At This New Houston Restaurant, Diners Can Dabble in Street Food From Over 25 Countries

Traveler’s Cart skips across the globe with dishes like carne frita, Vietnamese betel leaf-wrapped beef, Jamaican jerk pork ribs, falafel, and so much more

Houston restaurant Traveler’s Table has captivated diners since 2019 with its vast menu, which features dishes from multiple countries around the world. Now, its new sister restaurant, Traveler’s Cart, is zeroing in on street food.

The counter-service restaurant in Montrose features a menu that skips across the world to showcase street food dishes in more than 25 countries, including Thailand, Peru, Vietnam, and Jamaica.

Outside, the restaurant features a plaque with a letter to diners, bracing them for the experience ahead. “It’s not meant to be perfect. It may not be pretty, and let’s face it – some of it just might not be for you. It can be spicy or tangy, sour or deliciously funky. It may smell different and look like something you’ve never eaten before,” the plaque reads.

“It speaks to the intention behind the restaurant,” says Thy Mitchell, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Matthew. “We’re paying tribute to the humble, hard-working cooks around the world. We want to make this about them and the food.”

Jenn Duncan

Traveler Cart’s menu also serves as a roadmap of places the Mitchells have visited and a few on their bucket list, they say. Executive chef Miguel Torres offers dishes like carne frita with crispy tostones served with mayo-ketchup — a dish from his home in Puerto Rico; a completely vegan falafel sandwich served with creamy sauces; Jamaican jerk pork ribs with a side of delightfully sticky, spiced plantains and coconut rice and peas; fried chicken muffaletta sandwiches; and what Torres says is a sleeper hit — the Peruvian lomo saltado. Indonesian chef Ardian Brantoro contributes with a saucy beef rendang, and the Vietnamese betel leaf-wrapped beef, served with bib lettuce, banh hoi noodles, and fish sauce, is an ode to Thy’s grandmother, who sold bánh cuốn on the streets of Vietnam before immigrating to the US.

Diners can also find starters like pan-fried cumin lamb dumplings, the juicy American Roadside smash burger, pappardelle with brisket ragu, and Tiger Shrimp pad Thai.

The Mitchells, who have been testing out dishes for the past year, say they have taken some creative license with certain dishes. The Khao Soi, a Thai dish that the Mitchells fell in love with on their honeymoon in Chiang Mai, still features yellow coconut curry with chicken and a combination of soft and crispy noodles but includes pickled mustard greens for a punch of acidity.

The desserts are also noteworthy, including a Greek apricot souffra — flaky filo dough pastry topped with gooey apricot; mango sticky rice infused with ube; and a warm sweet and salty chocolate toffee cake served with vanilla soft serve ice cream.

Similar to Traveler’s Table, Traveler’s Cart also pours up enticing drinks, like its Jerk Shack Punch, a spicy take on a rum punch loaded with jerk seasoning, an herbaceous Thai Tom Yum Soup cocktail, and its Mexican prickly pear cocktail, which, available with or without alcohol, is served in a no-frills plastic bag with a straw that hints at the informal vibe of street markets.

Jenn Duncan

Designed by Gin Braverman of the gin design group, the restaurant’s decor channels the makeup of a street food market, too. A video installation at the entrance near the takeout area sets the tone with day and night footage of markets in Barcelona, Spain, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Tokyo, Japan. Metal grids divide the restaurant, creating passageways that diners navigate while passing canopies inspired by food markets around the world. The full-service bar, which is built on a base made from plastic milk crates, is ornate with colorful signs inspired by markets in London, Tai Pei, and Marrakech, and includes a recreation of the sign of Quán Bà Thơ, the Houston Vietnamese restaurant that Thy Mitchell’s grandmother once owned. Outside, the enclosed patio, which seats 80, offers a mixture of table and patio seating, string lighting, and bamboo plants to elicit a tropical feel.

Jenn Duncan

While Matthew Mitchell describes Traveler’s Table as a more “upscale but not uptight” full-service restaurant, Traveler’s Cart is its “younger, more bohemian sister” that traverses the experience of international street food markets. “It’s for the same customer who likes a different environment,” he says. Dishes are moderately priced (no dish is over $20), and the experience is more casual: Diners place their order at a bar and later receive their dishes and drinks at their designated table thanks to a GPS order tracker system.

While attending college at Oxford University and traveling around the world as a journalist, Matthew Mitchell often found himself dining at night markets and back-alley food carts. He later worked in business and the pharmaceutical industry before switching careers, attending culinary school, and eventually working at restaurants like North Italia and Benjy’s, formerly of the Local Foods Group, he says. With a similar passion for travel and food, Thy Mitchell built a career in hotel operations and hospitality following her experience working in her grandmother’s Vietnamese restaurant in Houston.

Matthew Mitchell says they aim to expand the brand by opening several Traveler’s Cart locations throughout Houston and eventually in Austin and Dallas.

Jenn Duncan

Traveler’s Cart is located at 1401 Montrose Boulevard, Montrose, 77019; open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, and 10 a.m. to midnight Thursday through Sunday.