The Best Restaurants in Temple, Texas

Cheeves has been the special occasion room in Temple since 2002, and it occupies the century old building that once held the Cheeve's Brothers department store downtown. The kitchen runs hand cut steaks and Texas cuisine with locally sourced ingredients, and the restaurant is built around its wine cellar and craft cocktail program rather than treating them as an afterthought.

It is the only room in the city that reads as a destination rather than a good local restaurant. Joe Wilson runs it as owner and general manager, and there are three tiers of private dining menu for groups.

Megg's is the best cooking in Temple and it closes at three in the afternoon, which is the single most useful fact in this article. Sisters Holly and Meghan have run it since 2010 as a farm to table kitchen, buying from local growers and rewriting the menu around what is in season. Bread and bakery goods are made on the premises.

Breakfast and brunch are what it is known for, and the lunch menu carries the same weight. It is the one Temple restaurant that has drawn statewide food press, and it earns that on the sourcing rather than the room.

Pignetti's is the Italian room in downtown Temple and the one most locals name first for a sit down dinner that is not a steakhouse. It runs full service from late morning through the evening seven days a week, which no other kitchen on this list does, and the restaurant says the food is made fresh daily rather than held.

The wine program matters here too. The restaurant states it has taken the Award of Excellence five times. There is private event space attached, and it does takeout and delivery alongside the dining room.

17 South calls itself an Italian steakhouse committed to fine dining and craft cocktail service, and it sits on South Main in the heart of downtown Temple. It is the newer of the two downtown fine dining rooms and the one with the stronger bar program, which makes it the better call when the evening is as much about the drink as the plate.

It serves lunch every day it opens, which is unusual at this price point in a town this size and makes it a genuine option for a weekday business table.

Pustka is family owned and operated in Temple, smoking over post oak in the central Texas manner rather than running a gas assisted pit. It is the barbecue people in Bell County drive to when they want the modern style rather than the old school plate lunch.

It keeps short hours and closes early, and a second Temple location has been announced for 1220 West Avenue M with no opening date published yet. Until that opens, the loop address is the one.

Bird Creek opened in 2023 and is the brewpub downtown Temple did not previously have. The kitchen is built on gourmet burgers, including a plant based option, with fries, salads and tenders behind them. The brewery says its Bare Bones Disco has medalled at the Great American Beer Festival, the Texas Craft Brewers Cup and the World Beer Cup, and that Ghost Beach has taken gold twice.

Live music runs three nights a week, Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday from midday, with music bingo on Wednesdays. It is the loudest room on this list and the one that stays open latest.

Clem Mikeska's has been smoking meat in Temple since 1965 and is the oldest restaurant on this list by three decades. The signature is the Bar-B-Q tri tip, which is unusual in central Texas, sold alongside brisket and homemade sausage, and the menu runs on into hand cut steaks, chicken fried steak, catfish and burgers.

It is family owned and operated with three locations across central Texas now. The Temple store on South 57th is the original and the one to use.

Water Street started in Belton and opened its downtown Temple eatery on South First Street, a short walk from the Main Street restaurants. It is breakfast and daytime food built around waffles, dine in or takeout, and it fills the gap Megg's leaves on the days it is busy.

Closed Monday and Tuesday, so it is a weekend and midweek morning option rather than an everyday one.

Miso is the good cheap lunch on the west side, where most of Temple's growth has gone. It is a build your own bowl format across Korean and Japanese flavors, quick enough for a work lunch and better than the chains that surround it on the same stretch of road.

It is a counter operation rather than a dining room. That is the honest pitch, and at this price it is the right trade.