Kalachandji's Palace & Restaurant

Kalachandji’s, inside a Hare Krishna temple in East Dallas, lets its employees decide the day’s buffet menu. Whatever they’re serving, it will probably be recognizably Indian or Indian-influenced, it will definitely be vegetarian, and you will be able to eat it in a dining room where the line between indoor and outdoor seating is charmingly blurred. Come by for lunch or dinner every day except Monday and enjoy probably the best buffet in Dallas, and certainly the most memorable. On Thursday nights, there are also come-as-you-are cooking classes, which teach paneer making and other vegetarian techniques.

Fun fact: Only one restaurant on this list, Royal China, has been serving food for longer than Kalachandji’s, which is 37 years old. (Jimmy’s Food Store has been around longer, too, but for its first few decades it was more focused on being a grocery.)