• Home
  • popular
  • Events
  • Submit New Event
  • Subscribe
  • About
  • News
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Home + Design
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • Innovation
  • Sports
  • Charity Guide
  • children
  • education
  • health
  • veterans
  • SOCIAL SERVICES
  • ARTS + CULTURE
  • animals
  • lgbtq
  • New Charity
  • Series
  • Delivery Limited
  • DTX Giveaway 2012
  • DTX Ski Magic
  • dtx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Your Home in the Sky
  • DTX Best of 2013
  • DTX Trailblazers
  • Tastemakers Dallas 2017
  • Healthy Perspectives
  • Neighborhood Eats 2015
  • The Art of Making Whiskey
  • DTX International Film Festival
  • DTX Tatum Brown
  • Tastemaker Awards 2016 Dallas
  • DTX McCurley 2014
  • DTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • DTX Beyond presents Party Perfect
  • DTX Texas Health Resources
  • DART 2018
  • Alexan Central
  • State Fair 2018
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Zatar
  • CityLine
  • Vision Veritas
  • Okay to Say
  • Hearts on the Trinity
  • DFW Auto Show 2015
  • Northpark 50
  • Anteks Curated
  • Red Bull Cliff Diving
  • Maggie Louise Confections Dallas
  • Gaia
  • Red Bull Global Rally Cross
  • NorthPark Holiday 2015
  • Ethan's View Dallas
  • DTX City Centre 2013
  • Galleria Dallas
  • Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty Luxury Homes in Dallas Texas
  • DTX Island Time
  • Simpson Property Group SkyHouse
  • DIFFA
  • Lotus Shop
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Dallas
  • Clothes Circuit
  • DTX Tastemakers 2014
  • Elite Dental
  • Elan City Lights
  • Dallas Charity Guide
  • DTX Music Scene 2013
  • One Arts Party at the Plaza
  • J.R. Ewing
  • AMLI Design District Vibrant Living
  • Crest at Oak Park
  • Braun Enterprises Dallas
  • NorthPark 2016
  • Victory Park
  • DTX Common Desk
  • DTX Osborne Advisors
  • DTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • DFW Showcase Tour of Homes
  • DTX Neighborhood Eats
  • DTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • DTX Auto Awards
  • Cottonwood Art Festival 2017
  • Nasher Store
  • Guardian of The Glenlivet
  • Zyn22
  • Dallas Rx
  • Yellow Rose Gala
  • Opendoor
  • DTX Sun and Ski
  • Crow Collection
  • DTX Tastes of the Season
  • Skye of Turtle Creek Dallas
  • Cottonwood Art Festival
  • DTX Charity Challenge
  • DTX Culture Motive
  • DTX Good Eats 2012
  • DTX_15Winks
  • St. Bernard Sports
  • Jose
  • DTX SMU 2014
  • DTX Up to Speed
  • st bernard
  • Ardan West Village
  • DTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Taste the Difference
  • Parktoberfest 2016
  • Bob's Steak and Chop House
  • DTX Smart Luxury
  • DTX Earth Day
  • DTX_Gaylord_Promoted_Series
  • IIDA Lavish
  • Huffhines Art Trails 2017
  • Red Bull Flying Bach Dallas
  • Y+A Real Estate
  • Beauty Basics
  • DTX Pet of the Week
  • Long Cove
  • Charity Challenge 2014
  • Legacy West
  • Wildflower
  • Stillwater Capital
  • Tulum
  • DTX Texas Traveler
  • Dallas DART
  • Soldiers' Angels
  • Alexan Riveredge
  • Ebby Halliday Realtors
  • Zephyr Gin
  • Sixty Five Hundred Scene
  • Christy Berry
  • Entertainment Destination
  • Dallas Art Fair 2015
  • St. Bernard Sports Duck Head
  • Jameson DTX
  • Alara Uptown Dallas
  • Cottonwood Art Festival fall 2017
  • DTX Tastemakers 2015
  • Cottonwood Arts Festival
  • The Taylor
  • Decks in the Park
  • Alexan Henderson
  • Gallery at Turtle Creek
  • Omni Hotel DTX
  • Red on the Runway
  • Whole Foods Dallas 2018
  • Artizone Essential Eats
  • Galleria Dallas Runway Revue
  • State Fair 2016 Promoted
  • Trigger's Toys Ultimate Cocktail Experience
  • Dean's Texas Cuisine
  • Real Weddings Dallas
  • Real Housewives of Dallas
  • Jan Barboglio
  • Wildflower Arts and Music Festival
  • Hearts for Hounds
  • Okay to Say Dallas
  • Indochino Dallas
  • Old Forester Dallas
  • Dallas Apartment Locators
  • Dallas Summer Musicals
  • PSW Real Estate Dallas
  • Paintzen
  • DTX Dave Perry-Miller
  • DTX Reliant
  • Get in the Spirit
  • Bachendorf's
  • Holiday Wonder
  • Village on the Parkway
  • City Lifestyle
  • opportunity knox villa-o restaurant
  • Nasher Summer Sale
  • Simpson Property Group
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2017 Dallas
  • Carlisle & Vine
  • DTX New Beginnings
  • Get in the Game
  • Red Bull Air Race
  • Dallas DanceFest
  • 2015 Dallas Stylemaker
  • Youth With Faces
  • Energy Ogre
  • DTX Renewable You
  • Galleria Dallas Decadence
  • Bella MD
  • Tractorbeam
  • Young Texans Against Cancer
  • Fresh Start Dallas
  • Dallas Farmers Market
  • Soldier's Angels Dallas
  • Shipt
  • Elite Dental
  • Texas Restaurant Association 2017
  • State Fair 2017
  • Scottish Rite
  • Brooklyn Brewery
  • DTX_Stylemakers
  • Alexan Crossings
  • Ascent Victory Park
  • Top Texans Under 30 Dallas
  • Discover Downtown Dallas
  • San Luis Resort Dallas
  • Greystar The Collection
  • FIG Finale
  • Greystar M Line Tower
  • Lincoln Motor Company
  • The Shelby
  • Jonathan Goldwater Events
  • Windrose Tower
  • Gift Guide 2016
  • State Fair of Texas 2016
  • Choctaw Dallas
  • TodayTix Dallas promoted
  • Whole Foods
  • Unbranded 2014
  • Frisco Square
  • Unbranded 2016
  • Circuit of the Americas 2018
  • The Katy
  • Snap Kitchen
  • Partners Card
  • Omni Hotels Dallas
  • Landmark on Lovers
  • Harwood Herd
  • Galveston.com Dallas
  • Holiday Happenings Dallas 2018
  • TenantBase
  • Cottonwood Art Festival 2018
  • Hawkins-Welwood Homes
  • The Inner Circle Dallas
  • Eating in Season Dallas
  • ATTPAC Behind the Curtain
  • TodayTix Dallas
  • The Alexan
  • Toyota Music Factory
  • Nosh Box Eatery
  • Wildflower 2018
  • Society Style Dallas 2018
  • Texas Scottish Rite Hospital 2018
  • 5 Mockingbird
  • 4110 Fairmount
  • Visit Taos
  • Allegro Addison
  • Dallas Tastemakers 2018
  • The Village apartments
  • City of Burleson Dallas

Where to Eat Now

Where to eat in Dallas right now: 10 top restaurants for kitchen action

Teresa Gubbins
Aug 9, 2016 | 11:20 am

For those who like to eat out at restaurants and keep up with the dining scene, those activities possess a bit of the sporting element. Following the careers of Dallas chefs can feel like tracking athletes, as they move from appointment to appointment, jockeying for better positions with every move. All we need are baseball cards.

This summer, the theme is chefs on the move, which we tally up in this edition of where to eat.

Deep Ellum Brewing Co.
Witnessing an increasing interest in onsite grub, Dallas' pioneering brewery built a kitchen and opened a cafe in the spring. Its menu has cheese boards, salads, sandwiches, pizzas, tacos, and a category you won't find anywhere else: tots. In addition to plain tater tots, you can get them "loaded" like a baked potato, with sour cream, bacon, green onion, and a special extra of mac and cheese. Or get the Frito pie version, topped with chili and crumbled Fritos. Or the elotes tots: topped with cotija, Parmesan, mayo, corn, cayenne, chili powder, and lime, and for $3 extra, pulled pork.

Hon Sushi
Carrollton sushi place is a hidden gem starring "Chef Charlie," aka Charlie Yun, who was previously head chef at Little Katana Blackship in the Omni Dallas hotel downtown, and who was previously in northern California, where he owned a couple of sushi spots. While the location isn't much to speak of, Yun's dedication to quality extends to touches such as making soy sauce in-house and offering telltale little carvings that give a clue to his carving skills. Sushi rolls are a high point, served in generous quantity and at a low price.

Madrina
After a prosperous debut, this French-Mexican restaurant — which was a finalist for Best New Restaurant in the 2016 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards — has new chef David Fingerman replacing Julio Peraza, who left to spend time with his family. Fingerman was most previously executive chef at Graham Elliot Bistro in Chicago and was at one time a production assistant for The Rachel Ray Show. Celebrity! His new menu items include pork chop with potato puree, tomatillo relish, and housemade pasilla bordelaise; and a yummy-sounding dessert, horchata pot-au-crème with rice milk, toasted almonds, and piloncillo.

Milk + Cream
New Greenville Avenue shop makes a different kind of sandwich: a "milk and cream bun," where ice cream is stuffed into the middle of a large, dense doughnut-like bun, which is then pressed in a machine that heats the outside but keeps the ice cream cold. Milk n' Cream will also sell ice cream by the scoop, without the bun if that's the way you want it. There'll be seasonal and holiday flavors, and non-dairy ice cream options, as well. If all goes according to plan, they'll open August 13.

Oddfellows
Oak Cliff coffee spot has netted the talented Anastacia Quinones of Kitchen LTO, Alma, and Cafe Momentum fame to ramp up its dinner menu and expand the dessert program. Some of the new dishes she's introduced include warm spinach salad with peaches, candied pepitas, and poached egg; and a pretty Texas watermelon and heirloom tomato salad with Pachi Pachi goat cheese and pecan pesto. Desserts include blueberry bread pudding and strawberry-basil semifreddo with lemon shortbread, like an upscale ice cream sandwich.

Pyramid Restaurant & Bar
Restaurant at the storied Fairmont Hotel has a new chef de cuisine in Brandon Drew, most recently sous chef at the Four Seasons' Cafe on the Green, where he'd worked since 2009. Drew will carry on the hotel's emphasis on local, which includes the 3,000-square-foot herb and vegetable garden on the rooftop terrace. His menu includes cantaloupe gazpacho, rabbit rillettes, pork and apples, shrimp and grits, squash pasta, bone-in rib-eye, and beef filet.

Sapa House
New Vietnamese restaurant replaces downtown Dallas restaurant Pho Colonial, which closed in June. There will still be pho, in regular and vegetarian versions, as well as bubble tea and banh mi sandwiches at lunch. But chef Long Nguyen has expanded the menu with Vietnamese regional favorites such as grilled pork with pickled young mango. For now, the game plan is to open August 12, with late-night hours: until midnight Sunday through Wednesday, and until 3 am on the weekends.

Stampede 66
Stephan Pyles' Texana restaurant has chef action with the hire of Kevin Watson as sous chef. Watson has local ties: He attended El Centro Community College and worked at Belo Mansion, Wolfgang Puck Catering, Kent Rathbun's Blue Plate Kitchen, Abacus, Five Sixty by Wolfgang Puck, and Neighborhood Services, plus he did three years at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation in Florida. He'll not only cover Stampede 66's menu but also four signature dishes from Stephan Pyles' eponymous restaurant, which closed in April: bone-in cowboy rib-eye with onion rings, tamale tart with garlic custard and peekytoe crab, Caesar salad with jalapeño polenta croutons, and heaven and hell cake.

Whisk Crepes Cafe
Sylvan Thirty crepe shop encourages you to not only do crepes in the morning but to return and do crepes in the evening, accompanied by a glass of rosé. The rosé list from owner Julien Eelsen includes a pick from his parents' home of St. Tropez. Wednesdays are the night to do it, as rosé options are half-off. Rosé pairs with crepes savory or sweet, be it a crepe with prosciutto, fig, Parmesan, hazelnuts, arugula, honey, and balsamic; or one with cinnamon apples drizzled with house-made caramel and toasted pecans.

Bird Cafe
With former executive chef David McMillan having flown the coop — moved to Virginia with his lady love, he did — Bird Cafe has a new executive chef in Scott Curtis, who has been sous chef since the Fort Worth spot opened in Sundance Square in 2013. A graduate of the Art Institute of Colorado in culinary arts, he also worked at Meddlesome Moth, plus a number of Four Seasons properties in Denver, Vail, Seattle, Whistler, and Vancouver. His influence can be seen on the summer menu, in dishes that include chicken-fried sweetbreads, grilled quail, branzini, and bone-in pork chop.

Pyramid Restaurant at the Fairmont Hotel has a new chef.

Pyramid
Photo courtesy of Pyramid
Pyramid Restaurant at the Fairmont Hotel has a new chef.
news-you-can-eat openings chefs
news/restaurants-bars
series/where-to-eat

most read posts

Michelin-recognized chef brings Korean barbecue to Dallas' Bishop Arts

Dallas visionary joins 18 DFW billionaires on new Forbes' richest list

Massive retail village with restaurant and event barn to debut in Plano

Spring Arrival

West Dallas gets new Spanish-Peruvian restaurant with big-name chef

Luciana Gomez
Sep 18, 2026 | 4:27 pm
Ulloa's
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.

Kent Rathbun 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
news/restaurants-bars
series/where-to-eat
CULTUREMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME
Get Dallas intel delivered daily.
Loading...