Regardless, this year has taught us that the business of running a restaurant will never be easy. At times, it felt like every long-awaited opening of a new upscale venue (see Crown Block or Mister Charles) would be countered with the closing of lauded favorites (see Homewood or Cry Wolf). The excitement of a rising chef opening a new restaurant, like Leigh Hutchinson at Via Triozzi, is tempered when a chef like James Beard nominee Junior Borges parts ways with his Brazilian-inspired restaurant Meridian as ownership moves in a different direction.
To pile on to the volatility, one of the most epically brutal summers on record delivered more body blows to Dallas restaurants. OpenTable reported that Texas’ seated diner traffic was down between 3% and 5% this summer compared with summer 2022 as the heat kept diners at home. At the same time, food costs are up 24% and labor costs are 13%–23% higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to the Texas Restaurant Association. Restaurant margins already run lean; effects like these can be devastating.
So where does this leave us for 2024? It depends on whom you ask (and possibly the day). Despite menus with 1-percenter prices, many Dallas diners don’t seem to mind. For some, dining out is as much about the experience — and escapism — as it is about the food. On the opposite end, we’ve come to appreciate restaurants that find ways to flip the script and deliver great food for great value. What we would love to see more of are establishments that land in the middle of these two extremes.
Understandably, that middle ground is difficult to navigate. Dallas remains smitten with trends, but also loyal to long-time favorites. The gap in the middle is ripe to be filled by corporate ventures that have the resources to sustain new concepts but at the cost of stifling creativity.
What can we do? For the Observer, it means we’ll continue to cover all comers to Dallas’ eclectic dining scene. There’s something here for everyone, whether it’s creative techniques applied to the most seasonal of fare, new takes on classic standbys or local spots that serve up solid food with a side of affordability. All of these angles are well represented in our Top 100 Restaurants, including 11 newcomers listed below. Find the complete list of 100 restaurants here.
Tuetano at Ayahuasca
Lauren Drewes Daniels
Ayahuasca Cafe
334 Jefferson Blvd.
Ayahuasca is possibly the most difficult-to-find restaurant in Dallas. To get there, enter the Xaman Cafe in Oak Cliff, then head down a back hallway to a wooden door. Inside, owner Mauricio Gallegos and chef Monica Lopez serve pre-Hispanic dishes and techniques influenced by Oaxaca. The dishes are steeped in authenticity, from the pulpo y tinta (octopus and ink), caldo de piedra or chicharron en salsa verde. Fear not if you’re unfamiliar with the fare; servers are happy to walk guests through the menu, asking them what looks interesting or what kind of dish they’re looking for.
Top Pick: Without a doubt, order the tuetano. Two large roasted beef bones filled with marrow are topped with a lively chimichurri and served with a bowl of diced rib-eye alongside. Scoop up a spoonful of baked marrow from the bone and spread it into a criollo tortilla, then add the tender rib-eye. Yes, the dish is $49, but it’s worth every penny.
Barsotti’s Sunday gravy
Chris Wolfgang
Barsotti’s Fine Foods & Liqueurs
4208 Oak Lawn Ave.
The former (and in our minds, original) Carbone’s Fine Foods has been reincarnated as Barsotti’s. The trappings of the new space feel a little more upscale since the remodel, but the restaurant still executes classic and unpretentious Italian fare. Longtime fans of the red-sauce Italian spot have returned in droves. Classic dishes like vodka rigatoni or lasagna Bolognese stream through the dining room regularly. Be sure to wrap up your meal with one of Barsotti’s textbook cannolis.
Top Pick: Barsotti’s from-scratch Sunday gravy, served on a bed of al dente creste pasta, is exquisite. If you don’t get enough — or lie awake at night thinking about it — Barsotti’s will sell you a container of sauce to go.
A tallow candle melts into a filet at Beckley 1115.
Alison McLean
Beckley 1115
1115 N. Beckley Ave.
Beckley 1115 opened in January 2022 under the guidance of chef and restaurateur Sharon Van Meter, and in 2023 husband-and-wife duo Luke and Geni Rogers bought the restaurant. While Luke works the kitchen, Geni runs the front of the house and has curated a polished wine list of affordable options by the glass or bottle. The menu is dotted with American bistro favorites: shrimp, steaks and house-made pastas dominate the entrees. Appetizers sparkle, like a generous charcuterie board or delicate octopus carpaccio. In just a short time, the Rogers have turned Beckley 1115 into the neighborhood secret worthy of everyone’s attention.
Top Pick: Order the Butcher’s Cut of the Day, which varies but is always executed with skill. A melting beef tallow candle in the center of the cut bastes the beef as you eat.
Hanger steak at CheapSteaks
Alison McLean
CheapSteaks
2613 Elm St.
There’s a long list of new, glitzy restaurants in Deep Ellum. CheapSteaks is not one of these. Here you’ll get honest food and strong drinks at a fair price, a reflection of the original neighborhood’s gritty character. True to its name, CheapSteaks offers up a trio of beef cuts that punch above their weight class. Light and crispy truffle french fries are the default side choice, but flavorful Brussels sprouts or a baked potato can be subbed for a couple of bucks more. And every night of the week, CheapSteaks hosts live music that helps burnish its Deep Ellum bona fides.
Top Pick: The hanger steak is particularly delicious, especially when ordered with no more than a medium finish. It’s a poor man’s filet of tenderness and flavor, and it is baffling to us that more restaurants don’t offer the cut.
Al pastor at El Carlos Elegante is cooked over a wood-fired grill and served with an abodo sauce.
Alison McLean
El Carlos Elegante
1400 N. Riverfront Blvd.
From the Dallas-based group Duro Hospitality, think of El Carlos Elegante as The Charles’ Mexican cousin. The restaurant is nondescript outside, but inside is a vibrant and lively space, serving authentic Mexican and South American fare with an upscale polish. The best of El Carlos’ dishes center on anything made with house-made masa; the mushroom tetelas or chorizo molotes are brilliant examples. A visit to El Carlos Elegante borders on “special occasion” spending, but the brilliant dishes are worth the price of admission.
Top Pick: Al pastor pork is grilled to perfection and sized to share. Each succulent bite could star on its own, but is accompanied by a rich adobo sauce and a pineapple butter that we never knew was missing from our lives.
Brunch at Kitchen + Kocktails is mandatory.
Nick Reynolds
Kitchen + Kocktails by Kevin Kelley
1933 Elm St.
The menu at Kitchen + Kocktails is packed with comfort food staples like Southern-fried catfish, shrimp and grits, and crispy fried green tomatoes. But don’t sleep on the lamb chops here, or the blackened-shrimp-topped deviled eggs, both of which are on a budget-friendly happy hour menu. There’s also an impressive cocktail game: Try the smooth — and powerful — D’usse, a frozen peach concoction topped with a healthy dose of D’usse Cognac. On the weekends they run a clinic: How to Brunch. Pull out those nice heels you’d been saving, make reservations and buckle up.
Top Pick: The oxtail here is epic. The seasoning is on point but more important the meat slides right off the bone with a gentle tug of a fork.
Lamb shoulder and a house-made lamb sausage served with fregola pasta and cucumber at Quarter Acre.
Alison McLean
Quarter Acre
2023 Greenville Ave.
Toby Archibald says restaurants like his Quarter Acre are plentiful in his native New Zealand, but this year-old spot on Greenville Avenue in the former Rapscallion space is at the vanguard of some of Dallas’ most creative cooking. On its face, the cuisine may come off as pretentious, but a closer look reveals a playful sense of whimsy. There are small one-hitter bites that offer inexpensive tastes of Quarter Acre’s imaginative spirit. Appetizers and entrees are updated often as ingredients move in and out of season, but the impressive short rib or hot smoked salmon are both stars and seem to have a permanent home on the menu.
Top Pick: Nothing exemplifies Quarter Acre’s sense of whimsy better than the fried quail with peanut creme, crispy wonton and blueberry puree; the description reads upscale, but the taste is straight fried chicken plus peanut butter and jelly comfort food.
The Icelandic hot dog at Rye
Chris Wolfgang
Rye
1920 Greenville Ave.
Look past the silly names for entrees such as Cure For The Common Cabbage or Everybody Loves Relleno, and you’ll quickly realize that Rye serves seriously good fare that you’re unlikely to find in mainstream Dallas restaurants. Dinners are built from an array of plates that grow progressively larger on the menu, each selection a smart combination that encourages discussion between flavorful bites. Of course, with a name like Rye, there is plenty of brown liquor available, as well as a serviceable wine list. Small plates might be a foreign concept in Dallas, but we’re grateful to Rye for continuing our education.
Top pick: The Icelandic hot dog on the traditional Danish rugbrød (rye bread) is barely two bites, but the Wagyu beef sausage with sweet mustard and remoulade is a mouthful of flavor. You would be forgiven for ordering two, three or even five of them for a meal, if there weren’t so many other options on the menu to explore.
Tonkotsu at TEN Ramen
Chris Wolfgang
TEN Ramen
1888 Sylvan Ave.
This small ramen bar in West Dallas, an offshoot of Teiichi Sakurai’s Tei An, has gathered a cult-like following for silky broth and succulent noodles. Ten Ramen’s menu is compact: two ramens, two rice bowls, a broth-less mazemen and a lobster miso, along with a rotating weekly special. Yes, there’s only standing room for a dozen or so patrons inside, where you’ll rub elbows with your fellow ramen fans. But the snug, no-frills interior and intricate flavors in each bowl of ramen are both steeped in Tokyo traditions, just as Sakurai intended.
Top Pick: The lobster miso may have its own legion of fans, but keep an eye on the weekly special, where flavor influences stretch from the ramen norms. A bold kimchi stew and a decadent brisket curry are just two of the brilliantly executed examples we’ve seen move through the specials.
Crab Rangoon is stuffed full of real crab, which will make you forget lesser Rangoons of your Chinese takeout past.
Chris Wolfgang
Teriyaki 4 U
1111 W. Frankford Road, Carrollton
Carrollton may not have Hawaii’s natural beauty, but thanks to Teriyaki 4 U, it has a restaurant that brilliantly re-creates the flavors of a Hawaiian lunch plate. Owner Grace Koo uses a wood-fired grill to infuse Teriyaki 4 U’s proteins with a subtle hint of smoke, and she and chef-partner Joshua Bonee have created a menu of Asian fast-casual fare without any apparent weakness. In addition to teriyaki chicken, salmon or tofu, there’s Japanese curry, katsu-style pork or chicken and crab Rangoons that are better than any of the takeout versions of your past.
Top Pick: Loco Moco is another Hawaiian standby: a burger patty topped with gravy and a fried egg on a bed of rice. Teriyaki 4 U kicks up the flavor with a blend of pork and beef in the patty, which gets a wood char before being bathed in mushroom brown gravy.
Dinner at Via Triozzi is both filling and fulfilling.
Alison McLean
Via Triozzi
1806 Greenville Ave.
There’s a common refrain that, for all its talent, Dallas doesn’t have many real Italian restaurants. Via Triozzi aims to change our minds by checking a lot of requisite Italian boxes: an exquisite lasagna, daily house-made pasta and several other well-executed Italian basics. Naturally, there’s an impressive, red-heavy wine selection and a full bar with an inspired assortment of crafted cocktails. Via Triozzi’s space is lovely, with every detail considered, and meals there feel like you’ve been invited into the home of your long-lost Italian family. It all adds up to an Italian restaurant Dallas can be proud of.
Top Pick: Via Triozzi’s lasagna Bolognese is stellar, but we had a butternut squash ravioli on our first visit that was the epitome of fall comfort food in pasta form. If squash is in season and ravioli is on the menu, consider it a must-order.
