Dallas Likes It Expensive and Often

The new Zagat Survey's out covering the entirety of Texas' dining choices -- by which they mean "1,505 restaurants in Austin, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston and San Antonio." Tops in Dallas: The French Room at the Adolphus Hotel, nice. Also revealed: Folks in the DFW eat out four times a week, on average -- spending, oh, about $34.61 per meal, or a dollar more than the national average and tops in the state among the cities surveyed. The meat of the round-up: "Big D is as much about cuisine as it is about the Cowboys."

Dallas/Ft. Worth: Dallas has seen an influx of celebrity chefs opening up shop - a sign that Big D is as much about cuisine as it is about the Cowboys. New additions like Charlie Palmer's eponymous New American at the Joule Hotel, Laurent Tourondel's BLT Steak in the Galleria and Tom Colicchio's Craft at Victory Park show similarities to the goldrush of restaurant empire building of Las Vegas. Lone Star State chefs including Dean Fearing (ex Mansion on Turtle Creek) whose namesake restaurant at the new Ritz-Carlton and David Bull, who recently opened Bolla, an Italian eatery at the Stoneleigh Hotel are also adding to the top-notch dining options of the city. Emerging neighborhoods in southern Dallas and Ft. Worth are also flourishing with Tillman's Roadhouse in the Bishop Street Arts area and Nonna Tata, an Italian in Ft. Worth's Hospital District.