Where to Eat

Where to eat in Dallas right now: 5 restaurants to get healthy dishes

This bowl from Cheba Hut definitely looks healthy-ish.

Photo courtesy of Cheba Hut

Trying to eat healthy when the New Year arrives is kind of a cliche.

Does everyone do it because publications like CultureMap Dallas post stories about eating healthy? Or is there a swelling momentum that occurs, and CultureMap Dallas is simply reporting the news?

Let's go with Option B — that we're filling a need by listing a few healthy options one might want to order in Dallas during January. Performing a useful service. Come on, work with us on this.

Even if it weren't January, eating healthy is a good goal any month of the year.

For this month's Where to Eat, we offer five healthy options:

Cheba Hut
Sandwich shop in Deep Ellum is better known for its marijuana theme than for being a healthy place to eat, and there are certainly no shortage of stoner munchies from this Colorado-based chain. But they also have salads and sub sandwiches that are well made, with good-quality ingredients. The Silver Haze sub, for example, has hummus, banana peppers, spring mix lettuce, onion, tomato, pickle, cucumber, mushshrooms, black olives, and Swiss cheese. During January, they're sponsoring a do-gooder promotion that gives 10 cents back to DFW for every dollar you spend, as well as a mobile game that provides bonus loyalty points for free grub and gear.

Crisp & Green
Minnesota-based fast-casual restaurant offering healthy fare just opened its first Texas location on January 12 at 6565 Hillcrest Ave. in University Park. Dallas has certainly seen its share of salady chains come through town, but Crisp & Green is a promising newcomer with some ambitious ingredients including brown rice, quinoa, and arugula. Arugula on a menu is always a good sign. In addition to salads, they do grain bowls, great kids' meals, and smoothies. The chain is expanding nationally in 2021, and that expansion started in Dallas, yay us.

Foxtrot Market
Foxtrot is as much a foodie convenience store as it is a restaurant. If you're lucky enough to live within their delivery zone (they have two locations, in Uptown and University Park), you can get all sorts of upscale staples delivered. They also have prepared meals including the Harvest Grain bowl with chicken, brown rice, kale, sweet potato, celery root, goat cheese, poached apple, and toasted almond with a cider glaze. They have nice salads such as a vegetarian falafel salad and a Caesar with chicken. And they're doing non-alcoholic cocktails for "dry January," is that really even a thing? Order online at foxtrotco.com.

Mendocino Farms
Mendocino Farms is the California-based gourmet sandwich shop chain that made its Dallas debut in March 2020. They do sandwiches and salads, but made with fine-dining ingredients and techniques. For example, their banh mi has slivered carrots that are snappy-crisp and feel like they just came in from the farm, and their decadent "vegan" Reuben, featuring vegan corned beef from Mrs. Goldfarb's Unreal Deli, was one of our Top 5 Tastes for 2020. There's a new menu for the New Year, with the showpiece dish being the roasted mushroom shawarma wrap, with shawarma-spiced roasted oyster mushrooms, grape tomatoes, red onions, cilantro-jalapeno hummus, cucumber, Romaine, spicy zhoug sauce, and garlic yogurt sauce in a panini-pressed whole wheat tortilla. Chef Jamie Oliver has a video on this. Wow-ee.

ThaiBinh's
Cute indie restaurant in DeSoto is mostly a one-man band, serving stellar Thai food, but with plant-based alternatives instead of meat. For example, their pad Thai has choice of vegan chicken, oyster mushrooms, or tofu with rice noodles, carrots, broccoli, and bean sprouts in tamarind sauce, topped with crushed peanuts and green onions. For the New Year, they're featuring Spicy Broccoli Basil Fried Rice and new Vegan Coconut Ice Cream & Red Velvet Cupcake desserts from @delightfulsweetsbymary. They have new hours: lunch from 12-3:30 pm, and dinner from 5-7 pm.

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Matcha News

Calif bakery-cafe with creative drinks and snacks makes Dallas debut

Smoking Tiger

Garlic cheese bread and matcha latte from Smoking Tiger

A buzzy coffee shop and cafe from Southern California has made its Texas debut: Called Smoking Tiger, it opened in June in Carrollton, at The Great Oasis plaza at 2225 Old Denton Rd. #100, where it's serving Korean pastries, breads, coffee, and beverages.

Adored by Korean-Americans and possibly everyone on Instagram, the cafe is part of a chain founded in 2020 in Buena Vista, California, that encompasses both coffee shops as well as bakeries. The Carrollton location — full name "The Smoking Tiger Bread Factory" — is one of their most expansive, offering coffee, pastries, breads, and sandwiches.

Carrollton will be the first in the DFW area, but a spokesperson says it won't be the only, although they do not have specifics on other locations or timetable for opening.

Drinks
Their beverage menu is notably rich and creative, leading with the Tiger Latte, their signature brown sugar latte with caramel and frothed oat milk. The Smokin Spaniard is a twist on latte combining espresso, condensed milk, hazelnut, and cinnamon.

Other options summon favorite Korean flavors such as

banana milk latte
honey bori latte with barley milk and salted honey cold foam
sweet corn latte, with sweet corn milk and corn cold foam
chai latte
misugaru — a roasted rice latte served slightly sweetened over choice of milk

… plus matcha lattes including strawberry matcha latte; jeju matcha latte sweetened with maple syrup; hojicha latte, featuring jeju green tea — a green tea grown in South Korea — sweetened with vanilla.

Latte prices average about $6.50.

Other irresistible-sounding drinks include the Pineapple Express, featuring jasmine tea and pineapple concentrate, shaken with ice for a smooth texture; and "YSL" — Yuzu Sparkling Lemonade, featuring yuzu syrup, sparkling water, and lemon.

Garlic cheese bread at Smoking TigerSmoking Tiger

Food
Food options are equally as creative, led by three signature goodies:

Cream Cheese Garlic Bread — a large round roll with a heavy dose of garlic and cream cheese baked inside
Original Salt Bread — sort of like a cross between a roll and an everything bagel
Kimchi Musubi Croissant, featuring a croissant filled with a slice of Spam and kim chi, with a sheet of seaweed baked onto the top of the croissant

Plus "sconkies" — a cross between a scone and a cookie — in flavors such as Oreo or lemon earl grey. For Texas only, they also introduced a special menu of breakfast sandwiches such as a slider with scrambled egg, cheese, and habanero aioli on grilled King's Hawaiian rolls.

According to marketing director Andy Lee, part of its appeal is the way it channels similar cafes in South Korea offering both bread and coffee.

"We wanted to essentially create a space where people could experience modern Korean culture in a very authentic and approachable way," Lee told The Dallas Morning News.

That extends to the decor: They've outfitted the Carrollton location with vertical mahogany wood panels, often seen in cafes in South Korea and traditional Korean houses called hanoks.

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