Where to Eat Now

Where to eat in Dallas right now: 10 best new restaurants for December

If you've seen our master list of new restaurants opening around Dallas-Fort Worth, you know that these are good times for diners, with dozens of new spots coming soon.

If you like to be absolutely au courant, then you've come to the right place. Below is our list of the newest restaurants that have opened their doors:

C. Señor
Walk-up stand in the former El Padrino space in Oak Cliff sells flavorful street food, including tacos, burgers and Cuban sandwiches. There's nothing ordinary here — not even the burger, which is griddled with a squirt of homemade adobo ketchup to give it caramelized crust. A Cubano taco has pork and ham with a mango-jicama-cilantro pico and melted Swiss cheese.

Clark Food & Wine Co.
Greenville Avenue restaurant from one-time Mansion chef Randall Warder does American cuisine with European touches. Close your eyes and picture yourself in Spain or Italy, with a menu of brisket meatballs, chicken liver mousse, smoked catfish dip, flatbreads, cheese boards, vegetable boards, charcuterie plates, artisan sandwiches and salads.

Eureka
High-end California burger chain is opening in the 3700M complex at West Village on December 8, with 40 craft beers on tap; a modern yet rustic atmosphere; and a menu that includes osso buco "riblets"; a burger with bone marrow porcini butter; breakfast burrito with flat iron steak, potatoes and fried egg; and butterscotch rum pudding sprinkled with sea salt for dessert.

Henry's Majestic
Restaurant in the old Acme F+B space features an unusual collaboration between Bread Winners Cafe and chef Roe Dileo, who gained fame with her recent appearance on Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen. The menu features charcuterie, rotisserie chicken, meatballs, burgers, pho, and a brunch with Bread Winners-style dishes such as black cherry French toast.

Modmarket
The best of the new healthy chains, Modmarket — "modern" plus "market" — is a Colorado newbie that's cheaper and tastier than the rest. The menu includes appetizing sandwiches and salads such as mixed greens with chicken, feta and almonds. Pizzas such as the exceptional bianco with spinach, tomato, basil and roasted garlic can be ordered in whole or half versions, in whole-grain or gluten-free crust options. Flower Mound and Plano are open now, with Southlake and Preston Hollow still to come.

Neighborhood Services
Chef Nick Badovinus hits Addison, with the same robust flavors and sassy attitude as the original on Lovers Lane and the NHS Bar & Grill in North Dallas. Pastas are made by hand, and in keeping with Dallas' current obsession with aged meat, there are steaks aged for up to 60 days. Appetizers come cold, like oysters on the half shell, or hot, like the sticky spare ribs with pineapple teriyaki.

Oso Food & Wine
New restaurant from Michael Cox (Mi Cocina, Star Canyon) resides at the prized intersection of Preston and Forest where it promises to be the neighborhood restaurant everyone wants to have. The menu is, loosely, Mediterranean, with delicacies such as bacon-wrapped dates and pork chop Milanese. Chef Kelly Hightower is rolling out dishes such as crispy chicken liver fra diavlo on polenta with honey-glazed bacon.

Pho Kitchen
NorthPark Center is the new home for Vietnamese native Tuyet Davis, previously of La Pagode, East Wind and Lemongrass Asian Bistro in Deep Ellum. At Pho Kitchen, she's doing a minimal menu with Vietnamese classics, including two kinds of pho (chicken or beef), plus banh mi sandwiches, noodle bowls, and sweet rich iced coffee and iced tea.

Righteous Foods
Fort Worth chef Lanny Lancarte hit reset for this healthy-focused restaurant in the old Alta Cocina space, putting him in step with the current healthy wave hitting Dallas via chains such as Seasons 52, LYFE Kitchen and Modmarket. Open for breakfast, lunch and early dinner, Righteous does unique grains, salads, tacos with freshly caught shrimp, juices and coffee from Portland's famed Stumptown.

TNT Tacos and Tequila
Hip young sibling of Blue Mesa Grill is now open in the Quadrangle, following branches in Austin and San Antonio. The menu is described as "modular," with tacos such as spicy Buffalo chicken, burritos, salads and sides. Choose your filling from options such as chimichurri beef, pulled pork and a vegetarian category featuring fried artichoke hearts. Margaritas come in all fruit flavors, breakfast is served all day and the brunch is as bountiful as Blue Mesa's.

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Catfish dip at Clark Food & Wine Co.

Photo courtesy of Clark Food & Wine Co.

Catfish dip at Clark Food & Wine Co.

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new roots

L.A. celebrity favorite The Ivy plants Dallas branch near Katy Trail

Photo courtesy of The Ivy/Facebook

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A Los Angeles restaurant famous for celebrity sightings on its bright floral patios is opening a branch in Dallas: The Ivy will debut in fall 2027 at 4205 Buena Vista St. inside The Terminal at Katy Trail.

“This will be the first Ivy outside of Southern California,” says India Wolfe, the restaurant founders' daughter, in a release. "I felt a strong calling to bring The Ivy somewhere new and to plant roots there with our family.”

India’s parents opened The Ivy on Robertson Boulevard in 1980, followed by Ivy at the Shore in Santa Monica five years later.

While her father, chef Richard Irving, and mother, Lynn von Kersting, remain in LA, Wolfe and her husband, Ernest Wolfe IV, will move to Dallas in February with their two children and dogs, to operate The Ivy. The restaurant will be located inside a luxury apartment tower overlooking the Katy Trail.

India started working as a teen at the family's third branch in Santa Monica and learned everything "from greeting guests and waiting tables to staging events, filming viral social media, and modernizing the business for a new generation," says the release.

Both she and her husband spent time in other professions but were drawn to the dining field. Ernest helped his in-laws so often at The Ivy that they finally employed him full-time.

“I love working with him," India says, "and we complement each other’s skills really well, not unlike my mom and dad.”

The Ivy The family behind The Ivy.Courtesy photo

The Wolfes say they want the Dallas restaurant to retain The Ivy’s familiar cooking, warmth and character, while making it feel like home in a new city.

“I love the idea of people taking a walk on the Katy Trail and then meeting friends for brunch at The Ivy,” India says.

Her parents are assisting with the design and menu; India wants a contemporary vibe but doesn’t plan to change what works so well.

“I don’t want to make it too different because I think the reason that people from Dallas come to The Ivy is because they love The Ivy,” she says. “That said, this new restaurant will certainly stand on its own two feet.”

Unlike the original, the Dallas Ivy will have a bar, an idea India dreamed up. While restaurant bars are nothing unusual, India actually envisioned what her family jokingly calls “the D Bar" (so named for Dallas), where guests can clink glasses and share good energy around a curved, D-shaped counter.

Her interest in art and flowers will result in a space well-appointed with roses, a family tradition, and local blooms like zinnias and snapdragons.

The Ivy serves upscale American comfort food and Californian cuisine with influences from Italian, French, Cajun, and Mexican cooking. Dishes are made with seasonal ingredients, so the menus evolve throughout the year.

While the Dallas menu is being developed, the restaurant's Southern California winter menus, for example, include starters such as crab cakes, Caesar salad, and grilled-vegetable salad. Pasta options include lobster ravioli with Ivy pink sauce and lobster tagliatelle. Wood- or stone-fired pizzas include margherita and Cajun shrimp pies, while house-baked breads, old-fashioned red velvet cake, coconut cake, and chocolate chip cookies round out the menu.

The Ivy has always been at the center of family life, India notes. Now she and Ernest are bringing that way of life to Dallas.

She adds, “I am confident it will be a great home for The Ivy and for our family.”

openings katy trail