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

It may seem no piece of nigiri has been left unturned with Dallas’ recent sushi bar surge, but hold your horses until you’ve tried Hiro and Nami Ochiai’s unique spot, where guests in Wranglers mingle with native Japanese speakers. The couple left New York’s Manhattō two years ago to explore Texas horizons, beginning with private catering and pop-ups before determining Fort Worth as the ideal place to go all in. We’re all in, too, especially for a 13-course omakase with seven pieces of nigiri sourced from Japan for $90. You’ll want to add on amenities, like the Hokkaido uni hand roll, and Nami’s flight of four exploratory sake selections for $38, all as a baseball-capped chef delivers thriller after thriller in a place casual enough for Cowtown, and more than legit for connoisseurs.

This family-owned fish market has kept its counters busy since 1989. Imperial Fizz Hospitality owner Jon Alexis knows not to touch the classics, like the hickory- and alder-smoked Atlantic salmon board, for instance, or the boiled, hand-peeled shrimp cocktail regularly shipped to relocated regulars who haven’t moved on. The second-generation owner still has tricks, though. A new crabcake Caesar wrap shot to the top-selling spot after its August debut, combining two house favorites — Maryland-style jumbo lump crabcakes and its fan-favorite Caesar salad with anchovy dressing and pumpernickel croutons — all swaddled up in Sonoran-style flour tortilla. We’ll take it, along with seasonal New Zealand Ora King salmon and Florida stone crabs on the horizon.

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 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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Following Rye’s closure, Tanner Agar has expanded his avant-garde cocktail lounge into a two-room playground with a dinner menu. The new Archive room occupies Rye’s former space, offering creative but approachable drinks such as a clarified ube colada and the Only Fans, mixed with Tequila and passion fruit. Or, settle into the Alchemy room for Agar’s characteristic off-road experiments, where new fall creations include Cacti-s & Dolls, with Hatch chile vodka and quince-green pepper Tequila, and the Mrs. Potato Head built on sweet potato Scotch and turmeric-IPA syrup. Fans of Rye’s Icelandic hot dog and dark chocolate-sauerkraut cake can breathe easy: They’re still on offer, along with a three-course prix fixe for $45.

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After leaving New York, Yokohama native Tadashi Nakazawa moved to Dallas to showcase Japan’s comfort foods from the Shin Chon Market stall he opened in May 2023. As ramen concepts from California, New York, and Japan expanded across Texas, Nakazawa dreamed bigger: the next year he moved into a Richardson storefront, where TVs play Studio Ghibli movies. A larger kitchen accommodates karaage, fried shrimp, and katsu curries, as well as ramen brewed from pork and chicken bones, aerated with a hand blender until frothy. The best-selling black double-garlic tonkotsu ramen shares the menu with Jiro-style ramen, an ultra-hearty Tokyo original piled high with bean sprouts, cabbage, and chashu. Nakazawa will soon add another taste of home: Yokohama-style iekei ramen, built on a rich double stock of tonkotsu and chicken shoyu. 

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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.