News You Can Eat

New brunches fatten up this lean serving of Dallas restaurant news

Hudson House chicken & red velvet waffle

A red velvet waffle adds a twist on a brunch favorite.

Photo courtesy of Hudson House

This round of Dallas dining news is perfect for early February: It's a little lite. It's a diet version of restaurant news. There's a new liquor store in Victory Park, doughnuts in DeSoto, and brunch. There is always room for brunch.

Here's what's happening in Dallas restaurant news:

Dunkin' and Baskin-Robbins will host a grand opening on February 2 of a new restaurant in DeSoto, at 834 N Hampton Rd. The new restaurant will offer DeSoto guests a first look at the brand’s U.S. store of the future experience, with a modern atmosphere and new innovative technologies and design elements to make running on Dunkin’ faster and more convenient than ever before. The new location will be open 5 am-10 pm, and will also feature a drive-thru window. Mak Kurani of DFW Donuts LLC is Dunkin’s franchisee for the restaurant and currently operates two Dunkin’s across Texas.

Biagio Wine & Spirits, a liquor store, has opened in Victory Park, at 2404 Victory Park Ln. The items for sale listed on their website include a $585 bottle of tequila.

Saltgrass Steak House opened a location in The Colony, at 5899 SH 121, its 80th restaurant and the 17th in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Saltgrass is famous for its Angus steaks, char-grilled on an open flame, seasoned with Saltgrass-7 steak spice and topped with fresh garlic butter. Each morning, the restaurant bakes complimentary Texas Bock beer-bread, as well as desserts made from scratch.

Sea Breeze Lobsta & Chowda House, one of the most popular stalls at Legacy Food Hall, will move to a new location on the first floor, adjacent to John Tesar’s Knife Burger. As a part of the move, the restaurant will also offer new offerings such as a trio of melts with lobster & basil, crab & sundried tomato, and smoked salmon. There's also new Buffalo fried shrimp, and the popular "chowda fries" — French fries topped with a scoop of delicious clam chowder — formally join the menu.

Tacodeli, the imported Austin taqueria, has new specials available for a limited time: Cauliflower veg chorizo is a breakfast taco with riced cauliflower, walnuts, pecans, and pistachios with Tacodeli’s chorizo seasoning. It is vegan-friendly and contains no soy, and it sounds absolutely amazing. The chorizo is available as an add-on for any breakfast taco or a Build Your Own option at breakfast. For lunch, there is chipotle sweet potato soup — made with Thomas Kindle Sweet Potatoes from Grand Saline, Texas — blended with spicy chipotles and cream. The soup is garnished with pork belly, jack cheese, and cilantro; vegetarians can request the soup without pork belly.

Hudson House debuts a new weekend brunch menu with a heavy dose of New York influence. Dishes include the Hudson Tower, a three-tiered tower with bagels and lox; selections include plain, gluten-free, sesame, and everything bagels; cream cheese, tomato, cucumber, onion, and capers; gravlax, cold smoked lox, smoked whitefish, smoked trout, or lobster. Velvet Chicken & Waffles have a red velvet Belgian waffle and double fried chicken. Pastrami & eggs has Wagyu pastrami and whole egg frittata. Cocktails include a bloody Mary with bleu cheese-stuffed olives, shrimp cocktail, and shucked oyster; and "Mom's cure with vodka, orange juice, and ginger beer.

Meso Maya at the west Plano location has these new dishes: chicken tamales, kale verde salad with avocado, diced pineapple, orange, radish, and golden raisins. Budin Azteca has white corn tortillas layered with cheese; pavo & Hongos enchiladas have turkey, mushrooms, poblanos, onions, chihuahua, and Monterey jack cheese. There's carne asada, chicken breast with gold potatoes, baby back pork ribs with potatoes, zucchini, and white rice; a chimichurri New York strip steak; mahi mahi fish tacos; and shrimp, chicken, or steak tostaditas.

Bulla Gastrobar in Plano has a new limited-edition menu for winter that introduces Spanish favorites. Items include Caldo Gallego featuring chorizo, pork, and alubias, plus Chistorra a la Sidra with cured sausage enhanced by cider. Dessert includes rice pudding with golden raisin coulis and Swiss meringue crumbles.

Scout, located in the Statler, is introducing a new weekend brunch with eggs and omelets, waffles, a carving station, a taco bar, salad station with cheese, fruit, yogurt and granola options, bananas Foster station, and a kid's station. It's $25, or $10 for 12 and under. Build-your-own bloody Mary and mimosa bars are an additional $8.

Twin Peaks has an extensive new beverage menu with more than 30 new options, including cocktails, shots, new categories, and on-trend liquors.

Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar, the classic American neighborhood restaurant known for its farm-to-kitchen menu, has a new collection of custom cocktails for winter. Sweater Weather has rye whiskey, Amaro Ramazzotti liqueur, house-made clove syrup, and mole bitters; Bourbon, Spice & Everything Nice has Old Forester Bourbon, Pedro Ximénez Sherry (PX Sherry), lemon juice, spiced pear cordial, and Angostura bitters.

Tricky Fish has new boxed lunches, Monday-Thursday from 11 am-3 pm, for $10. Daily offerings include fried shrimp or fried catfish po’boy, chicken salad with a cup of gumbo, chicken sandwich with ham, bacon & provolone cheese, and lemon pepper shrimp tacos. These tackle boxes are available only at the CityLine location. 972-437-3474.

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Spring Arrival

West Dallas gets new Spanish-Peruvian restaurant with big-name chef

Photo courtesy of Ulloa's

Paella will be on the menu.

A new restaurant with a high-profile culinary director will bring Spanish and Peruvian flavors to West Dallas: Called Ulloa’s, it is coming to 727 Fort Worth Ave., with a projected opening in March 2027.

The concept is from philanthropists Susan and Woodrow Gandy, who were previously investors in the historic Belmont Hotel just around the corner. They've teamed up with Dallas celebrity chef Kent Rathbun as culinary director, along with Christopher Tunnell as general manager to lead the front of the house.

Rathbun is a name Dallas diners know well, with a resume that includes The Mansion on Turtle Creek, the Landmark Restaurant at the historic Melrose Hotel, Seventeen Seventeen at the Dallas Museum of Art, Abacus, Jasper's, Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen, and more. He's won numerous awards and made multiple appearances on Food Network. He was most recently behind the launch of On The Rocks, an Italian bistro in Burleson.

Chef Kent Rathbun will be the culinary director of Ulloa's. Photo courtesy of Kent Rathbun

Tunnell’s background spans both culinary direction and front-of-house operations. He worked at Los Angeles hot spots Ketchup, Geisha House, and Les Deux, as well as the Mandalay Bay and The Mirage in Las Vegas, before moving to Dallas to open The Mexican, the upscale restaurant in the Design District.

“I am truly excited to partner with Chef Kent Rathbun, whose reputation is amazing — not only in the DFW Metroplex, but in the culinary world,” Tunnell says. “He has been with this project since the beginning, helping develop it; this will be a very chef-driven, culinary-forward restaurant.”

The team's vision for Ulloa’s is both culinary and urban, with hopes of anchoring the corridor and attracting other businesses to Fort Worth Avenue — a stretch connecting downtown Dallas with Oak Cliff that remains somewhat underdeveloped despite its panoramic skyline views.

The restaurant is named for Spanish explorer, astronomer, and scientist Antonio de Ulloa, who spent extensive time in the Mexican peninsula before becoming Louisiana’s first governor. During his travels, Ulloa documented a fogbow — a circular rainbow formed when sunlight meets mist that causes silhouettes standing between the sun and fog to appear ringed in light, a phenomenon known today as “Ulloa’s Rings.”

That vibrant phenomenon inspired both the restaurant's identity and logo. The concept promises "bold, worldly flavors in a welcoming neighborhood setting inspired by exploration and discovery,” the owners say.

Ulloa's Rendering of Ulloa's.Rendering courtesy of Ulloa's

While the menu remains in development, Tunnell describes the culinary direction as “Spanish soul with a Peruvian heart.” The kitchen will merge the coastal flavors of both traditions — ranging from paellas and ceviches to crafted cocktails and signature adaptations by Rathbun.

The 200-seat, two-story space will feature a downstairs dining room, a large bar, and an outdoor patio. Upstairs, plans call for a secondary bar, a private dining room, a patio, and an expansive balcony patio, offering views of the city's skyline and of the Margaret Hunt Hill and Margaret McDermott bridges.

While the upstairs space will be available for private events, the owners intend for it to operate primarily as an organic extension of the main restaurant. The buildout will include a guest elevator along with ample parking, including both self-parking and valet options.

The team says the restaurant will have have an aesthetic that's “warm, theatrical, generous, elegant but alive, with the energy of a great Spanish tapas bar and the soul of Peruvian hospitality.”

Ulloa’s plans to launch with dinner service first, followed by lunch and weekend brunch.

restaurants bars peruvian flavors west dallas oak cliff kent rathbun