The Resy Hit List: Where In Dallas You’ll Want to Eat Right Now
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.
Consider it your essential resource for dining in Dallas and Fort Worth: a monthly-updated guide to the restaurants that you won’t want to miss — tonight or any night.
Five Things In Dallas-Fort Worth Not to Miss This Month
- Discover the Joy of Learning (With a Drink): Catbird is going all-in on libation-assisted education this month. At the Houseplant Happy Hour on Jan. 10, plant stylist and author Hilton Carter will give a talk on how to flora up, followed by a shopping session from Oasis Plant Shop. The next day, on Jan. 11, students will learn how to make a yuzu highball and other alcohol-free cocktails at the Non-Alcoholic Mixology Workshop. Find other classes over at Resy Events.
- Boozy discounts: Now on Sunday nights, from 5 p.m. to close, you can score a solid burger and a bourbon cocktail for $25 at The Porch. We like easy choices: old fashioned or bourbon sour? Oklahoma smash burger or that classic Porch whopper? Also, on Monday nights, Via Triozzi is slashing the price on selected bottles from the curated Italian wine list to half-off. All the better for trying updates to the forthcoming winter menu with a Duroc pork chop and swordfish puttanesca. And if you’re still looking for more great drinking options? We’ve got plenty for you.
- That New-New: A Bishop Arts wine bar with table service and a Preston Hollow spot from the makers of Beverley’s are only a couple of the exciting, new restaurants to emerge this winter. Check out more on New on Resy.
- Speaking of Beverley’s: Many have enjoyed the caviar-topped latkes at the bistro that brought life to Fitzhugh Avenue when it opened five years ago. For those who’ve thought, The only thing that would make this better is some live jazz, Sunday night is for you. From 6 to 9 p.m., saxist Roger Williams plays classic tunes on the world’s most sensuous instrument, making Bev’s espresso martinis somehow even smoother.
- Chic prix-fixe lunch: All the uptown girlies know to go to Mirador on Saturdays for Modern Afternoon Tea. The newest draw, though, is the weekday three-course lunch starting at $30. It begins with options like deviled eggs, whipped ricotta toast, or tomato soup and ends with a chef’s choice cookie, packed to-go for afternoon snack.
New to the Hit List (Jan. 2025)
La Rue Doughnuts, MǍBO, Ramble Room, Spiral Diner & Bakery, Sultan.
1. MĀBO Preston Center
The best place in America for yakitori is Dallas, or so opined Esquire in its recent list of best new restaurants. Zero arguments here. Part of our guide to the places that defined American dining in 2024, all with strong “vibes” (i.e., hospitality), this Kappo-style counter specializes in coursed, chef’s choice dinners that go beyond sushi. By Masayuki “Masa” Otaka, a long-time veteran of Japanese cooking with a reputation for excellence in grilling on the binchotan, MĀBO is a bit like his former restaurant, Teppo, but in its soft, seraphic afterlife. Jidori chickens from a Pennsylvania Amish farm are fully utilized in chicken liver pâté on a lotus root chip and cured egg yolks with rice. Along with a sashimi platter and skewers of tare-glazed chicken hearts and thighs, it all adds up to an unforgettable meal by one of Dallas’s most masterful chefs.
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. Le PasSage Dallas
Travis Street Hospitality, incubator of headliners like Georgie and Knox Bistro, has created immaculate vibes here that channel a luxe Orient Express milieu, but overlooking the Katy Trail. The appeal extends to the cooking, too: crab-stuffed Dover sole with lemongrass butter and halibut in ginger beurre blanc are a result of French tactics from one of Dallas’s most consequential chefs, Bruno Davaillon. Chef Hou Lam “Dicky” Fung’s Peking duck is also mandatory, as are the cocktails by bartenders Mario Martinez and George Kaiho (owner of erstwhile Jettison). It will be a challenge, but save space for one (or four) of pastry chef Dyan Ng’s exquisite desserts that often combine savory ingredients to enchanting effect.
4. Ramble Room Snider Plaza - University Park
This Snider Plaza sweetheart by the group that brought us TJ’s Seafood Market and Escondido is still on the up-and-up. As Ramble Room’s second birthday approaches, founders Jon and Matt Alexis have added some new charmers to the menu, including a Reuben with house-smoked pastrami and a buttery lobster roll on brioche from local La Spiga Bakery. Given the sourcing by one of the city’s best seafood purveyors (TJ’s, that is), you can be sure the oysters are fresh, whether you opt for raw on the half-shell with blood orange mignonette or charbroiled, cacio e pepe-style. When accessorized with a Rancharita or something from the martini bar, lunch or dinner here is an obvious wise choice, but don’t forget brunch, when there’s apple pie French toast, monkey bread, and mimosa carafes for $19.
5. The Porch Restaurant Knox/Henderson
Whether you’re cozying up on the climate-controlled patio or in a roomy indoor booth, this casual hangout still passes muster since opening nearly 18 years ago. Knowing what to keep constant and when to adapt is a critical survival strategy for Dallas restaurants, one that chef Coner Sergeant, knows well. For example, it’s understood that many want the same roasted tomato soup and buttermilk fried chicken salad each time they come in for classic cocktails and perennial patio feels. Others who like to switch it up will enjoy the newly added “trademarked onion” (yep, you know the one), or the Duroc pork chop with cabbage and apples, or an Oklahoma smash burger that might give competition to the hefty, much-loved Porch burger.
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. Fond Downtown
After running Dallas’s most desirable underground supper club for seven years, Jennie Kelley has transferred her themed tasting menus over to Fond, which she opened with her husband, Brandon Moore, last year. Now, eight-course dinners with optional wine pairings happen once a month, and it’s a hot ticket. (Check Resy for spots, or for earlier dibs, get on their mailing list.) To experience the husband-and-wife’s solid cooking without a time commitment, get in for lunch or aperitivo hour and browse the fall and winter menu with a short rib Frito pie and pistachio-topped pork schnitzel — and don’t forget your Santander Tower parking ticket for validation.
9. Mirador Downtown
Since they were unveiled this summer, chef Travis Wyatt’s fish sauce-glazed donuts with Kaluga caviar and gold flake sprinkles have dominated news feeds and our dreams. They’re one reason to reserve a table for Saturday brunch in the sky at Forty Five Ten. Maybe add wagyu short rib and eggs or pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon butter, or opt for the Afternoon Tea service with three courses including foie gras macarons and caviar tartlets. For weekday indulgences, lunch on the loveliest radicchio, Castelfranco, in brown butter vinaigrette, or a fancy-but-solid burger with gribiche. We’re also impressed with roasted pumpkin pavlova, involving an unusual base of buttermilk ice cream that made us question why the two desserts aren’t combined more often.
10. Via Triozzi Lower Greenville
When the high in the weather app drops below scorching, it’s time to tuck into sweaters … and Italian grub. To prep for the season, chef-owner Leigh Hutchinson has added some new show stealers at her Lower Greenville Avenue standout. Take for instance the prosciutto di San Daniele with thin-sliced pears and fig mostarda, or the hat-shaped cappelletti, stuffed with house sausage and propped up on a pool of garlic-fennel broth. Of course, there’s always the lasagne al forno, so thick and perfect it looks photoshopped, even in real life. Round it off with any of the Super Tuscans, Barbarescos, or Brunello di Montalcinos available for fall drinking pleasures.
11. Sultan McKinney
When two software engineers from northern Iraq decide to leave their jobs to open a Mediterranean restaurant, it’s guaranteed to be drive-worthy. At Chra Ismael and Zandi Salih’s first restaurant, opened in the summer of 2023, diners can stick to Mediterranean usuals: kabobs, lamb chops, falafel, and such. Ismael also toils over rarer, more regional delicacies, such the national dish of Palestine, makluba, a meaty pilaf, served upside-down with eggplant, potatoes, and peppers. Quzi, an Iraqi lamb shank with almond- and raisin-studded rice, is another marvel. But the most exceptional showstoppers could be Ismael’s Kurdish dishes designed for celebrations, like the phyllo-baked rice dish, called parda plau, or the huge pots of rice-stuffed vegetables, known as dolma.
Find more info here.
12. Spiral Diner & Bakery – Fort Worth Near Southside
Who would’ve thought Cowtown, an old meatpacking district, would be the birthplace of a long-lasting vegan diner? Now in its 24th year, Amy McNutt’s Spiral Diner abides with plant-based comfort food, like chili mac, nachos, cheesesteaks, and burritos served up on grandma plates. A lengthy, 35-item gluten-free menu also impresses, along with hand-spun I-Scream shakes and sundaes. After a short hiatus, the bakery known for tall, double-decker cakes is back to taking pre-orders. It can even pull off vegan and gluten-free chocolate and vanilla cake. We’re not saying it’s all healthy, but it sure hits the spot when classic diner fare is calling.
13. LaLa’s Taqueria Prosper
Five months after selling his Tender Smokehouse empire, international barbecue consultant and lifelong pitmaster Dante Ramirez opened a taqueria in Prosper, north of Frisco, in September. With his wife and kids on the project, the El Paso-born chef is bringing the sprouting suburb a taste of Mexico’s street tacos. Try the LaLa’s-style, modeled after examples Ramirez found in Los Angeles, with a crispy crust of cheese encircling hand-pressed blue corn tortillas, filled with asada, chorizo, or al pastor, and topped with queso fresco and guacamole. Pro tip: Ask for the secret menu. (Hint: It involves tortas.)
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. Xaman Cafe Bishop Arts
We didn’t need Esquire’s Best Bars in America list to know that good things happen after 5 p.m. in the back of this dimly-lit Jefferson Boulevard coffee shop, where candles and smoldering copal set the mood. Discover an impressive collection of agave-based spirits that go beyond Tequila, like mezcal, sotol, and raicilla. Ask the informed bartenders to walk you through a flight, or try the Ayahuasca cocktail, which strikes a notable balance of sweet, cinnamon-y, and smoky notes. (Yeah, we’re curious about the name, too.) There’s food by chef Monica Lopez, too: light aguachiles, an ancestral seafood soup, and duck breast in pipian sauce.
16. Princi Italia- Dallas Preston Royal
In celebration of this bellwether neighborhood spot’s 13th birthday, founder Patrick Colombo recently gave a facelift to the Dallas location, including Italian chairs, an extended bar, and — in response to noise complaints — acoustical panels. The changes demonstrate Columbo’s decades of hospitality experience. (He originally moved from Washington, D.C. to Dallas in 1982 to manage the Mansion.) And he wasn’t wrong to note that well-to-do Preston-Forest residents might want a Tuscan farmhouse-like restaurant in their ‘hood. Fresh pastas and wood-fired pizzas are menu constants, while refreshes, like veal saltimbocca and Chianti-braised short rib, keep regulars coming back.
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. La Rue Doughnuts West Dallas
When a certain Portland-based doughnut chain came to town in 2023, how could they have known that Dallas already had a gourmet shop for which Homer Simpson-like connoisseurs would wait in line? Do know that these fried and glazed doozies aim to appeal to taste buds more than the eye — although staring at the case is sure to result in shallow breathing and tummy rumbling until that magical, doughnut-to-mouth moment occurs. Rowlett pastry chef Amy LaRue is serious when it comes to crafting her fluffy creations, in flavors like cookies-and-milk with Biscoff cookie mousse, Earl Grey with Rishi Tea-sourced ganache, and butterscotch with toffee crumbles we’d almost sell our soul for. Crullers, cookies, kolaches, and croissants also make getting out of bed a little easier each day.
Find more info here.
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.
