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.

Like good manners, steakhouses never go out of style here in Dallas-Fort Worth. While the territory is thick with options, chef John Tesar’s dry-aged workmanship is still available at the Shops at Willow Bend in Plano. The menu holds on to standouts from his now-closed Dallas original, including the bacon tasting board, Ozersky burger, and salsa verde fries. Steaks from Creekstone Farms and Outpost 76 come in nearly 15 cuts, with optional sauces like black pepper au poivre flambéed with Bordelaise, brandy, and bourbon. Beyond the beef, you’ll find 200 whiskeys, a Friday night jazz trio from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and a weekday happy hour — when a small plate of Tesar’s cacio e pepe is only $10.

It typically (and refreshingly) feels like nothing’s changed since 1980 at this date-night standby, with Champagne-Brie soup and live piano served nightly in what feels like a Victorian drawing room lit up with candles. However, for the first time since the restaurant was acquired in 1998 by Mohsen Heidari, father to present-day owners Pasha and Sina Heidari, a handful of seasonal dishes will be sprinkled into the menu’s mix of French classics, which include escargots bourguignon and Dover sole meunière. (Also note the secret, off-menu lobster Thermidor.) To switch it up this spring, try lobster terrine spotlit by buttery Champagne sauce, Rohan duck à l’orange, or a delightful beet tartare with cashew cream. The refinements call for snuggling into your favorite “Godfather” booth before summer’s updates are introduced.

The excellent Levantine pleasures served at Open Sesame Lebanese Grill, Mo Kamal’s casual strip that debuted on Oak Lawn Ave. in 2017, can now be enjoyed in a modern space that reinterprets the style elements of ancient Babylon. A (very heavy) 18th-century carved wooden door opens to a strikingly spartan dining room with limewash walls, draped arches, and a hand-painted mural by Egyptian artist Dina Elsaid on the ceiling. It’s a far cry from the many maximalist dining rooms in town, as well as Kamal’s original restaurant, but the cooking by Kamal’s sister, chef Zeina Kamal, is as satisfying as ever. For dishes at Babel not found at Open Sesame, try chef Zeina’s shish barak (beef dumplings), akawi cheese and sujuk sausage-stuffed flatbread, and lamb-stuffed ravioli.

Dining at chef Julian Barsotti’s Sicilian-focused restaurant on Travis Street includes bonuses that go beyond the pleasure of experiencing the latest vision by Dallas’ godfather of Italian cooking. Not only is there the security of an exceptional meal from the mind who created Barsotti’s Fine Food and Liqueurs, Nonna | Tabu, and Fachini, but also, a chance of bumping into co-owners who happen to be former NFL quarterbacks, including sportscaster Babe Laufenberg and former Dallas Cowboys’ head coach, Jason Garrett. Footballs aside, what’s on a Sicilian menu? Notably, various preparations of fried arancini and wild-caught branzino, along with four variations of busiati, a century-old rolled pasta that proves Marco Polo had nothing to do with introducing Italians to handmade dough.

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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What began in 2014 as Son and Tram Dao’s clever way to feed hungry laundromat customers on Maple Avenue has officially leveled up: Mike’s Chicken opened its third outpost — and first beyond Dallas — in Plano on February 18, complete with a drive-thru. The move suits its cult following. As ever, it’s wise to pre-order this juicy, peanut oil-fried marvel, enhanced by Tram’s cloud-soft, honey-glazed biscuits. Or dine in if you want; a few minutes at the table allows the piping-hot coating to settle into peak form. It’s also time to reflect on the radical force behind it all: a mother whose recipes for her chicken-loving son named Mike turned into one of the metroplex’s most craveable institutions.

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Restaurateur-brothers Pasha and Sina Heidari — also behind St. Martin’s and Las Palmas — have refreshed a beloved East Dallas standby with a menu dedicated to Sicily and the Italian coast. While a couple of Italian-American crowd-pleasers endure — baked mezzi-rigatoni prepared with locally famous sausage from next door’s Jimmy’s Food Store and the zippy lobster ravioli fra diavolo — a lineup of lighter, but nonetheless satisfying, dishes are now available for dinners where dialogue is possible. Seafood shines in cioppino fortified with ‘nduja, pistachio-crusted snapper, and wild shrimp zafferano over saffron-kissed fregola, a couscous-like pasta from Sardinia. The neighborhood favorite remains a wine-lovers’ sanctuary with bottles spanning marquee Italian estates to small producers specializing in natural wines. Another bonus: cocktails from the adjacent bar, Sylvestro.

The “nugs” at Misti Norris’s Rainbow Cat are taking the city of Dallas into a previously unimaginable realm of possibilities for the snack known as chicken nuggets. With crunch decibels in the zillions, the fried and allium-dusted thighs with a side of burnt scallion ranch make it necessary to order the x50 size. Loaded nugs take it to the next level with American cheese slices and mapo tofu gravy. It’s all emblematic of Norris’s casually nostalgic, creative cooking that took up permanent residence last year at Saint Valentine, the nexus of a cocktail bar renaissance underway in East Dallas. Spirited “churched up beers” and Suze spritzes from the bar of course amplify the nugs, which is why we’ll ride this magic carpet any night of the week.

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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.  

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After his first two sushi bars in Frisco, Kinzo and Hinoki, chef Leo Kekoa’s third restaurant inches closer to the city center, in Plano, as it taps the broader world of Japanese cuisine. The two-plus-hour service available to eight seats each night is designed around Japan’s centuries-old kaiseki tradition, which began as a tea ceremony and today resembles haute Japanese cooking with an emphasis on seasonal ingredients. That translates to trays of miniature dishes capturing the five basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami), artfully plated sashimi, fish in house dashi and grilled on the binchotan, tempura-fried vegetables, and nigiri with top-quality Niigata Koshihikari rice, plus dessert. Joining Kekoa is chef Chikao Kikuchi, whose total work experience in Japan and at Sushi on McKinney in Dallas amounts to 50 years.

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.