Tastemaker Awards

Dallas' best restaurant, chef, and more winners crowned at 2022 Tastemaker Awards

After weeks of celebrating the best restaurants, bars, chefs, and more in our 2022 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, the winners are in.

For weeks, we've dedicated a special editorial series to highlighting nominees in 10 categories, including best restaurants, chefs, bars, and bartenders. A panel of expert judges helped select all of the winners, except for Best New Restaurant. That was determined by you, our readers, in a bracket-style tournament.

In addition to favorite categories like Rising Star Chef of the Year and Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year, we threw in a delicious new wildcard category: Best N ew Pizza, as Dallas' pizza scene has exploded with delicious new options recently.

On May 12, the winners were crowned at an awards ceremony and tasting event at Fashion Industry Gallery, emceed by comedian CJ Starr.

Now, without further delay, let's raise a glass to the 2022 Tastemaker Award winners:

Rising Star Chef of the Year: Aldo Lugo, Jose
Working for an acclaimed restaurant such as Jose, the authentic Mexican in the Park Cities helmed by chef AQ Pittman, gives you an automatic bump, but sous chef Aldo Lugo, who's worked at the restaurant for more than two years, has his own special brio. Beyond his culinary talents, his positive generous spirit and willingness to always lend a hand have made valuable contributions to the restaurant's familial culture.

Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: Hillside Tavern
This neighborhood tavern is the Lakewood entry from the owners of Rapscallion, Boulevardier, and Veritas Wine Room, located in suddenly buzzy Hillside Village, where they serve bar eats, stiff cocktails, a 40-bottle wine list, TVs, and a friendly staff. The menu has a Houston's vibe, with bold versions of classics. Smoked meats are a thing here, and chef Nathan Tate is not shy: Consider his smoked bologna sandwich with smoked mortadella, American & provolone cheese on Texas toast.

Bar of the Year: Rattlesnake Bar
The bar at the ritzy Ritz-Carlton, Dallas has always been hailed as one of the best places for people-watching: Between local high-rollers and hotel guests, it's an entertaining mix, and the bar opens onto the hotel's lobby, which not only increases the see-and-be-seen element but also provides a stunning backdrop. Best of all, you also get chef Dean Fearing's signature margarita, premium spirits, wines, and expertly mixed cocktails, plus superb bar bites.

Bartender of the Year: Reid Lewis, Atlas
Lewis has worked at big local cocktail destinations such as Standard Pour and Las Almas Rotas, where she helped guide the bar during tough pandemic times. Other notable names on her resume include Billy Can Can, Reveler's Hall, Tower Club, and she's also partnered with Mijenta Tequila, a maker from Jalisco. She's a "get things done" kind of gal and is putting it all to good use at Atlas, the cocktail den with globally inspired food and drink.

Wine Program of the Year: Monarch
Restaurant at the National building in downtown Dallas is a wood-fired modern Italian concept imagined by Michelin chef Danny Grant and team. The restaurant is famous for its elegant space and expansive views as well as its pasta, steaks, and seafood — with a steakhouse-style wine list to match. If you're looking to splurge on a showpiece bottle, this is the place to do it in 2022.

Pastry Chef of the Year: Amy La Rue, Carte Blanche
La Rue is pastry chef and co-owner of Carte Blanche, the acclaimed bakery-restaurant combo on Greenville Avenue, where her croissants, doughnuts, crullers, muffins, and cookies have earned her a devout following. She learned croissants and laminated dough while still in high school, when she worked at a bakery-cafe run by a French emigre. She was already in the industry when she met her husband and partner Casey La Rue; the two worked at establishments around the U.S. before coming to Dallas in 2019.

Brewery of the Year: Vector Brewing
Extremely popular microbrewery and brewpub in Lake Highlands is a mom-and-pop that serves beer, cider, coffee, stone-baked pizzas, and more. They opened in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, and now have more than a dozen creative brews — how about the red ale they brewed with Funky Picnic from Fort Worth, with buckwheat, rice, and koji, usually used to make sake. You can get it in all ways: in 5-ounce tasters, half pours, or full pours, as well as 16-ounce crowler cans to-go.

Best New Pizza: 400 Gradi
Downtown Italian restaurant from Australian chef Johnny Di Francesco uses upscale authentic ingredients such as San Marzano tomatoes in more than a dozen Neopolitan-style pizza varieties. They ferment their dough and pastas for 48 hours in a temperature-controlled room. Entrees include branzino, chicken breast with pepperonata and nduja sauce, and mussels in a garlic-chili jus with chargrilled bread. Zero Gradi, a companion gelato shop, opened next door and another 400 Gradi will open in McKinney in 2023.

Best New Restaurant: Hawkers Asian Street Food
Cool concept from Florida is all about Asian street foods: Korean twice-fried wings, Seoul hot chicken bao, and roti canai, a thin flaky pancake served with curry sauce. Cocktails such as the "magari-thai" with tequila, Patron Citronage, mango nectar, and bird’s eye chili have an Asian spin, as well. They made their Texas debut in Dallas' Deep Ellum, with the bar at the front of the restaurant to make it feel energetic as soon as you enter.

Chef of the Year: Ji Kang, Sloane's Corner
Kang is well traveled and educated, having earned not only a culinary arts degree from The Art Institutes but also a degree in finance. He's staged in Europe and cooked at prestigious New York restaurants and institutions. In Dallas, he worked at Dish and Samar by Stephan Pyles, before rejoining Dish founder Tim McEneny as corporate chef for NL Hospitality Group's portfolio of restaurants including Sloane's Corner, Pizza Leila, and Dakota's Steakhouse.

Restaurant of the Year: Meridian
This modern Brazilian cuisine from chef Junior Borges is the fine-dining spot that's part of an entire slate of restaurants rolled out at The Village, the massive residential apartment community in the middle of Dallas, which executed a mixed-use lifestyle project with food and entertainment in early 2021. The restaurant features Brazilian-inspired dishes, with snacks, cocktails, salads, brioche, or a family-style feast from a live-fire hearth.

Hawkers Asian Street Food won the Best New Restaurant tournament.

Photo courtesy of Hawkers

Hawkers Asian Street Food won the Best New Restaurant tournament.

tastemakers awards

Where to Eat

Where to eat in Dallas right now: 10 new restaurants for October

Photo courtesy of Sophia's

Red snapper ceviche at Sophia's Cantina

CultureMap's monthly Where to Eat column highlighting the best restaurants to try returns for October with a theme of new and diverse. Every restaurant on this list is a recent arrival, including at least one that has been open for only a day. If you want hot, fresh, and new, you've come to the right list.

The list represents an exciting array, encompassing a one-of-its-kind test restaurant, a fashionable coffee shop, steakhouse, Mexican cantina, Italian speakeasy, and not one, not two, but three places to get dumplings.

Here's where to eat in Dallas for October 2026:

Coach Coffee Shop
Unique cafe just opened inside the Coach handbag store at Allen Outlet Malls, one of seven locations across the U.S., including Austin, which opened in 2025. The drink menu features coffee, espresso drinks including cappuccinos and lattes, cold brew, matcha lattes with rotating seasonal flavors, and lemonade. There are two signature items: Tabby Cake — an adorable chocolate treat shaped like Coach’s trademark Tabby bag and Lil Miss Jo Cookie — an edible version of the chain's coffee-cup animated mascot used in company ad campaigns. They also serve pastries such as salted chocolate chip cookies, blueberry muffins, vegan carrot cake muffins, cinnamon rolls, savory scones, ham and cheese croissant, and soft-serve in waffle cones.

Curry Tei & Bar
Hip Asian restaurant comes to downtown Plano courtesy of Michelle Vi Pepping, who also owns buzzy Okaeri Cafe in Richardson. Curry Tei gives her the opportunity to focus more deeply on favorite Japanese comfort foods, especially house-made curry and crispy katsu, along with a full bar featuring sake, Japanese whisky, and handcrafted cocktails. The curry can be ordered over rice or udon noodles, then topped with a choice from 10 proteins: tonkatsu fried pork cutlet, katsu fried chicken cutlet, tofu katsu fried tofu cutlet, shrimp katsu, karaage fried chicken, Japanese sausage, fried potato croquette, sliced beef, hamburger patty, or gyoza dumplings. Their bowls and noodles run the gamut from chicken teriyaki over rice to chilled green tea soba noodles with vegetable tempura. Popular starters include edamame, dumplings, and karaage fried chicken.

The chocolate bag is one of a few too-cute-to-eat treats at Coach Coffee Shop. Coach Coffee Shop/Instagram

Docent Steak
After two years in the making, the newest restaurant from Harwood Hospitality Group is open in the Harwood No. 14 development as a steakhouse with a menu centered on HWD Beef, Harwood’s exclusive beef product. Prime cuts include filet mignon, NY strip, ribeye, bone-in strip, Chateaubriand, and porterhouse. Docent also serves Kobe beef, including A5 Wagyu available by the ounce, and a rotating Kobe flight featuring five cuts. Non-steak options include crab cake, Kobe potstickers, steak tartare sliders, tempura lobster, oysters, spicy tuna tartare, and a seafood tower. As befits a steakhouse, there's a grand wine list, but also a big selection of sake. The main dining room has a white-tablecloth fine-dining ambience, while a lower level has a casual atmosphere with TVs. There's lots of art, a Harwood trademark.

L's Dumplings
Chef-owned Asian spot just opened on the Lewisville/Carrollton border, where it's doing dumplings and Hong Kong-style dim sum. There's an expansive menu with dim sum-style dishes, dumplings, and even Chinese-American staples like General Tso's Chicken. While the restaurant does not have room for the cart service that often goes with dim sum, it does have a dim sum menu with a dozen dishes you'd find at a traditional dim sum brunch: beef tripe, black pepper short ribs, siu mai topped with roe, Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce, steamed pork ribs with garlic, sticky rice chicken, wontons, and chicken feet in black bean sauce. Dumplings are offered in more than a dozen varieties including soft steamed dumplings, pan-fried dumplings with a crispy bottom, and soup dumplings, famous for containing broth inside the wrapper, creating an especially juicy filling.

Momo2Go
Well-regarded dumpling chain from Canada has opened a location in the Preston Lebanon Crossing shopping center, taking over a space previously occupied by Lalo's Cocina Mexicana, which closed in July. Momo2Go specializes in momos — the dumpling that's a foundation of Himalayan cuisine — and is a spinoff of a family-owned restaurant called Himalayan Kitchen, which debuted in Toronto in 2012. Their momos were so popular that they launched Momo2Go in 2016. They now have 10 including one in Irving, which franchisees Karma Gurung and Tashi Chetan opened in 2023. Frisco is their second location.

Veggie dumplings are a favorite at L's Dumplings.Photo courtesy of L's Dumplings

Ono Hawaiian BBQ
Fast-casual Hawaiian plate-lunch chain from California just opened a location in McKinney, specializing in island-style plate lunches that combine some form of meat plus white rice and macaroni salad. Meats include BBQ chicken, Kalua pork, kalbi short ribs, fried chicken katsu, and Spam musubi, consisting of a block of rice topped with a slice of Spam and wrapped in seaweed. A slightly healthier option combines the meats with rice and a side salad. McKinney is the second location in Texas, following Plano which opened in July. If all goes according to their plan, they will soon be ubiquitous, with 10 locations plotted for DFW.

Open House
New restaurant concept being tested by KFC has opened its very first location in McKinney, with a goal to put a modern twist on Colonel Sanders' fried chicken concept. The location has tableside service, touchscreen kiosks, breakfast, boba drinks, and more. New and unique menu items including sides such as Southwest corn, fried green beans, spicy pickles, and rainbow slaw, as well as the first breakfast lineup featuring chicken tenders sandwiches, hashbrown sticks, mini cronuts, brewed coffee, and iced lattes. The McKinney restaurant will serve as a testing ground for KFC, giving them a chance to try new food, drinks, service, and design ideas before rolling them out across the country.

Red: Italian
Unusual new restaurant in Denton is a subterranean spot in the basement of Ruby Rodeo, a bar and live music venue on Denton Square, where it's serving Italian food and speakeasy charm. The 58-seat underground space — which includes 10 seats at the bar — serves Italian classics, priced from $25 to $40, such as spicy sausage lasagna with arrabbiata sauce, cacio e pepe bucatini, chicken piccata, shrimp diablo, and espresso-crusted filet mignon with Italian seasoning. Appetizers include fried mozzarella, stuffed mushrooms, grilled artichokes, bruschetta, meatballs, flatbreads, and a classic Caesar. The concept comes from Victor García and Mike Church, who also own Ruby Rodeo, as well as the similarly-red-named Scarlett Lounge in Deep Ellum.

Sophia's Cocina & Cantina
Mexican restaurant in Farmers Branch is the new home of Hugo Miranda, the well-respected hospitality figure who previously helmed Hugo's Invitados, a Mexican concept that he opened in 2018 with entrepreneur Mark Hulme. Highlights from the menu (which has not yet been uploaded to the restaurant's website nor their Facebook page) include oysters, pork belly chicharron, sopa de Cebolla, mixed grill, ribeye black Angus tomahawk sliced tableside, whole Pacific snapper, crudos, and upscale tacos such as blue crab with spinach; and salads such as red beet carpaccio with arugula, goat cheese, avocado, and pumpkin seeds.

Yo-Chi
Aussie fro-yo chain known for self-serve bowls, bountiful topping bars, and lively vibe has made its U.S. debut in Dallas near Inwood Village, at 5710 Lovers Ln. #101, to be followed by a second location at NorthPark Center. Yay us. Founded in Melbourne in 2012, Yo-Chi first expanded outside Australia in 2025 with a location in Singapore, followed by London. They tout their use of "fresh milk" in their yogurt, with flavors such as vanilla, salted butterscotch, tart, acai, coconut, matcha, and cinnamon banana. Plus 40-plus toppings arranged in a communal, self-serve station, including mini mochi, pistachio spread, cookie dough, sauces, brownies, fruit, and more. In its Down Under home turf, Yo-Chi locations are said to have a club ambience, with people going there on dates and bouncers at the door on weekends.

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