Best Appetizer 2012 | Ten Bells Tavern's Pickled Eggs | Best of Dallas® 2020 | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Dallas | Dallas Observer
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Best Appetizer

Ten Bells Tavern's Pickled Eggs

Because you're tired of deviled eggs, that's why. Sure, you loved them when your mom made them at home to bring to picnics and tailgates. You loved them when they appeared on a bar menu all retro-like, too, but now that seven versions are sold at every Southern-fetishizing soul food and gastro-whatever in Texas, the snack is in danger of jumping the shark forever. Pickled eggs possess everything deviled eggs lack, with a vinegary brightness and old-school appeal that's right at home on Ten Bells Tavern's shelves next to the liquor bottles. This is the quintessential bar snack hiked up by a chef who takes his pub grub seriously. Try the onion and vinegar version if you want to be a traditionalist, but curry jalapeño eggs tinged with turmeric are twice as good. Don't pass on the medallion of weathered green chiles floating in the jar next to your prize. They were fresh when they were added, and now they're the best pickled jalapeños you'll ever consume.

Best Place to Spice Up Your Ketchup

Vickery Park

A Sunday brunch at Vickery Park is a rite of passage for some, but it's the little things that count. Like their ketchup, which is accented with Sriracha and makes french fries disappear with relative ease. We support any restaurant that skillfully uses a condiment to enhance a condiment.

Best Sunday Hangover Cure

The Chicken Biscuit at The Grape

Beth Rankin

Forget the so-called dark night of the soul. The real hour of spiritual blackness hits about 11 a.m. on a Sunday after a long night of drinking. That's when the big existential questions hit: Why? How long must suffering be endured? And holy shit, did I really drink/ingest/screw that? Take your broken essence and throbbing head to The Grape, where life affirmation comes in the form of a fried chicken patty covered in cheddar cheese, served on a jalapeño-cheese biscuit that is neither too dry, nor too soft. The Grape may be known best for its burgers, but on a Sunday morning, it's busy doing God's work.

Best Ice Cream

Carnival Barker's

Carnival Barker's ice creams are handmade in Deep Ellum one and a half gallons at a time, in wooden buckets with all natural ingredients, no fillers, no preservatives and way less air than the big names. It's all done in a super-strict commercial kitchen by a guy who went to Ice Cream U. in Pennsylvania to learn how. The flavors, from Fat Elvis to Vodka Nutella, are absolute knock-outs. The best place to find it to take home is Bolsa Mercado in Oak Cliff, and it's served at Bryan Street Tavern or City Tavern in Dallas.

Best Store-Bought Dessert

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Tracy Wilkinson-Claros moved to Austin from England in 2004 and immediately set about introducing her neighbors to authentic artisanal British hot puddings. Her "Sticky Toffee Pudding" is a confection you heat up for maybe 10 seconds in the microwave, just long enough to barely melt the topping, and serve on its own or in a bowl with whipping cream. It's made with fresh dates, whole eggs, espresso, butter, brown sugar and so on. It's got some fat in it and some cholesterol and some sugar, sure. It's not health food. Nobody said you had to sit down and eat the whole box with a spoon watching old movies at four in the morning. But if you just have to be that way, invite us over.

Best Chinese

Royal China

Nick Rallo

When you think handcrafted pasta in Dallas, the well-adorned creations of Nonna and Lucia are likely the first dishes to pop into your head. The intense, rich, seasonally inspired recipes change often, bringing a seemingly endless array of flavors. At Royal China, Zhang Xue Liang takes a different approach to his pasta making, and it's no less impressive. The Chinese noodle chef employs repetition, working hours on end to produce a small array of noodles that are simple and consistent. Liang starts with a small ball of rice flour dough he pulls into a disk before his arms turn to rubber and the disk lengthens into undulating waves. With a quick tear, and a flash of scissors those waves become wide-flat noodles that are dressed in an oily sauce of Sichuan peppercorns. Before you know it he's working with another piece of dough, this time a rope, that he draws open like curtains over and over again till the strands are as fine as the hair on a horse's tail. The thin, wispy noodles are even more impressive for their delicacy.

Best Rooftop Patio

Stackhouse Burgers

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As summer yields to cooler fall temperatures, Dallasites take to outdoor eating and drinking with warranted enthusiasm. While Dallas has assembled an impressive array of spaces to imbibe outdoors Stackhouse's rooftop deck may be the city's most impressive. Don't expect an expansive modern plateau with sprawling urban scenery. The roof on this house-turned-restaurant is appealing for its humble simplicity. Trees obscure most of the view, but just to the south, skyscrapers rise through the leaves like crooked teeth, while exhaust fans belch smoke and burger grease from the kitchen below. It doesn't hurt that the beer is cheap and those burgers are some of the best in the city. Put them together during sunset just as the skyline ignites. Grab some house fried potato chips with some amazing French onion dip while you're at it. This meal will stick in your memory for quite some time.

Best Farmers Market

White Rock Local Market

It may not be as big as the Dallas Farmers Market downtown. It may not even be as convenient, as the East Dallas pop-up market only "pops" every other weekend. But the White Rock Local Market makes up for these minor misgivings with a lot of heart. Despite more than 60 farmers, artisans and vendors listed on its website, the market maintains a surprisingly independent feel that resonates with the "back to roots" vibe that make farmers markets so appealing. Come to find the perfect tomato for your BLT, the sweetest peach for your summer pie, and meet the farmers who actually grew the products. If produce isn't your thing, you can grab a freshly baked baguette from Empire Bakery, artisan goat cheese from a local dairy or even a handcrafted hot dog on a freshly baked bun.

Best Jerk Chicken

Island Spot

While Dallas celebrates its recent barbecue renaissance with newcomers Lockhart Smokehouse and Pecan Lodge, a sleeper has been quietly smoking away in Carrollton. Island Spot's jerk chicken may not be as prized as a perfectly smoked brisket, but it's the best Jamaican 'cue in Dallas, for sure. Most spots use gas grills to cook their chicken or even (gasp!) bake it in the oven. Island Spot's version is indeed burned over petroleum. But they still manage to wrangle smoky flavors out of chicken as bits of spice and rendering fat drip down to the hot elements below. The results are a burst of perfume that starts as a wisp and builds to a billowing smokescreen. What's better is that the restaurant uses a coal-fired grill occasionally at large events like Taste of Addison and Taste of Dallas. The results may be hard to come by but they're worth seeking out. It just might take you all the way to Jamaica.

Best Middle Eastern

Pera Turkish Kitchen

The suburbs have always been known for superior ethnic restaurants. And superior suburban ethnic restaurants have always been known for their grittiness. With Pera Turkish kitchen you get all of the flavor, intensity and passion of real ethnic cooking, and you don't have to eat off of Styrofoam and wipe your mug with a paper napkin. The kebabs are great options for big, grilled flavors, and ezma brings a host of new, interesting flavors — if the ezma's tart pomegranate and sweet molasses don't do it for you, there are always hummus, tabouleh and baba ganoush to fall back on. Order all three and tear into as much pide bread as your stomach can handle. The waiters bring the freshly baked loaves out a few at a time and they're thicker and more puck-like than the pita breads you're used to. Use them as a bulldozer to plow through as many of the meza as you can fit on your table and then order a few more.

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