Locations in Dallas

This storied, family-owned (now into its fourth generation) restaurant and its sibling establishments have been dishing out some of Dallas' favorite thin-crust pizza and Italian-American cuisine since 1946. Eating here is like dining with history. (The strip mall in which the original restaurant sits seems like a relic itself in stark contrast to the stylish Mockingbird Station development within spitting distance.) The night before Jack Ruby, a Campisi's regular, killed Lee Harvey Oswald, he dined at the darkly lit Campisi's on Mockingbird Lane. Legendary American League umpire Steve Palermo was shot while attempting to stop a mugging outside the same location. If local lore isn't your thing, the snappy pizza or one of the house specialties, such as the "Original" shrimp scampi, or the customizable pasta options, might be. The Campisis also offers catering. One of the packages is named after Jack Ruby. http://www.dallasobserver.com/best-of/2011/food-and-drink/best-italian-restaurant-6463140

It's been said that nothing good comes from someone or something named Chuy. This Tex-Mex restaurant chain nips that adage in the bud. Decorated in bright colors and kitschy send-ups of all things Tex-Mex, the first Chuy's began offering popular favorites with a side of The King—Elvis Presley, that is—in 1982, when Mike Young and John Zapp opened their original location in Austin. Elvis is so revered at Chuy's that annually on January 8 the restaurant celebrates The Pelvis' birthday with a blowout. Can't make it to the party? No problem. The signature Elvis Presley Memorial Combo is available year round. Another signature dish is the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Enchiladas, made with freshly hand-rolled tortillas.

Cultivar Coffee, which shares a space with Goodfriend Package, serves up some of the best coffee in town. As any good roaster knows, roasting coffee is a blend of art and science in a process that requires skill and a bit of intuition. As they inform their customers on the site: "During the roasting process, countless chemical reactions are transforming the natural sugars and lipids in the bean; unlocking many potential flavors in order to highlight the unique flavor characteristics found within each coffee." So, you don't want roasters who are just setting a timer and waiting for a ding. You want people who are constantly experimenting and looking for unique flavor notes and who can tweak the roast to bring out the perfect flavor of the bean. Just surf on over to Cultivar's website to learn more about their beans and business philosophy.

The saying goes that friends are the family you get to choose. Local bars are like this, too, and Goodfriend is that kind of bar. Dubbed a Beer Garden and Burger House, it brings something new to a section of East Dallas that's been ready for change. An impressive cedar pergola outside coupled with a sleek interior design make for a great place to drink and grab a bite. A competent menu of bar food comprised of smoked pork nachos, towering sandwiches and solid burgers, including the Alamo, a brisket, avocado and queso combo that you won't forget.

Pizza shouldn't be crushed under the weight of a farm field of ingredients. That's the guiding principle at Sammy Mandell and Chris Cook's pizzeria, though customers have the option to weigh down pies with everything from grilled shrimp to zucchini. If you don't have enough room in your gut for a The Mes-Kin, with sour cream, cilantro and poblano chile y mas, order by the (giant) slice or give the orange chipotle wings a whirl. The pizzeria's meatball sub has garnered praise in the pages of the Dallas Observer, being christened as the best sandwich of 2008. The pizza joint is best known, however, as a late-night destination. The lines can seem infinite after the bars and clubs closed down, but that doesn't prevent revelers from flocking to the place.

Happy Lemon, a Taiwan-based boba tea company, is famous for bubble teas, citrusy teas and slushies, as well as bubble waffles and salted cheese drinks. The menu is extensive and complicated for someone with no experience in cheese drinks, ice and sugar ratios, or boba, but in our experience the staff is super helpful with explaining it. We started with black tea with salted cheese. The verdict? This was some of the best stuff sipped in a long time. The salted cheese sat atop the tea much like whipped cream would, or a foam, and had a similar texture. We alternated between just sucking it down with the straw at the bottom of the glass, and moving the straw within the delightful cheese foam to get an extremely satisfying mixture of the tea and cheese. It was surprising in a good way. Other salted cheese options include green tea, chocolate smoothie, roast tea, matcha latter, dragon fruit and mango. Be sure to save room (or make a run for) their bubble waffles. We selected two original (plain not flavored batter) waffles, one with and one without boba, and opted for a puff cream dipping sauce. Oh man. This was so good we immediately regretted not ordering more (other flavors/fillings include matcha, chocolate, red bean, or Oreo). The waffles were perfectly cooked and warm, not too sweet, with a delicate texture. The air pocket bubbles presented a lovely mouth feel as well as the perfect location to house the boba. They also offer a slew of other beverages including milk teas, fruit teas, smoothies, yakult  and classic brewed teas. They have a large list of toppings that can be added to any of the teas such as boba, grass jelly, red bean, taro balls, puff cream or passion fruit seeds as well.

Primo Brothers Pizza offers a solid representation of New York-style pies – the kind of thin, crisp-crust slices you’ll want to fold in half for easy devouring. Framed black and white photos on the wall drive the New York theme home, and there are a couple televisions for all your SportsCenter-viewing needs. Lunch hour tends to get busy, with nearby office workers crowding in for the $5 lunch special of a slice, a salad and a soda. Not in the mood for pizza? The Brothers also offer “award-winning” calamari, wings, subs and a plethora of pasta from cannelloni to lasagna, plus every Italian chicken dish imaginable, from marsala to picatta. Finish up with a house-made chocolate chip cannoli. The Primo Brothers encourage you to BYOB, although we can’t promise your boss will approve of your mid-day chianti guzzling.

The eponymous Sal opened his first hand-tossed pie shop in New York in 1975. Since moving the operation to Big D in 1982, Sal's has outgrown its original location and now includes a Plano branch. Both spots offer classic New York-style pizza, such as the traditional Margherita, white and Alfredo varieties. They also offer signature selections like Sal's Special and Sal's Giant 20-inch Pizza. The normal multitude of toppings is available for customization. However, Sal's does more than pizza. Appetizers like shrimp scampi, fried calamari and bruschetta are yours for the munching, as are standard pasta options and traditional veal and chicken dishes. Oh, if you have a hankering for meatball Parmesan or Philly cheesesteak, Sal's got you covered.

Great spot for inexpensive Middle Eastern food – specifically Persian cuisine, the owner's specialty. Check out the lunch buffet, which features a couple of meat entrées, plus rice, fresh salads, soup and shishkabobs of spiced, marinated chicken and ground beef. One of the buffet dishes, the Khoresht-e-Quymeh Bad Emjoon – braised beef in a delicious sauce of chickpeas, eggplant and tomato – was especially tasty. Also on the menu are stuffed grape leaves and other types of shishkabobs, including lamb and Cornish hen. Service is very friendly; environs attractive but a bit cramped.

The popularity of cupcakes seems not to wane however much another handheld dessert is claimed to supplant it. Chief among cupcake flavors is red velvet. The same is true at Sprinkles, a cupcake concern that came fresh out of the oven in Beverly Hills, quickly becoming a favorite of the Hollywood glitterati. The red velvet at Sprinkles not only comes in run of the mill form (as if that were possible), it is also available in gluten-free and vegan varieties. The dark chocolate, made with Belgian chocolate, and coconut, made with Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, are among the crowd-pleasers for those who frequent this chic sweets boutique in Preston Center.

Ben Spies of MotoGP bike racing is part owner of Stackhouse Burgers, and at times can be found having a burger at the bar. The restaurant’s other owner, Randy Kienast, is a local homebuilder who completely renovated the old house into a burger joint. Stackhouse burgers are made with a blend of brisket and chuck on brioche-style custom-made buns. The burger menu is straightforward: single (6 ounces), double or veggie. Add-ons include cheese, bacon, chili, avocado, curds and fried egg. In addition to juicy burgers and a space with loads of vintage charm, one of the standout features of Stackhouse is the view of downtown from the upstairs roof-top patio.

Vegan food house has become a staple of vegan dining in Dallas. Here "chicken wings" and soul food are so bright and flavorful, you'll soon forget that your carnivorous ways. It's not the diet that will bring you back, rather the flavor of care put into every dish.

Wok Star offers a range of authentic Chinese dishes and hand-pulled la mian noodles in the ambiance of Top 40 hits. The space has a bright red aesthetic with paintings of icons like David Bowie, Lady Gaga and more. Cocktails reference rock stars too; The sweet I’m Too Sexy is made with Deep Eddy lime vodka, Malibu watermelon rum, lime soda and grenadine, adorably topped with an arrangement of Sour Patch kids. A more groovy concoction is the Uptown Funk, made with rum, Cristal, blood orange liqueur, lime and pineapple. Be adventurous when ordering. Sure there are traditional dishes, but go for the la mian, which are noodles hand-pulled in-store daily. Chef Charlie Zhang may even put on a noodle slinging show for you. Overall, Wok Star is a fun place to hang out and vibe over good music and drinks.

For creative eccentricity, no pizza place in town can top ZaLat, which is unafraid to make a pizza that tastes like pho, elote, a Reuben sandwich or a loaded baked potato. But the flavors aren’t a stoner novelty gimmick; ZaLat builds on a great crust with top-shelf ingredients. Our favorites include the Zealot, ZaLat’s version of a supreme, and the O.G., which pairs pepperoni and salami with the pickly punch of giardiniera and such a heavy showering of black pepper that it practically counts as a topping. Oh, and if stoner novelty gimmicks are actually what you want, the online ordering system — which has a dazzling range of customization options — allows you to request that one random slice of pizza be secretly made extra-spicy as a prank.

Top pick: For a complete meal, add a Caesar salad and a tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, which, yes, ZaLat also sells for takeout or delivery.

The downside: During peak mealtimes, ZaLat can take a half-hour or more to prepare your pizza, so plan ahead. It’s just another sign of the chain’s swelling popularity across the Dallas area.

Fun fact: Several of the restaurant’s locations are actually delivery-ready “ghost” kitchens you can’t visit in person.