TEXAS | THE SOUTH

Arlington’s Best Restaurants, From Birria Tacos to Michelin-Listed Barbecue

By Rebecca Thompson | Dec. 13, 2025

Hurtado Barbecue

AUTHOR BIO: Rebecca Thompson has held many jobs over the years, from daily newspaper writer to middle-school math teacher. As a restaurant critic, she’s reviewed everything from Michelin-starred fine-dining to barbecue counters in the back of gas stations.

I’ve bounced between Arlington, Fort Worth, and Dallas for most of my adult life, which means I have lived the full Metroplex reality: you can be 15 miles away and still feel like you are in a different country. Arlington is the place people treat like a highway between other plans, which is funny, because it is also where I have eaten some of my most reliable meals.

A couple times a week, I get the same text from friends who think they are asking a fresh question: “What’s good in Arlington?” The list below is what I keep sending back. It is not built around the usual copy-and-paste “best of” suspects, and it is not a tour of chains pretending to be local. It is a mix of barbecue and birria, a Michelin-listed smokehouse that rewires what “Texas barbecue” can mean, a proper old-school Italian spot, and a few downtown places that understand dinner can turn into a night.

These are the 12 restaurants in Arlington that hold up when you go back, which is the only test that matters.

225 BBQ

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225 BBQ is Texas barbecue with a clear Mexican twist, and it leans into that idea instead of treating it like a gimmick. I always start with the birria tacos, then add something smoked—brisket or ribs—so there’s both sides of the personality in one meal. It’s not always available, but they also do a beef rib birria ramen that made me take a moment the first time I had it.

Best for: Barbecue with birria energy

Cafe Americana

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Cafe Americana is a downtown Arlington restaurant that moves easily between “American classics” and a menu that borrows from everywhere without turning into a trivia game. The best way to order is to bounce around the small plates—yucca bravas, salmon tartar, grilled lamb skewers—then land on something bigger like the New York strip. It feels built for a long dinner where the table keeps adding one more thing.

Best for: A downtown dinner that turns into drinks

Cut & Bourbon

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Cut & Bourbon is the steakhouse at Live! by Loews Arlington, and it does the straightforward, comfortable hotel-steakhouse thing better than most places. chef Robert Carr runs the kitchen, and the menu hits familiar markers like oysters, shrimp cocktail, tuna tartare, crab cake, and a big pork chop alongside the steaks. I would go here when I want a polished room and a meal that does not require decoding.

Best for: A steak-and-seafood night near the Entertainment District

Division Brewing

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Division Brewing is a brewery first, but the food is not an afterthought, especially if you like tavern-style thin-crust pizza and smash burgers. The space reads casual and local, with the kind of taproom setup that makes it easy to stay longer than planned. I would order a pizza, add a burger if the table is hungry, and let the beer handle the rest.

Best for: Beer and a low-effort hang with real food

Hearsay Arlington

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Hearsay Arlington is dinner with a side of nightlife, and the menu is built for people who want their plates rich and their room dim. You can make a full meal out of the “Hearsay Classics” zone—catfish, butter-crusted seabass, Cajun prawn pasta—and then drift toward the cigar patio when the night wants to keep going.

Best for: Date night with cocktails and a cigar patio

Hurtado Barbecue

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Hurtado Barbecue does Central Texas smoking with a Tex-Mex accent, and it shows up fast once you start ordering. I would build the meal around brisket and ribs, then add birria tacos because they are part of the core identity here, not a novelty add-on. It is a good reminder that barbecue can still feel current.

Best for: Brisket plus birria in one stop

Piccolo Mondo

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Piccolo Mondo has been an Arlington fixture since 1983, and it was started by Antonio Capaccioli, who came from Siena and built the place around unapologetically Italian comfort. The menu runs from staples like spaghetti bolognese to bigger commitments like osso bucco Milanese, and there is also a piano bar with live music several nights a week. I go for an old-school dinner that still feels like a night out.

Best for: Classic Italian in a place with history

Restaurant506

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Restaurant506 is the fine-dining restaurant at The Sanford House Inn, and the setting immediately tells you this is where people pop the question and then celebrate the anniversaries that follow. The menu has the kind of starters that make you slow down—herb lamb lollipops, a pecan-crusted crab cake, and chipotle octopus tacos—before you move into the bigger plates. I come here when I want a dressed-up version of Arlington.

Best for: A date-night meal that feels special

$Smoke N Ash BBQ Tex-Ethiopian Arlington Best Restaurants$

Smoke’N Ash BBQ

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Smoke’N Ash BBQ is a Tex-Ethiopian barbecue spot where smoke meets Ethiopian spice, and it is the rare restaurant that genuinely feels singular. The signatures are specific—awaze brisket, smoked doro wat, rib tip tibs—and the meal makes sense once you start using injera to move through it. It is also Arlington’s only entry in the Texas Michelin Guide, as a “recommended restaurant,” which tracks because nothing here feels like a copy of something you’d get elsewhere.

Best for: Barbecue that does not taste like anybody else’s

Soy Cowboy

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Soy Cowboy is a pan-Asian restaurant in Arlington’s Loews, and it is built for groups who want to share and keep ordering. I would start with the snack section—crispy rice tuna, snow crab taco, glazed eggplant taco—and then let sushi and bigger plates take over. It works as a night-out restaurant, or a quick small plate before exploring Arlington’s Entertainment District.

Best for: A group dinner with variety and energy

Taqueria Maria Bonita

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Taqueria Maria Bonita is my Arlington reset button: fast, casual, and built around the stuff that tells you whether a taqueria is serious. I order street tacos on house-made tortillas—al pastor if I want pure satisfaction, suadero or lengua if I want to be reminded this is not a “Tex-Mex options” place—and I usually add a gordita or a torta if I am seriously hungry. If it’s morning, I switch gears to huevos rancheros or chilaquiles, because this is one of those rare spots that actually earns the right to be a breakfast text.

Best for: A cheap, reliable meal that hits every time

The Tipsy Oak

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The Tipsy Oak is an ice-house-style bar and restaurant with a big patio, and it leans into live music on the weekends. The menu is broader than you expect, which makes Tipsy Oak useful for groups, with everything from a lobster roll to monster burgers.

Best for: Patio time with live music and a real menu