The holidays have come and gone. No more eat-drink-and-be-merry. January is the time to atone. But that doesn't have to mean celery sticks and Saltines. These (mostly new) Dallas restaurants are stepping up with unusual, get-out-of-the-house vegetable dishes to go try.

Here's the January 2026 Happy New Year eat-your-veggies edition of our monthly column, Where to Eat in Dallas Right Now:

Beyond the Bun
Darling indie shop in Lewisville does stacked sub sandwiches, filled with deli-style sliced meats like turkey, ham, and teriyaki "steak" — but it's all vegan, using plant-based meats and cheeses. Their menu is creative, with rotating specials such as the new Ham N Fig, with melted provolone, ham, fig preserves, Dijon, spinach, black pepper, dried onion, and balsamic drizzle on sourdough bread. They also do clever "cake sandwiches" featuring slices of cake with a frosting filling, cut like a sandwich, but sweet; and shakes in exotic flavors like ube and apple pie shake.

Blue Sushi
Sushi chain from Omaha-based Flagship Restaurant Group with three DFW locations — Uptown, Preston Hollow Village, and Fort Worth — has long been a favorite in the local vegan community for its extensive selection of vegan sushi rolls with decadent sauces and techniques that surpass the standard cucumber roll. This January, they are throwing down vegan specials with a new roll for $5 spotlighted every week. From January 12-18, it's the Thai Hippie, with tofu vegan tempura, avocado, cucumber, carrot, cashews, Thai basil, cilantro, mint, and red onion, finished with Thai peanut sauce. The last week of January, they'll do a big blow-out with 30 percent off all vegan maki.

Bokee Chinese BBQ House
Brand new Chinese restaurant in Plano took over the former Tasty Egg Roll space, where it opened in early January. It is already earning raves from fans calling it the best authentic Hong Kong-style Cantonese food in Dallas-Fort Worth right now with dishes like won ton soup, sweet & sour pork, and fried beef flat noodles. One veggie standout is the stir-fried lotus root, a classic Cantonese dish featuring crunchy lotus root accompanied by sliced carrot, snow peas, and wood ear mushrooms, stir-fried then tossed in a savory sauce with garlic and ginger. Lotus root has fiber, Vitamin C, potassium, and copper, and is also believed to help digestion and immunity — it's also so pretty with its lace-like pattern.

Elm & Good
Restaurant at the Kimpton Pittman Hotel in Deep Ellum recently appointed a new chef, JV Hernandez, whose new signature dish is the puffy potatoes — like a super-charged version of fries. They use Kennebec potatoes, which are shredded, then cooked in a mixture of canola oil and duck fat (alas, it is not truly vegetarian) at a low temperature until the potatoes become soft and glutinous like sticky rice. They're seasoned with dill, mint, parsley, chives, and porcini powder for a touch of umami flavor, then cut into fat rectangles and fried to order. They're dusted what Hernandez calls "an excessive, ridiculous amount of grated Parmesan cheese" and served with a ramekin of grigiche, the French "sauce" made from hard-boiled eggs, capers, and lemon.

Bokee Chinese BBQ stir-fried lotus root.Dom Zee

The Gibson
Fancy-quaint restaurant in the former Maguire's space in Plano features expensive steaks such as a $67 ribeye and a $60 NY Strip, along with traditional steakhouse sides and steakhouse salads such as wedge and Caesar. It feels a little retro with items like fondue, available in two flavors — regular Gruyere and spinach artichoke. There is one distinctive veggie appetizer: eggplant al Calabrese, consisting of French-fry-like eggplant batons — cubes of eggplant coated in panko crumbs and fried — served with roasted whipped eggplant and spicy Calabrian tomato sauce.

Gymkhana
New Indian restaurant now open in downtown Dallas is from prolific restaurateur Praveen Prasannan (Shivas Bar & Grill, Elephant Bar & Grill), who's a big proponent of bringing Indian restaurants into the center of Dallas. The menu features traditional Indian dishes with an occasional contemporary flair, such as hummus with garlic naan, or mussels "Indian style" with velvet tikka sauce. Like many Indian restaurants, Gymkhana has a big vegetarian selection, but it also has a selection of vegan dishes such as coconut curry tofu. Don't miss the veg tandoori momos — veggie dumplings with bell pepper and onion in Indian spices.

Puerto Cocina & Bar
Seafood-forward restaurant from the owners of Xaman Cafe opened at the new 155 River Edge development in early December, with a coffee program, breakfast, lunch, grab-and-go items, and dinner. The menu was developed by Oh Hi! Hospitality (Anastacia Quiñones-Pittman, Victor E. Rojas, and Carlos Marquez), and no, there is not a lot of veg going on. But the crema de champiñones is not your everyday mushroom soup. It has mushrooms and chochoyotes — small, round Mexican masa dumplings which add richness, texture, and a potent corn flavor — along with pea tendrils and pistachio salsa macha, a nutty twist on salsa.

Restaurant Beatrice
The menu at this French-Cajun fine-dining restaurant in Oak Cliff can always be counted on to incorporate a creative vegan offering; chef-owner Michelle Carpenter has been hip to the vegan thing for decades and was the first to introduce vegan sushi to Dallas at her Oak Cliff restaurant Zen Sushi. Beatrice's current special is Mushroom Bourgignon, a vegetarian twist on the classic French stew, starring funghi from Millbrook Mushrooms in Rockwall (because another one of Beatrice's tenets is to buy local, and for them it's more than lip service). They serve it over mashed potatoes for a wonderfully satisfying winter-season dish.

Snarf's Sandwiches
Sandwich shop chain from Boulder has landed in Dallas with two locations now open (2337 W. Mockingbird Ln. #150, and 7615 Campbell Rd. #104), and three more to open in the coming months. Since launching in 1996, they've earned a following for made-to-order sandwiches on their signature crusty bread. Unsurprisingly, most of the sandwiches are meaty, with salami, pepperoni, capicola, mortadella, meatballs, corned beef, and more. But they have great vegetarian sandwiches including a notable offering with artichoke & feta cheese — you don't see that every day. Other veg sandwiches include mushroom & Swiss cheese, avocado & sprouts, and eggplant parmesan.