Belly of the Beast

"A restaurant known for its chef Thomas Bille, semifinalist for the Best Chef: Texas category, and awarded a Bib Gourmand by the Michelin Guide." - Courtney E. Smith

"Tucked into a strip mall in Spring, this destination restaurant offers some of the Houston area’s best and most inventive Mexican cuisine. More traditional dishes include the carne asada and the entrancing birria tacos, the latter laced with crispy, cheesy edges, but chef Thomas Bille, a California native, gets far more playful. While Bille’s potato empanadas, made with a silky comte, are an essential to start, other highlights include the saag paneer made with spinach mole verde, the braised short rib with mole negro and fig, and the tagliatelle, made with roasted mushrooms, Spanish chorizo, porcini cream, egg yolk, and Parmesan. The tres leches, sweetened with a passion fruit meringue, always makes for a perfect ending." - Brittany Britto Garley

"Spring chef Thomas Bille pays homage to his upbringing in California at this newest rendition of his restaurant, which he says serves New American cuisine through a first-generation Mexican American’s lens. This translates into dishes that likely can’t be found elsewhere — potato empanadas made with comte and served with creme fraiche and caviar; a sought-after seasonal street corn agnolotti; and a yam dish made with warming spices that’s devoured with tortillas. Bille puts his special spin on the more familiar dishes: Birria tacos are served with salsa roja and consume, and the tres leches is topped with a torched passion fruit meringue." - Brittany Britto Garley

"Chef Thomas Bille’s restaurant has drawn in diners from all over the Houston area for his inventive menu of contemporary Mexican dishes like potato empanadas made with silky comte cheese, the cult-favorite birria tacos, tagliatelle and chorizo in porcini cream sauce, and braised short rib served with mole negro. Belly of the Beast’s moist tres leches, made with a milk-soaked spongecake topped with torched passionfruit meringue, also often precedes itself and is best enjoyed with a cup of coffee." - Lane Gillespie, Sean Hekmat

"Thomas Bille of Spring’s Belly of the Beast was recognized as a semifinalist for the Best Chef: Texas category in the James Beard Awards 2024." - Courtney E. Smith