This Month's Must-Eats

Where to eat in Dallas right now: 10 hot restaurants for June

After a busy April, restaurant openings around Dallas-Fort Worth died down in May. If something new is what you want, your choices are few. But if you're willing to take newsy, we have it here, the 10 restaurants you must visit in June.

Pecan Lodge
As if the lines weren't already long enough, this Diners, Drive-ins and Dives-endorsed restaurant at Dallas Farmers Market nabbed the No. 2 4 spot on Texas Monthly's list of the top 50 barbecue joints in Texas. "Bad news, BBQ selling out faster," Pecan Lodge recently tweeted. "Good news, lots of folks trying the fried chicken for first time."

Lockhart Smokehouse
Bishop Arts barbecue favorite also made the Texas Monthlytop 50 list, one of seven restaurants around Dallas-Fort Worth to do so. Be sure to visit on Thursdays; that's when the restaurant features its burnt ends.

Smoke
Chef Tim Byres' new $40 cookbook, Smoke: New Firewood Cooking, has gotten the attention of esteemed publications Wall Street Journal and Food & Wine Magazine (written by Houston Chronicle's Alison Cook). Try something with the coffee-chile rub, because it gets mentioned in every story.

Rudy's Chicken
Virtually unheard of previously, Rudy's is now a favorite of the Dallas City Council, who endowed it with a crazy $890,000 grant to build a new location. Hit the old place for some greasy fried chicken before it closes down.

Nobu
With Uchi coming in 2014 or maybe 2015, attention shifts to the local competition. Which Dallas sushi spots are the best? Some have Nobu on their list.

Katy Trail Ice House Outpost
This spin-off of the Katy Trail Ice House opens this week in the old Bandito's spot in Plano, with a splendid patio and a slew of beer events every night.

Le Bilboquet
A New York bistro for 27 years, Le Bilboquet has surfaced in Dallas, at the corner of Travis Street and Armstrong Avenue, with a subtle, sophisticated decor. House specialties include the not-so-French-sounding Cajun blackened chicken.

Meso Maya
This bustling Mexican restaurant with branches in North Dallas and downtown has a new brunch menu with many huevos, a "los Benedict," some "skinny eggs" (i.e., scrambled egg whites), croque senor, oatmeal with fruit, and a Mexican toast.

Private Social
"Pilgrim Chef" Najat Kaanache gives it another shot, this time with what she calls an awesome Texas food menu that includes grilled chicken Caesar salad, fried calamari, meatball hero, and meat and potatoes. No matter what she calls it, it's bound to be interesting.

Blue Mesa
Sharon Hage is the latest chef in a series focusing on Texas food that's being hosted by the Southwestern chain. Hage's theme is "Gulf seafood," with crawfish adobe pie, Gulf crab huarache, and a blueberry-blackberry blue cornmeal cobbler.

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Pecan Lodge is so hot right now, the barbecue is selling out fast. So try the crispy fried chicken instead.

Fried chicken and macaroni and cheese at Pecan Lodge at the Dallas Farmers Market

Photo by Melisa Ambers

Pecan Lodge is so hot right now, the barbecue is selling out fast. So try the crispy fried chicken instead.

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Magazine lists

Only one Dallas eatery earns spot on Esquire best new restaurant list

Photo courtesy of Joey Stewart

Yakitori at Mabo Dallas

One Dallas restaurant has made a prominent annual list: It's the 2024 rendition of Esquire magazine's Best New Restaurants in America and the only Dallas entry on the list is Mābo, the Asian restaurant in Preston Center from acclaimed chef Masayuki Otaka.

The newly released list has 35 restaurants, with the majority of the entries in New York and California, including the top restaurant of the year: Four Kings, a Cantonese restaurant in San Francisco.

The list is dominated by Asian cuisine: Of the 35 restaurants, fully one third are Asian.

The authors are "Jeff Gordinier and The Esquire Editors," which includes Omar Mamoon, a San Francisco-based writer (who calls himself not a critic but a "curator" oh dear) who got dispatched to Dallas. In his writeup of Mabo, he waxes on about chicken being his favorite before hailing Mabo as the best place in America to eat chicken yakitori, a Japanese grilling technique.

"… When you consider the Japanese art of yakitori, in which skewered chicken parts grill over binchotan coals until they achieve maximum smokiness and juiciness—well, this is where the bird gets transcendent," he writes. "At Mābo, his eight-seat counter, chef Masayuki Otaka prepares a two-hour meal in which poultry is the star. He sources free-ranging heritage breeds from Pennsylvania, and he lets you order additional skewers—maybe you’re in the mood for more tail, or for the fatty triangular nub known as the pope’s nose—when the planned courses have reached their completion."

Otaka is the former chef/owner of Teppo on Greenville Avenue (which closed in 2022 and is now home to sushi restaurant Kaiyo) who opened Mabo in spring 2024. It's an omakase-style spot with a 14-course tasting experience, with two tastings per night at 5:30 and 8:30 pm, only eight guests per seating, for $200. Otaka has a devoted following, and his version of omakase is less about raw fish and more about the yakitori-style of cooking for which he was famous at Teppo, featuring grilled meats, mushrooms, and other bits on a skewer.

Despite its coastal focus, the list does not completely ignore Texas: Houston restaurant Late August also earns a spot on the list along with nods to Tavel Bristol-Joseph and Karla Espinosa, owners of Nicosi in San Antonio who are pronounced Pastry Chefs of the Year.
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Eric Sandler contributed to this story.

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