The 10 Restaurants That Defined Dallas Dining in 2025

Chef Casey Thompson’s hat tip to her home state resides in a century-old fire station in a hip cultural destination known as Near Southside. The restored Nobleman Hotel’s modern dining room is also proof that the national trend of destination-worthy hotel restaurants has come to Texas. As consulting chef, Thompson draws on her farm-to-table cooking experience in Sonoma to shine a proper light on vegetables, with avocado pizza and gnudi with navy beans and pistachio pesto. But lest the hotel’s context of being in America’s only city with a twice-daily cattle drive be forgotten, executive chef Marcus Kopplin puts the wood-fired grill to work on center-cut filets and rib eyes. Given that Fort Worth is also a burger destination, the jalapeño onion burger and the bar’s grilled brisket burger are also representative of what’s good at one of this year’s top new restaurants in the metro area.

Considering Dallas’s affinity for omakase, and its status as host to one of America’s largest Korean populations, we were ripe for a designer restaurant marrying the two cuisines. Brothers Brian and Chris Kim’s first dip into restaurants occurred in Denton, at Osaka, their late father’s sushi bar. Brian later followed his father’s culinary penchant to New York, opening Domodomo, a seven-time Bib Gourmand-winner in the West Village. Now, as the handroll-focused bar has spread to Jersey City, and recently to Oahu, the Kim brothers and their relative, Jae Park, have devoted their most upscale restaurant yet — to Dallas. The recommended way to experience Brian’s craftsmanship is the “domokase” tasting menu, but the restaurant also offers bento lunch trays, à la carte, and an $18 Wednesday night chimaek of Korean fried chicken and beer.

We’ve put Tokyo-born chef Masayuki Otaka’s eight-seat counter at the forefront of this list before. But it bears another turn in the spotlight here, all the more for its modest home in a shopping center dating back to the ‘50s. We’ll make the stand that not everyone will: Among the estimated 13,000 restaurants in Dallas, Arlington, and Fort Worth, Otaka’s capstone restaurant is surely one of our finest. And we’re not alone: Let’s hearken back to its opening last year, when Esquire included it among 35 spots on their national list. Or this year, when it was among just nine national finalists for a best new restaurant honor from the James Beard Foundation. All of which is to say: If you haven’t yet experienced Otaka’s 12-ish course dinner spotlighting yakitori, you haven’t yet done Dallas.

If this year signified anything about our city’s impulses, it’s that we genuinely enjoy high tea. With it becoming so prolific at upper-crust shopping centers and luxury hotels — like Mirador and at the Auberge Collection’s Bowie House restaurant, Bricks and Horses — one has to wonder, how did this all start? Like Dallas’s ties to 1920s bootlegging and big band music, the trend can be traced to our oldest, continuously-operating hotel, the Adolphus, where tea service for a long time was offered in the lobby and in VIP guest suites, like Queen Elizabeth II’s. But 2022 was the year afternoon tea was cemented in our consciousness with the re-opening of The French Room. What can explain its epicentral influence? Maybe it’s the formal, cream-and-gold Beaux-Arts setting, or perhaps the moist, biscuit-like scones and fruit preserves. Certainly, it has something to do with the gracious work of captain Connie Forbin, who’s been on the job for 40 years and has set a tone for Dallas hospitality.

Remember the 2010s, when brussels sprouts went from meh to hell yeah? As went the humble mini-cabbage, so go Dallas’s outlying neighborhoods, shunned for too long by crowd-motivated restaurateurs. But Greg and Nicholas Katz are no ordinary restaurateurs. Their concepts Beverley’s Bistro & Bar and Clifton Club transformed the blocks of Fitzhugh Avenue west of North Central Expressway around five years ago. This year, they poured their energy into the Midway Hollow neighborhood with Claremont, an upscale neighborhood restaurant doing all the things it promises — and doing them well. Which brings us back to brussels sprouts: The specimens glazed in miso butter are as spectacular as your first positive memory with the cruciferous bud, as is the double cheeseburger, the beet salad, and Dean Fearing’s “world famous” chicken tortilla soup. It’s the not-too-fancy — just reliably good — place that all neighborhoods deserve.

To think of all that Dallas offers in variety, somehow we’ve never had a bistro serving three squares, seven days a week, until now. From his roots in the Loire Valley town of Châteauroux to distinguished posts at Alain Ducasse’s Mix in Las Vegas and The Mansion in Dallas, chef Bruno Davaillon finally let his hair down this year. After his restaurant Bullion closed in 2020, Davaillon began meeting with Dallas’ other food-oriented Frenchman, Stephan Courseau, over (probably very strong) coffee to discuss what they might add to the city in its post-pandemic era. They began with a revamp at Knox Bistro, followed by their French-Asian gem, Le PasSage. This year, the duo developed a casual, family-friendly spot for quiche Lorraine, niçoise salad, and filet au poivre. If reading the day’s news over a French press and a good omelet at 7 a.m. is the goal, you can do that, too. As the owners might say, Frenchie est exactement ce dont nous avions besoin. (Just what we needed.)

Denton’s most sought-out restaurant, probably in its entire history, is chef Scott Girling’s laid-back restaurant, which goes big on all things Italian. After working in high-profile restaurants in Dallas, Girling moved north to honor his true loves: small towns, slow cooking, and regional Italian food. At his osteria, opened in 2021, the must-order focaccia, daily-rolled pasta, and excellent cured salumi are all prepared in-house. But like Denton itself, there’s zero snobbery in the presentation and smart service coming from staff prepared to answer most questions, like, what is sottaceti? (Italian pickled vegetables.) Or Lou Berger Pichin? (Aged cow’s cheese from Piedmont.) Or crocchette de riso? (Cheesy rice fritters.) You get the point. Getting a table at a prime time has always meant setting an alarm, so great news came this year with the decision to clear the pasta rolling table in time for dinner — and same-day reservations. 

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