TEXAS
The New Fort Worth: 12 Restaurants Redefining the City's Food Scene
By Rebecca Thompson | June 15, 2025
Goldee’s Barbecue
AUTHOR BIO: Rebecca Thompson has held many jobs over the years, from daily newspaper writer to math teacher. As a restaurant critic, she’s searched her home state of Texas for the best brisket and tacos and will gladly debate the merits of combining the two.
I’ve known Fort Worth for a generation.
Back then, it was barbecue and beer joints, brisket served on butcher paper, and the smell of smoke curling through the Stockyards. These days, the city still knows its way around a pit, but it also speaks French, flirts with veganism, and hands its kitchens to chefs who’ve staged in places like Paris and Addis Ababa.
Fort Worth has grown up—cosmopolitan but unpretentious—and I’ve come to love it even more for that. After years of eating, scribbling, and second helpings, I’ve narrowed my favorite spots down to this list—the definitive answer to the question of where to find the best restaurants near me in Fort Worth.
1. Chumley House
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Walking into The Chumley House—the latest from Dallas-based Duro Hospitality—you don’t just sit down; you cross into another country. The mahogany-paneled Study, Chesterfield leather banquettes, and muted bar chatter feel more London club than Cowtown. The menu riffs on European comfort—beef Wellington in puff pastry, butter chicken pie with coriander-glazed vegetables, Stroganoff with ricotta dumplings, and porterhouse halibut with chimichurri—plus steaks like bone-in rib-eye and halibut “porterhouse” for surf-and-turf fans. Tables open with fresh scones and rose‑lychee tea—a handshake before the main act. Dinner here isn’t about trying to impress; it’s about disappearing into ambiance, punchy dishes, and polished service that has you feeling both homey and faraway.
2. Le Margot
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Le Margot, the French-ish brasserie from Felipe Armenta and Graham Elliot, does duck à l’orange and gnocchi with panache. On West Magnolia, it’s elegant without feeling stiff, indulgent without being Instagram-thirsty. I stopped in midweek for an app and martini and stayed through dessert.
3. Caterina’s
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Chef Tim Love turned Fort Worth’s Stockyards into a sanctuary from screens—mandatory jacket, locked pouch for your phone, rotary-phone emergency line, and Sinatra crooning through the brick-walled room. The menu leans into classic Italian American: think rigatoni alla vodka and Wagyu strip served without distraction. I left feeling like dinner was a memory, not just a meal—and I didn’t take a single photo.
4. Don Artemio
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The kitchen at Don Artemio runs on nixtamalized corn, dry-aged Wagyu, and quiet confidence. Chef-owner Juan Ramón Cárdenas Cantú, a Saltillo native with a degree in food engineering and a background that includes Daniel Boulud’s kitchen, brought his son Rodrigo to run the stoves. Their charcoal-grilled carne asada is the move—dry-aged from Rosewood Ranch and served with a serrano chile aioli you’ll consider drinking. Even the cactus fries come out hot and dusted in magic. It’s not trying to impress you with trend—just precision.
5. 61 Osteria
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Downtown’s 61 Osteria nails that modern-Italian sweet spot: simple, smart, composed. Best of all, the ingredients here are largely sourced not far away, making this elegant spot feel more like Texas meets Italy. Burrata on toasted focaccia, housemade pasta with guanciale and saffron—this place understands restraint. Service is slick without smarm, and the wine list speaks softly but firmly in Italian.
6. Goldee’s Barbecue
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In Southeast Fort Worth, Goldee’s is run by childhood friends Jalen Heard, Lane Milne, and Jonny White, smoking premium Black Angus over post-oak just three days a week. Everything’s deliberate, which is why they earned a Bib Gourmand in the inaugural Michelin Guide for Texas. I’ve waited hours under the sun, and let me tell you: that brisket, slice after perfect slice, keeps you rooted to the spot.
7. Ellerbe Fine Foods
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Chef Molly McCook turned a former gas station into Ellerbe Fine Foods in Arlington Heights. Her seasonal Southern plates—Gulf fish on stone-ground grits, locally sourced veg—have been drawing diners for years. I once spent three hours catching up with a friend here, the kind of place that makes time irrelevant.
8. Gemelle
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Gemelle, at Tim Love’s boutique Hotel Otto, does garden vibes, small plates, and sheet pan pizza like it’s hosting a garden party you’ve always wanted to be invited to. Cacio e pepe that actually has bite. Aperol spritz like it matters.
9. Birrieria y Taqueria Cortez
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Birrieria y Taqueria Cortez began as a food truck and now draws steady lines to its East Rosedale shop. The menu sticks to all-beef birria—tacos, quesatacos, flautas, even birria pizza—based on a Jalisco family recipe. The quesataco, crisp-edged and dripping with cheese, deserves every dunk in the consommé, so rich and deeply flavored it has earned the place a spot in the Michelin Guide.
10. Maiden
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Maiden, the vegan fine-dining concept from husband-and-wife team James Johnston and Amy McNutt, launched in the Near Southside after their success with Spiral Diner & Bakery. They serve an eight-course, all‑vegan tasting menu (about $150) that changes each solstice and equinox, plus snug weekend tea service. Sunday roasts are a highlight—think all-vegan Filet served alongside the crispiest potatoes you’ve ever tasted. This is plant-based hospitality that doesn’t hide in the back of the menu—it owns the table.
11. Panther City BBQ
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Panther City BBQ started as a food truck and now holds court just off South Main, with picnic tables out front and offset pits puffing away behind. The brisket is textbook—thick slices, smoke ring, pepper-heavy rub—and you’ll want to get there early before the line snakes past the fence. They lean Tex-Mex too, with brisket burritos and street tacos, plus sides that actually matter—like the smoked mac and that potato salad built from baked and smashed red potatoes with cheese and scallions.
12. Smoke ’N Ash BBQ
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Yes, this will require a drive to nearby Arlington, but Smoke ’N Ash invented the concept of Tex–Ethiopian barbecue. Co-chefs Fasicka Hicks and Patrick Hicks throw brisket into enchiladas and doro wat rubs into pork ribs. It’s bold, unexpected, and still fully Texan.
