One Dallas restaurant has made a prominent annual list: It's the 2024 rendition of Esquire magazine's Best New Restaurants in America and the only Dallas entry on the list is Mābo, the Asian restaurant in Preston Center from acclaimed chef Masayuki Otaka.

The newly released list has 35 restaurants, with the majority of the entries in New York and California, including the top restaurant of the year: Four Kings, a Cantonese restaurant in San Francisco.

The list is dominated by Asian cuisine: Of the 35 restaurants, fully one third are Asian.

The authors are "Jeff Gordinier and The Esquire Editors," which includes Omar Mamoon, a San Francisco-based writer (who calls himself not a critic but a "curator" oh dear) who got dispatched to Dallas. In his writeup of Mabo, he waxes on about chicken being his favorite before hailing Mabo as the best place in America to eat chicken yakitori, a Japanese grilling technique.

"… When you consider the Japanese art of yakitori, in which skewered chicken parts grill over binchotan coals until they achieve maximum smokiness and juiciness—well, this is where the bird gets transcendent," he writes. "At Mābo, his eight-seat counter, chef Masayuki Otaka prepares a two-hour meal in which poultry is the star. He sources free-ranging heritage breeds from Pennsylvania, and he lets you order additional skewers—maybe you’re in the mood for more tail, or for the fatty triangular nub known as the pope’s nose—when the planned courses have reached their completion."

Otaka is the former chef/owner of Teppo on Greenville Avenue (which closed in 2022 and is now home to sushi restaurant Kaiyo) who opened Mabo in spring 2024. It's an omakase-style spot with a 14-course tasting experience, with two tastings per night at 5:30 and 8:30 pm, only eight guests per seating, for $200. Otaka has a devoted following, and his version of omakase is less about raw fish and more about the yakitori-style of cooking for which he was famous at Teppo, featuring grilled meats, mushrooms, and other bits on a skewer.

Despite its coastal focus, the list does not completely ignore Texas: Houston restaurant Late August also earns a spot on the list along with nods to Tavel Bristol-Joseph and Karla Espinosa, owners of Nicosi in San Antonio who are pronounced Pastry Chefs of the Year.
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Eric Sandler contributed to this story.