Recipe Oak Cliff is not your average juice bar. Whether you're ordering from the menu or chatting it up with owner Tisha Crear, who always has a great suggestion, Recipe Oak Cliff makes you feel at home — if your home was stocked with plant-based meals and fresh juices and smoothies. If you're feeling timid, start with the fresh watermelon juice.

Sweet Georgia Brown is one of the first places folks recommend when asked about soul food, and it's not hard to see why. Load up on your favorites like ribs, fried chicken, collard greens and mac-and-cheese. This cafeteria-style staple is open daily, but if you want to avoid the after-church crowd on Sundays, get your fix in late afternoon.

The Dallas Farmers Market has a lot of goodies, but a true gem is the Trinidad and Tobago family-run spot Caribbean Cabana. Why? They're bringing the flavors you yearn for in Caribbean food, from island favorites like oxtails to the jerk chicken sandwich that's impossible to eat in one sitting.

Meat is obsolete — at least that's how the vegan food truck SoulGood makes you feel. This food truck is serving up goods that'll satisfy any palate, plant-based or not. The fan favorite is the Vin Diezel, a vegan hot dog topped with vegan chili, banana peppers, sauerkraut and sweet relish.

"Craft" and "artisanal" ice cream was uber-hot in Dallas this year, with new shops opening all over the area. But our favorite spot to get a cool treat is actually a long-running chocolate shop: Dude, Sweet Chocolate. You'll only find one soft-serve flavor at a time, but this rich, velvety ice cream comes topped with the chocolatier's stellar chocolates as garnish. Seasonal flavors like peach with orange blossom cream and peach compote bring us back every few weeks to sample owner Katherine Clapner's new concoctions.

A new kid on the block, Humble Pie brings familiarity to East Dallas. From classic fruit pies like cherry and apple to coconut cream pie, owner Sean Jett emphasizes that simplicity is the key ingredient that keeps folks coming back for more. Pro tip: Cool off this summer with a slice of lemon icebox pie.

No high-end restaurant in Dallas can rival the consistent excellence of Tei-An. Teiichi Sakurai's flagship Arts District restaurant is one of the best Japanese restaurants in the entire country, and the best way to prove it is to order from the page listing the day's specials, featuring ultra-fresh seafood flown in just hours before on an airliner from Tokyo. Tasting menus showcase either a collection of Sakurai's greatest hits or a sampling of new, seasonally influenced items. Two regular features are must-orders: a bowl of soba noodles, which are made from scratch in the kitchen, and the nutty, almost savory, entirely magical black sesame mousse.

Sachet embodies the way that many of us want to eat now: vegetable-focused but not vegetarian, strongly seasonal, focused on small mezze-style plates so that we can sample a little of everything, healthy but with a sense of indulgence. Sachet's consistency is a marvel, and so is the way that the restaurant filters the entire Mediterranean basin through an American lens. Pastas like green garlic tortiglioni are outstanding, as is the single miniature pizza that features fontina, aromatic thyme and crispy roasted kale. Add in one of the city's most adventurous wine programs, an entire menu of gin-and-tonics featuring liquors from Spain and an irresistible almond cake, and it's clear that Sachet is a new Dallas classic.

As the Sichuan dining scene explodes in Plano, one older standby keeps getting more and more consistent. Sichuan Folk's lip-tingling hot dishes, alive with the taste of numbing peppercorns, are formidable and thrilling. Spicy fish is practically mandatory. The wontons, 10 for $5, are excellent. But it's possible to pass a satisfying meal here without encountering high heat by trying the marinated wood ear mushrooms and a noodle soup with a mellow savory broth. In its realm of expertise, Sichuan Folk is still setting the regional standard.

Early 2018 has seen a boom in upscale Italian restaurants across the Dallas region, from The Charles and Mille Lire near downtown to Frisco's Da Mario, which specializes in setting its pasta alla vodka on fire. But in many ways the original is still the best: Nonna, which just celebrated its 10th birthday, is as keenly attuned to the seasons as ever, basing its ever-changing menu on the freshest produce. As good as the stuffed squash blossoms and lobster ravioli might be, save room for main courses of fish, quail or lamb grilled in the wood-fired oven. They have a habit of stealing the show.