New to Dallas? Right here’s The place to Eat.

Dallas is an enormous, vibrant metropolis with a variety that surprises many guests blinded by outdated tropes of massive hats and oil. That extends to its meals. As a result of whereas Dallas is homebase to many company chains, it’s additionally sporting a proficient pool of cooks and among the state’s most enjoyable eating places.    

Eat your manner throughout the town, and also you’ll discover loads of eating places price your money and time, together with nice steakhouses and sufficient barbecue and tacos to maintain you busy for a 12 months. However the beneath lineup options 10 of one of the best and most attention-grabbing spots on the town — sure, together with a pair that serve barbecue and tacos. These eating places present a real style of Dallas, with choices that reach effectively past the chains and different ordinary suspects. Dig in, after which maintain your head on a swivel for extra good meals inside the town limits, in close by Fort Value, and within the surrounding suburbs.

A longtime anchor within the Bishop Arts district, Lucia continues to place out among the metropolis’s finest handmade pastas and house-cured salumi. The chef-owned Italian restaurant is as related in the present day because it was a decade in the past, with a regularly altering menu that options artistic small plates, pastas, meat and seafood dishes outdoors the field that many space Italian spots function in. To enrich the meals, Lucia has a considerate wine record, shares an assortment of vermouths, aperitifs and amari, and makes a imply Negroni.

287 N. Bishop Ave. (map) 

Within the entrance, Revolver serves an excellent unfold of tacos, together with the pulpo al pastor that was featured on the Netflix present Taco Chronicles. However the again room, dubbed Purépecha, is a wholly totally different eating expertise. Make a reservation for the seven-course tasting menu that highlights dishes from chef Regino Rojas’s house state of Michoacan, Mexico. The menu adjustments frequently however would possibly characteristic shiny ceviches, tacos on handmade heirloom corn tortillas and charcoal-grilled meats. With its tucked-away locale and a culinary workforce that features the chef’s mom and aunt, every meal feels such as you’ve been invited to a particular household dinner.

2701 Principal St. #120 (map) 

Dallas isn’t a hotbed of Brazilian meals, however that is perhaps why Meridian feels so very important. The glossy restaurant consists of favorites and trendy interpretations from chef Junior Borges’s native Brazil, with dishes accessible à la carte or by way of a tasting menu. If you happen to’re ordering for your self, begin with some recent baked bread and the playful “seashore cheese,” a grilled hunk of white cheese lined in honey. You may’t go mistaken with any of the seasonal vegetable dishes, which give a superb ramp as much as the bigger plates, just like the tilefish with charred plantains and coconut broth, or the wagyu picanha with potato pavé, chimichurri and smoked leeks. The cocktails get equally considerate remedy, and the service is all the time on level.

5650 Village Glen Dr. (map) 

Petra and the Beast upended the frequent notion that high-end meals needs to be served in a high-end setting. The restaurant opened in a Nineteen Thirties-era gasoline station in East Dallas with naked decor, animal cranium centerpieces and cabinets of jarred pickles, and it invited diners to belief chef Misti Norris and her distinctive viewpoint. The handmade charcuterie, pastas, charred greens and different dishes proved to be among the most enjoyable meals on the town, and the BYOB-fueled enjoyable lasted for 5 and a half years. Petra lately moved to new, bigger digs in Lakewood, full with a bar, so issues are altering. However now, Norris and her workers may have a roomier kitchen to function and experiment in, which may solely imply extra pleasure for diners.

1901 Abrams Rd. (map) 

Cry Wolf is small, with a single row of tables reverse the open kitchen and adjoining bar. The decor is finest described as the comfy curios room of a cat lover. And the culinary workforce is placing out one of the vital attention-grabbing menus accessible proper now. That menu adjustments usually, however latest dishes embrace ​​blue crab with truffle French dressing, fava beans, English peas and summer time truffles, and Jidori hen thigh with figs, chanterelles and hen glace. The wine record is small however mighty, with bottles you received’t discover many locations round city.

4422 Gaston Ave. (map)

When Tatsu debuted on the sting of Deep Ellum in Might 2022, it marked one of many greatest openings on this younger decade. Chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi plied his commerce at a few of New York’s finest omakase eating places earlier than decamping to Dallas and bringing that very same stage of meticulous element to his new 10-seat sushi counter. The Edomae-style omakase menu runs about 17 or 18 programs most nights, that includes fish that’s been lovingly cured and preserved in line with custom, however the chef nonetheless manages to shock diners with the occasional well-placed pop of spice or citrus. Tatsu builds on the tenured success of Tei-An and the more moderen Shoyo, to not point out the numerous nice sushi joints within the Dallas suburbs, additional displaying that Dallas deserves its rising fame as a sushi metropolis.

3309 Elm St., Ste 120 (map) 

Tiffany Derry has reached full superstar chef standing, and also you’re more likely to see the James Beard Award finalist on TV anytime you scroll by way of the standard networks. None of that’s modified her mission at Roots. The restaurant is impressed by the household meals that Derry grew up consuming within the south, and the menu options her well-known duck fat-fried hen, cast-iron cornbread, braised oxtails, duck and foie gras boudin, seasonal greens and different stuff you wish to eat. Convey a couple of buddies, and order as a lot as you possibly can match in your desk.

 13050 Bee St., Farmers Department (map)

At the moment ranked quantity six on Texas Month-to-month’s 50 Greatest BBQ Joints record, Cattleack has grow to be a marquee cease on the state’s more and more lengthy barbecue path. Open since 2010 in an assuming North Dallas strip, Cattleack is simply open Thursdays, Fridays and the primary Saturday of each month for lunch — a comically quick period for a spot that pulls in native devotees and highway trippers to pattern its glorious smoked meats and sides. Get the brisket and an enormous beef rib first, then you can begin filling the additional area in your tray with sausages, complete hog pulled pork, burnt finish beans and Hatch chili mac and cheese.

13628 Gamma Rd. (map) 

Whether or not you need tacos, seafood, mole or an excellent margarita, José hits all of the marks. The beautiful area features a welcoming bar, hand-painted tiles and attention-grabbing fixtures, but it surely’s the meals that retains diners coming again. Chef Anastacia Quiñones-Pittman applies her classical coaching to the Guadalajara-inspired restaurant, making recent masa for tacos, sopes and flautas, cooking up glorious hen mole and carnitas and displaying off her seafood prowess with crudos, ceviches, seared redfish and salmon al pastor. When it’s time for a drink, you possibly can spend hours working by way of the well-curated record of mezcals, tequilas and different agave distillates.

4931 W. Lovers Lane (map) 

With two Koreatowns — one within the Asian Commerce District and one in Carrollton — there’s an abundance of nice Korean eating places to select from. It’s price exploring each neighborhoods and checking a bunch of them off your record — but when it’s grilled meats you’re after, it’s exhausting to beat Ari. The snug restaurant serves reliably high-quality beef and pork, which you’ll grill on the grates in entrance of you, in addition to soups, banchan, soju and beer. Convey a bunch, fill your desk with quite a lot of proteins and extras, and maintain the grill going for hours. 
2625 Previous Denton Rd., Apt 800, Carrollton (map)