In short
- 14,184 restaurants, bars and cafes got a new Texas sales-tax permit from Oct 2025 to Sep 2026. Add food trucks and caterers and it is 21,575.
- Houston 2,499, San Antonio 1,180, Dallas 1,040, Austin 987: the four biggest cities take about 26% of the state's new food permits.
- These are permits, not confirmed openings. The file keeps only active permits, so older months are undercounted. Use the last 12 months.
On this page
- The 25 Texas cities with the most new food-service permits
- Monthly new food permits averaged about 1,300 in 2025 and about 1,900 in 2026
- Food trucks are the biggest single type, full-service restaurants second
- Which cities grew fastest? Treat these percentages as an upper bound
- The survivor-bias caveat, in plain words
- Method and source
- Want the names behind the counts?
- Frequently asked questions
How many restaurants open in Texas each year, and which cities are getting the most new restaurants? The Texas Comptroller publishes every active sales-tax permit with an issue date, city and business type. We counted the food ones. Here is what the last 12 full months, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026, show.
The 25 Texas cities with the most new food-service permits
| City | Full-service | Limited | All food |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Houston | 627 | 507 | 2,499 |
| 2. San Antonio | 319 | 231 | 1,180 |
| 3. Dallas | 326 | 245 | 1,040 |
| 4. Austin | 208 | 158 | 987 |
| 5. Fort Worth | 134 | 117 | 576 |
| 6. El Paso | 144 | 130 | 575 |
| 7. Katy | 104 | 69 | 370 |
| 8. Arlington | 60 | 74 | 237 |
| 9. Plano | 95 | 64 | 219 |
| 10. Corpus Christi | 48 | 38 | 211 |
| 11. Spring | 48 | 39 | 211 |
| 12. Brownsville | 53 | 30 | 202 |
| 13. Frisco | 74 | 50 | 191 |
| 14. Laredo | 34 | 40 | 186 |
| 15. Odessa | 33 | 32 | 173 |
| 16. McAllen | 49 | 32 | 168 |
| 17. Irving | 54 | 45 | 167 |
| 18. Midland | 27 | 35 | 166 |
| 19. Cypress | 29 | 41 | 160 |
| 20. Garland | 40 | 33 | 158 |
| 21. McKinney | 40 | 43 | 156 |
| 22. Amarillo | 43 | 25 | 155 |
| 23. Humble | 24 | 28 | 133 |
| 24. Lubbock | 30 | 29 | 131 |
| 25. Sugar Land | 42 | 32 | 129 |
New sales-tax permits issued Oct 1, 2025 to Sep 30, 2026, by the city on the permit. "All food" also counts bars, coffee and snack shops, cafeterias, food trucks and caterers. "Limited" means limited-service (counter or fast casual). Suburbs such as Katy and Spring are separate rows because the permit uses the mailing city.
Read it for what it is. A sales-tax permit is a registration to collect tax. It often comes before the doors open, and a few are for moves or extra locations. Food trucks are a large share in cities such as Houston, so the full-service and limited columns are the better guide to storefront restaurants.
Monthly new food permits averaged about 1,300 in 2025 and about 1,900 in 2026
This is every new food-service permit in Texas by issue month. The step up in spring 2026 is mostly food trucks: 657 in March 2026 against 402 in February. We do not know why. It may be a real surge or a change in how the Comptroller registers them. More on this in Texas food truck permits by city.
New food-service sales-tax permits issued in Texas per month, active permits only. Earlier months are undercounted, see the caveat below.
Food trucks are the biggest single type, full-service restaurants second
New permits by type, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026.
Full-service restaurants (sit-down, table service) are 37% of the restaurant, bar and cafe permits. Limited-service places are 32% and coffee or snack shops 22%.
Which cities grew fastest? Treat these percentages as an upper bound
Among cities with at least 100 new food permits in the prior 12 months, these ten show the biggest jump. The prior year is undercounted (closed places are gone from the file), so the real growth is smaller than the percent shown.
| City | Oct 2024 to Sep 2025 | Oct 2025 to Sep 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midland | 100 | 166 | +66% |
| Katy | 231 | 370 | +60% |
| Houston | 1,601 | 2,499 | +56% |
| Arlington | 155 | 237 | +53% |
| Fort Worth | 378 | 576 | +52% |
| Brownsville | 134 | 202 | +51% |
| Dallas | 707 | 1,040 | +47% |
| McAllen | 116 | 168 | +45% |
| Corpus Christi | 147 | 211 | +44% |
| Spring | 148 | 211 | +43% |
18 cities qualified. Slowest of them: Plano (+18%) and Lubbock (+12%). Statewide the file shows 14,320 permits in the prior 12 months and 21,575 in the last 12.
The survivor-bias caveat, in plain words
What the file contains
- Permits that are still active today
- The issue date of each one
- City, county and business type
What it leaves out
- Permits closed or cancelled since
- The date a place actually opened
- Anything about sales or success
Restaurants close often. A permit issued two years ago has had two years to drop out of the file; one issued last month has not. So the same real-world activity looks larger in recent months and smaller in older ones. Active permits by issue year show it: 2022 6,649, 2023 8,504, 2024 11,107, 2025 15,858, and 18,770 so far in 2026 (to Oct 24). Part of that is real growth. Part is closures. We cannot split the two from this file, which is why we lean on the last 12 months only.
Method and source
- Pick the food permits
Outlets with NAICS codes 722511 (full-service), 722513 (limited-service), 722410 (bars), 722515 (snack and coffee), 722514 (cafeterias), 722330 (mobile food) and 722320 (caterers).
- Count by issue date
Whole calendar months by
outlet_permit_issue_date. The latest date in the file is Oct 24, 2026, so October is left out as incomplete. - Group by city
The outlet city is upper-cased and trimmed. Suburbs are not merged into the big city next to them.
- Publish counts only
No business names, owners or addresses appear on this page.
- Source. Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Active Sales Tax Permit Holders on data.texas.gov, a public record. Pulled 2026-10-26.
- Not endorsed. TX Openings is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Comptroller.
- Not a tax or business record of any one company. Counts say nothing about any single restaurant.
Want the names behind the counts?
Frequently asked questions
How many restaurants open in Texas each year?
Nobody publishes an exact count. The closest public record is the Comptroller sales-tax permit file. It shows 14,184 permits issued to restaurants, bars and cafes in the 12 months to Sep 2026, and 21,575 if you add food trucks and caterers. A permit is not an opening day, and some of these places never open.
Which Texas city is getting the most new restaurants?
Houston, by a wide margin: 2,499 new food-service permits in the last 12 full months, ahead of San Antonio (1,180), Dallas (1,040) and Austin (987). The Houston figure uses the mailing city on the permit, so some unincorporated areas are in it.
Why do older months look smaller?
The file lists only permits that are still active. A restaurant that opened in 2024 and closed in 2025 has dropped out, so older months undercount what was issued. The effect makes year-over-year growth look bigger than it is. Treat the last 12 months as the reliable figure.
Is a new permit the same as a new restaurant?
No. A sales-tax permit shows a business registered to collect tax at an address. It can come before the doors open, and some permits are for moves, new owners or additional locations. We call them permits, not openings.
Where does the data come from?
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Active Sales Tax Permit Holders, on data.texas.gov (dataset jrea-zgmq). It is a public record. We only publish counts here, never business names or addresses.
Can I cite these numbers?
Yes, with a link to this page. Please say that they are sales-tax permits issued, not confirmed openings, and that older months are undercounted. Email [email protected] if you want a different cut.