Where to Eat

Where to eat in Dallas right now: 9 hottest new dessert destinations

Bread pudding is practically a meal in itself.

Photo courtesy of Edith's

There's always room for dessert. It's there if you want to go out but you don't want to splurge for a whole meal. Or maybe you have dinner at home, but you're looking for an excuse to go out. Or maybe you're just craving a magnificent dessert.

As luck would have it, Dallas has seen a big wave of new shops specializing in sweet treats, to fill all those needs and more.

Here are 9 new destinations for dessert:

Beard Papa's
Japanese chain that does cream puffs, with more than 500 locations around the world. Its cream puffs come in flavors like matcha and honey butter. It opened its first DFW location in Plano, at 2301 N. Central Expy. in mid-October, charming the locals with its adorable round cream puffs, boasting icing and fillings in luscious flavors that include creme brulee, honey and butter, green tea, and double chocolate. The idea is to buy a box and mix-and-match flavors. Another is due to open in Frisco in winter 2018.

BlackBall
International dessert chain made its DFW debut with a location in Plano at 100 Legacy Dr. One of the biggest dessert chains in Taiwan, BlackBall has a menu that's a walk on the wild side with dessert "soups" served hot or warm, and seven crushed ices in flavors such as cranberry and taro. You can choose from 18 toppings such as rice balls and kidney beans to add to your dessert. The signature is "grass jelly," or leaf jelly, a dark, sweet Jell-O like item with a slight, though not unpleasant, bitter edge. Many shaved ice options include a matcha-themed delight with matcha shaved ice, matcha jelly, and matcha syrup as a pourover, with a side of two matcha-filled mochi.

Cookie Rack
New bakery specializing in decorated and over-the-top cookies, just opened in Frisco in a new center at 2552 Stonebrook Pkwy. Their thing is decorated and "logo" cookies, but don't look for your typical chocolate chip. Their cookies have icing and other embellishments. The cookies are an over-the-top type cookie — more like a cupcake, but in cookie form. You can have a cup of coffee and work on wifi, and they'll also offer cookie-decorating classes.

Cow Tipping Creamery
Ice cream shop specializing in soft-serve has opened in Carrollton at 1309 S. Broadway St., next door to its sibling Cane Rosso. They serve ice cream and sundae "stackers" such as the Southern charm with rum-caramel sauce, pecans, Southern cracker candy, and blue sugar crystals; or the cinnamon-horchata soft serve with Snickerdoodle cookie bar bits, Snickerdoodle Ritz crumb, and hot fudge. It's open 4-9 pm Thursday, 12-10 pm Friday-Saturday, and 12-9 pm Sunday.

Edith's French Bistro
The original Edith's is located at Mockingbird Station in Dallas, but they recently opened a location at Granite Park, the development near the Dallas North Tollway and SH-121. They do French pastries, custom cakes, high tea, classic French dishes, and all-day breakfast. This location boasts an over-the top decor that includes a wild flower-themed chandelier and walls covered in faux greenery to evoke a garden vibe. It also has a massive 2,782-square-food patio.

Grandmas Bakery
As the name might imply, this North Dallas sweet shop is owned by a couple of grandmas: Ashraf Hosseini is a master cake decorator and baker, and her partner Sherry Ghafar makes unique baklava and cream puffs. They're selling decorated cakes, cupcakes, unique Persian cookies, and a Persian twist on the classic baklava recipe, which features rosewater and saffron.

Philly Pretzel Factory
Pennsylvania-based chain that's colonizing North Texas, including a location newly opened at 5601 W. Lovers Ln. in Dallas, with a branch also in Mansfield and another coming soon to Coit Road in Richardson. Philly Pretzel Factory is "home of the real soft pretzel," as well as the world's largest Philly-style pretzel bakery, with more than 100 franchised locations, clustered mostly in the Northeast. There are bite-sized pretzel nuggets and cinnamon pretzel twists, dusted with cinnamon-sugar and served with a sweet cream cheese dip.

Popbar
Chain famous for its gelato, sorbetto, and yogurt on a stick, has opened a location in Victory Park at 2420 Victory Park Ln. They make small batches, 26 popbars at a time, in 40 rotating flavors, with dippings and toppings, plus unique treats like the newly launched gelatoshake. There are also vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, and soy-free options. Popbar currently has 19 stores in the U.S., and 11 stores internationally. Popbar Victory Park is the fifth location to open in 2018.

Tulla Patisserie & Cafe
Frisco bakery is doing first-rate baked goods including croissants and cutting-edge sourdough breads. There are butter croissants, chocolate almond croissants, pistachio raspberry croissants, and croissants with ham and Gruyere cheese. There are cinnamon pull-aparts, French turnovers, chocolate muffins, lemon poundcake, and bacon-cheddar scones. There are macarons, cakes, and pies.

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Medium Rare steak frites restaurant closes on Dallas' Greenville Ave

Medium Rare/Facebook

Medium Rare is saying goodbye to Houston — for now.

A Washington, D.C.-based restaurant that only serves one entree is closing its Dallas outpost after only two years: Medium Rare, the trendy steak frites restaurant in the Lower Greenville neighborhood, will shut down after service on Sunday, September 13.

The Dallas news follows the closure of its Houston location on Sunday, September 4.

“After two incredible years in Dallas, we’re sorry to share that this Sunday night will be our final service,” the restaurant posted on social media. “To our Dallas community, thank you for welcoming us, sharing so many meals with us, and making Medium Rare part of your special moments."

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Founded in Washington, D.C. in 2011 by chef and restaurateur Mark Bucher, Medium Rare serves a very simple, prix-fixe menu. Every diner receives bread, a green salad, and steak frites — a coulotte (top sirloin) topped with a Bordelaise-style sauce and paired with hand cut fries — for about $30. Vegetarians may replace the steak with a grilled portobello topped with a roasted red pepper sauce. Even better, the price includes a second serving of steak and fries.

Diners can enhance their meal with oversized desserts like apple pie, a hot fudge sundae, or chocolate cake. The restaurant also serves weekend brunch, which draws a following for its bottomless mimosas.

The Dallas restaurant opened at 5631 Alta Ave. in the former Standard Service space in May 2024.

At the time, Bucher told CultureMap that he and his partner were bullish on Dallas and knew it well.

"My business partner graduated from SMU — Dallas is also where my college girlfriend lives, and I wanted to show her my success," Bucher said in 2024. "No, the reason we're here, we're rolling out across the country, with one location per NFL city."

"Dallas is an incredible food town, I feel it's underrated," he added. "It should be in the top 5 dining cities in the country. The talent of people available to work from culinary to front of the house is incredible. And we feel lucky to get our location on Greenville Avenue, where we'll be surrounded by great restaurants and bar operators."

They fueled a super buzzy steak frites trend around Dallas in mid-2024, which CultureMap captured in this roundup. They also became brought their popular Thanksgiving-time Medium Rare Free Turkey Fry event to Dallas in 2025.

Medium Rare might not be gone for good. "It’s not goodbye. Just goodbye for now," the closure post states. The restaurant's locations in Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, and Boston remain open.

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Teresa Gubbins contributed to this story.

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