A couple enjoy food and have fun exchange with staff at Pepper Twins' River Oaks location. Soft Square Bacon is a popular dish with customers. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Pepper Twins offers a youthful take on traditional cuisine and a timeless love of food

I counted myself lucky when I finally found a parking spot at one of the popular Houston restaurants in Montrose area.

Pepper Twins (previously known as Cooking Girl), a restaurant serving authentic Sichuan cuisine that opened in 2015, is located amid the busy, assorted restaurants in the area west of downtown Houston.

A small group of young alumni of Rice University gathered around a table for their reunion. They came from Austin, San Antonio and Houston, respectively.

"I have been coming here ever since this was opened. When my friend from China took me here, she said it's exactly how it is in China, it's very like home-style cooking, and it reminded her of a restaurant in Chengdu," said Steven Sharifi, a data engineer at General Motors in Austin.

Sharifi said that prior to graduation, he and his friends often visited Pepper Twins. "We tried everything on the menu, and everything is delicious. Now this is where we go to eat every time we come to Houston," he said.

"The food is incredible. Honest to god, this is equal or greater to any food I had in China," said another member of the group who is half-Chinese and visited China a few times.

The group of young professionals ordered a variety of dishes: mapo tofu, pepper twins chicken, stewed fish in hot sauce, and Jumping on the Mountain – in plain English, pig feet. In short time, all plates were picked clean as if storm had swept over.

At the table next to the Rice group, I found Max Levit and his wife enjoying a night out with a few dishes and a bottle of wine.

Levit, whose family-owned Grocers Supply is on the list of Forbes America's Largest Private Companies, said he is an avid food lover. He has dined at the best restaurants in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

"I have been to places all over US. I don't know what they did here, but this is the best Chinese food I ever had. People here are wonderful, too," said Levit, who regularly dines at Pepper Twins and calls it the best restaurant in Houston.