9 Best Restaurants in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas

This high-profile restaurant fits the "everything's bigger in Texas" image. The interior is as spectacular as it is warm. The menu, which changes frequently, depending on the best seasonal options, melds Southwestern and Asian cuisines, resulting in creations like lobster shooters flavored with red chili and sake. People come back for the sushi.

The in-house bakery at this café turns out fresh breads and pastries. Regulars love the raspberry–chipotle chicken sandwich for lunch; the buttermilk pan-fried chicken breast is a good choice for dinner. Sunday brunch is popular with the young professionals who live nearby. The large, popular patio offers an excellent view of foot traffic.

Steaks are charcoal-grilled at the front of the room, and you can pick out your own cut of meat. Those steaks are the biggest draw, but the menu also includes seafood, chicken-fried steak, fried chicken, and grilled pork chops. The trusty, basic fare is served in a laid-back, unpretentious setting reminiscent of the 1950s.

The most mouthwatering mariscos (seafood) in Dallas, particularly the fish soup, keeps local customers coming back to this relatively undiscovered restaurant in the little blue house in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas. The daily lunch specials are a bargain.

There's been a restaurant of some sort in this building since the 1930s; the original pressed-tin ceiling is still in place. The bistro attracts diners from the neighborhood as well as a lot of folks from horse shows and other events at Will Rogers Memorial Center, just 2 mi away. Known for its pasta, wood-roasted entrées, and chicken-fried steak, and weekend prime rib, the restaurant also has seven tables on a patio with umbrellas to ward off the Southwestern sun. Breakfast is available weekends.

Diners get a modern spin on the Old West at this Fort Worth favorite. The rustic dining room is decorated with saddles, animal trophies, and artistic cacti. Specialties here include stacked enchiladas, tenderloin tacos, and bone-in rib-eye steak. Portions are oversized; an order of the precariously stacked onion rings—thick, tall, and evenly fried—could easily feed four.

The food here is more Mex than Tex, but you'll still find chips and salsa (red and green) and beans and rice, though both are considerably dressier than usual. Try anything made with corn masa, including gorditas de carne deshebrada (sturdy pastry pockets stuffed with chunks of stewed beef, tomatoes, and onions) and tamale de puerco en chile rojo (two giant pork tamales). The squash-blossom soup is creamy; every spoonful yields fresh vegetables. The burnt-orange dining room is warm and cozy, and the patio is a great place for West End people-watching.

This unpretentious urban bistro is known for the romantic intimacy of the indoor dining areas and the laid-back charm of its sidewalk tables. The menu, which changes every few weeks based on the availability of regional ingredients, begins with Grape's signature creamy mushroom soup. The menu might offer a marinated hanger steak served with fries and a watercress salad, crispy duck breast with a rice pilaf, or baked black cod with smoked ham, clams, and a white-wine garlic broth. Regulars rave about the crispy flatbread and the fried calamari (not on the menu, so be sure to ask). Brunch is served Sunday.

Don't let the word "roadhouse" fool you—upscale food is served in a quirky, hip Texas setting at Tillman's. Contemporary music plays (sometimes too loudly) while old black-and-white movies are projected on a wall near the bar. Fussy chandeliers hang over sturdy, wood tables; look closely at the animal trophies—they're actually carved from wood. Meals begin with hot roasted peanuts and popcorn coated in truffle oil and black pepper. Be sure to try the moist cornbread, heavy with cheese, peppers, and corn; the thick, gravity-defying burger; and the chocolate birthday cake (even if it's not your special day).