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Top 100 Bars: Our Annual List of the Best Bars in Dallas, Ranked

We've ranked the top dozen bars in Dallas and added new spots, all of which make Dallas an amazing place to sip and live.
July 16, 2025
Image: top 100 bars in dallas, boxcar
Pour another one for our updated list of the Top 100 Bars in Dallas, including the top 12 ranked. Alison McLean
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Each year, we revisit Dallas’ top 100 bars with a jolt of reality: Some beloved spots fall off the list, not because they’ve lost their edge, but because they have shuttered. This past year, we said goodbye to Exposition Park’s Wriggly Tin, the master of pop-ups Whippersnapper, Tina’s Continental, Swizzle and Neon Kitten. Promising newcomers like Pinkies Coffee + Cocktails, Palma’s speakeasy Ghost Donkey, Monkey Bar on 9 and Terrazza di Triozzi haven’t stood the test of time – yet.

In our quest to survey Dallas’ finest, we asked bar managers, drinkers and event organizers one question: What makes a good bar in Dallas? The consensus? Drinks aren’t enough. Location remains one of the biggest factors in a bar’s success. Over the past year, two neighborhoods have stood out: Bishop Arts and Knox Henderson.

According to Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission records, drinking in Dallas ain’t dead. We still love our booze, and plenty of it, but we’re tiring of money grabs.

“Flex culture is dying and individuality and storytelling is on the rise,” says DJ Alexander Chase, a 15-year nightlife veteran. “Bars like Atlas, Milo Butterfingers or even Columbian Country Club are thriving right now because they tell a story and allow space for individuality and conversations, versus who you are and what you do.”

It’s not just what you're serving. It’s who is serving it, how, to whom, for what price and whether the quality and ambiance are worth coming back for. Dallas drinkers, for the most part, want more than ring-light ready setups and buzz with the lifespan of a fly. Dallas wants to have fun, but more than that, Dallas wants connection.

The see-and-be-seen, flashy bottle service culture is fading. In its place, Dallas’ most passionate and talented spirits purveyors are raising the bar — pun intended — on quality, craftsmanship and skill. The city’s bar scene spans specialty bars with national cred, to hole-in-the-wall haunts, swanky rooftop lounges, essential Irish pubs and those vital mainstays that fuel our sanity.

We scoured the city to find the style, substance and heart, places where you can get a drink that not only looks good, but tastes good, too, ideally paired with some conversation worth having. This year’s list honors bars fueling neighborhood rebirths and third places where identity, integrity and intentionality and novelty so undeniably Dallas collide. — Desiree Gutierrez

The Dallas Dozen, Ranked

When we think about the best bars in Dallas, we like to think of the bars that make Dallas great. A mix of refined dives, classic cocktails, that unique Big D panache with a touch of sexy mystique. Here are a dozen of the best bars in Dallas, ranked. Below that, you'll find the remaining top 100 bars in Big D.

  1. Tiny Victories, Oak Cliff/South Dallas
  2. Double Wide, Downtown/Deep Ellum
  3. Ruins, Downtown/Deep Ellum
  4. The Old Monk, East Dallas & Lakewood
  5. Katy Trail Ice House, Uptown/Oak Lawn
  6. Apothecary, East Dallas & Lakewood
  7. Black Swan Saloon, East Dallas & Lakewood
  8. The Grapevine Bar, Uptown/Oak Lawn
  9. Ayahuasca, Oak Cliff/South Dallas
  10. Mike's Gemini Twin, Oak Cliff/South Dallas
  11. Cosmo’s Bar & Lounge, East Dallas & Lakewood
  12. Lakewood Landing, East Dallas & Lakewood
click to enlarge
Of course Double Wide and its Peach Pounder are on our Top 100 bars list.
Lauren Drewes Daniels

Dive Bars

Dallas has an excellent dive bar scene. The original honkey tonk, Adair's Saloon, opened in 1963, followed by Inwood Tavern in 1964, which might seem long in the tooth, but not compared to Ships Lounge, which opened in 1947. Newer places like The Peak Inn and Brick and Bones still have that nonchalant grit that makes for the perfect setting for a dark beer in a dark bar. Here are our favorites:

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La Reunion in the Bishop Arts is part cafe, but also a top 100 bar.
Lauren Drewes Daniels

Neighborhood Bars

Neighborhood bars aren't quite as dark and brooding as dive bars, but not as loud as a sports bar or a club. These are low-key places, often with great food, and always a seat waiting for you. Anyone is welcome, all the time.

Cold Beer Here

Craft beer certainly has come a long way in the past decade and many local bars keep local suds on tap, not because its trendy rather its what they like. Several pubs also keep a nice roster of imports as well. If you want to have your Guiness poured properly or get the latest local hazy IPA, here are the best options:

click to enlarge boxcar top 100 bars dallas
Boxcar is one of our favorite new cocktail bars on the top 100 bars.
Alison McLean

Cocktail Bars

A properly mixed cocktail is a laborious work of art, as anyone who has ever tried to make their own rosemary syrup can attest. Life's too short to waste your day on a balance you'll never achieve; let's these bars do it for you:

click to enlarge Bar W in Dallas
Bar W is new to our top 100 bars list this year.
Lauren Drewes Daniels

Sports Bars

Dallas is a sports town, and we love to gather to root on our teams, even if that's a Love Island watch party. If you need sound up, and don't want to hassle with a bartender who doesn't know how to work the remote, hit these spots.

Bars with Music

Wonder where the local music is? These places. Go to them. Support our local music scene and make some new friends.

click to enlarge espresso martini from hugo's.
Our new crush in the Bishop Arts is Hugo's, which is on our top 100 bars, but could do double time on our top 100 restaurants.
Lauren Drewes Daniels

Bars with Great Food

Below are all the bars that we could easily slide into our top 100 restaurants lists. It's a hard thing to distinguish between a bar with great food or a restaurant with a superior bar. Alas, we persist. Here are the best bars to hit when you need more than a hot dog (if you're looking for just a martini and hot dog, then of course you'll go to Mike's Gemini Twin.)

Club Vibes

Zzzz-zzz-zzz. Sometimes you just want — negatory, need — to hit the club. Dallas definitely has some high-end club scenes, and here are our favorites.

Image: Desiree Gutierrez
Desiree Gutierrez is a Dallas-based arts and culture journalist who dabbles in food writing. She joined the Dallas Observer as an arts and music intern in fall 2021. Since then, she has been a contributing writer and has written for D Magazine and SUCCESS Magazine.
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Image: Lauren Drewes Daniels
Lauren Drewes Daniels is the food editor of the Dallas Observer. She started working as a freelance writer in 2013 and became editor in 2021. She covers Dallas' evolving dining scene, the many openings and closings as well as trends and breaking news. She oversees annual lists including Top 100 Bars and Top 100 Restaurants and contributes to the Best of Dallas. If you have a tip about an amazing pastry, pie or taco, let her know.
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Image: Lauren Durie
With a focus on offbeat adventures and things you didn’t even know you wanted on your bucket list, Lauren always seeks out the weirdest and wackiest beats and bites to prove there’s no such thing as a flyover city or state. An accidental Texan by way of Denver and Chicago, she’s having fun exploring Dallas and is forever in search of the best hot pot, bagel and noodle bowl. You can follow the (mis)adventures on her blog theDownLo.com or on Insta @lmonitz.
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