The Resy Hit List: Where In Dallas You’ll Want to Eat in Oct. 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 expanded!) guide to the restaurants that you won’t want to miss — tonight or any night.
Four Things In Dallas-Fort Worth Not to Miss This Month
- PTake the Kids Out: Major Food Group’s first kids’ menu is now live for dinner at Sadelle’s in Highland Park Village. Created by chef de cuisine Keith Potter with his own kids in mind, the menu includes healthy options, like crudités and a petite salmon filet, as well as heartier indulgences, including flapjacks for dinner and the Big Pink Cake with strawberry chocolate whipped frosting.
- Red River Rivalry Shenanigans: Victory Park sports bar Hero by HG is throwing an OU vs. TX watch party on Saturday, Oct. 12. Enjoy themed drinks and a game day menu designed for large groups while watching the Longhorns and Sooners passionately duke it out on the new wraparound TV at the bar. And check on more great drinking options here.
- Party with a Purpose: At his first restaurant, Clay Pigeon, Scratch Hospitality founder Marcus Paslay will host a dinner fundraiser on Oct. 13 in support of Fort Worth students with learning differences. Proceeds will go toward Literacy United and Hill School. While you’re there, check the newly unveiled redesign in time for the restaurant’s big 1-0.
- Wine Down in Cowtown: Emilia’s, the Mediterranean restaurant in Fort Worth’s Crescent Hotel, is offering four top-notch wines by-the-glass on Oct. 8. The selection, chosen by sommelier Joel Teddlie (don’t miss the falanghina from Campania), will be served with charcuterie boards from chef Preston Paine. Reserve your spot, and keep up on more Resy Events here.
New to the Hit List (Oct. 2024)
Cake Bar, Don Artemio, Georgie, Namo.
1. Sachet Highland Park
Dallas hospitality masters Stephen and Allison Yoder have rolled out a new menu with more seafood at their six-year-old pan-Mediterranean gem, Sachet. (Don’t fret. The harissa-spiced crispy chicken bites made the cut.) Sampling the new additions mandates several visits, or one large party where everyone shares, or even better — both. Find six new crudos, such as fatty Samaki smoked salmon with housemade Boursin cheese, along with a new pick-your-fish-and-sauce section, served with whole wheat spanikorzo, chickpeas, and feta. A bright-orange, saffron-tinted housemade tagliatelle loaded with scallops, mussels, squid, and shrimp is what Stephen calls “bouillabaisse meets pasta.” We won’t soon forget it, and we can’t wait to get back for the rest.
2. Don Artemio – Fort Worth Fort Worth
Deep in the land of nachos and orange queso, this elegant restaurant from northern Mexico turned heads when it opened in Fort Worth’s booming Cultural District in 2022. From monthly Mexican wine dinners to blue corn tortillas nixtamalized from Tlaxcalan corn, Don Artemio is the “real” Mexican restaurant North Texas didn’t quite yet have until creator Juan Ramon Cárdenas and his son, chef Rodrigo Cárdenas, joined up with local hospitality guru Adrian Burciaga. Don’t skip an order of nopalitos fritos, or the weekday lunches sure to send you to taco heaven, or the crepa de barbacoa during long Saturday feasts.
3. Petra and the Beast Lakewood
If there’s anyone capable of switching up Sunday brunch status quo, it’s charcuterie queen Misti Norris. A selection of her house-cured meats is one way to kick off a mid-day meal before delving into fried chicken thighs with smoked shallot gravy, or savory gnocchi French toast with scoops of fluffy whipped ricotta and ribbons of smoked ham. Her dinner menu is equally intriguing: standbys include housemade pastas, farm-fresh salads, and seductive tea-braised pig tails. For a complete tumble down Norris’s rabbit hole of imaginative, earthy cooking, book her six-course tasting menu with wine pairings on a Friday or Saturday night. It’s a dreamy, through the looking-glass experience, told by one of Dallas’s best chefs.
4. Partenope Dallas Downtown Dallas
No one who lives in North Texas needed 50 Top Pizza to know that chef Dino Santonicola’s Neapolitan pizzas are among the best in the world. A little recognition never hurt anybody, though, and for the past two years, the organization’s pizza inspectors have inched Partneope up their list. Watch for the official ranking to be announced September 10 in Santonicola’s hometown of Naples. He’ll travel home for the awards ceremony and meet up with his brother (who also has a top 12 contender, Ribalta, in New York). To celebrate the big announcement here, the salsicca e friareielli pizza and the calzone Napoletano, two favorites of 50 Top Pizza, will be $12 all day at both locations.
5. Goodwin’s Lower Greenville
Some explanation for the planning required to snag a booth at Goodwin’s is that Dallas is in love with new restaurants, and the fact the Lower Greenville neighborhood likes to get out. But we’ll accept the challenge to nab a Resy on any night of the week. From three friends with decades of restaurant experience, Goodwin’s is where you can sink into a hefty, bistro-quality burger and a margarita; a bowl of crab al’ amatriciana with a bottle of Montepulciano; or mushroom-potato pierogis and a Shiner. The garlic-rosemary smashed Yukons that come with the dry-aged Duroc pork chop would have us happy just ordering from the Potatoes section next time, too. Pro tip: Star Crunch cake.
6. Namo West Village
For the first time since its inception six years ago, Namo has extended its monthly omakase dinners into a nightly affair. “Namokase” comes in two forms: A nigiri-only ride for $135 or a full parade with sashimi and small courses for $195. For those who can’t wait until the sun sets for chef Kazuhito Mabuchi’s selection of edomae-style treated fish, the $75 lunch omakase remains a daylight treat. You’ll also want to try one of bar director Rubén Rolón’s new, science-y, peach-influenced cocktails, and don’t neglect sealing a meal with caviar-topped Hokkaido soft-serve. Did we mention there’s a covered patio now?
7. Fortune House – Greenville Ave Lower Greenville
The closest thing to Chinatown-quality delicacies in Dallas can be found in a spiffy restaurant and bar on Lower Greenville Avenue. After branching out from its first warmly regarded Irving location, the second Fortune House serves covetable soup dumplings, pork buns, and scallion pancakes in style. The elaborate menu includes a range of American Chinese favorites — sesame chicken, crab rangoon, General Tso’s chicken — but also goes hard on dishes unique to Shanghai, like stir-fried rice cakes, scallion noodles with poached shrimp, and soup with pork- and shepherd’s purse-filled wontons. Considering options like tea service, sparkling lychee lemonade, and five-liquored Hainan Island Iced Tea, you’ll want to arrive thirsty, too.
8. La Bodega Rotisserie + Goods Bishop Arts
If there’s a season when La Bodega chef-owner Skye McDaniel is particularly on fire, it’s summer. Her organic rotisserie chickens from Pennsylvania Dutch country are a perennial no-fail favorite. But now is the season when she’ll begin incorporating summer melons, peaches, and her personal passion project — tomatoes — into salads, sandwiches, and other specials. Bulgarian froyo with pomegranate molasses or fresh fruit preserves is another no-brainer, nor is picking up a party pack, a pile of conserva-style tinned fish, and a few bottles of sophisticated wine and beer selections for the next gathering.
Find more info here.
9. Goldie’s Lake Highlands
This American restaurant packs a lot into its little Lake Highlands space. Boasting a small, elegant bar and ruby-red seats for no more than 66 people, the classy-casual atmosphere is ideal for date nights and catching up with old friends. There’s naturally real Champagne by the glass (for $20), but we really recommend going with a bottle because it’s fabulous with rotating cheeses and honeycomb, or the impressive 20 Feet Fries that attempt to emulate another beloved neighborhood joint of yore. Indulgence continues throughout the menu with tricked up butters — on moules frites, the Prime New York strip, and even the exquisite broccoli. And we’ve learned that when a place only has one dessert option, like the banana split here, it’s an accurate sign to order, because it’s going to be impressive.
10. Bricks and Horses Cultural District
Answering the call of steak-loving folk who might occasionally also crave seafood, chef Antonio Votta recently updated the menu here at Auberge Resorts’ Bowie House with some lighter options. Seafood-focused selections include oysters with hot-sauce sorbet and celery mignonette, lobster piccata with melted leeks, and corn risotto with huitlacoche and jumbo lump crab. For the red meat-lovers, nine steaks and chops remain on the menu, along with a prime beef burger. Whatever your hankering might be, starting with a warm sourdough loaf and the heirloom tomatoes and peaches is a smart move. Don’t forget pastry chef Laura Cottler’s banana pudding profiterole with rummy Foster sauce, either.
11. Far East Pizza Co. Allen
Butter chicken pizza? You better believe it. After going from hot to passé, fusion cuisine is making a comeback as “a natural extension of reality,” as The San Francisco Chronicle termed it. Here’s a perfect example of a cuisine that never went away in a place like Texas, the nation’s second most diverse state. Chef Nidhi Mittal and her husband, Lokesh, serve Indian-spiced meatballs, butter paneer pizzas on naan and housemade flatbreads, and chicken seekh meatball sandwiches at their first restaurant, in partnership with vegan chef Troy Gardner. It comes after four years as a deli-turned-ghost kitchen, making it an American success story in restaurant form — our favorite kind.
No reservations. More info here.
12. Kinzo Frisco
To chef Leo Kekoa, it’s the little things that count. The principle translates to handmade pastry brushes for mopping nigiri with sauces and custom-made sushi knives from Taito City, Japan. As always, seasonal fish is sourced from Tokyo’s famous Toyusu Market. For omakase dinners this fall, held at 5:45 and 8:15, you’ll likely get a taste of shima suzuki (striped sea bass), otoro (fatty tuna), and river-caught sakura masu (cherry trout). A la carte is always an option for quicker service. However you choose to go about it, you’ll want to investigate the upgraded Koshihikari rice after Kekoa was invited into a small circle of buyers earlier this year. The short grain rice is so superb and rare that Kekoa switched up his vinegar recipe to feature its natural sweetness.
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. Georgie Highland Park
When it seems like the innovative cooking at Georgie couldn’t possibly get better, it somehow does. Perhaps it’s due to competitiveness chef RJ Yoakum picked up from his basketball years, but constant improvement is a huge motivator, one that recently led to adding some new players to the kitchen team. Sous chef Reilly Brown comes from Press, in Napa Valley, where he helped it maintain a star from a certain tire company. And pastry chef Dyan Ng has worked at notable restaurants along the coasts, beginning with her first executive pastry role for Alain Ducasse in Las Vegas when she was 21-years-old. Together with Yoakum as point guard, they’re crafting one of the most desirable tasting menus in town.
15. St. Martin’s Old East Dallas
One of Dallas’s most nostalgic date night spots has resurfaced two miles from its original venue, where its first dinner service occurred in 1980. St. Martin’s consistent menu of French-y classics with a soundtrack by pianist Luis Henderson — who’s been playing here for the last 15 years — are inspiring those who dined at any point in the last 44 years to return for a meal on memory lane, now on Bryan Street. The old bar was dusted off and moved to the new restaurant, where the wallpaper, chandeliers, and Champagne brie soup make it easy to remember bygone meals. If your reservation falls on a particularly special occasion — and you’ve never had the privilege of a $4,000 bottle of Cognac — consider a half-ounce pour of Louis XIII for $125.
16. Kyo Sushi and Omakase Old East Dallas
A truth we clearly appreciate is that is that Dallas has become a sushi town. This pop-up is one of the newest players to our ever expanding premium omakase scene. Housed in Anise at the Village’s Drey Hotel, it offers a $99 ten-course or a $130 fifteen-course omakase for dinner. Lunch service also courts Japanese food lovers with something Dallas doesn’t see much of — inari sushi, where vinegar-treated rice is tucked inside tofu pouches and topped with more fish and vegetables. The best way to secure one of just eight seats available? Snag a Resy without delay, of course.
17. Cake Bar West Dallas
Claiming to serve “cakes you grew up with” — if your parents happened to be exceptionally adroit at baking moist cakes — Tracy German-Burke moved her sweets shop from Trinity Groves to a bigger spot with more parking near the Medical District earlier this year. Her devout regulars will find all the treats from the former store: ke alls, banana pudding, cheesecakes, cookies, and pound cakes. But now that holiday season is nearly here, and Cake Bar serves all of its sixteen flavors by-the-slice, isn’t it time for a little cake? (Yes, the answer is yes.)
Find more info here.
18. Slow Bone Design District
When you go to Jeffrey Hobbs’ and Ratna Goenardi’s no-nonsense barbecue joint near the Design District, just get everything: the exemplary brisket, the peppery pork ribs, the Sunday and Monday special smoked pork chop, and the massive meat sandwiches on challah buns that go far beyond anything the Earl of Sandwich could’ve dreamed up. Craggy fried chicken brined in smoked water is a must-order, too, as are all of the sides, like horseradish potato salad, brussel flower au gratin, and sweet potato praline. If any guilt surfaces following an inevitable food coma, just reassure yourself with the restaurant’s motto: Barbecue Makes You Beautiful.
Find more info here.
19. Hadramout Restaurant Plano and Irving
If you can’t yet name off examples of Yemeni cuisine, it’s time for a firsthand taste of lamb mandi and chicken zorbian, rice dishes with low-and-slow cooked meats Texans should find familiar — and extremely delish. Hadramout’s locations in Plano and Irving are the type of restaurant where the disposable plastic tablecloths are necessary, and if you so wish, you can experience jalsa dining, aka floor seating, and dig into platters of spiced meats and rice with your hands. For those predisposed to Western traditions, tables and silverware are also available. The lamb is so tender, though, all you’ll need is a spoon.
20. Culpepper Cattle Co – Dallas Deep Ellum
What if we told you that puffy tacos and small batch-Tequila margaritas are on the menu at a classy-casual spot in Deep Ellum — with easy parking? And there’s a hip and spacious patio to drink those margaritas, along with bowls of queso and spinach dip, that will all be perfect once the weather turns? After realizing a second location of the historic Culpepper would be better than a tractor-themed steakhouse, Elias Pope of UNCO hospitality group opened one in the Continental Gin Building this April, making it easier to enjoy Tex-Mex-steakhouse fare without the drive to Rockwall. Mark this: Fajita Fridays have extended into Sizzlin’ Saturdays. That means fajitas and fixin’s are $10 during lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
