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7 Dallas restaurants make the cut on Texas Monthly's 2022 best list

Meridian gets a special shout-out.

Photo courtesy of Meridian

Once again, Texas Monthly has published its list of the state's best new restaurants. Led by food critic and executive editor Pat Sharpe, the 21st edition of the list highlights the magazine's favorite dishes from around the state.

Texas Monthly utilized the same format for its 2021 list, opting not to publish a ranked list due to the difficulties restaurants faced during the pandemic.

"This year, in the wake of the delta and omicron coronavirus variants, we made the same decision," Sharpe writes.

Open to restaurants that opened between December 1, 2020 and December 1, 2021, the list breaks down dishes into the following categories: small plates, sandwiches, large plates, sweets, and cocktails.

Separate features highlight Texas-made beers, wines, and spirits; provide an overview of popular outdoor dining options in major Texas cities; and a look ahead to 2022's most anticipated new restaurants.

Seven Dallas bars and restaurants receive recognition for their dishes or drinks:

charred eggplant dip at Sister
seared foie gras at Tango Room
Thunderburger at Thunderbird Pies
48-hour crispy wagyu tongue at Cry Wolf
Jerk Lamb Chops at Roots Southern Table
Chocolate Crémeux at Carte Blanche
The Charlemagne at Elephant Bar, which makes the best Cocktails list

The patio dining list suggests favorites like Casablanca, José's, and Mi Cocina's new location at Klyde Warren Park.

Finally, Texas Monthly is looking forward to the arrival of New York restaurants Carbone and Sadelle's as well as three new projects from veteran restaurateur Nick Badovinus: Brass Ram, Pop Top, and Royal Bastard.

Looking at the state’s other major cities, Houston takes eight spots, while Austin eateries earn seven. San Antonio and Fort Worth have five entries each.

Three restaurants receive slightly longer profiles:

March, the Houston restaurant devoted to elegant, Mediterranean-inspired tasting menus
Up Scale, a San Antonio restaurant that focuses on steaks, seafood, and sushi
Meridian, Dallas chef Junior Borges’s modern Brazilian restaurant, whose style Sharpe calls "a global melting pot, inspired not only by the country’s long-standing mix of Indigenous, Portuguese, and African cultures but also by relative newcomers from Japan and Italy (the menu includes a pasta section). Borges' most memorable dishes tap into his childhood, including the dessert of yuca-and-coconut cake topped with lime ganache and presented on a limpid pool of condensed-milk anglaise."

Head to the Texas Monthlywebsite to see the complete list of selections from across the state.

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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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