The Resy Hit List: Where In Dallas You’ll Want to Eat in May 2024
There’s no question we hear more often: Where should I go eat? And while we at Resy know it’s an honor to be the friend who everyone asks for restaurant advice, we also know it’s a complicated task. That’s where the Resy Hit List comes in.
We’ve designed it to be your essential resource for dining in Dallas and Fort Worth: a monthly-updated (and newly expanded!) guide to the restaurants in that you won’t want to miss — tonight or any night.
Four Things In Dallas-Fort Worth Not to Miss This Month
- Keep Calm and Derby On: Grab your feathered hats and seersucker suits and head to Clay Pigeon in Fort Worth for a Kentucky Derby watch party that begins with a guided tasting of Old Forester Whiskey Row bourbons. Mint juleps will be ready in time for the race on May 4 (dinner reservations made separately). Buy tickets here, and check other Resy events here.
- Celebrate Cinco de Drinko: For the first time ever, dinner-only El Carlos Elegante will open for for a special Cinco de Mayo brunch, complete with a deejay, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Imperial Fizz concepts Ramble Room, TJ’s Seafood Market & Grill, and Birdie’s Eastside will offer $5 house margaritas. And Culpepper Cattle Company, including the new location in Deep Ellum, will host a “Fajitas n Ritas” event with fajitas two for the price of one.
- Remember to Thank the Moms: For Mother’s Day on May 12, Leela’s Uptown location will have a build-your-own flower bouquet cart and a MOMosa bar. Starting May 6 through the big day, La Parisienne Bistro at The Star in Frisco will have a four-course, French prix-fixe menu for $75 that comes with a gift for mom. Or, if your matriarch is a fan of Japanese food, book tickets for Shodo Japanese Kitchen’s prix-fixe brunch that’s $75 for adults and $30 for kids.
- Modern Afternoon Tea: Mirador just launched a new menu for Saturday-only tea service that includes a sunflower tart, smoked cucumber gyoza, and an optional margarita flight. Littles are encouraged to splurge, too, with unlimited chicken bites and a take-home teddy bear gift. Find links for booking here.
New to the Hit List (May 2024)
Cafe Americana, Little Daisy, Tango Room, The Charles, Urban Takda.
1. Gemma Knox/Henderson
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.
2. Kaiyo Dallas
As the rage for omakase spreads like wildfire, in Dallas and nationally, there are times when it’s nice to sit and order à la carte, without the $200 per person starting price tag. Jimmy Park’s sushi spot on bar-hopping-friendly Lower Greenville Avenue is perfect for that. (If you are searching for omakase in the same neighborhood, however, Park’s stellar Shoyo is one block down.) An extensive cocktail list and sakes pair well with lower-priced nigiri and sashimi sets. The chefs keep the fun coming with more casual hot bites, like pork jowl skewers, udon curry bowls, oyster gyozas, and shrimp wonton soup. The spot is especially #trending on Thursday nights and weekends, and its appeal isn’t likely to wane anytime soon, so do a little pre-jollity planning to snag that Resy.
3. Bricks and Horses Cultural District
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.
4. Roots Southern Table Farmers Branch
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.
5. Beverley’s Bistro & Bar Knox
The first of Greg and Nik Katz’s en vogue restaurants (with Clifton Club and Green Point also in the mix) celebrated its fifth birthday last month — all the more reason to revisit for standbys, like caviar and latkes, matzo ball soup, and that wonderful chicken schnitzel. You also could investigate some recently added dishes: easy-to-eat Roman-style artichokes, bluefin tuna crudo sprinkled with sumac, or a modest-but-mighty half roasted chicken with jus. Imagine it all with a well-rounded wine list or a Ruby Collins with Lady Bird ruby red grapefruit soda — all on one of Dallas’s prettiest patios with palmy Beverly Hills vibes.
6. Latin Deli Northeast Dallas
When Fernando Barrera put out a call for support for his 13-year-old sandwich gem in northeast Dallas, the city stepped up. In a post earlier this year, Barrera lamented the surmounting challenges of restaurant ownership, worsened by a bout of vandalization. Instead of creating a GoFundMe, he asked followers to remember his tasty food the next time they were hungry. The prospect of permanently losing out on Cubanos with housemade fries, Latin-style crepes, and Chocoflan put a fire in the pants of his followers. In a heartwarming update two weeks later, Barrera shared he was able to repair his broken windows three weeks earlier than anticipated. With patio season in full-swing and super-efficient takeout, it’s still a great time to go.
More info here.
7. The Charles Design District
Opened in 2018, before the recent flooding of new, upscale Italian spots, The Charles remains an “Italian-inspired” stunner, and plenty in vogue. With a kitchen turning out voluptuous lemon ricotta gnudi and blue crab bucatini, along with wood-fired wagyu tomahawks and whole branzino, how could it not be? Indulgences arrive in an eclectic Renaissance dining room to match, with pilasters, fresco paintings, cheetah print booths, and purple neon lights. Capped with charming and professional service, it’s clear why Duro Hospitality’s first concept was the beginning of a beautiful relationship for Dallas Italian food lovers.
8. Nalinh Dallas Koreatown
Long before the now-closed Khao Noodle Shop put Dallas’s Lao food scene on the national map, Nikki Senephoumy was cooking up larb, Lao sausages, noodles and papaya salads at the back of a strip mall — for 23 years, in fact. Business never recovered its pre-pandemic bustle, so Senephoumy moved moved last month to DanSungSa, a popular late-night Koreatown spot. Now, every day except Monday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., she makes good use of an empty kitchen, pleasing old regulars and curious new neighbors with her Lao-Thai recipes. Pro tip: Arrive between 5:30 and 6 p.m. during the changing of the kitchen guard to get the best of both worlds, with Lao-Thai and Korean menus to order from.
More info here.
9. Bobbie’s Airway Grill Preston Hollow
If every neighborhood were so lucky to have its own Bobbie’s — a place where people dress up for lunch and eat impeccable salads — the world might be a better place. It comes from Western Addition, the restaurant group behind Park Cities’s il Bracco, but with polished service and a menu encompassing classics like rainbow trout almondine, meatloaf, and tuna burgers, it certainly feels like they took a page from Hillstone, once referred to as America’s favorite restaurant. The architecturally inspiring space was once Dougherty’s Airway Pharmacy. Now, it’s serving up another form of remedy with flawless lunch and dinner service.
10. Lucia Bishop Arts District
Other than the menu, not much changes at Dallas’s longest-running, hardest-to-snag reservation — and that’s a good thing. The bite-sized flavor bombs known as foie gras-stuffed prunes are always available, as is chef David Uyger’s salumi. Jennifer Uyger’s wine list can be counted on to reflect food-friendly sensibilities, and pastry chef Maggie Huff’s desserts are infallibly jaw-dropping. These are the reasons you’ll want to be on Resy 30 days before your desired dinner date at 9 a.m., when reservations open. Or benefit from one of the few good things brought by 2020 — and grab tickets for Lucia’s family-style dinners, $100 for four people, available for pickup on weekends.
11. Wicked Butcher – Dallas Downtown
The space formerly known as Dallas Chop House reopened downtown after an almost four-year, pandemic-induced closure. Instead of reviving the chop house, DRG Concepts CEO Nafees Alam decided to bring his successful steakhouse from downtown Fort Worth to the Big D — but kept Chop House’s famously enormous popovers. There is something for most everyone: Oysters, Chilean sea bass, lobster bucatini — and you guessed it — plenty of butcher cuts with accompaniments like tableside truffle butter. Truffles make another appearance in bartender Ravinder Singh’s truffle Negroni, which might change your mind about red wine being the best accompaniment to steak.
12. Little Daisy Downtown
Opened in March on the ninth floor of Thompson Dallas, this isn’t your average hotel restaurant. Executive chef Jeramie Robison is now serving all-day French-Cajun-inflected meals, including weekend brunch. The menu offers top of the line meats and poultry, like Snake River wagyu steak frites and Jidori chicken, but seafood also looms large, with king crab Louie, oysters Rockefeller, wild salmon crudo in absinthe-melon consommé, and fruits de mer “plateaus” for three or six. When making plans, keep in mind the daily Iceberg Hour from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., when two 50-cent, ice-cold martinis come with every half-dozen order of East Coast oysters.
13. Cafe Americana Arlington
This new Spanish-influenced restaurant with leadership hailing from Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Morocco, and the Philippines is a groovy setting to toast Arlington’s status as one of the most diverse cities in America. Caribbean cocktails like the three-rum Rude Boy Punch segue smoothly into tapas like Peruvian chicken skewers, yucca bravas, and sticky wings in spicy guava sauce. This is Texas, so larger appetites can go all in with four types of steak or a manchego cheeseburger. Possibly the best part of international grazing in the jungle green dining room is supporting a down-to-earth, homegrown enterprise that smacks with talent.
Find more info here.
14. Namo Uptown
There’s a lot you might not know about the current state of Brandon and Henry Cohanim’s sushi bar. The major changes start with a new executive chef, Kazuhito Mabuchi, who in 2022 came from Los Angeles’s Sushi Ginza Onadera. There’s also now a dedicated buyer in Tokyo who selects top-quality fish to deliver to Mabuchi each Tuesday, which allows the restaurant to offer seasonal choices not seen elsewhere in town. For a superlative experience, monthly omakase nights are the way to go. It starts with several otsumami (small plates), followed by ten pieces or more of nigiri, plus miso soup, tamago, and dessert. Or try 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.
15. Tango Room Design District
Nothing says “time to celebrate” like prime steaks and a good bottle from the top of the cellar, and truth is, Dallas has plenty of places to choose from in this arena. But Tango Room’s maroon circular booths offer an intimacy and coziness (and slightly lower volume level) than others. It also offers cuts not found elsewhere, like an Allen Brothers Denver steak and a bone-in, dry-aged Kansas city strip. For those extra-celebratory evenings, add seared foie gras or sauce chasseur, while sipping rare glassfuls, like a 1935 Sandeman port, sourced by wine devotee and co-owner Simon Roberts.
16. Sister Restaurant Greenville Ave
This Lower Greenville Avenue spot brings vernal vibes year-round. Whether it’s the indoor foliage or the vegetable-forward menu with a section dedicated to played-up produce, Sister always feels a little bit healthier than other splurge-worthy spots. The beets and avocado with tahini, and the charred eggplant dip with crudités, shouldn’t be slept on. 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 then there’s 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.
17. Don Artemio – Fort Worth Fort Worth
2022 was the year Mexican restaurants joined steakhouses and French restaurants in the DFW 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. The team showcases the roasted cabrito of their homeland in Saltillo, and nearly everything 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.
18. Urban Tadka Irving
Desi food-lovers know Irving as the best enclave in Dallas-Fort Worth for spice-laden curries, biryanis, and samosas, but no survey of the best Indian food is complete without a visit to Urban Tadka. For nearly 12 years, Happy and Mona Singh have been serving Punjabi specialities in a storefront humming with Bhajan music and a phone line ringing with takeout orders. Punjab’s most famous and delectable dishes — including mouth-watering, crimson-red tandoori chicken and creamy housemade paneer with the option of twelve different gravies — are cooked to order, so budget some time. Desserts seem to be the only area of the menu toned down from what’s found on the subcontinent, with gulab jamun and gajrella (halwa) containing a tad less sugar than customary.
19. Open Sesame Lebanese Grill Oak Lawn
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.
20. Columbian Country Club Old East Dallas
At one point in Dallas history, private club memberships were key to nightlife. One such establishment was Columbian Country Club, which endured for nearly 120 years after being founded for Dallas’s Jewish community in 1881. The old world pomp and Parmesan bagels of the club’s glory days have returned, thanks to the owners of nearby Alice. The new Club is a wood-paneled lounge where martinis, high-end Tequilas, and Nonnie’s turkey pastrami-on-rye “doozies” are enjoyed to the tune of a live piano player, jazz-ish bands, and DJs. (And did we mention the light-up dance floor?) Needless to say, reservations are essential on weekends.
