Austin Persian concept makes The Infatuation's best new restaurants list

Three new restaurants have charmed restaurant review platform The Infatuation and ended up on its Best New Restaurants of 2026 list. One Austin restaurant, Roya, is among the 25 selected across the United States.

In addition to Roya, Olōyō in Dallas and Zaranda in Houston made the list. The Infatuation has a presence in each of those cities plus more across Texas, so it's able to cross reference the list against its regular local content. The platform specializes in themed lists and also posts reviews of single businesses to add context for readers.

The Infatuation team ate at more than 2,600 new restaurants in 2026, the introduction to the list explains. It doesn't list criteria or points for consideration, except that there was much debate over favorites and they would "recommend them to pretty much anyone."

The expandable list lays out some key notes like price, cuisine, neighborhood, a tagline, dish recommendations, and other unqiue highlights. Users can then click through to see a longform review with a numerical rating.