It's Monday night, you don't want to cook, and you finally want to try one of the restaurants everyone has been talking about since summer. Of the three chef-driven places that opened in The Woodlands Town Center this year, only one is open. That one is Bari Ristorante, in the space TRIS used to fill at 24 Waterway Avenue.
Charolais at Hughes Landing and Bar Bludorn on Waterway Avenue are dinner restaurants that open Tuesday through Saturday. Bari is open every day for lunch and dinner. So on Sundays, Mondays and weekday lunches, it has the new set to itself.
Three openings, two districts, one landlord
The two chef projects began as a single announcement. In August 2025, Howard Hughes said chefs Austin Simmons and Aaron Bludorn would each open an independent restaurant in The Woodlands in 2026. Its release described each one as a separate joint venture with the developer. The same release placed Simmons at Restaurant Row in Hughes Landing and Bludorn at 25 Waterway.
Simmons had been executive chef of TRIS, and TRIS closed in early 2025. He didn't come back to that address. His new restaurant, Charolais by Chef Austin Simmons, opened at Hughes Landing on July 14, 2026. The former TRIS space went to an Italian group from Houston's River Oaks District. Bari Ristorante opened there on Sept. 30, Community Impact reported. Two days later, on Oct. 2, Bar Bludorn opened across the street at 25 Waterway Avenue.
So the steak program that made TRIS well known now operates at Hughes Landing. Meanwhile the Waterway block where TRIS stood has a pasta house on one side and a tavern on the other.
The week, mapped
Here are the schedules each restaurant was posting as of mid-October 2026. Each restaurant posts its own hours, and opening-season hours tend to change, so check before you go.
| Monday | Tuesday to Thursday | Friday and Saturday | Sunday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bari Ristorante, 24 Waterway Ave. | 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
| Bar Bludorn, 25 Waterway Ave. | Closed | 5 to 9 p.m. | 5 to 10 p.m. | Closed |
| Charolais, 1900 Hughes Landing Blvd., Suite 350 | No hours listed | 3 to 9 p.m. | 3 to 10 p.m. | No hours listed |
On Tuesday through Saturday evenings all three are open, and the choice comes down to cuisine and mood. Bari is the only one of the three serving lunch. It's the only one with a weekend brunch, which runs Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. And it's the only one advertising a weekday happy hour, with $10 burgers and $10 individual pizzas on the list. Charolais doesn't open until 3 p.m., and its online menu offers only Dinner and Cocktails.
Bari: built for every day of the week
Bari's daily schedule fits its size. The Woodlands restaurant covers 9,000 square feet, with more than 250 seats, two private dining rooms and a bar lounge. Each private room holds up to 40 guests, the rooms can be combined, and the lounge holds 30. A room that size works for a weekday lunch meeting and a Sunday family dinner alike.
The owners say demand came from here. "Guests from The Woodlands have supported Bari from the beginning, often traveling to our River Oaks District location and asking us to bring the experience closer to home," co-owner Pedro Teyuca told Community Impact.
The menu covers both. According to the Houston Chronicle, the original Bari's classics carry over, including fritto misto, pappardelle bolognese and several pizzas, along with tableside truffle pasta and bananas foster. The Chronicle also listed dishes created for this location:
- Tagliere di formaggi, Italian cheeses with honeycomb, berries and almonds
- Culaccia e melone, burrata and melon with 24-month-old culaccia di Parma
- Pollo piccata, with lemon-caper sauce, sautéed spinach and roast potatoes
Executive chef Marcelo Mintz runs the kitchen day to day. Chef Renato De Pirro, who anchored the River Oaks District original, helped with the opening.
Bar Bludorn: the dinner across the street
Bar Bludorn's narrower hours make sense for the restaurant it is. Bludorn Hospitality Group calls it an upscale tavern. The original opened in Memorial in 2024, and the Woodlands location is the group's first restaurant outside central Houston, Hello Woodlands reported. In the 2025 announcement, Aaron Bludorn said the group saw "a lot of guests from The Woodlands visit Bar Bludorn in Memorial." Bari's owners pointed to the same thing, guests from The Woodlands who were already making the drive into Houston.
The menu here differs from Memorial's. Community Impact listed oysters served fried, grilled, raw or dressed; steak tartare with potato rosti; branzino with salsa verde and black garlic za'atar; bavette steak frites; and duck breast on riso venere. The bar pours craft cocktails alongside a deep wine and spirits list. Gensler designed the space, and it has two things the Memorial original lacks, a private dining room and an outdoor patio. Reservations go through OpenTable on the restaurant's site.
Charolais: where the TRIS steak program went
If what you miss about TRIS is the beef, head to Hughes Landing. Charolais serves customizable steak boards. You choose specific cuts and how each one is cooked, from live fire and cast iron to high-temperature broiling. The beef comes from Chef & Rancher, Simmons' venture with Texas rancher Larry Ludeke. Howard Hughes' opening announcement says the venture oversees everything from genetic selection to final cuts.
The restaurant has 200 seats, an open kitchen, a social bar, an open-air patio, and private rooms for 24 and 36 guests. Next door, C&R Market sells Chef & Rancher beef cuts, apparel and other items to take home. Unlike the dining room, the market opens at noon. It runs until 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and it's open Sunday from noon to 3 p.m., the one Sunday window anywhere in the Charolais operation. Reservations are on Resy.
The holiday calendar lands on the same blocks
The new schedules matter more in the next few weeks, because Town Center's holiday season takes over the area right around the two Waterway restaurants. Here are the dates from Visit The Woodlands:
- Friday, Nov. 20: The Woodlands Ice Rink opens for a season that runs through Jan. 18, 2027.
- Saturday, Nov. 21: Lighting of the Doves at Town Green Park, which also starts Holiday on The Waterway, running through Jan. 3, 2027.
- Fridays, Dec. 4, 11 and 18: Holiday fireworks in Waterway Square.
- Saturday, Dec. 5: The Glow and Go 5K on The Woodlands Waterway.
Each of those dates falls on a Friday or Saturday, when all three restaurants serve dinner. That makes them the nights a table will be hardest to get, so book Bar Bludorn or Bari well ahead of the fireworks Fridays. If you're going to the ice rink on a Sunday afternoon or a Monday after school, Bari is the only one of the three that will be open afterward.
Getting there without circling
Visit The Woodlands' parking guide lists the 24 Waterway Garage, the same address as Bari. It also notes valet stands at Waterway Square and free parking in several Town Center lots. On a fireworks Friday, the garage under the restaurant you're heading to beats a street space several blocks away.
Bari also isn't the only newer tenant at 24 Waterway. Lankford's opened its third location in Suite 160 in January, in the space Baja Cantina and Fiesta once used, Community Impact reported. That building alone has changed more in one year than most of Waterway Avenue did in the years before.
Where you live in The Woodlands decides whether Hughes Landing or Waterway Square is your easy weeknight dinner. If you're weighing that as part of a move within the area, the Beatriz Manchado Real Estate Group would be glad to walk through it with you, in English or Spanish. Let's find your next home: start your search or book a consultation today.
