Tastemaker Awards News

16 best new restaurants in Dallas compete for top Tastemaker title

Spread from Quarter Acre

scontent-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com

In the 2023 edition of our annual CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, we're honoring the best in Dallas food & beverage, from best chefs to best bars to the best restaurant in Fort Worth.

Those bests are chosen by a panel of judges consisting of former CultureMap Tastemaker Award winners and local F&B experts. (The full list of nominees is here.)

But one category — Best New Restaurant — is chosen by our readers, in a bracket-style competition where eight new restaurants go head to head. You can vote for your favorite in our bracket-style elimination challenge, until two finalists emerge.

The winners will be revealed at our party and awards ceremony on May 4 at Fashion Industry Gallery (F.I.G.). Tickets are on sale now.

To vote, click here. Don't delay: The first bracket ends on April 17.

Here are our nominees for Best New Restaurant in Dallas:

A-T Bistro
Chic restaurant in Preston Center from a high-flying caterer has quietly captivated Park Cities and beyond with its globally-influenced menu - steak frites, Cuban sandwich, bang bang shrimp - and impeccable service.

The Finch
Well-appointed restaurant in the former Cafe Express at Mockingbird Station is the most ambitious venture yet from Milkshake Concepts (Vidorra, Harper's) with pricey steaks but also approachable pastas and sandwiches.

Brass Ram
Latest entry from inimitable chef Nick Badovinus is an old-school prime rib joint with classic recipes (and high prices) in the cool vintage Magnolia Building downtown, one floor above sibling National Anthem.

STK
Steakhouse in Uptown is part of an international chain from One Group Hospitality (Kona Grill). The formula is part steakhouse, part after-party. You come first for the dry-aged steak and raw bar, then stay for the live DJ.

Carbone
Fine-dining Italian-American from New York serves well-refined versions of classics like spicy rigatoni and tableside Caesar salad. They're known as much for their old-school service as their food.

Pizzana
Knox Street lands its own Neapolitan-style pizzeria, from the owners of Sprinkles Cupcakes. Their "neo" take on pizza entails a crust that's crispier than traditional Neapolitan, a better fit for Dallas tastes.

El Carlos Elegante
Newest concept from ultra-hot Duro Hospitality (The Charles, Sister) boasts an incredibly inventive Latin-American menu - lots of seafood and veggie dishes - in a stunning hacienda-like setting.

Escondido
Tex-Mex at geographically desirable intersection of Preston and Royal is from the owner of TJ’s Seafood Market, and serves up fajitas, margaritas, and a sprawling street-facing patio.

Isla & Co.
Bishop Arts brasserie open all day is from a New York-based group founded by Australian natives; you can see their influence on the international menu and in their elevated coffee program.

Kinzo
Sushi restaurant from a former Nobu chef brings the omakase experience to Frisco, along with temaki AKA hand rolls, grilled yakitori skewers, craft cocktails, and a big selection of sake.Tickets go live 1st of the month at 10am on Resy. Omakase tasting by @leokekoa two seatings 5:45 & 8:15

District
West Coast concept is all about pairing dishes such as sweet potato pakoras and Moroccan-spiced lamb meatballs with wine and whiskey. This Addison location, rustic yet refined, is their first outside California.

The Mexican
Luxe Mexican in the Design District with Monterrey-style food - grilled meats, queso fundido - is a grand, no-expense-spared palace with custom Mexican tile, velvet upholstery, and stylish capacious patios.

La Bodega
Upscale takeout operates out of a tiny Bishop Arts home storefront where it serves the neighborhood a quick lunch and dinner menu of rotisserie chicken and French fries, salads, and sandwiches.

Tatsu
Tatsuya (Tatsu) Sekiguchi is a fourth-generation sushi master who relocated to Dallas from New York to open this intimate sushi restaurant - with room for 20 diners max - in the Continental Gin Building in Deep Ellum.

Quarter Acre
Solo outing from chef Toby Archibald (Georgie by Curtis Stone) has a global-themed menu with lots of seafood and veggie dishes such as roasted celeriac with raisins, hazelnuts, and celery salad.

Restaurant Beatrice
Oak Cliff restaurant from chef Michelle Carpenter (Zen Sushi) does contemporary Cajun such as duck & Andouille gumbo, and fried chicken with pepper jelly. They also sell house-made pickles, jams, and rubs.

awards bests tastemakers

Noodle News

YouTube critic Mike Chen ranks his favorite noodles in Dallas

Pho Pasteur

YouTube food critic Mike Chen, who travels the world spotlighting mostly Asian restaurants for his Strictly Dumpling YouTube channel, recently dropped into Dallas to rank his favorite noodles in town.

Titled "24 Hours Eating The Best NOODLES + DUMPLINGS Around DFW," the video follows Chen as he visits five restaurants, ordering noodles and dumplings at his favorite places as well as new discoveries.

The visit marked a return to DFW for Chen, who briefly resided in North Texas in 2021 and who has previously posted videos covering ramen, Vietnamese food, sushi, and barbecue.

Here's where he ate:

Chef Sun's Noodle and Dumpling
The video starts out with him noting that "there's a lot of new noodle places around the Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, Frisco area," before entering Chef Sun's Noodle and Dumpling, a Chinese Halal restaurant that makes its own noodles, with locations in Plano and McKinney (which CultureMap covered in May — do you think he saw our story?!).

He raves over the extensive menu, featuring not only noodles but "a bunch of dumplings" and many other options like walnut shrimp and mapo tofu.

He also raves over the price. "Wow — $10 for Biangbiang noodles" [a dish featuring flat noodles with minced garlic, green onion, chili powder] — "only in Texas," he says.

He orders the Big Plate chicken, like a chicken stew with flat noodles, chunks of soft potato, carrots, yellow onion, green onion, bell pepper, and cilantro; as well as a variety of dumplings, including beef, pork, chicken & corn, veggie, and soup dumplings, heaping praise on their light chewy wrapper.

"My philosophy is always, eat the worst first and save the best for last, so let's start with the veggie dumplings," he said.

Pho Pasteur
On Day 2, he goes to Pho Pasteur, a longtime highly acclaimed family-owned chain with locations in Richardson, Arlington, and Carrollton, the location he visits.

"I've been thinking about this place for a long long time," he says. "I remember when I was living here, this was one of my favorites."

He orders pho with fatty brisket — "because here in Texas, whenever you see brisket, you get the brisket," he says.

After taking a sip of the broth, he proclaims, "This is the stuff — I've always said that this place has one of the best, if not THE best broth in America, with such a concentrated beefy flavor, and it's got so much depth."

"This might be one of my most-missed food items after I left Dallas," he says.

z.TAO Marketplace
His next destination is the z.TAO Marketplace, an Asian grocery store and food court in Plano which oddly has not updated its social media presence since 2020. He oohs and aahs over the supermarket's bounty including the many different Asian flavors of Pepsi, Coca Cola, and Fanta, then orders a bowl of hulatang, a traditional thick Northern Chinese soup, hand-pulled dan dan noodles, and a sandwich with chopped pork.

Moriya Shokudo Ramen & Curry
He also visits Moriya Shokudo, which started out in a food court in Koreatown before opening a stand-alone restaurant in Richardson in 2024, and which has won local awards for its ramen and curry.

He orders the garlic ramen and marvels at its garlicky-ness, with a black garlic-flavored tonkotsu broth along with roasted whole garlic cloves.

"This is a really intensely garlicky bowl — to call it intense would be an understatement," he says. "I would say this is a must-try."

Pho Big Bowl
His last place is Pho Big Bowl, a Vietnamese restaurant which started out in Watauga before opening a location in Carrollton in 2022.

He likes the lightness and yet potent beefy flavor of the broth. "I feel like when I'm here in Texas, I don't add nearly as much sriracha as I would at places in New York or Seattle," he says.

"I am really jealous of all the good pho places you have here in the Dallas area," he says. "I feel like, of all the cities in Texas, this area has the best pho, hands down."

media