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Where to Eat in Dallas: 20 Spots That Live Up to the Big D's Buzz
By Rebecca Thompson | June 22, 2025
Gemma's double wagyu burger
AUTHOR BIO: A former math teacher and restaurant critic, Rebecca Thompson has combed her home state of Texas for the best brisket and finest tacos and will gladly debate the merits of combining the two.
Ask Google for “restaurants near me in Dallas” and you’ll get a slurry of options: steakhouses with moody lighting, taco joints with neon signs, and more than a few places still riding the coattails of 2007.
But if you're actually hungry—and not just bored on your phone—we’ve put together something better. This is the short list. Not a roundup of tired institutions, not a tourist trap cheat sheet, but 20 Dallas restaurants that matter right now, run by chefs who are getting the Michelin stars, the James Beards, and more importantly, putting out the kind of dishes that show the Big D is as hot as ever.
1. Lucia
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You know how some restaurants feel like they’ve been there forever, even if you’ve only just discovered them? That’s Lucia. It’s a postage-stamp-sized spot tucked into Bishop Arts, where chef David Uygur makes pasta the way Italians do when they’re trying to show off for their grandmothers. The menu changes often, which feels like a flex—like, sure, they could give you a greatest hits album, but instead they’re going to play all B-sides and still blow your mind. I once had a rigatoni with beef shank ragu so rich it should have come with a nondisclosure agreement. Reservations aren’t easy, but that’s part of the charm. It’s not trying to win you over. It just does.
2. Mirador
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On the top floor of a downtown department store, Mirador is the finest of Dallas’ fine-dining restaurants. The room is bright and lovely, the kind of place where people take long lunches and pretend they’re not checking their phones. The menu leans fancy without being fussy—think lobster rolls, bright salads, and a very cold martini.
3. Via Triozzi
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Via Triozzi is the kind of Italian place where you sit at the bar and get talked into a second plate of pasta. They’ll tell you it’s because they just made it fresh, and you’ll believe them. The cacio e pepe is salty and rich in a way that feels vaguely inappropriate for a Tuesday.
4. Gemma
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There are restaurants where you come for the scene, and then there’s Gemma, where you come because the kitchen never misses. Chef Stephen Rogers and Allison Yoder opened this place over a decade ago, and somehow it’s only gotten better—so much so that Gemma earned a James Beard nomination for Outstanding Hospitality in 2024, which Dallas took as a personal victory. The shrimp ceviche lands bright and citrusy without drowning in acid, and the heirloom carrots over masa polenta feel like the dish that would win this year’s Thanksgiving. If you’re the type who judges a restaurant by its steak, the Akaushi ribeye for two, served with nothing but a green salad, is a practice in restraint. It’s a bistro, sure—but one that just might be the best in the city.
5. Georgie
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Georgie used to be the kind of steakhouse where you’d expect to overhear a tech guy explain crypto. Then chef RJ Yoakum took over and made it interesting—dry-aged beef, sure, but also charred cabbage with brown butter and lemon that I would genuinely fight a man for. The transformation was enough to get him a James Beard nod.
6. Sachet
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I walked into Sachet expecting the polished vibe of a city spot, but what smacked me first was the menu. A dozen thoughtful dishes, every one of them sounding like something I wanted to order, largely uncomplicated and showing off what’s in season. The Asian pear salad—with roasted butternut squash and warm, spiced pepitas—is the kind of starter that stops you mid-chew and makes you want to order it every time you come back. And then there's the lamb shank brodetto, slow-braised with root vegetables, mushrooms, and finished in a pomegranate glaze—it’s rustic comfort elevated, the kind of dish that’ll make you toast to whoever’s cooking. Sachet is the spot that’s earned a Michelin nod and kept its cool since before Dallas got recognition from the French tire makers.
7. Mābo
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The room is quiet and dark, the kind of place where you whisper things like “a5 wagyu” and “aged soy.” Mābo is Dallas’s first proper omakase experience, with the chef handing over 20 or so bites that escalate from simple to borderline theatrical. It’s a meal where you lose track of time, and also the names of fish you thought you knew.
8. Purépecha
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Attached to Revolver Taco Lounge, Chef Regino Rojas offers tasting menus of four or seven courses showing off the dishes of his hometown of Michoacan, Mexico. The plates are fine-dining interpretations of centuries-old recipes, with the highlight, carnitas, cooked confit-style in pork fat. And his quesadilla stuffed with hen of the woods mushroom and menonita cheese arrives blanketed in a heart-stopping mole verde—just simply one of the best dishes in town.
9. Smoke'N Ash BBQ
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Texas barbecue and Ethiopian spice don’t seem like natural partners until you try Smoke’N Ash in Arlington. Then you start wondering why nobody ever thought to wrap brisket in injera before. Fasicka and Patrick Hicks earned both a James Beard nomination and a spot in the Michelin Guide, recognition that they created something that somehow tastes both deeply traditional and completely new.
10. Bar Colette
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In December 2024, Bar Colette’s menu went through a remake thanks to Kazuhito “Kaz” Mabuchi, the executive chef and partner of Namo, Bar Colette’s sister restaurant next door. The menu is now Mabuchi’s creative takes on modern Japanese dishes and sushi. And while drinks alone make it worth a visit, Mabuchi is now just as much the draw. There’s also the vibe, the kind of slick space you’d expect in Midtown Manhattan, not Uptown Dallas. For dessert: Basque cheesecake, which might seem out of place until you learn, as I did, that it’s trending big-time in Tokyo these days—and who isn’t a sucker for a place where you can learn something new about food?
11. Starship Bagel
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If you believe the New Yorkers, no bagels outside the five boroughs are supposed to be this good. And yet: a dense, chewy circle of dough, hand-rolled, boiled, and topped with crisp poppy seeds that end up on your shirt the rest of the day. If you grew up on bagels that came in sleeves from the supermarket freezer aisle, this spot in Lewisville is corrective therapy.
12. Apothecary
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There’s something slightly sinister about this place. The cocktails arrive smoking or bubbling or served in tiny glass cauldrons. And the small plates are actually terrific—clever versions of tapas and bar snacks that are worth the visit on their own. It’s the only bar in Dallas where I’ve been handed a tiny course of crab with my drink, an experience I’d gladly repeat.
13. Little Blue Bistro
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This spot in Bishop Arts is small enough that if you sneeze, the bartender might hand you a napkin. It’s moody and charming and seems to exist on its own wavelength. There’s a patio out back and a natural wine list that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Order the escargot, even if you’re not the type who usually does.
14. Doña Maria
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This spot in Irving looks like a simple strip mall spot from the outside, which is exactly how you know it’s good. Inside, it’s a warm, slightly chaotic Dominican kitchen where you might get mofongo so garlicky it clears your sinuses, or a pastelón that tastes like your friend’s abuela made it for a party you’re not cool enough to be at. It’s not reinventing anything, just getting everything right.
15. Pillar
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The menu at Pillar in Bishop Arts looks like someone’s very well-traveled Pinterest board. You’ve got a little Japan, a little France, a little South Texas—somehow it works. Everything is plated just so, but none of it feels like it’s trying too hard. Bonus: you can get out of here for under $40 if you’re smart.
16. Le PasSage
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Le PasSage in Downtown merges French and Vietnamese in a way that sounds like a stretch until you taste it. The Pekin duck, pictured above is crispy-skinned and served splayed out prettily, along with ingredients to make little mu shu tacos. It's elegant without being stuffy, and yes, the waitstaff will pronounce everything correctly so you don’t have to.
17. Ramble Room
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Ramble Room in Snider Plaza is a restaurant built for the Highland Park set, but you don’t need a trust fund to eat here. The burger is beefy and a little messy, and the deviled eggs are spiked with something mysterious and delicious. Come for brunch and stay long enough to wonder what it’s like to live in one of the mansions down the street.
18. The Porch
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It’s been around for a while, but The Porch in Uptown has aged well, like a pair of boots you keep getting resoled. The shrimp and grits are still perfect, as is this dippable grilled cheese. You will see someone here ordering a salad with fried chicken on top and you will want that too.
19. Claremont
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In December 2024, brothers Greg and Nicholas Katz transformed the former Suze space into Claremont, a neighborhood grill designed to be a local gathering spot. The menu features comforting classics like pimento cheese, chicken wings, and a standout double-cut Duroc pork chop. Notably, the smoked brisket sliders are crafted using beef from Zavala’s Barbecue in Grand Prairie. The Katz brothers, originally from South Africa, infuse familial touches into Claremont, naming it after the Cape Town suburb where their grandparents reside. With its warm ambiance and thoughtfully curated menu, Claremont blends tradition with a fresh perspective.
20. Tejas BBQ
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There’s no dining room, no bar stools, no table numbers—just a walk-up window and the smell of smoked meat drifting down Peak Street. Tejas BBQ and Tacos is the new venture from Antonio Guevara and Tifany Swulius, longtime fixtures of East Dallas service life who finally opened their own place after years of working in kitchens, bars, and a whole lot of late-night pop-ups. Guevara handles the smoker, Swulius bakes and runs the front, and together they’re turning out tacos, brisket, and specials that are simple, unpretentious, and exactly what the neighborhood seems to want. It's to-go only, but you won’t mind—this food was made to be eaten over a hood of a car, or standing with a friend on the sidewalk.
