Living the Good Life

Dallas-Fort Worth claims awesome title of booziest metro in nation

Dallas-Fort Worth residents really like to raise a glass (or two).

Photo courtesy of Alamo Drafthouse

It seems that having more restaurants per capita than most anywhere else in the nation means that the people of Dallas-Fort Worth actually, you know, eat out a lot. How much? A lot.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey, we top the list of cities that "spend a disproportionate amount of their salary on alcohol, smoking, and eating out." DFW residents allocate 6.10 percent of their total spending on eating out, and 1.21 percent on alcohol. The national averages are 5.16 percent and 0.94 percent.

The Washington Post published the results and dubbed DFW "the booziest metropolitan area" of the survey. Of our annual average spending of $61,698, about $744 goes toward alcohol and $3,765 toward eating out.

The survey notes that Texas' on-premise excise tax on alcohol, which means establishments have mixed-beverage permits and pay a 6.7 percent tax on gross receipts, could be why our number is so high. "That cost is passed on to the consumer, meaning more expensive drinks at bars, and incentive to buy alcohol at stores.

"Even so, Texas ranks in the bottom half for excise taxes on spirits, wine, and beer."

Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Phoenix join us on the booze list, while San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, and Cleveland round out the dining out top five.

The third arm of the survey concerns money spent on tobacco products, and no-smoking Dallas-Fort Worth did not make the top five (though Houston came in at third).

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Spicy Food News

New restaurant Dallas Spicy Chinese Cuisine does it for real in Plano

Dallas Spicy

Fried rice and chicken at Dallas Spicy Chinese Cuisine

An authentic Chinese mom-and-pop restaurant has debuted in Plano: Called Dallas Spicy Chinese Cuisine, it opened in late 2025 at 4140 Legacy Dr. #310, at Coit Road, in the same center as Sprouts, taking over a space previously occupied by 369 Chinese BBQ, a long-timer that closed in 2025 after more than a decade.

Dallas Spicy Chinese Cuisine stands apart in the Chinese restaurant field thanks to a trio of elements:

Unusual dishes
They offer an array of Sichuan, Shanghai, and Taiwanese dishes, some not commonly found in DFW, such as:

Hot & Spicy Crayfish
Cumin Beef
Sweet & Sour Pork Ribs
Sauteed Bullfrog with Pickled Peppers

Dishes like their humongous Braised Lion’s Head Meatballs, a Huaiyang-style dish from Eastern China featuring pork meatballs simmered with Napa cabbage, and their Spicy Stinky Tofu — a Chinese tofu dish often sold as a snack at roadside stands — are earning raves for their home-cooked authenticity.

The menu has a big assortment of vegetable dishes, mostly stir-fries such as stir-fried shredded cabbage and stir-fried green beans with garlic, which has emerged as a major crowd-pleaser.

There are rice and noodle dishes such as chow mein, beef noodle soup, and dan dan noodles, a Sichuan classic with noodles, minced pork, scallions, and peanuts. An "American Chinese" category on the menu offers familiar staples such as honey walnut shrimp, orange chicken, and broccoli & beef.

Set price
A second distinction at Dallas Spicy is their "set price" dinner, like a Chinese version of omakase, featuring 10 dishes for about $150. It can be ordered in spicy or non-spicy versions.

The pandas
Dallas Spicy is obsessed with pandas: They've made pandas their decorative them, putting them everywhere: panda wall stickers, panda condiment shakers, and a massive installation featuring dozens of stuffed panda toys tacked to the wall in a heart shape.

The owners are hard to reach; they rarely answer the phone. But they'll provide attentive service if you dine in. They vow to be more than just a restaurant. According to their manifesto, they're a place "where stories are told through taste."

Dallas Spicy decor Pandas rule the decor at Dallas Spicy Chinese.Yelp

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