Picture the quintessential brunch spot. What does it look like? Tucked into the heart of East Dallas’ Junius Heights neighborhood, the idyllic Garden Cafe spot fits right in with the surrounding historic homes. Inside, a friendly staff awaits to take customers’ orders from the menu written with adoring detail by…
After nearly a year in business, the lunchtime word is out in East Dallas on One90 Smoked Meats. The unassuming location on Northwest Highway — with just a five-barstool dining room — is home to unique barbecue sandwiches and some of the best chicken tacos around. The lunch rush on…
A great burger has returned. A few weeks ago, in the final hours before Midway Point closed down, the feeling inside the unpretentious sports bar just off LBJ Freeway was intensely bittersweet. Next door, In-N-Out Burger’s line swelled with cars. Midway’s menu, a sheet of Xeroxed paper, had items blacked…
Leading up to September’s Best of Dallas® 2016 issue, we’re sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year. Down at Pecan Lodge, putting cheese on top of brisket is heresy. But put them together in a…
It was raining cats and dogs. I was sitting with Alan Govenar in Mis Cazuelas in East Dallas. We were waiting for Kaleta Doolin, his wife. Govenar is an author, filmmaker and founding director of the upcoming Museum of Street Culture — among other things. Doolin is a brilliant artist,…
Leading up to September’s Best of Dallas® 2016 issue, we’re sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year. It’s getting to be that time of year when the idea of eating a full meal before setting…
The Dallas Museum of Art’s north entrance has a new outdoor pavilion with a crepe café. Socca is named after the style of crepe it serves, a chickpea-based savory pancake popular in the far south of France. Pronounced “SOAK-uh,” rather than the way Bostonians say “soccer,” the socca originates in…
Vivo 53’s new, insane, topping-covered, confection-filled sundaes are every Instagrammer’s dream come true, which is probably why the restaurant is encouraging customers to upload and tag photos of their own sundae experiences for a chance to win a sundae a week for the next year. They likely won’t have any…
Simple, yet fancy. Cheap, yet luxurious. Tiny, yet hugely flavorful. Sweet, tart, fatty, puckery. Lucia’s most famous appetizer costs only $1, but it contains multitudes, and we recommend ordering multitudes of it. It’s the foie gras-stuffed prune, a treat that sounds like the territory of one-percenters but costs less than…
In a city of shrines to meat — barbecue joints, steakhouses, burger bars, bacon tastings — the Blind Butcher is one of the most holy. Its rotating selection of house-made sausage is justly famous, as are the poutines, pastrami egg rolls and bacon-studded ice cream sandwich. But in 2016, chef…
On my first trip to Luscher’s Red Hots, the Chicago-style hot dog spot in Deep Ellum, I went with a Luscher’s veteran, someone who’s had everything on the menu at least once. Of course, she said, you obviously have to try Luscher’s Post Oak Red Hot, the flagship dish. But…
The Bishop Arts District has no shortage of trendy eateries, lines winding out the door and down the block during peak hours. On weekends, this corner of Oak Cliff is wall to wall people, woo-woo girls teetering in sky-high heels, families wobbling on rented bikes, out-of-towners taking selfies in front…
Last weekend at Taste of Dallas, we popped into the Automobile Building at Fair Park — navigating past snake oil salesmen pestering us to buy cleaning supplies and $7,000 massage chairs — and hit up a “Pestaurant,” where diners could take a break from tacos and boudin to snack on…
There are days in the roasting heat of a Texas summer when we crave a cool, refreshing lunch that’s also got a spicy kick. What meal in Dallas combines hot peppers with light summery flavors? Jjol myeon, a Korean cold noodle dish that’s a specialty at Kimbob Deli on Royal…
Having brunch at a restaurant for the first time is a risk. Will the chicken and waffles at X rival the familiar, golden-brown goodness served at Y? Or will it result in remorse and a hasty retreat back to well-tested ground? Diners perform this cost-benefit dance as they pursue something…
I’m not one to argue over the necessity of having a burger on a menu on any restaurant, but here I am at Cafe Salsera, loaded up with a bunch of arguments. There are enough burgers in Deep Ellum to fill a Yeti cooler; do we need two more housed…
When considering the most memorable bites at Top Knot, Uchi’s little sister restaurant that opened above the beloved sushi spot earlier this year, it’s hard to pick a favorite. Much like every aspect of Uchi and Top Knot, the menus are excruciatingly workshopped, every individual bite tweaked over and over…
So many kinds of pizza are landing on tables in Dallas, it feels like restaurants are starting to make them up. Matchbox, an East Coast chain that opened its first Texas location at the corner of Walnut Hill and Central Expresway, is introducing the city to Washington, D.C.-style pies. Yes,…
There’s no denying that Dallas has doughnut fever. In Deep Ellum, lines stretch out the door at Glazed Donut Works. Seattle’s Top Pot Doughnuts recently opened an outpost in SkyHouse, Queenie’s Steakhouse opened a late-night gourmet doughnut spot in the back of their Denton restaurant and Crunch Donut Factory is slated…
If a sandwich is going to be named the Italian Stallion, it’s gonna need to pack a hell of a punch. There should be a good bit of spice, for one thing, and the sandwich should be filled to bursting with good Italian cheeses and deli meats. And finally, it should…
Big Guys Chicken and Rice has turned a New York City halal cart into a Deep Ellum restaurant. With eight menu items and three sides in a 1,300-square-foot space, Big Guys opened on May 20 across from Stonedeck Pizza on Elm. This spot focuses on doing a few things really…
For regulars at the Kessler, Trompo is nothing new. Oak Cliff native Luis Olvera has been slingin’ tacos at the venue for awhile now. Back in April, Olvera finally opened a brick-and-mortar location of Trompo, a low-key taqueria that specializes in “straight-up Mexican street tacos,” Olvera says. Trompo’s menu is…
