List News
3 Dallas favorites land on Texas Monthly's best new restaurants list
Three Dallas restaurants got a big nod from Texas Monthly in the magazine's annual assessment of the state's best new restaurants. Titled "The Best New Restaurants in Texas for 2020," it ranks 10 establishments as well as honorable mentions.
The No. 1 restaurant on the list is Comedor, an elevated Mexican restaurant in Austin. Food editor Pat Sharpe compares it to James Beard Award-winner Hugo Ortega's three Mexican restaurants as well as Pujol, the Mexico City restaurant ranked 12th in the world.
Three Dallas restaurants make the list:
- Homewood at No. 4
- Salaryman at No. 6
- Khao Noodle Shop at No. 8
At Homewood, she notes that chef Matt McCallister has abandoned complex tweezer cuisine in favor of more robust dishes such as the trademark Parker House rolls.
Salaryman, the ramen restaurant that's "a labor of love" for Dallas chef-owner Justin Holt, "will make you giddy with delight," she says.
At Khao Noodle Shop, she says things have calmed down since September, when Bon Appétit named it the second-best new restaurant in the country.
Two Dallas restaurants make the honorable mentions section: Ka-Tip Thai Street Food and Beverley's. And one Fort Worth eatery makes the list: Gemelle, the Italian restaurant from celebrity chef Tim Love.
To be eligible for the list, establishments must have opened between December 1, 2018 and December 1, 2019, and it must be a restaurant's first Texas location.
Houston has three entries, all ranking in the top five: Squable, Davis St. at Hermann Park, and MAD. Two Houston restaurants also earn honorable mentions: One Fifth Gulf Coast and Rosie Cannonball.
Savor, the restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America, provides San Antonio with its lone entry in the top 10, but both Evo and Kindling Texas Kitchen (in the suburb of Cibolo) earn honorable mentions for the Alamo City.
Sharpe notes that this year's list has an international feel with eateries that take their inspiration from places such as Italy, Japan, Goa, and Spain. She finds another tie that binds most of her choices.
"I've noticed a trend that has been growing since the craft cocktail movement began a couple of decades ago; restaurants are becoming more like bars," Sharpe writes. "That is, more casual and (sigh) noisier than ever."
