google reviews we sampled, and the tone is positive. 4.6 on Google across 1,161 reviews.

We ranked 12 restaurants within 10 miles of Houston, TX. 9 of them have the parm confirmed, by reviewers or on their own menu, and Parm Scores run from 56 to 85. Confirmed places rank first; the rest are well-reviewed Italian spots where the parm is not yet confirmed, and pizzerias and steakhouses need a mention to appear at all. How Parm Score works.

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