This page covers East Freeway, or rather, Interstate 10 heading out from Houston going toward Baytown but before the numbering resets at San Jacinto River. Version 4.0 continues to improve on Version 3.0, which spun off from a different post. It adds sections which Version 3.0 didn't have. It also does not include Chevron at 411 Sheldon Road (found here).
Added: McDonald's, 10255 East Freeway (former Chic's Cabaret), Divas Bikini Bar & Grill, Luby's, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, Pappas Bar-B-Q, Houston Garden Centers, Star Light Inn, GreenTree Hotel & Extended Stay, QuikTrip, 15430 East Freeway, Dell Dale Motel, Whataburger, 15822 East Freeway (former Fairfield Inn), Zip In Zip Out, The Studios at Channelview, Shell, and 17203 East Freeway.
Updated: La Mesa Mexican Restaurant (formerly titled as "Dimassi's Mediterrean Buffet"), 13213 East Freeway, and Wendy's.
Frenchey's Chicken / 4403 East Freeway
Don't be fooled by imitators—this is not to be confused with Frenchy's. It's had this name since at least the mid-1990s but it was a real Frenchy's in the 1980s. When exactly this bootleg operation sprung up is unknown, but it wasn't an immediate change.
Burger King / 6220 East Freeway
This Burger King has been here since 1983. It's received some exterior and interior updates since then; I've eaten here at least once on a road trip.
10255 East Freeway
From 1987 to around 2000 this was Pizza Inn, and soon after became Chic's Cabaret, which opened in 2001, much to the consternation of area residents, who had been told it was going to be a Hooters-style sports bar, not a topless venue. It looks like it was boarded up in 2020 or soon after. By summer 2024 it was flattened for was supposed to be a Star Stop gas station and convenience store but this hasn't been built or opened yet to my knowledge.
Valero / 10302 East Freeway
As of 2007, this Valero featured a typical Valero Corner Store. In 2019 it became a Circle K/Valero but between 2023 and 2024 dropped the Circle K convenience branding, becoming a full Valero again (no branding on c-store). It dates back to the mid-1980s as 7-Eleven and later was sold to Stop N Go, so it spent time as a Diamond Shamrock.
McDonald's / 10323 East Freeway
There has been a McDonald's in this narrow lot since 1977. The current restaurant was built in 2019. I can't tell if the original dated back to 1977 but it received a Playplace expansion at one point.
Don Rey Mexican Restaurant / 10333 East Freeway
This was Kettle (#71) approx. 1976-1993. It became Taqueria Arandas soon after until around 2014, when it was replaced with the current tenant.
Northern Tool & Equipment / 11035 East Freeway
Kroger operated at this location from 1979 to 2014 and was scheduled to become a Bravo Ranch. At some point later, Fiesta bought the chain and continued remodels, but it was scrapped after Hurricane Harvey. Northern Tool & Equipment opened here in November 2022.
Divas Bikini Bar & Grill / 11927 East Fwy.
Until around 2016-2017 this was HI-10 Cabaret (same ownership since 1994), but HI-10 Cabaret first opened around 1986 in a former Bonanza Steakhouse.
Blue Bayou Cafe / 12008 East Freeway
This was Bennigan's from 1980 to 2008. By the end of 2009 it was operating as Chula's Sports Cantina, and within a couple of years (by 2014) had become Crazy Alan's Swamp Shack, a seafood restaurant specializing in the bounties of the Gulf Coast and parts surrounding it. This included "mudbugs" (crawfish) when in season. Sometime around 2018 it was retooled into Blue Bayou Cafe, same owners.
12001 East Freeway
This started out as Target (T-66) and operated from September 1978 to 1999. From 2001 to 2004 it was Garden Ridge (the short timespan being a victim of its 2004 bankruptcy). Burlington (formerly Burlington Coat Factory) takes up most of the space today (opened 2007, though probably oversized for the format Burlington has today) with Family Thrift Center (opened 2011) taking up the remainder of the space. In 2019, a BreWingz restaurant was constructed in the parking lot and uses the same address.
La Mesa Mexican Restaurant / 12010 East Freeway
This opened as a Jojo's restaurant in 1979 but by 1983 became Pappas Seafood House & Oyster Bar (later just Pappas Seafood House), which operated for the next thirty years. In 2014, it was converted into a new concept, Pappas Meat Company, but in September 2016 they pulled the plug on it. It was converted into Dot Coffee Shop, another Pappas concept, but by February 2021 it closed as well. On June 30, 2023 it was reopened as a Dimassi's Mediterranean Buffet but it closed by February 2025. The current restaurant opened later that year.
12201 East Freeway
Fiesta Mart #10 opened in 1984 but has been closed since Hurricane Harvey in 2017. A report from 2021 says that the store was to reopen but that was not the case.
Luby's / 12405 East Freeway
From 1977 to 1996 this was Wyatt's Cafeteria and sold to Luby's in 1996 with a bunch of others. In the early 2010s it gained a Fuddruckers Express inside (I assume this was the prototype for the mid-2010s Luby's/Fuddruckers combos) but by spring 2017 Fuddruckers was already gone.
Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen / 12420 East Freeway
This was built as an entirely new development in 2014.
Pappas Bar-B-Q / 12424 East Freeway
Along with Pappadeaux, Pappas Bar-B-Q also opened next to it and shared the same parking lot.
China Star Buffet & Grill / 12621 East Freeway
Golden Corral originally operated here from 1991 to 2011 (moved to 14010 East Fwy.), while China Star has been here since 2012. In 2017 Jason's Deli (12625 East Fwy.) was built in a portion of the oversized parking lot.
I-10 Royal Inn / 12860 East Freeway
While it has received its share of repaints over the years, this small motel was originally known as Bayou Motel, was built in the early 1960s, and has just about 16 units.
13213 East Freeway
This sat under a massive "MOTEL" sign advertising $39 single rooms (long obsolete, it hasn't changed since at least 2008). Originally built as Northshore Motor Lodge (with a club and restaurant) when it was built in 1960, it was later Interstate Motor Lodge from at least 1994 to the late 2010s and has been Studio 6 since the late 2010s until sometime around 2024, when it closed. It was demolished soon after along with the large $39 rooms sign.
Academy Sports + Outdoors / 13400 East Fwy.
This was a Wal-Mart from 1988 to 1995 (with the address of 13350 East Freeway). In 1996, Circuit City opened in half of the building with Academy opening in the other half (with the address of 13400) in 2002 (its low store number, 9, suggests it jumped around quite a bit before landing here). After Circuit City closed Academy absorbed the space.
Walmart / 13750 East Fwy.
Built in 1995 to replace the store at (what is now) 13400 East Freeway, until a 2011-2012 renovation, this was a regular non-Supercenter location badged as "Wal-Mart". This changed with a renovation, which added the Supercenter grocery section, though the square footage of the store wasn't significantly expanded.
Golden Corral / 14010 East Fwy.
This Golden Corral buffet restaurant was built here in 2011 and relocated from 12621 East Freeway.
Houston Garden Centers / 14135 East Freeway
This opened in 2007 on a redeveloped site, opening for the spring 2007 planting season.
Star Light Inn / 15010 East Freeway
A small crummy motel has been here since the late 1970s. You can see it quite prominently from the Beltway 8 on-ramps but by that point you already missed it.
GreenTree Hotel & Extended Stay / 15157 East Freeway
This was opened as Holiday Inn circa 1981 and around 2008 changed flags to the Clarion brand. It features 177 rooms on three floors. Between 2022 and 2025 it assumed its current branding.
QuikTrip / 15340 East Freeway
This opened in 2025 and replaced a vacant building built a few years earlier which was never completed (parking lots did not connect to any roads). I can't find what this building was supposed to be, but everything (parking lots and all) got torn down for QuikTrip. Nothing was reused.
15430 East Freeway
As of March 2025 East Harris County Health and Social Services Center was undergoing construction here. It was built on the ruins of South Grand Apartments, a motel-like apartment development that was wrecked around 2007-2008 (and had existed since at least the late 1970s, as apartments).
Dell Dale Motel / 15543 East Freeway
This small motel has been around (under this name) since at least 1971.
Scottish Inn & Suites / 15740 East Freeway
This budget motel (part of a chain) was built in 2000.
Wendy's / 15770 I-10 E.
This Wendy's opened in 1982 and is the last known "solarium" Wendy's restaurant in the Houston area. The sign height was chopped in half in the early 2010s (less visible from the freeway), and sometime around 2021, the copper-colored roof was repainted black but no signage was updated.
To the west of the Wendy's at 15760 IH 10 East was Captain D's (#3674) from approximately 1984 to 2003. It was demolished in the mid-2000s.
Whataburger / 15811 East Freeway
This Whataburger (#551) was built around 1991-1992. The alternate address (which may or may not have been used) was 15806 2nd Street, the street behind it.
15822 East Freeway
Fairfield Inn & Suites Houston Channelview was shut down in the early 2020s and was used by the homeless until a major fire in May 2025 destroyed much of the building.
Zip In Zip Out / 16955 East Freeway
This self-branded convenience store and gas station used to be a Valero with "Food Mart" until around 2020.
The Studios at Channelview / 17011 East Freeway
This became "The Studios at Channelview" around the mid-2020s, previously Relax Inn (2022-2023), Rodeway Inn (briefly in the late 2010s and early 2020s), Relax Inn (same logo, in the mid-2010s), and before that (to at least 2007) Budget Lodge.
Exxon / 17124 East Freeway
This was Key Truck Stop with Philips 66 as of 2008, when it was converted to Exxon by 2011 it still featured the Key Truck Restaurant; however, by 2014 the restaurant had become El Dorado Mexican Grill. A few years later, the restaurant was remodeled and reopened as Texas Forever Bar & Grill, in conjunction with the convenience store becoming Texas Forever (stylized as "TX-4EVER", like the current Texas license plate, white on black). By 2023 it had become a different convenience store (if similarly named), up-and-coming convenience store chain Now & Forever.
Shell / 17141 East Freeway
This gas station was built in 1980s and has been Shell since at least 1997. In 2016, it temporarily closed and reopened in 2017 with Schlotzsky's and Dickey's Barbecue Pit. By 2025 both had closed (Schlotzsky's closed first).
17203 East Freeway
This was a failed Jack in the Box restaurant (1997-1999). In 2000, a local car dealership ("Franklin Pre-Owned Dealership") tried to make a go of the location but closed a few years later. It has been abandoned since. The Interstate numbering resets to 1000 after crossing the bay bridge east of here.