Where to Eat

Where to eat in Dallas right now: 10 restaurants to hit post-vaccine

Elm & Good seafood over veggies.

Elm & Good

You've been cooped up for more than a year. Now you've been vaccinated and at long last, you've got your free pass. There's so much catching up to do. So many meals to eat. Where do you start?

These restaurants around Dallas, combining essential new arrivals with persevering stalwarts, are the ones to visit first after getting your vaccine:

Asia Times Square
Take a field trip to this destination Asian shopping center in Grand Prairie where they've created an upscale food court with two floors, part of a mission to connect people with different cultures through something innately shareable like food. The center unveiled a new round of restaurant concepts in December that include sushi, ramen, matcha beverages, and ice cream. Recent openings include Omakase To Go, Meccha Matcha, Sakari Ramen, and Apsara Cambodian & Thai.

Belse
Get up to speed on state-of-the-art vegan dining at this plant-based restaurant in downtown Dallas, which comes with celebrity aura: It's a spinoff of Little Pine, founded in Los Angeles by electronic musician Moby (who is no longer involved, but still fun to name-drop). There's something refreshing about the matter-of-fact approach they take, with dishes such as a flight of ketchups served with French fries that make it feel like a restaurant that just happens to be vegan.

Elm + Good
Catch up with acclaimed Dallas chef Graham Dodds at this modern American tavern in the Kimpton Pittman Hotel, in the landmark Knights of Pythias temple in Deep Ellum. The menu changes frequently but might include a board such as the one with Raclette cheese, Genoa salami, pickled cauliflower, and fingerling potatoes. Weekend brunch every Sunday from 10 am-3 pm is a highlight, with shrimp & grits, smoked brisket hash, and a French-style omelet with parmesan, chives, Yukon gold hash browns, and arugula.

Encina
Seasonal restaurant in the old Bolsa space in Oak Cliff is from chef Matt Balke and front-of-the-house partner Corey McCombs. They're putting out an uncomplicated yet adventurous menu with influences from Texas, California, and the South, with a focus on seasonality and fresh ingredients. A typical entree might be the lamb and pork bratwurst with green chili hominy grits and apple mustard, or The Cliff Flatbread with goat cheese, provolone, confit tomatoes, and arugula.

HaiDiLao
Chinese hot pot chain was founded in China in 1994 is expanding into the U.S., where it debuted in Los Angeles in 2013. You choose your soup base, different meats and veggies, and a huge sauce bar. The food is well regarded but it's all the other stuff that makes this place such a trip: A robot delivers your order to the table playing music, and there’s an item on the menu called dancing noodles," wherein a "noodle dancer" makes hand-pulled noodles tableside. This location at the Frisco Oasis center was the first in Texas but they've since opened a location in Houston.

Partenope Ristorante
Neapolitan-style pizzeria is a gem from husband-and-wife Dino Santonicola, a native of Italy, and Megan Santonicola, a food & beverage vet in Dallas. They opened in downtown Dallas in late 2019 and have built a loyal following for their authentic fare, featuring pizza fritta, focaccia, house-made pasta such as rigatoni alla Genovese, and cool Naples-style street foods. A strong wine list boasts lots of Italian labels, and there are cocktails featuring Italian spirits and sodas. They also offer fun classes on Saturday afternoons where you can learn to make pizza like Dino does.

The Shop
This combination car shop-restaurant founded in Seattle in 2017 is a curiosity, a place for people who love cars and motorcycles, and who possibly may want to work on the cars themselves, and then grab a bite. Derby is their in-house restaurant with one side open to members only, the other to the public, where you can eat with a view of the various vehicles inside. The menu features comfort foods such as BLT, Cobb salad, burgers, pastas, fried chicken, and steak.

Thunderbird Station
Hit Deep Ellum at this latest bar from Kim Finch (Single Wide, Double Wide), featuring fun retro fare such as bologna sandwiches, Frito Pie, bean dip, and Sloppy Joes in three versions, including a vegetarian option. The location at 3000 Commerce St. is also splendidly vintage with a grand patio that makes post-COVID dining a breeze.

The Village Dallas
Seeking to maintain its relevance, the longtime mega residential development near Olde Town has opened a boutique hotel, gift shop, and at least eight restaurant concepts, with something for your every desire: a coffee shop, to-go market, poolside bar, gastropub, and fine-dining restaurant with chef Junior Borges.

Wok Star Chinese
Modern-but-authentic take on Chinese food from David Romano is now open at The Hill, at US-75 and Walnut Hill Lane, with some hyper-authentic dishes — xio long bao, aka soup dumplings, and hand-pulled noodles — and others that are the "Chinese" Americans grew up with, such as General Tso's chicken, kung pao chicken, and beef & broccoli.

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Coming attraction

Dallas hospitality pros team up for new restaurant in Inwood Village

Rendering courtesy of

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Dallas restaurateur Bob Sambol, who brought Bob's Steak & Chop House to the city in the 1990s, is partnering with a prolific Dallas hospitality group to open an intimate new eatery called Charlie’s in Inwood Village.

Planned for spring or summer of 2027, Charlie's - a partnership between Sambol and Vandelay Companies - will take over the space at 5450 W. Lovers Ln. #225 formerly occupied by longtime Dallas favorite Adelmo's.

The restaurant will be small, with about 30 tables, and will serve dinner only. It will also take reservations the old-fashioned way: by landline phone in the restaurant.

Specifics about the menu, chef, and exact opening timeline will be announced closer to the restaurant's debut. But a rendering included with the press release shows a white brick exterior with black shutters, and text beneath the restaurant name that suggests the involvement of "steak," "chop," and "seafood."

Sambol describes Charlie's as "low-key" and "quietly sophisticated," with a "warm palette" and calls this a "very personal" project, which will be built in the spirit of small East Coast neighborhood dining rooms of the past, such as a place his father once owned called The Continental in New Jersey.

“After 30 years, I wanted to create something that feels humble and familiar with great hospitality, a beautiful room, people you know and a restaurant you want to return to again and again," Sambol says in the release. "Nothing overly complicated. Just a really special place for the neighborhood.”

Charlie's restaurant owners Vandalay Companies' Hunter Pond and Rick Dunlap flank Bob Sambol.Photo by Samantha Marie Photography

Sambol says he's had a longtime friendship with the Vandelay Companies' Hunter Pond and Rick Dunlap, whose restaurants include Hudson House, Anchor Sushi, Drake’s, and a variety of other brands. He says he’s watched the restaurant development investors grow up and make a name for themselves in Dallas hospitality.

“I’ve known Hunter and Rick since they were in grade school, and seeing what they have built is truly remarkable. It’s a surreal moment to partner with them on such a personal project” Sambol says.

Pond calls the partnership with Sambol a "fun and unique project ... that no one in Dallas has done in quite some time."

Charlie’s will be "deliberately different" from many of the big city's large-scale "highly produced" restaurants, the owners say, adding that it "will embrace an understated, old-school elegance."

“Charlie’s isn’t about trying to make the biggest restaurant or the loudest statement. It’s about creating a timeless one," Pond says. "That restraint is what makes the project so exciting to us.”

As for Charlie's predecessor at the coveted Inwood Village address, Adelmo's — known for its Italian food "with accents" of French and Mediterranean — occupied the space for 10 years before closing in December 2025 and reopening this year in the Preston Valley Shopping Center, at the southwest corner of Preston Road.

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