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Make 5 Dinners in One Hour

Debt ceilings and the predicted apocalypse don't seem to have any effects on our appetites or schedules. We have to credit Michelle Dudley of Wylie for making it easier to feed five mouths (and yes, that can mean one or two mouths, for two to five meals in a row) on a budget. With a three-month subscription for $15, meal planning maven Dudley sends a monthly newsletter including weekly dinner menus and complete shopping lists for five nights of entrées and suggested sides that can all be prepped and stored in one hour during the weekend. Each weeknight, grab one, follow heating instructions and a homemade dinner is ready for four to six people. Shockingly, the entrées aren't just tuna casserole-types, but simple, tasty recipes for Greek steak, fun sliders and even fish. Ingredients add up to around $65 at typical groceries, but with all the tips Dudley offers on her blog — posts on prepping lunches, coupon hints and varying recipes — you could spend even less money and time. If the end is near, you won't be wasting time cooking dinner.

Best Menu Expansion

Good 2 Go Taco

Good 2 Go Taco co-owners Jeana Johnson and Colleen O'Hare once set up shop in a gas station, offering daily specials. After a brief hiatus from serving (spent prepping a new location), the duo opened up the Good 2 Go storefront near the corner of Peavy and Garland Roads in January. They offered a few favorite lunch and breakfast selections along with a BYO breakfast taco option. In May, however, some old favorites from the Green Spot days made it to their rightful permanent places on the menu boards. The Navin R. Johnson (jerk chicken, naturally), Minnie Pearl (veggies and couscous) and School Daze (Sriracha-glazed meatloaf and mashed potatoes) joined Swine Bleu, Hotlanta and others. Breakfast tacos expanded from four to six, and salads, sides, wraps and daily specials further amped up the offerings. To top it all off, Cultivar Coffee's bar adds a classy caffeine buzz to taco time.

Best Chicken-Fried Steak

Central 214's Chicken-Fried Kobe Steak

Central 214 and Hotel Palomar are the "it" couple of room service, what with the American restaurant helmed by chef Blythe Beck providing vittles for hotel guests 24/7. And the chicken-fried Kobe steak is the best meal (aka "food tryst") we've ever had in a hotel room. We're talking legit last meal material. A Beck signature dish, the chicken-fried Kobe steak is home-style Americana uplifted to fine dining. It's perfectly decadent and totally accessible. The Kobe is tender beneath the crispy batter and pour-it-yourself bacon red-eye gravy. After the accompanying mustard greens and butter-whipped potatoes, the perfect dessert is knowing that once the dinner cart is wheeled out, unbuckling (or ditching) pants doesn't require driving home first.

Best Brunch

The Grape

Beth Rankin
Since its burger garnered statewide attention from Texas Monthly, The Grape has become a popular spot for casual Sunday brunch, but that decadent burger, as tasty as it is, is just one of the mouth-watering menu items that make this the best brunch. Whether you're in the mood for a perfectly poached egg and house-made hollandaise in your eggs Benedict or a plate of warm, gooey sticky buns made with love, The Grape always delivers superb food and equally praiseworthy service. Even the most boring of brunchers will appreciate their classic American breakfast platter of eggs any style, bacon or sausage and hash.

Best Christmas Tamales

La Popular

Taryn Walker
Christmas tamales are any kind of tamales you eat at Christmas. Long a Texas tradition, Christmas tamale-making used to be a family affair, called a tamalada. Now the closest most of us can get is buying our Christmas tamales from the city's best-known tamale-making family, the Morenos. They are the longtime proprietors of La Popular, a shop that moved up the street a bit a few years ago, and now also a cool little sit-down restaurant at the Farmers Market. La Popular is a great place to buy tamales year-round, but if you're counting on them for Christmas, you need to get your order in early. You wouldn't believe the demand, and sometimes they run out. By the way, tamales are easy to freeze.

Best Doughnuts

Shipley's Donuts

It takes a lot for us to admit that something good can come from Houston, but we've found the greatest import from our sister to the south in Shipley's Donuts. Krispy Kreme lovers take note: Real doughnuts contain more dough than air, and that's exactly what you get in a Shipley's doughnut. Whether you keep it simple with glazed favorites or go all out with an iced-and-sprinkled creation, the doughnuts are always moist and melt-in-your-mouth amazing. They also have more options than your standard mom-and-pop shop or that chain, but nothing is quite better than the simple glazed doughnut, especially right after dawn when they're still warm. And if you don't have a sweet tooth, go for the Big Earl kolache, named for former pro-footballer Earl Campbell. Fair warning though: Make sure you're really hungry.

Best Taqueria

Tacos El Guero

It's the one question that newly minted Dallasites always ask: Who has the best tacos? It's an oft-argued subject, but those in the know will tell you that Tacos El Guero, tucked away on Bryan Street, serves the best tacos in town. First-time visitors are treated to a complimentary al pastor taco, which is the most flavorful and tender rendition we've sampled here. The barbacoa is a real stand-out, and so are the lengua, tripas and bistec tacos. The small taquería has only a few counter seats, so get your meal to go.

Best Use of Pork

The Tail End Sandwich at The Commissary

Sara+Kerens
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Since opening in April, John Tesar's new restaurant has been slinging out burgers and fries to the stylish crowds that frequent One Arts Plaza, but the best item on the menu isn't one of the burgers. The Tail End Sandwich is a gluttonous mix of ground beef, ground pork and pig tails, but wait, it gets better. The sammy's topped with a zesty green tomato chutney and a fat piece of roasted pork belly, and it's served on a brioche bun smeared with jalapeño mayo. It's like a major upgrade of the Sloppy Joe. Don't forget to order a side of sweet potato fries. That'll make you feel better about eating such a decadent sandwich.

Best Not-Quite-Free Samples

Brewsday Tuesday Flights at The Common Table

For serious beer lovers, The Common Table is a fine place to stop by any night of the week to see what's new. Manager Jeff Fryman, a certified cicerone (the beer equivalent to a sommelier), always has something interesting bottled up or on tap, and while the selection is modest compared with behemoth lists like those at the Flying Saucer or Meddlesome Moth, you know that whatever they have is fresh. But Tuesdays are our favorite, as the bar always taps a new keg or two and lowers prices on 20-ounce drafts by a couple bucks. Our favorite discount, though, is $3 off flights. You can pick and choose the five sample glasses or go with a themed recommendation. Since it opened, we've fantasized about looking at the draft menu and saying, "One of everything, please." This is as close as we'll get.

Best Waffle

The Lockhart Smokehouse Sauce and Fork Flip-Flop

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"No Forks! No Sauce! No Kidding!" was the slogan when Lockhart Smokehouse opened in the Bishop Arts District in February. That's the way things are at legendary smokehouses like Kreuz Market down in Lockhart. Gradually, though, the owners accepted that there's not much overlap between the yuppies and art patrons who patronize the Bishop Arts District and the educated, dedicated brisket fiends who make pilgrimages to the mecca of meat that is Central Texas. Dallas diners mostly grew up on Dickey's and Sonny Bryan's, chains where sauce is all too often necessary, and are simply puzzled by the Medieval Times-like forklessness. And so Lockhart compromised first on the fork stance, offering the utensils in exchange for charitable donations. Then, after successfully experimenting with sauces on Father's Day, they came to accept that Dallas is simply a sauce town, Texas tradition notwithstanding. We mostly abstain, though we'll put a dab of the sweet and tangy red sauce on the occasional dry slice or on fridge-desiccated leftovers, and the "Texabama" sauce, which could almost pass for honey mustard, is great on pork sandwiches. The slogan switch to "No Forks, No Sauce Needed" doesn't quite rank up there with "Four legs good, two legs better" when it comes to traitorous about-faces, and we certainly aren't going to gripe if it keeps the place in business.

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