The Resy Hit List: Where In Dallas You’ll Want to Eat Right Now

Considering the late-2025 arrival of Dos Mares and Puerto Cocina, Texas’s marisquería wave has crested spectacularly in Dallas-Fort Worth. More recently, on May 4, chef Omar Flores  — of Muchacho Tex Mex, Casa Brasa, Even Coast, and Whistle Britches — made a stand with his take on Mexican coastal fare, and so far, we’re calling it a perfect 10. The raw bar dazzles with aguachiles, oysters, and chilled lobster glazed in aji verde, while jumbo prawns, sea bream filets, and a flawless red snapper get the live-fire treatment from a mesquite wood and charcoal grill. Being Texas, Flores is also laying down wagyu outside skirt steaks, Delmonico rib eyes, and green chile hamburgers on the grill — and we’re not mad about it.  

Fort Worth’s already impressive Cultural District is still on the up-and-up with a new retreat for boutique brunching and lunching by Headington Companies, the firm behind standard-bearers Sassetta, Tango Room, and Mirador. For the group’s first foray into the town where the West begins, they’ve added a Forty Five Ten women’s clothing store and handed the reins of its neighboring café to Fort Worth native chef Manuel Gutierrez. Expect Mirador classics: the masterpiece deviled eggs, a solid burger, and standout desserts like chocolate seis leches. Gutierrez also goes his own way with a grilled chicken salad sandwich with orange-miso slaw, and a mango-chamoy mille-feuille, a group effort by his team.

Slide into a highly desirable situation — martinis, French fries, oysters, anyone? — at this lively Knox Street seafood spot. As at Katz Bros. Hospitality siblings Beverley’s Bistro & Bar and Claremont, the menu casts a wide net: double cheeseburgers and steak frites seduce alongside fresh catch. However, here is where Greg and Nik Katz’s Cape Town origins most shine, with seafood towers, cioppino, South African lobster tails, and cheesy king crab-and-artichoke dip. Tuna melts, lobster rolls, and “little fried fish sandwiches” are even better with the list of 10 (real) Champagnes, pink peppercorn Palomas, and flowing espresso martinis.

Fort Worth restaurateur Felipe Armenta and celebrity chef Graham Elliot’s lakeside seafood spot offers a unique view where it’s possible to dismantle a sushi roll-and-nigiri tower while gondolas and swan-shaped pedal boats drift along the Mandalay Canal. Weekday happy hour turns 3 p.m. to 6 p.m into an early golden hour with $7 hand rolls and half-price martinis. Brunch is equally compelling, thanks to blue crab omelettes, mussels marinière, and half-price bottles of bubbles. At whatever time you visit, save room for the warm, rich butter cake — an off-menu staple so frequently ordered it hardly needs billing. It truly puts the “butter” in butter cake.

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One of the most original restaurants in the Big D is gearing up for sweater weather. New headliners from chef Misti Norris include a Szechuan-cured pork loin with plum butter, an all-Texas fazzoletti with tomatoes and smoked redfish, and Texas eggplant roasted on the newly-built outdoor grill, spread with garden-grown chermoula. (The new grill might be used for future pig roasts, we hear.) Bar whiz Shane Scully is shaking it up, too. Fall cocktails like the Quincey Jones — mixed with chrysanthemum-infused gin, Lillet Blanc, and quince and pear bitters — sound like the perfect sipper for Singer-Songwriter Nights, returning on Thursdays in September. Later this fall, look for fun pop-ups in the Hermanita special event space.

For three decades, this casual date-night fixture on one of Dallas’s busiest dining strips has paired return-worthy Mediterranean food with warm hospitality. It began in 1996, when Shahnaz “Mama Nazy” Movaffagh gave in to the cooking demands of her sons, Beau and Ali Nazary, and their hungry friends — by opening a restaurant. For decades, Movaffagh ran a tight (but loving) ship, while creating recipes that still define its menu. Lamb kebabs and cabbage rolls are best launched with what’s arguably the best hummus in Dallas — a remarkable accomplishment considering Movaffagh never encountered the dip while growing up in Iran. The café’s resident matriarch is now retired from duty, but her food and generous spirit live on, we hope for another 30 years.

If spectacle is the order for a night out, chef RJ Cooper’s theatrical 20-course tasting menu will surely do the trick. The graffiti art-inspired concept with projection map visuals comes from Dallas natives John McKeel, and sons Cole and Clay McKeel, who brought on Cooper for his first Texas endeavor. The James Beard-awarded chef broke into the industry with Eric Ripert at Le Bernardin and was later recognized for his work at D.C.’s now-closed Vidalia. Here, Cooper’s avant-garde menu of 20 “first bites” is progressively delivered in three tiers as an emcee guides diners throughout various rooms. To take in the space without committing to two hours, the Noir Lounge features innovative cocktails by local legend Shane Scully along with mini-tasting menus.

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Before moving her community-driven bakery to East Dock in June, Stephanie Leichtle-Chalklen spent eight years building the operation from her Oak Cliff home, drawing from industry experience in New York and Cape Town. Now situated in a space better suited to its mission of centering women and humanizing food workers, the nonprofit bakery brings neighbors together through knitting circles, food community workshops, and a monthly women’s collective focused on feminine hospitality leadership. That spirit is embedded in the bakery’s name — the isiXhosa word for community — which enhances the pleasure of ham-and-cheese croissants, Cape Malay-spiced sticky buns, and South African scones made with Barton Springs Mill flour. Don’t miss the distinctly South African sandwich layered with biltong (air-dried beef) and herbed hangop (Dutch-style strained yogurt) available during weekday lunches.

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Selda’s slow-but-steady rollout across Texas reached MacArthur Crossing in January. As at the Turkish-inflected original in Dallas, meals begin with warm pide bread, built for dragging through an order of tangy tzatziki or spicy ezme. A feast of appetizers can easily be accomplished, with spiced fried cauliflower, falafel with jalapeño-avocado aioli, and dates stuffed with goat cheese and pastrami. Still hungry? Go for a gyro or İskender kebab with beef shaved from the döner, or something from the oven, perhaps. The Turkish “pizzas” include crisp, ground-beef-topped lahmacun and boat-shaped, spinach-feta pide. Finish as tradition demands with an hourglass-shaped cup of hot Turkish tea.

For Chinese-Mexican cuisine rarely found north of Mexicali, mark this spinoff from Southlake’s dim sum powerhouse, Dragon House, at its third expansion in Dallas’s northernmost parts. You’ll still find the original restaurant’s exemplary dumplings, in 15 varieties, along with hand-pulled noodles for braised beef soup and stir-fries. But here is the only place in Texas where you can order pork buns served on a fajita skillet, dumplings sprinkled with taco seasoning, and burritos stuffed with orange chicken and fried rice. Jalisco’s beef birria undergoes major reinvention, too, as it fills egg rolls and juicy xiao long bao, and forms the base for a spicier beef noodle soup. Save room for dessert dumplings and buns filled with chocolate, matcha cream, and sesame custard.

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This fresh Roman-style pizzeria in Fort Worth’s historic Bricktown comes from Alessandro and Alfonse Salvatore, also behind nearby Italian joint Bocca Osteria Romana, opened in 2024. The worldly-wise brothers were born in the Rio Grande Valley to an Italian father and a Puerto Rican mother, and later drew from experience visiting grandparents in Rome and living in Mexico City to open restaurants in San Juan. Because their first for Panther City lacked the space to add pizzas, they opened Felina down the street in February this year. The wood-fired brick oven spits out classic pies with toppings ranging from wild mushrooms with Oaxaca cheese to Parker County peaches, burrata, and prosciutto di Parma. Everything is exceptional: the spaghetti-stuffed suppli, an oversized chicken cutlet with heirloom tomatoes, and chocolate mousse cake with coffee-caramel-bourbon glaze.  

The best seats at this bubbles-focused bar at the Shops of Highland Park are the circular conversation pit-style booths centered on an ice bucket. Settle in with one of nearly 100 bottles of Champagne, all according to plan from Texas Tech law professors Eric Chiappinelli and Amanda Hale, who opened it in late 2022. With opening hours at 3 p.m., France’s most famous drink gets a little more daylight, alongside cocktails and more wines. It may feel built for a pre- or post-dinner stop, but the kitchen is equipped with double-smash cheeseburgers, grilled cheeses, and a generous $30 charcuterie board known as the Girl Dinner. Pro tip: Mahjong players can ask for one of the house’s two boards, or bring their own and make an afternoon of it.

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The restaurant at the century-old Stoneleigh hotel recently underwent a major glow-up as part of a multi-million dollar renovation. Exuberant red and emerald decor takes inspiration from one of the creators of Hollywood glam, Dorothy Draper, the nation’s first woman interior design firm-owner who also decorated the hotel’s penthouse (the first penthouse in Texas), in the 1930s. Matching the maximalism is an Italian supper club menu by chef Michael White, who has enough stars attached to his name (from The Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Michelin) to be top brass if he were he in the military. White’s “Two Step” features are especially interesting, with either lobster or dry-aged porterhouse served side-by-side in two preparations. The Italian-trained chef who built an empire in New York also turns over pastas, chicken cacciatore, and eggs Benedict available for daily breakfast.  

Kham and Yim Phommahaxay’s ice cream, tea, and coffee shop, opened in November 2021, is a natural fit for downtown McKinney. Meaning “milk” in Japanese, Miruku Creamery aims to be a “happy place,” with monthly rotating soft-serve flavors — such as Thai tea, cranberry-cherry, and peaches-and-cream — all starting with organic whole milk. The emphasis on quality extends to ceremonial-grade matcha from Japan, cocoa from France, and coffee beans from Dallas roaster Full City Rooster. Delightfully elaborate sundaes combine Kham’s French culinary training and flavor-pairing expertise with Yim’s design sensibility for treats dressed up with fresh fruit compote, Dalgona honeycombs, popcorn, and Japanese cheesecake. And don’t even get us started on the “matcha-licious” cloud, coffee, and sago drinks.

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Olivia Genthe gets it when it comes to meats, drinks, and creating places people want to return to. The founder of Fount Board and Table opened a coffee-tea-charcuterie shop to Uptown in late 2019, followed by a charming Bishop Arts wine bistro five years later. Since at least 2023, she’s been plotting a casual deli with cocktails for The Cedars, which is exactly the kind of civic infrastructure Dallas needs. Sandwiches include house-roasted turkey and roast beef, heaped high on seeded hoagies, with Duke’s Mayo making up the base for horseradish and garlic spreads. Tomato, pimento cheese, and a “not chopped liver” number with mushrooms, walnuts, and peasalso are wrapped to order at the lunch counter. Hot dogs count, too — including the fried beef kielbasa sprinkled with French fries at this next go-to spot.

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Chef Tiffany Derry’s ultra-crispy duck fat-fried chicken — the sensation that launched from Plano’s Legacy Hall to propel her to national fame — has entered its franchise era. The first, opened in December 2025 by Corey and Marian Epperson on Belt Line Rd. in Addison, serves the relatively greaseless fried marvel as wings, strips, nuggets, sandwiches on sweet potato buns or biscuits with Steen’s cane syrup butter, and atop Caesar and Cobb salads. Adding a side of potlikker-enhanced collard greens or Cajun-style red beans with smoked ham is as essential as the fluffy banana pudding (bananas included) for dessert. The Eppersons’ second location is coming soon to Irving’s Toyota Music Factory, where the couple will continue offering a 10% discount for veterans, a salute to Corey’s Air Force service.

Find more info here.