Tastemaker Awards

The 9 best restaurants in Dallas remind us of our vibrant dining scene

The coronavirus has put much on hold, but it hasn't defeated the 2020 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, our annual celebration of the best in Dallas-Fort Worth food and drink where we spotlight bars, chefs, and restaurants. It's our way of honoring the extraordinary spirit of the Dallas-Fort Worth culinary scene.

It seems so long ago in December 2019 when we began making lists of the best of DFW. After weeks of paying tribute to categories such as best bar, best rising star chef, and best neighborhood restaurant, we end on the grandest of all: Restaurant of the Year.

From these 9 restaurants, one will win the top award, to be announced at our Virtual edition of the CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, taking place on July 30.

Here are our nominees for the 2020 Tastemaker Awards Restaurant of the Year:

Asian Mint
Asian restaurant in North Dallas is known for its fresh food, modern atmosphere with cool pastel colors, and dessert bar with signature green tea layer cake. The menu does New Bangkok-style food with noodles, fried rice, curry, soups, and steamed seafood. With few restaurants of its caliber in the area, it's a destination not only for residents in this North Dallas neighborhood, but also staffers and visitors from Medical City nearby. Founder Nikky Phinyawatana also has a second branch, The Mint, in the Shops at Highland Park.

Blue Sushi Sake Grill
Sushi chain with three locations in Dallas-Fort Worth has added a new lineup of vegan sushi, featuring products from Ocean Hugger Foods, which uses vegetables in magical ways. Ahimi raw "tuna" is made from Roma tomatoes. Unami "eel" is made from eggplant. What is especially persuasive about these items is their texture: firm-yet-fleshy. Blue Sushi is a forerunner in this category, already well known for its selection of vegan sushi, and is a favorite with the Dallas-Fort Worth vegan crowd and for those who don't do raw fish.

Bonton Market Cafe
Market and restaurant are an offshoot of Bonton Farms, The menu will be driven by what's in season. Dishes include green tomato sandwich with house-made pimento and upland cress, served on sourdough bread from The Commissary; red beans and rice with fried chicharrones; a butter lettuce salad with goat cheese, pepitas, and dried cherries; and "fish and greens," with cornmeal breaded catfish, braised collards, smoked ham hock, burnt lemon, and sweet-and-sour pickled seasonal vegetables.

Boulevardier
Wine-drinking lawyer brothers Brooks and Bradley Anderson (Veritas Wine Room) and chef Nathan Tate opened this French restaurant in a charming brick storefront in Oak Cliff in 2012. In addition to the lengthy wine list you might expect, there is charcuterie galore, onion soup, escargot, and grilled asparagus with guanciale and a crispy poached egg. Some just drop in for a glass of bubbly and oysters on the half shell, from an iced seafood case at the bar.

Cafe Momentum
Charitable restaurant concept serves as a culinary training facility for disadvantaged youth. But happily, it's also a place to get a very good meal, with a staff of experienced chefs led by founder Chad Houser. Menu follows the seasons, with dishes such as root vegetable salad with watercress, and short rib with polenta and fried onions. Tucked into an unusual niche facing the DART Rail line, the restaurant boasts decorative plates with themes donated by staff members and local celebrities.

Khao Noodle Shop
xRestaurant specializing in Laotian food is at a foodie intersection in East Dallas, serving boat noodles and Laotian bites. Khao is from chef Donny Sirisavath, who previously hosted pop-ups before finding a home for this rice noodle shop.

Malibu Poke
Fast casual poke shop from Dallas seafood king Jon Alexis is inspired by Southern California, as the name shows. The restaurant features two hot trends: poke and bowls. The menu specializes in seafood bowls, but like most bowl places, you can also assemble your own.

San Martin Bakery & Restaurant
Bakery and restaurant chain from Guatemala makes its entry into the United States market with a first location in Uptown Dallas, in the former McKinney Avenue Contemporary space. It offers fantastic European-styled baked goods including sourdough breads, croissants, and other puff pastries at crazy bargan prices, along with a coffee bar and a cozy cafe open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The Charles Dallas
Dallas Design District stunner is an Italian-inspired eatery starring chef J Chastain (Stephan Pyles, Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek) and Chas Martin (Nick & Sam's, Hotel Zaza). It has a wood-fired grill, fresh crudo, and house-made pasta. A signature dish is the cappelloni with white ragu – ground veal and pork stuffed into hat-shaped pasta. Their risotto uses "ancient grains" farro, quinoa, and kamut, and they have a large assortment of vegetable dishes including grilled kale, grilled broccoli, and grilled beets.

awards

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