Recs for interesting restaurants that offer more than the standard eating experience?

Hey folks, hoping for some recommendations on places to try. I'm looking for places that offer an engaging experience (in addition to good food), ideally for a small/medium group. I've mostly been away for the past few years, so not too familiar with recent Houston dining.

Here are some examples just to try and get my idea across, I know I can (and have/will) search for several of these:

• Hibachi/teppanyaki or similar that cook for you at the table
• Fondue/hot pot/korean bbq/yakiniku, etc, where you (partially) cook things yourself at the table
• Churrasco style
• Tasting menus, especially being able to talk/interact with the chef
• Food tour / progressive dinner like Taste of Houston
• Maybe just a place with (a) super good/entertaining server(s) that lend themselves to group shared family-style meals (possibly relevant story below)
• Maybe even just a place that is interesting/unique enough, beyond well-executed familiar things, that the food can drive conversation and the experience itself (focusing on specific dishes/plates instead of full meals helps here, I'm thinking of something like Underbelly. Hoping to try Nancy's Hustle soon.)
• A specific example that I saw in another post, Teppay looks like it has a private dining room with interesting feel/environment, and might offer omakase style?

Thanks for your consideration!

Great server/experience story

Circa ~2014, at Vinoteco Poscol (I think a previous location, but not important). We had a group of 8-10ish, mostly grad students with some additional friends/family. Relatively short notice, might have gotten a reservation a few hours ahead. It was a pretty slow night, so the server could give us a lot of attention, and he was the best server I've ever had. It was almost like an impromptu tasting menu, where we mostly let him recommend dishes, possibly off-menu or with customizations, which were brought out 1 or 2 at a time and passed around the table for everyone to try. He was interacting with us constantly, whether talking about the food/wine, talking with us, making jokes, etc. It really felt like he was the MC of an event for our little group. The food was very good too of course, and I'm sure the wine helped everyone enjoy themselves. It was really the server, and the eating style that he facilitated, that made it an event instead of a meal.