Café Rabelais

08/26/2026

New Lunch Special!!

✨ TRADITION ET TERROIR ✨
Our new prix fixe lunch menu features your choice of two courses for $32 per person.

Begin with a chilled Vichyssoise or classic Salade Frisée aux Lardons, then discover Poisson Rouge with broccolini, creamy crawfish and tomato coulis or Pappardelle au Poulet et Pesto.

And if dessert is calling? Choose from lemon, raspberry or mango sorbet, or our Gâteau Roulé à la Vanille with raspberry and strawberry coulis.

Add a bottle of French wine, a favorite person across the table, and the unmistakable charm of Café Rabelais. ❤️

Somehow, Rice Village starts to feel a little more like Paris.

$32 per person · Choice of two courses
Tax, wine & gratuity not included.

🇫🇷 Come discover the new Tradition et Terroir menu at Café Rabelais.

À bientôt, Houston. 🍷

07/18/2026

Brunch at Café Rabelais has a very French way of slowing the day down.
A crisp glass of wine. A table tucked into the warmth of the room. Something buttery, something savory, something sweet. The kind of meal that begins with coffee and somehow turns into a bottle, a second course, and a reason to stay a little longer.
It is brunch without the rush. Elegant, comforting, and quietly indulgent, the way weekends should feel.
Join us for brunch in Rice Village every Saturday from 11am-2pm.

07/15/2026

Houston's Little Corner of France Is Still Here

Over the past few weeks, many of you reached out after hearing that Café Rabelais would be closing. The messages, memories, and kind words have meant more to us than we can express.

Today, we're grateful to share some good news.

Our doors are still open.

While we don't know exactly what the coming months will bring, we're thankful to continue welcoming guests and sharing the food, wine, and hospitality that have made Café Rabelais a part of Houston for the past 26 years.

If you've been meaning to come back, we'd love to see you. Bring a friend. Order a favorite bottle. Stay for dessert. Make another memory with us.

And if it's been a while since your last visit, there's never been a better time to rediscover your neighborhood French café.

This Month's Tradition et Terroir Lunch Prix Fixe

Two Courses • $32 per person

Begin your lunch with your choice of:

Salmon Tartare
Fresh salmon delicately prepared with shallots, capers, herbs, and crostini.

or

Butternut Squash Velouté
A silky, comforting soup that celebrates the season.

For your entrée, enjoy either:

Trout with Crawfish & Red Pepper Coulis
Perfectly cooked trout served with creamy carrot purée, sautéed Brussels sprouts, and a vibrant crawfish and roasted red pepper coulis.

or

Chicken Ratatouille
Tender chicken layered with spinach and seasonal vegetables, finished with a rich brown cream sauce.

Complete your meal with:

Fresh Berry Crêpes with almond cream and raspberry coulis

or

Sorbet du Jour

For 26 years, Café Rabelais has been more than a restaurant. It's been the setting for anniversaries, first dates, celebrations, business lunches, family traditions, and quiet afternoons over a glass of French wine.

That only happens because of people like you.

Thank you for making Café Rabelais part of your lives, and for continuing to support a truly independent Houston restaurant. Every reservation, every lunch, every bottle shared around the table means more than ever.

We look forward to welcoming you back soon.

À bientôt,

Christophe and the Café Rabelais Family

Click here for an update from CAFE RABELAIS!

07/15/2026

Truite Grenobloise- Trout with caper butter sauce, croutons, and root vegetables. Bright, buttery, and beautifully balanced. A classic French preparation that lets the fish shine.

07/13/2026

Rich, roasted bone marrow, bubbling in the bone and finished simply with parsley and sea salt.

Spread it over a grilled baguette while it’s still warm; silky, savory, and almost impossibly indulgent. The crisp bread gives way to that deep, buttery richness, bite after bite.

Primitive in the best way. Elegant in the French way.

Os à Moelle de Mamie, not a dish for restraint.

07/10/2026

At Café Rabelais, wine is part of the architecture.

It lines the walls, fills the shelves, rests in wooden crates, and waits in quiet rows for the right meal, the right conversation, the right moment.

These are bottles chosen with care. French wines with history, character, and a sense of place. Burgundy for something elegant. Bordeaux for something bold. Rhône for something generous. Champagne because, sometimes, the evening asks for it.

Come wander the wine wall, ask for a recommendation, and let the bottle set the tone.

07/08/2026

There’s something irresistible about a bowl of mussels arriving at the table still steaming, each shell opening into tender, briny perfection, bathed in a silky white wine cream sauce.

Garlic, butter, herbs, and the taste of the sea come together in every bite. Then come the pommes frites, ready to catch the sauce. The bread follows, because leaving even a spoonful behind would be unthinkable.

Rich, seductive, and meant to be savored slowly.

Moules Rabelais- a dish you think about long after the bowl is empty.

07/07/2026

Le Suprême
Grilled chicken breast, caramelized onions, roasted cremini mushrooms, and melted Swiss on a crisp baguette. Comforting, golden, and unmistakably French-café satisfying.

06/04/2026

There are French fries… and then there are pommes frites.

Golden, crisp, impossibly addictive, and served the way the French intended — alongside a proper steak, tucked beside a baguette sandwich, or waiting patiently for their highest calling: being dragged through sauce.

Béarnaise. Bordelaise. Peppercorn. Moules Rabelais. Whatever is left on the plate.

At Café Rabelais, the fries are never just a side.

They are part of the ritual.

06/02/2026

Assiette de Charcuterie- Saucisson, Jambon de Bayonne, rillettes, cornichons, and butter, the kind of board that invites conversation, good wine, and another piece of bread.