Locations in Dallas: Essentials

100 results

page 1 of 4

Al Markaz

1205 W. Trinity Mills Rd. #112 Carrollton/Farmers Branch

972-245-9525

Pakistani, Indian, Critics' Pick, Essentials

For more than two decades years, Al Markaz has been an institution in the Dallas-area Indian and Pakistani communities. Some of the original employees are still here, and the lunch combo is still an outrageously good deal. That long history, and those low prices, are still a big part of the restaurant’s appeal, but there are plenty of good dishes coming out of the kitchen, including lentil stews and probably the best butter chicken within a dozen miles. It’s especially fun to visit in the evening during Ramadan and watch dozens of families arrive simultaneously to order mountainous, fast-breaking meals.

Top pick: The lunch combo includes a piece of naan and appetizer portions of three different main courses. You choose the mains; we recommend the nihari and dal palak (spinach and lentils).

Fun fact: The attached grocery store is excellent, with a wide range of South Asian foods, teas, sodas and English biscuits.

2 articles
AllGood Cafe

2934 Main St. Downtown/Deep Ellum

214-742-5362

American, Music Venues, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Menu, Slideshow, Essentials

If you designed the diner of your dreams, and you happened to be from south-central Texas rather than, say, New York or the Midwest, the result would look a lot like AllGood Cafe. The food here adds gentle Texan touches to American classics, like the fat slices of roasted poblano pepper in the terrific grilled cheese sandwich, or the fact that all sandwiches come with a side of tortilla chips rather than fries. The chicken-fried steak, with enormous, crisp batter that sprawls across a whole takeout container, is advertised as the “world’s best.” We don’t know if that’s true, but to find better, you’d probably have to drive to some tiny town in the Hill Country.

Top pick: Either the fabulous chicken club sandwich, with crisp, peppery bacon and avocado, or literally any dish that comes with the restaurant’s smooth mashed potatoes and ultra-peppery gravy. Come to think of it, all our favorite dishes at AllGood have huge quantities of black pepper.

Fun fact: The restaurant’s atmosphere, eclecticism and charm are best described by the slogan emblazoned across its website: “It’s like going to Austin, without having to go through Waco.”

44 articles
Armoury D.E.

2714 Elm St. Downtown/Deep Ellum

972-803-5151

Hungarian, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Slideshow, Readers' Choice, Essentials, DrinkHere

When the Armoury D.E. opened its doors in 2015, its mission was to offer some of the best cocktails, food and live music Deep Ellum had seen in years. The Armoury has stuck to what it knows best, offering a casual dining experience with a diverse selection of Hungarian comfort foods and other good stuff that doesn’t quite fit anywhere else. Be sure to ask about the burger of the week while you’re there. Also, venture out back to catch one of their free live shows, curated with a music taste as refined as the bar’s choice in booze.

2 events 35 articles
Ayahuasca

334 Jefferson Blvd., TX Oak Cliff/South Dallas

469-687-0005

Mexican, Oaxacan, Essentials

Ayahuasca is possibly the most difficult-to-find restaurant in Dallas. To get there, enter the Xaman Cafe in Oak Cliff, then head down a back hallway to a wooden door. Inside, owner Mauricio Gallegos and chef Monica Lopez serve pre-Hispanic dishes and techniques influenced by Oaxaca. The dishes are steeped in authenticity, from the pulpo y tinta (octopus and ink), caldo de piedra or chicharron en salsa verde. Fear not if you’re unfamiliar with the fare; servers are happy to walk guests through the menu, asking them what looks interesting or what kind of dish they're looking for.

Top Pick: Without a doubt, order the tuetano. Two large roasted beef bones filled with marrow are topped with a lively chimichurri and served with a bowl of diced rib-eye alongside. Scoop up a spoonful of baked marrow from the bone and spread it into a criollo tortilla, then add the tender rib-eye. Yes, the dish is $49, but it’s worth every penny.

2 articles
Baby Back Shak

1800 S. Akard St. Oak Cliff/South Dallas

214-428-7427

Barbecue, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Essentials

A half slab at this barbecue joint means seven baby back ribs kissed with smoke, spiced with pepper and just-right tender: The meat doesn’t fall off the bone, but pulls off with the gentlest of tugs. It just narrowly beats out the boudin plate as our favorite order, but the boudin (here spelled boudain) is top-notch, too, especially dunked in a cup of sauce. The small dining room pays loving tribute to great blues musicians and displays two decades’ worth of media praise.

Top pick: We love two meaty sides: excellent, peppery, lick-the-takeout-container baked beans and the boudin links. (Yes, boudin can be ordered as a side dish with a rack of ribs to make the ultimate meat plate.)

4 articles
Barsotti's

4208 Oak Lawn Ave, TX Uptown/Oak Lawn

214-522-4208

Italian, Essentials

The former (and in our minds, original) Carbone’s Fine Foods has been reincarnated as Barsotti’s. The trappings of the new space feel a little more upscale since the remodel, but the restaurant still executes classic and unpretentious Italian fare. Longtime fans of the red-sauce Italian spot have returned in droves. Classic dishes like vodka rigatoni or lasagna Bolognese stream through the dining room regularly. Be sure to wrap up your meal with one of Barsotti’s textbook cannolis.

Top Pick: Barsotti’s from-scratch Sunday gravy, served on a bed of al dente creste pasta, is exquisite. If you don’t get enough — or lie awake at night thinking about it — Barsotti’s will sell you a container of sauce to go.

5 articles
BBQ King

3112 N. Jupiter Rd. Garland & Vicinity

972-807-6910

Pakistani, Critics' Pick, Essentials

This spot is one of the best Pakistani restaurants in the Dallas area, which started in Richardson before moving to Garland in 2018. BBQ King serves some great naan — try it stuffed with spiced potatoes or topped with a showering of sesame seeds and cilantro. These are accompaniments to dishes such as haleem, the porridge-like soul food of lentils, wheat, ground meat, ghee, ginger and fried onion.

Top pick: Try the stew-like kunna gosht, made with goat leg, or beef karahi, which sets tomato sweetness against a balanced lineup of spices.

Fun fact: If you’re into paan, the leaf-and-nut chewing stimulant common in Pakistan, BBQ King has what most diners agree is the best paan counter in the area. (We haven’t indulged.)

1 article
Beckley 1115

1115 N. Beckley Ave. Oak Cliff/South Dallas

214-941-1115

Modern American, Wine Bar, Essentials

Beckley 1115 opened in January 2022 under the guidance of chef and restaurateur Sharon Van Meter, and in 2023 husband-and-wife duo Luke and Geni Rogers bought the restaurant. While Luke works the kitchen, Geni runs the front of the house and has curated a polished wine list of affordable options by the glass or bottle. The menu is dotted with American bistro favorites: shrimp, steaks and house-made pastas dominate the entrees. Appetizers sparkle, like a generous charcuterie board or delicate octopus carpaccio. In just a short time, the Rogers have turned Beckley 1115 into the neighborhood secret worthy of everyone’s attention.

Top Pick: Order the Butcher's Cut of the Day, which varies but is always executed with skill. A melting beef tallow candle in the center of the cut bastes the beef as you eat.

2 articles
Bilad Bakery & Restaurant

850 S. Greenville Ave. Richardson & Vicinity

972-744-9599

Middle Eastern, Bakery, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Slideshow, Essentials

The Iraqi restaurant Bilad is a neighborhood institution. The superb bakery got its start turning out excellent samoon bread from Iraq and trays of delightful desserts like pistachio puffs and baklava. Bilad has an excellent kitchen serving Iraqi specialties, including some of the region’s better shawarma and falafel, zhug (an acidic hot pepper sauce), fresh tabbouleh and garlicky hummus. Kebab meat may look charred on the outside, but the interior is still perfectly tender. Grab a bag of that samoon bread as you leave, or visit the small grocery next door.

Top pick: The shawarma sandwiches, served on loaves of fresh Iraqi bread with fluffy soft interiors, are no-doubt, unanimous-vote choices for the Texas Sandwich Hall of Fame, especially if you ask that your sandwich be made spicy.

Fun fact: Bilad makes a point of providing food for their neighbors experiencing homelessness.

8 articles
Billy Can Can

2386 Victory Park Lane Uptown/Oak Lawn

214-296-2610

Modern American, Southern, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Essentials

For a certain kind of tourist or visiting family member, this fancified, all-frills saloon in Victory Park is a guaranteed hit. It presents a dressed-up, Wild West atmosphere that verges on kitsch (and, in the name, crosses that verge), while serving up food and drink vastly better than the gimmick might suggest. An adventurous, affordable selection of wines and cocktails backs up pretty killer renditions of skillet cornbread, Texas red chili, hot fried quail and summer okra succotash. Some of the mains, such as the big-boned pork chop, are over-the-top in a good way. Alongside Knife and Town Hearth, this is one of the best places to take out-of-town guests who ask for a stereotypically Dallas experience but still care about the food being good.

Top pick: The crispy oyster sliders with comeback sauce make a pretty flawless appetizer, and the burger is a meaty dream bathed in Longhorn cheddar.

9 articles
Boulevardier

408 N. Bishop Ave., #108 Oak Cliff/South Dallas

214-942-1828

French, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Essentials

This quaint French bistro in the Bishop Arts District has one of the best brunches in the city, a celebrated wine list, phenomenal French cuisine and a stellar oyster program. It almost feels arrogant of them to also have one of the best bars in the city. And, yet, here we are. Every Friday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., get half-off of every bottle of wine on their list and discounted oysters. Watch the chalkboard for the best picks. Not a wine-drinker? No problem. Their hand-crafted classic cocktails will get you wherever you need to go.

Fun fact: Every Tuesday they run a special: one-third off all steaks, including the chef's cut.

25 articles
Cabritos Los Cavazos

10240 N. Walton Walker Blvd. Northwest Dallas

972-707-7020

Mexican, Critics' Pick, Essentials

Cabritos is the star at the only full-on Monterrey-style, goat-grilling show in the Dallas area. Stare through the glass kitchen wall at the massive pit, above which goat legs, shoulders and ribcages stand like planted flags, then feast on one of the cuts alongside charro beans and the restaurant’s excellent salsas. Few make-your-own-taco experiences in Dallas get as good as this. One portion of cabrito, with all the fixings that come with it, is enough to make one person full or to satisfy two people who’ve also shared an appetizer.

Top pick: Splurge on the whole goat for $235. If that’s a little too much food for your household, consider the spectacularly rich machitos — rolls of goat meat, fat and organs stuffed into the animal’s digestive tract and grilled until crispy.

Fun fact: If you’re wondering why the dining room is a little strange, and why the kitchen has a glass wall partition, it’s because this space used to be a liquor store.

2 articles
Cafe Momentum

1510 Pacific Ave. Downtown/Deep Ellum

214-303-1234

New American, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Essentials

Cafe Momentum is a nonprofit venture that employs juvenile offenders and pays them fair, living wages to help teach them life skills, leadership and, of course, how to work in a restaurant. Because of the employees’ fair wages, any tips left behind are considered donations to the mission. As such, it’s easy to praise the restaurant without ever mentioning food, just by dwelling on the life-changing effects it has on young people who deserve this chance to work and grow. But here’s the thing: Cafe Momentum is a genuinely good restaurant, one that consistently manages to stand out from the glut of Southern kitchens around town.

Top pick: Menu items rotate along with the interns and the professionals who teach them, but look for market-fresh fish with seasonal sides, savory crawfish beignets or an excellent plate of shrimp and grits.

9 articles
Cafemandu Flavors of Nepal

3711 N. Belt Line Rd. Irving/Las Colinas

469-647-5067

Nepalese, Critics' Pick, Essentials

Of Irving’s top Nepalese restaurants, Cafemandu boasts the biggest and deepest list of momos, the country’s beloved pleated dumplings. Cafemandu even has dessert momos, but it’s probably best to start with the classic steamed variety to admire the thin, nearly translucent dough around the plump filling then work your way through spicy chili momos covered in hot sauce and sautéed with peppers, jhol momos, served in a bowl of mildly spiced broth, and even dumplings bathed in cheese.

Top pick: One you best bets is sekuwa, the Nepalese grilled skewers of seasoned meat similar to kebabs; try the ultra-flavorful goat.

2 articles
Cattleack Barbeque

13628 Gamma Rd. Carrollton/Farmers Branch

972-805-0999

Barbecue, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Essentials

In an industrial park in Farmers Branch, Cattleack Barbeque lives up to every bit of hype it’s received. Fabulous fatty brisket and extraordinary pulled whole hog are the stars of the show, as is a vinegar-based coleslaw. Grab another bite of slaw and you’ll be prepared to tackle that next slice of Texas hot link.

Top pick: Some weeks, the Cattleack crew smoke beef ribs rubbed with a pastrami spice mix. The ribs are jaw-dropping; order an extra, take it home and throw it in a pot of beans the next day. In fact, order extra of everything in general, and you’ll be cooking the best beans of your life.

1 event 28 articles
CheapSteaks

2613 Elm St. East Dallas & Lakewood

American, Bars and Clubs, Music Venues, Essentials

There's a long list of new, glitzy restaurants in Deep Ellum. CheapSteaks is not one of these. Here you'll get honest food and strong drinks at a fair price, a reflection of the original neighborhood's gritty character. True to its name, CheapSteaks offers up a trio of beef cuts that punch above their weight class. Light and crispy truffle french fries are the default side choice, but flavorful Brussels sprouts or a baked potato can be subbed for a couple of bucks more. And every night of the week, CheapSteaks hosts live music that helps burnish its Deep Ellum bona fides.

Top Pick: The hanger steak is particularly delicious, especially when ordered with no more than a medium finish. It’s a poor man's filet of tenderness and flavor, and it is baffling to us that more restaurants don't offer the cut.

9 articles
Chilangos Tacos

10777 Harry Hines Blvd. #130 Northwest Dallas

214-200-3869

Mexican, Critics' Pick, Essentials

Deep in the maze of warehouses, industrial plants and nightclubs along Harry Hines Boulevard, Chilangos serves a short menu of tacos along with spicy elote cups and horchata. The interior is a chic tribute to Mexico City, with the ordering counter made to resemble a street or market stall, Topo Chico bottles converted into flower holders on each table and words of culinary wisdom painted on the walls. There aren’t a lot of taco choices here, but every single one can be made costra-style — that is, with the fillings of your choice wrapped in a golden-brown blanket of crisp molten cheese. That cheese pocket is then placed on a flour tortilla that can barely stretch to hold it.

Top pick: The traditional and best order to fold into a cheesy sheath is Chilangos’ excellent pastor-marinated pork. Just be sure to add lots of chopped onions and salsa verde to offset the cheese’s richness.
Cosmo’s Bar & Lounge

1212 Skillman St. East Dallas & Lakewood

214-826-4200

Eclectic, Bars and Clubs, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Essentials

Tucked away at the corner of Skillman and Live Oak since 2000 is Cosmo’s, a restaurant and bar boasting no nonsense, one of a kind hospitality. With a ‘60s lounge vibe, specialty cocktails and an eclectic menu with everything from gourmet pizzas to Vietnamese dishes, Cosmo’s has something for everyone. When you’re there, browse through their extensive VHS collection and make a request or step outside to their patio, which feels like a little oasis outside the noise of the city.

21 articles
Cris and John

5555 Preston Oaks Rd. North Dallas

972-803-4750

Vietnamese, Mexican, Asian Fusion, Best Of, Essentials

Cristina Mendez and John Pham opened Cris and John in 2017 in a North Dallas strip mall — bookended by a 7-Eleven and a laundromat — and have stood out with a creative blend of Vietnamese and Mexican street fare. The center of Cris and John’s menu is the phoritto, which piles all the goodness of a bowl of pho into a warm and crispy tortilla. From there, the menu expands to bao, tacos or banh mi with a variety of fillings, or more traditional pho and ramen. Want loaded fries and spicy wings too? Cris and John’s has you covered, blending cuisines like few others in the city.

Top pick: Each week, Cris and John creates a $30 special tray filled with some of its most popular items, like Angry Pho, birria tacos, chicken wings or spring rolls. The tray offerings change each week, so there's always something new to try. If you see the option to add short rib to pho for a small up-charge, do it.

5 articles
Dal Dong Nae

11445 Emerald St. Northwest Dallas

972-484-2994

Asian, Korean, Critics' Pick, Essentials

If your parents were Korean and supported your drinking habit by cooking enormous meals for your returns home from long nights out, your house would probably look a lot like Dal Dong Nae. This late-night staple of Dallas Korea Town serves enormous, family-style platters of pork, bowls of raw oyster kimchi, huge simmering pans of stew, fried kimchi pancakes and other excellent ways to blunt the effects of the restaurant’s $12 soju and $4 beer.

Top pick: The seafood pancakes are very good here, as is the bit-of-everything budae jjijae (army stew) served bubbling hot.

Fun fact: Dal Dong Nae is open, and bustling, until 2 a.m. every night but Monday.

1 article
Damasita Izakaya

2564 Royal Lane Northwest Dallas

469-575-8782

Korean, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Essentials

In its first incarnation, Damasita was a tavern with fried foods and bar drinks. After a change of ownership, the dining room has calmed down and become homier, and the menu focuses on traditional cooking. Grab the city’s best gimbap to go — the two-inch-wide rolls, which resemble extra-large maki sushi but with added vegetables, make a perfect picnic food — or enjoy comforting noodle soups. Excellent chive pancakes have just barely enough batter to hold the veggies together.

Top pick: Choose your gimbap filling from bulgogi, spicy tuna or Spam; no matter what, they’re great, and an incredible bargain.

3 articles
DanSungSa

11407 Emerald St. #121 Northwest Dallas

469-522-7399

Korean, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Essentials

People don’t really go to DanSungSa before 8 p.m. The scene picks up late at this classic Korean joint, which on Thursdays and Fridays closes just before sunrise the next day. Grab a karaoke room or a booth in the bar, which have big, dark privacy shields covered in soju advertisements. If the ads inspire you, there’s plenty of soju to be had, along with a list of Korean, Japanese and Okinawan beers (note to the uninitiated: Orion is pronounced “Oh-ree-awn”). The bar snacks, including bulgogi kimchi burritos and huge family-sized platters of crispy fried chicken, make DanSungSa a go to spot for late night food and beverages.

1 article
Del Sur Tacos

720 E. Jefferson Blvd. Oak Cliff/South Dallas

972-982-0004

Mexican, Critics' Pick, Essentials

Oak Cliff’s newest taco sensation is the second location of a business that first opened in McKinney. But Del Sur Tacos has upped its game to compete with Jefferson Boulevard’s crowd of rival taquerias, with inspired specialty tacos featuring fillings like a chile relleno, excellent carnitas, cochinita pibil and birria. Grab some mulitas, too, and enjoy a dish of meat, beans and stacked tortillas that is tragically rare in the Dallas area.

Top pick: We’re in love with El Santo, a taco with a nearly even mixture of grilled pork and julienned radishes doused in fiery guajillo pepper salsa. Grab your tacos as a platter to get the excellent side cup of beans.

5 articles
Douglas Bar and Grill

6818 Snider Plaza Park Cities

214-205-5888

Barbecue, Steak, Essentials

When we spoke to Doug Pickering about his namesake barbecue venture in Snyder Plaza, Douglas Bar and Grill, he addressed the elephant in the room right off the bat: the barbecue here is expensive. Douglas Bar and Grill is a beautiful space, and the barbecue is top-notch, from the phenomenal wagyu brisket and the perfectly cooked salmon to a barbecue burger that takes two hands to pick up. With much of Texas barbecue, one has to deal with limited hours, long lines or both. At Douglas, you can make reservations six days a week, have barbecue within minutes of sitting down and drink from a full bar to boot. For many, the extra cost for those perks strikes them as quite the value.

Top pick: If the cost scares you away, Douglas runs a happy hour with cocktails and barbecue bites for just $10. Brisket bullets are brisket and cream cheese stuffed jalapeño peppers, which give just the right amount of peppery heat to go with the savory brisket stuffing.

5 articles
Ebesu Robata & Sushi

1007 E. 15th St Plano

972-212-4564

Japanese, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Essentials

Ebesu has been one of Dallas' hottest restaurants since its opening, an all-around excellent Japanese spot with no weaknesses and some unique strengths. Most excitingly for many diners, it brought the kind of excellence and attention to detail usually associated with Tei-An and Tei Tei Robata, in central Dallas, to the suburbs with its location in downtown Plano. Now suburbanites, too, can enjoy great grilled fish collars, exquisite specialty sushi rolls and boxes of rice topped with salmon roe. It’s no wonder that when this author last visited Ebesu in person (a month before the virus arrived), one of the other customers was Yutaka Yamato, whose namesake sushi bar in Uptown is also on this Top 100 list.

Top pick: The flamboyant house specialty sushi roll, “Super-Long Niku!”, absolutely earns its exclamation mark. Its rice is topped with thin slices of grilled beef, fried leeks and an arugula puree. Bring friends, because there are 16 pieces. (Alas, Super-Long Niku! is not available as takeout.)

Fun fact: This is the first American restaurant for an ownership group that operates multiple kitchens in and around Tokyo.

3 articles
Edoko Omakase

1030 W. John Carpenter Freeway, No. 100 Irving/Las Colinas

972-600-8626

Japanese, Critics' Pick, Essentials

Chef Keunsik Lee, a Nobu veteran, presides over a thoughtful menu at this hidden spot in Irving. Some of the sushi items are traditional, but others reflect his Korean heritage or his decades of living in Texas, like the incorporation of wasabi into salsa verde, or the choice to top a spicy tuna roll with dollops of guacamole and yucca chips. If you want, you can even have your sashimi served on corn tortillas as a taco.

Top pick: The specialty here is in the name — a playful, fun, memorable omakase tasting in seven courses, in which Lee and his kitchen team will serve whatever they like, finishing with a parade of nigiri and sashimi. We also love the seaweed salad, a sampler that presents several varieties of seaweed in different dressings.
El Carlos Elegante

1400 N. Riverfront Blvd. Downtown/Deep Ellum

214-277-1800

Mexican, Essentials

From the Dallas-based group Duro Hospitality, think of El Carlos Elegante as The Charles’ Mexican cousin. The restaurant is nondescript outside, but inside is a vibrant and lively space, serving authentic Mexican and South American fare with an upscale polish. The best of El Carlos’ dishes center on anything made with house-made masa; the mushroom tetelas or chorizo molotes are brilliant examples. A visit to El Carlos Elegante borders on "special occasion" spending, but the brilliant dishes are worth the price of admission.

Top Pick: Al pastor pork is grilled to perfection and sized to share. Each succulent bite could star on its own, but is accompanied by a rich adobo sauce and a pineapple butter that we never knew was missing from our lives.

3 articles
El Come Taco

2513 N. Fitzhugh Ave. East Dallas & Lakewood

214-821-3738

Mexican, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Essentials

If you like Tacos La Banqueta but hate waiting in line, try El Come Taco, an Old East Dallas taco joint that’s well on its way to becoming an institution. Everything at El Come is good, even the simple Jose taco with beans, cheese and avocado, but look out for unusual offerings like tripe, lengua, sesos (veal brains) and chapulines (grasshoppers). Big projectors make this a good place to watch a soccer game, too.

Top pick: This is cheating because it’s technically a separate business, but our top pick here is to slide through the bathroom hallway to the adjacent mezcal bar, La Viuda Negra, from the same owners. La Viuda has its own separate, ever-changing food menu to pair with its showy cocktails.

12 articles
El Pueblo

525 E. Jefferson Blvd. Oak Cliff/South Dallas

214-946-3070

Mexican, Critics' Pick, Essentials

Some of the best enchiladas verdes in Dallas can be found here, and if you agree with us, you can order them in an enormous platter of six; or just get two as they come with sides of ride and beans. There are other hits on the menu too, including picadillo gorditas, lengua tacos and divine mole. Stacks of tortillas make a carnitas platter or a plate of pollo en mole even more enticing. This is some of Oak Cliff’s best Mexican comfort food.

2 articles
Encina

614 W. Davis Oak Cliff/South Dallas

469-620-3644

American, Critics' Pick, Essentials

When Encina opened in the fall of 2020, there wasn’t just the pandemic working against them, the restaurant was also taking over the former space of Bolsa, a beloved decade-old North Oak Cliff favorite. It had big shoes to fill. But with the leadership of owners Matt Balke and Corey McCombs, the menu and drink program are hitting it out of the park. The menu changes somewhat, but you can get the likes of tender pastrami, a decadent turkey leg confit you could share (but you won’t want to) and perfectly crisp chicken thighs. The prices may say this is a place for a special night out, but the equation is there for a good neighborhood restaurant: food you crave, consistent service and a space you want to be in.

3 articles
Fat Ni

2528 Old Denton Drive, Suite 310 Carrollton/Farmers Branch

469-900-8887

Chinese, Street Food, Essentials

Fat Ni is fun. Everything about it is fun. Well, it's in a strip mall, but aside from the location, it's a good time. To order you'll get a sheet of paper on which to check off boxes, almost like ordering Girl Scout cookies. It allows newbies to get familiar with the options. Then, in the open kitchen you can watch the skewers of meat cooking over the grill. Each skewer is brought out as soon as it's done, making for a parade of offerings to the table. "Oh! Scallops!"

Top Pick: The lamb and tendon skewers are tender and flavorful, but we also devoured every bit of a spicy chicken soup with house-made noodles. Super long noodles can at times make for awkward table manners, so maybe bring your own scissors.

4 articles
Fattoush Mediterranean Kitchen

2304 W. Park Row Drive, Suite 25, Pantego Arlington

682-321-7650

Middle Eastern, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Essentials

Fattoush is tucked away in an obscure strip mall in the even more obscure town of Pantego that somehow earned squatters’ rights in the middle of Arlington. The chef here, Bashar Al Mudhafar, emigrated to the U.S. in 2010 after befriending American soldiers who frequented his Baghdad restaurant. One meal led to another, and after applying for and receiving refugee status, Al Mudhafar is serving some of the best Middle Eastern food in North Texas. Try the grilled lamb chops dusted with ground pistachio or a fire-kissed kebab made with in-house ground lamb (he uses 5-10% beef and fatty pieces of lamb for more flavor). Anything from the Iraqi Grill section of the menu is a surefire winner.

Top Pick: We’ve never had a bad meal here, but a favorite is the shish tawook with grilled chunks of chicken marinated in olive oil, lemon and spices. It comes with grilled vegetables and freshly baked flaky naan-like Iraqi bread so big it covers the entire plate.

5 articles
Gemma

2323 N. Henderson Ave. #109 East Dallas & Lakewood

214-370-9426

New American, Critics' Pick, Essentials

When Gemma opened, it was a Dallas pioneer, bringing along the dressy-casual seasonal cuisine from co-owners Allison Yoder and Stephen Rogers’ last home in Napa. In 2023, they updated the space and refreshed the menu with American, French and Italian comfort foods, although they kept some of their best hits like the rabbit on pappardelle pasta. Grilled salmon over a French lentil salad with an avocado puree is a light and satisfying dish with brilliant pops of flavor.

Top pick: After the mandatory snack bowl of fried olives and pecans, indulge in some of Dallas’ best house-made pastas, and one of the state’s best wine programs.

7 articles

Locations in Dallas: Essentials

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