Fine Dining in Dallas

You will miss Apothecary the first time you attempt to visit. That’s part of its charm. This self-ascribed “avant-garde cocktail lounge” is a dark respite from the elements. Here the world is shuttered out, the noise turned down to a delightful whisper. On one visit, a guest at the next table was watching videos on his phone, loudly. Luckily he left before we were able to ask to move. It’s just not a phone-out, sound-up place. At all. There are plenty of those around the city, but not here. Every server knows the cocktail menu inside and out and could narrate a documentary on each drink. The menu is broken into three levels, starting with classics to more free-solo rock climbing type adventures like an R-Oaxaca-Fort (a blue cheese mezcal number) and Death in the Afternoon (absinthe and bubbles). The food menu includes a charcuterie board, caviar service, a vegan Bolognese and a short-rib plate served with potato pave and white chocolate. Make reservations to be sure to get a seat.

By morning Carte Blanche is a coffee shop with a counter flush with beautiful fresh pastries made by chef Amy La Rue. By evening chef Casey La Rue transforms the space into a 4- or 12- course tasting menu with a focus on native Texas ingredients with modern touches, which is paired with luxury wine. The duo have worked in fine-dining restaurants across the country including Daniel, Per Se and Joel Robuchon.

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Wolfgang Puck's Dallas outpost is as brilliant as you would hope an acclaimed chef's restaurant could be-creative fare, professional service, and great views from the rotating tower. Of course, the big guy doesn't man the kitchen. That job is handled by Jacob Williamson. His presentations are modern Asian, from surprisingly subtle curries to crispy suckling pig. There are even a few touches of Texas fusion, as found in the "General Tso"-style crispy Texas quail. A must visit.

After more than a decade at his self-titled restaurant, serving his famous standards — tamale tart, cowboy rib-eye, heaven and hell cake — Stephan Pyles banished them to another concept and started anew at Flora Street Café. His goal is to cook more formally daring food, challenging Dallas taste buds and avoiding the greatest hits. The result is a daredevil modernist restaurant of a kind Dallas lacked. Techniques are intricate and frequently high-tech. Plates are beautifully presented. Most dishes have five or six components, all demanding analysis. Nothing at Flora Street is suited to chowing down or satisfying a craving. Dining at Flora Street is an odd experience, and not just because the kitchen is so daring. The starters feature playful, even fun dishes. Then the main courses arrive, dull and ordinary, with the kitchen’s endless array of techniques no longer apparent.

Goldie's, an American restaurant and bar, comes to us from several local restaurant industry veterans who want this place to become an East Dallas neighborhood favorite. Look for nostalgic dishes like steak, fish, burgers and pork chops as well as an impressive wine menu.

Haywire offers elevated Southern fare in chic, highly-Instagrammable spaces, from a swank interior to a fun rooftop dining area with an Airstream trailer. The menu has classics from steaks, all farm-raised in Texas, to shrimp and grits made with tasso and andouille sausage red eye gravy. The bar program is ambitious and bold. Happy hour has a nice selection of $5 bites and drinks.

Housed in Snider Plaza in a space built in 1945, Jack & Harry’s is a New Orleans chophouse and bar oozing old-school charm. From Dallas-based Vandalay Hospitality (East Hampton Sandwich Co., Drake's, Anchor Sushi Bar), it aims to be a swanky yet casual spot for a weeknight steak or family meal. It'll be what it wants to be, but elegance is present in droves with the warm nostalgia brought forth by the design and dishes like a French onion filet and oysters St. Claude.

This highly anticipated new restaurant from chef John Tesar is now open at the Ritz Carlton at Las Colinas. Tesar, whose Knife & Spoon restaurant in Orlando was awarded a Michelin star in 2022 and 2023, has turned his gaze to Italian cuisine, and all eyes are on Knife Italian to meet the expectations set by its sister restaurant. But we imagine guests' mouths will be too full of veal meatballs, lobster agnolotti and Italian-inspired cocktail menu to compare.

Ask anyone who's lived in Dallas long enough and they'll gush about the service at Pappas Brothers. The old-school steakhouse has been a Dallas fixture for more than 30 years, harkening an era when fine dining meant a trip to restaurant row. The setting has changed some, and now strip clubs outnumber fine dining restaurants in this West Dallas neighborhood, but that service people talk about is as polished as ever -- a firm handshake as you enter and exit the restaurant, the doting staff, the bartender who knows and pours an eclectic mix of wine and fine whiskeys. Steaks are big and butter-laden, and sides are heavy as well, but the service at Pappas is as coddling as ever.

When The Grape closed in 2019, the heartbreak that Dallasites felt was palpable. Sister, which opened in the same space in late 2021, has filled the role of lower Greenville’s neighborly bistro admirably. With its menu of “loose Italian” and Mediterranean-inspired dishes, a visit to Sister is a delightful journey of pastas, proteins and vegetables layered with imaginative flavor combinations. Culinary director J. Chastain says his team wants meals at Sister to truly make you feel at home. “We like to think of it as coming to a dinner party at our house," Chastain says. "It's food we want to cook, and it's like you're our friends.”

Top Pick: Sister’s menu is designed for sharing among the table. Don’t miss the grilled focaccia with house-made mortadella, and definitely save room for the banana budino when it’s time to order dessert.