Ishtia
Restaurant · Kemah
709 Harris Ave, Kemah, TX 77565
Highlights
Ishtia is a 18-seat gem in Kemah where Chef David Skinner serves a captivating 20-course tasting menu, fusing Indigenous American flavors with live-fire techniques.
Ishtia is a 18-seat gem in Kemah where Chef David Skinner serves a captivating 20-course tasting menu, fusing Indigenous American flavors with live-fire techniques.
"A Native American tasting menu where dishes are cooked over an open flame." - Brittany Britto Garley
"An Indigenous tasting menu restaurant in Kemah, considered one of Houston’s best new establishments." - Brittany Britto Garley
"This tasting menu restaurant in Kemah offers a masterful lineup of Native American dishes using live fire. Savor fire-roasted rabbit and a Three Sisters dish made up of squash, corn butter, tepary beans, and a Maine Diver scallop that’s smoked with seaweed to smell like the ocean. Act fast: there are only around 30 tickets to this exclusive evening, with dinner starting at 8:30 p.m. and pricing set at $289 per person." - Marcy de Luna
"Somehow, there are only a handful of Indigenous-focused restaurants in the United States, a fact that alone would make the 20-course tasting menu experience from Choctaw and Chickasaw chef David Skinner a worthy destination. But what Skinner is doing at Ishtia, in a bijou block within the outlying Southeast Texas city of Kemah, is so much more than filling a gap. Skinner pairs the meal with plenty of lessons in Indigenous foodways, including the demystification of Native cuisine as “foreign.” It starts on the second floor: Skinner sets the stage with a series of snacks, including a delicate corn sphere that resembles cured egg yolk, and a reading of a poem he wrote about the infamous Trail of Tears. Diners are then led through the kitchen, where slow-cooked tepary beans finish in clay pots over a blazing open fire, past an intricate map of the Indigenous communities of the Americas, and into the gently lit dining room adorned with dried berries and Native pottery. This is where the show truly begins. It’s easy to find yourself surprised by — swooning over, even — dish after dish imbued with familiar spices grown across the Americas, such as star anise and sumac, presented in theatrical form. There’s tanchi labona, a deceptively simple Choctaw soup made up of nixtamalized corn and pork. A silky mole — a closely guarded combination of chiles, chocolates, and spices that has been simmering for months — is crowned with tender braised rabbit. The chef — who established his fluency in fine dining at nearby Thai-cum-Native American Th Prsv and his former immersive enterprise, Eculent — knows when to keep it playful, too. He clears the air with a tableside burning of white sage paired with a smudge stick salad that’s dredged in an earthy walnut-sumac pesto and tied together with stalks of chives. Sweets aren’t prevalent in Indigenous cooking, Skinner explains, but pastry chef Evie Ramsey embraces the challenge, employing the heart of Native foodways — corn — through a corn cake soaked in corn milk and topped with fluffy corn husk-infused meringue. By the end of each meal, there’s a sense that this is the start of something bigger for Indigenous cuisine in America. In Choctaw, after all, Ishtia means “to begin.” — Brittany Britto Garley, Eater Houston editor" - Eater Staff
"Let Choctaw chef David Skinner take you on a fiery journey through Indigenous cuisine that engages all the senses. With 20 courses and just 18 seats a night, the newest tasting menu restaurant offers a masterful lineup of Native American dishes using live fire. Savor fire-roasted rabbit, a triple-cooked steak, and a Three Sisters dish made up of squash, corn butter, tepary beans, and a Maine Diver scallop that’s smoked with seaweed to smell like the ocean. Dessert captivates with a a potent chicha morada sorbet served with corn tres leches with a roasted corn husk meringue; and a tomato, citrus, and sumac sorbet assembled over a bed of berries." - Brittany Britto Garley
