The Resy Hit List: Where In Dallas You’ll Want to Eat Right Now

Gemma recently celebrated its 10th birthday with a smart new interior and menu refresh aimed at matching the growth of the neighborhood. It somehow feels even more “classic” now in its new French bistro era, with dishes like veal sweetbreads, trout almondine, and herby fries that come alongside many dishes: moule, poulet, steak, duck, and on Thursdays, shrimp with sauce américaine. The wine list is also a little more worldly. Owners Stephen Rogers and Allison Yoder have worked in the business long enough to know not to change crowd favorites, though. The complimentary fig scones, fried Castelvetrano olives with warm Texas pecans, and yes, rabbit pappardelle can be counted on to be as toothsome as we remember.

As Dallas is currently being flooded with celebrity-endorsed sushi concepts, you might turn to the ‘burbs for less flashy — but stellar — omakase. While everything might taste better with uni, caviar, and truffle shavings, those ingredients are used sparingly at Leo Kekoa’s first restaurant, to subtly embellish seasonal fish from Tokyo’s Toyusu market. Trained by his grandfather in Hawaii before working in restaurants in South Korea and at Nobu Dallas, Kekoa still delivers on showmanship and presentation. But more impressive than the literal smoke and mirrors of other spots is how Kekoa engages the six guests during his his intentionally smaller, intimate omakase service.

In three months since opening, this cowboy-chic chophouse and its bar inside Auberge Resorts’ Bowie House have become the rallying point for cowpoke royalty in Cowtown. Mains are as you’d imagine: dry-aged steaks, bacon-wrapped filet mignon, venison steak, and wild boar chops, followed by a rolling pie cart. Las Vegas-trained chef Antonio Votta goes beyond flair, though, sourcing meat from six Texas ranches — including Taylor Sheridan’s 6666 Ranch — to be grilled over Texas charcoal. Votta skillfully taps into wider Southern delicacies, too, like the pâté of the South, pimento cheese, served in a caddy with French onion and smoked salmon dips, along with a sleeve of Ritz crackers cut tableside. And the beguiling hunk of hummingbird cake could make you momentarily forget about Grandma’s version.

With regular appearances on Food Network, PBS Food, and “Top Chef,” Tiffany Derry is Dallas’s most famous TV chef. Her rise to celebrity was propelled by duck-fat fried chicken, served with drop biscuits and pepper jelly at Roots, the second restaurant she dreamed up with business partner Tom Foley. Dining on jerk swordfish and baby turnip greens with potlikker in a fine-ish dining environment is a particular pleasure. And this is the only place in the world where you can order Derry’s mother’s gumbo, a dish she is so passionate about getting right that she takes her sous chefs to Beaumont so they can experience Mama Cookie’s cooking for themselves.

Call 214-346-4441 for more info.

Oysters, chilled crudo, fish and chips, and lobster rolls are hard to turn down, especially in a classy-casual setting, even more so when Greg and Nik Katz are involved. Dishing up fare from the brothers’ beachside upbringing in Cape Town, South Africa, Green Point is the Katz brothers’ third Oak Lawn restaurant after Beverley’s Bistro & Bar and Clifton Club. After a brief dinner-only opening period, Green Point is now fully open for lunch and dinner every day of the week, a perfect solution to fill Dallas’ seafood dearth — with on-point cocktails like the Flock of Seagulls, with vodka and grapefruit soda, and the mezcal-based Guava Mama.

For soul food served cafeteria-style, with gravy-smothered pork chops and slices of meat loaf that are bigger — and almost as valuable — as a gold bar, there’s no place like Sweet Georgia Brown, opened around 30 years ago in South Dallas. The restaurant serving turkey wings, hot links, beef tips, and a litany of vegetables has always fallen under IYKYK (If you know, you know) status, but what is even less known is owner Walt Williams’ story: After playing in the NFL in the ’70s and ’80s, and losing an estimated $480 million in a real estate development company, Williams took up hope by going back to one of his original loves: cooking.

Find more info here.

Pitmaster Zain Shafi is proving words like “Pakistani,” “halal,” and “Texas barbecue” were meant to go together. With experience working at Goldee’s (Texas’ No. 1 barbecue joint, as it were), Shafi applies his skill set to seekh kebab sausages, Sichuan lamb ribs, and perfectly textured halal brisket. Rather than goopy potato salad and overdone mac, sides like seasonal fruit chaat and kachumber, a cucumber-tomato-onion salad from India, will make you wonder if barbecue wasn’t actually born for this moment. Shafi calls his daal chawal, or lentils and rice, the ultimate Pakistani comfort food. But it’s all pretty miraculous. Find the cobalt blue food truck next to Shafi’s smoker on Saturdays at South Main Micro Park (corner of South Main and Vickery Boulevard) from 11 a.m to sell-out.

Find more info here.

If sipping a round of hibiscus mezcal margs in the light of a cozy fireplace sounds like an acceptable way to begin an evening, this Design District dazzler has your number. Inspired by Mexico City and built by Duro Hospitality (also known for putting on the ritz at Mister Charles, The Charles, and Sister), El Carlos continues a penchant for elegance with an in-house masa program, which translates to mushroom tetelas and duck confit tlacoyos. Mains are cooked on a wood-fired grill, including wagyu New York strips and Berkshire pork al pastor. And there’s the Elegante Experience, one of the city’s more affordable tasting menus, six family-style courses for $99 per person.

Legends never die if Elias Pope is involved. After growing up in Heath and taking his wife to Culpepper Steakhouse for prom dinner 25 years ago, Pope couldn’t bear to see his childhood steakhouse close. So for the first time, UNCO (creators of HG Sply Co. and Standard Service, among others) restored a concept rather than developing a new one. Not much has changed at the “new” Culpepper Cattle Company, aside from Tex-Mex dishes, more Tequila, and a refreshed paint job. Old-timers can still order a Rockwall Riviera (a very strong hurricane) at one of four bars, including the “Beatle Bar,” said to have originated from a Beatles’ hangout in Liverpool. The East Texas provisions — including USDA prime steaks and chicken-fried lobster — are all blue-ribbon excellent.

Located in the Cultural District, right across the street from some of the finest museums in the country, Emilia’s at The Crescent Hotel currently houses one of the most happening bars in Fort Worth. Named for the first colony of artists to transform Texas art in the 1940s, the Circle Bar is a fine place to hydrate before heading into Emilia’s high-toned dining room for raw bar selections, wood-grilled steaks, and fresh pastas prepared with Texas grains. Executive chef Preston Paine’s affinity for Adriatic cuisine was bolstered by his time as a finalist on Food Network’s “Ciao House,” and at Emilia’s, he’s combining it with his love of Texas.

Stephan Courseau has become one of Dallas’s most reputed restaurateurs — and his third restaurant, after Knox Bistro and Le Bilboquet, the last of which he brought to Dallas in 2011 after beginning his hospitality career at the New York original — maintains the casual sophistication associated with his concepts. With executive chef R.J. Yoakum, a Thomas Keller alum who arrived last year, it’s possibly getting more buzz now than when it opened in 2019. Brunch is the latest element to be updated by Yoakum, and now includes one of the best examples of a French omelet to be found in Dallas, along with smoked trout Benedict and vegan enchiladas rancheros.

This neighborhood bakery by husband-and-wife team Maria Beccera and Ismael Trejo is bringing new life to the Casa View Shopping Center. Becerra previously worked as a baker at several fine-dining restaurants, including the late Bullion. When the pandemic canceled the couple’s hospitality jobs, they began working towards Lubella’s, named for their daughters, which opened in 2022. The heavily layered croissants and danishes sold alongside single-serving cakes and quiches draw a crowd, along with Becerra’s puffy conchas, and seasonal pan de muerto and Rosca de Reyes. If you’ve already been in for a morning pastry run, remember it for lunch, when croissants are sliced into five different types of savory sandwiches.

There’s a lot you might not know about Brandon and Henry Cohanim’s patio-enhanced sushi bar. It has undergone major changes in the past two years, starting with a new executive chef, Kazuhito Mabuchi, who came from Los Angeles’s two-Michelin-starred Sushi Ginza Onadera in 2022. There’s also now a dedicated buyer in Tokyo who selects top-quality fish to deliver to Mabuchi each Tuesday. The relationship allows the restaurant to bypass distributor selections and offer seasonal fish unavailable to other spots around town.

For a superlative experience at the upgraded Namo, Wednesday omakase nights are the way to go. It starts with several otsumami (small plates), followed by ten pieces or more of premium nigiri, plus miso soup, tamago, and dessert. You’ll want to have an appetite, just as you will with the new lunch okonomi, a $75 bargain that includes a salad, two sashimi courses, the creamiest chawanmushi in town, six pieces of nigiri, and more.

As Mirador underwent an interior transformation at its penthouse perch, executive chef Travis Wyatt and pastry chef Ruben Toraño devised a new menu for a lunch-only restaurant and special event space. Now open, Mirador has resumed its status as downtown’s poshest place for a midday meal. Former favorites like Parmesan tomato soup, orecchiette, and chicken paillard are still available, alongside new dishes, like beef tartare with harissa and lavash. But to experience the height of their creativity, you’ll want tickets for Modern Afternoon Tea, a Saturday-only, three-course luncheon paired with teas from Mariage Frères and Dallas’s own The Cultured Cup. The meal rightfully begins with scones, jam, and a glass of bubbly (which can definitely be upgraded), and leads into the fanciest presentation of coronation chicken we’ve ever seen, a wagyu sandwich on milk bread, and desserts like a passion fruit Valrhona Itakuja tart.

This Lower Greenville Avenue spot brings vernal vibes year-round. Whether it’s the indoor foliage or the vegetable-forward menu with a whole section dedicated to played-up produce, Sister always feels fresh and a little bit healthier than other splurge-worthy spots. The beets and avocado with tahini are nothing like your mother’s beets, and the shockingly-good charred eggplant dip with crudités shouldn’t be slept on, either. While it’s true the healthiest food group gets a proper spotlight here, meat-eaters will still be satiated with wild “boarnaise” pasta, wagyu short rib, and Akaushi hanger steak with cucumber labneh. And if spring fever is really hitting, see what your date thinks about the $299 item on the cocktail menu: the One Night Stand, which helpfully comes with a stay in Casa Duro, the hotel above the restaurant, and a bottle of bubbles.

2022 was the year Mexican restaurants joined steakhouses and French restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth fine dining leagues. The most nationally heralded example is Don Artemio, led by Juan Ramón Cárdenas of “Taco Chronicle” fame and his son, Rodrigo Cárdenas. Along with partner Adrian Burciaga, the team showcases the roasted cabrito of their homeland in Saltillo. Indeed, nearly everything in the restaurant radiates Mexican artisanship, with talavera plates from Puebla, corn for in-house nixtamalized tortillas from Tlaxcala, terra cotta bricks and planters from Saltillo, and wines from Coahuila’s Casa Madero, putatively the oldest winery in the Western Hemipshere. Pro tip: Don’t miss lunch, with tacos filled with housemade chorizo and panela, and of course that cabrito.

Of all the well-seasoned shish kababs, shish tawook, and shawarma to choose from at Open Sesame, you will also want to try falafel’s stouter Levantine cousin: kibbi. Owner Mohammed Kamal’s sister, who oversees the kitchen with her husband, prepares hers with ground beef and cracked wheat, and guests return saying her version reminds them of their mother’s. The six-year-old storefront offers family-pleasing takeout, but the best experience comes with dine-in, when you can choose from ten bottles of Lebanese wine, enjoy halal lamb fresh off the grill, and polish off the knafeh while it’s hot. A second, fast-casual location is slated to open later this year in Richardson.

Call 469-726-2825 for reservations.

For the first time in the metroplex, Indian food is available in a classy space on par with the richness of the cuisine. At this new fine dining restaurant in Las Colinas’ Water Street development, chef Balpreet Singh Chadha aims to showcase all the regions of India — specifically Mangalorean, Goan, Rajasthani, Mughlai, Punjabi, and everything in between. Here, you can stick to usual favorites with more refinement, like free range butter chicken, or chaat with sweet potatoes and starfruit, or goat curry with curds. Exploration is handsomely rewarded, however, with dishes like duck in yogurt-based qorma sauce, scallops recheado with gram flour dumplings, and tandoori tiger prawns prepared in one of three copper tandoor ovens.

Call 972-239-1800 for more info.