The Grape

The Top 100 Dallas Restaurants, No. 22: Born in 1972, The Grape is Dallas’ quintessential bistro, a warm, cozy, even slightly cramped dining room where the walls are decorated with old wine cases and the food is creative but still comforting. The recipe for the superb mushroom soup, in which the mushrooms are diced just finely enough to still have texture and the creamy sherry broth is divine, is as old as the restaurant itself. But when chef Brian Luscher bought the place in 2007, he started tweaking other plates in beneficial ways, always with the goal of doing classics like steak frites and mustard-crusted salmon the right way. And the brunch service he introduced is a runaway success.

Top pick: Right now we’re in love with a plate of pork collar, fork-tender but with crispy, herb-crusted edges, served alongside Italian sausage and on a bed of outrageously rich polenta. There’s gardiniera to add some acidic kick and broccoli rabe to make us feel healthy. It’s perfect. Oh, and notice the praise for the burger, which appears in seemingly every framed newspaper clipping? That burger deserves every good word ever said about it.

The downside: For a restaurant that prides itself on well-chosen wines — look at its name — The Grape surprised us by recently serving a bottle of red at the temperature of a very well-heated room. Also, the restaurant’s legendary weekend brunches offer pleasures similar to dinner, but with double or triple the crowd size.

Fun fact: The Grape is the oldest restaurant on this list. It’s also one of just four restaurants in the Top 50 to have opened before 2001, along with Royal China, Tei Tei Robata and Dal Dong Nae.