The Resy Hit List: Where In Dallas You’ll Want to Eat in February 2025

A profusion of Italian food-lovers in the Lone Star state and the promise of less red tape are the lures that propelled the Gambaccini family to leave their beloved North Beach restaurant after a 16-year run. Now that they’ve bought their first home after moving in 2022 (and also secured a liquor license for one-tenth of what it’d cost back in Cali) Walter, Stefania, and their two sons are loving our state. In turn, Frisco residents and thin-crust pizza nomads are likewise appreciative of the move that brought homestyle Tuscan fare to the ‘burbs. Crisp-thin Lucchese-style pizzas, made by the Gambaccinis’ son, Filippo, are a must-order. To lay it on even thicker, Stefania is in charge of the fresh pastas and sauces, which is why it’s closed for lunch, and why dinners here feel a little celebratory.

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.

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.

Once again, the Katz brothers have furnished an overlooked neighborhood with an extraordinary restaurant. After establishing Beverley’s Bistro & Bar and Clifton Club as worthwhile reasons to head to Fitzhugh Avenue, followed by an all-day seafood brasserie on Knox Street, Greg and Nik Katz have hit it out of the park with their Preston Hollow hangout, opened in December. The daily dinner menu is bulging with comforts: deviled eggs, chicken drums, hot bean dip, and Texas red chili (no beans). Major merits also lie in selections from the grill, where the brothers’ South African roots surface in the form of barbecue pork ribs, tenderloins with black-garlic butter, and Bay of Fundy salmon filets.

Dallas is a city that almost has it all — everything except an abundance of natural wine bars. That’s what makes Olivia Genthe’s first take, situated on Bishop Arts’ boutique-y Eighth Street, more than a little special. After she was blocked by a neighborhood union from pouring limited-production wines at her Fount Board & Table cafe in Uptown, Genthe took her vision to a different ‘hood, one that doesn’t mind having a couple of glasses for a weekday wind-down or a seal-the-deal date night. Unsure what glera, catarratto, grillo, valdiguie, or hondarrabi zuri grapes taste like? This is the place to investigate, with cheese plates, snails, Foxley River oysters, and Oak Cliff Bread’s sourdough available to aid with study snacks.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

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.)

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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.

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.

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.

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.)

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One of our favorite places to get into soup szn is the new-ish Mr. Max, opened last summer in Richardson. It’s a spinoff of the extremely busy Irving izakaya, founded in 1996 by Hare Nakamura. Mon Restaurant group saved the restaurant after Nakamura’s death in 2013, and today, chef Mamoru Tokeshi oversees both locations. The most pertinent info, though, is that getting a table is far easier in Richardson, added to the fact that the semi-famous takoyaki are as impeccable as those served in Irving. Sashimi, pickles, Nagoya-style fried chicken, and monkfish liver are also exceptional entries into a bowl of ramen or udon. We also don’t mind the house pork curry, or the grilled yellowtail collar, or to end it all, the simply satisfying custard pudding.

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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? Be patient for that magical, doughnut-to-mouth moment. 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.

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