Hungry bears

Where to eat in Dallas right now: 10 hot restaurants for October

Start founder Erin McKool was a Park Cities mom who couldn't find fast food sheliked.
The dining room at East Hampton Sandwich Co. has a cool, beachy vibe.
Tamale pie is a signature dish at Urban Rio in Plano.

Photo by Marc Lee

October is here, and you're wondering where to eat. What are the cool spots, the top chefs and — holy mother of Paula Deen — where are the foodies hanging out? We found them. They're all here: the 10 hot restaurants in Dallas right now.

Boulevardier
The new restaurant from lawyer brothers Brooks and Bradley Anderson (of Veritas Wine Room fame) and chef Nathan Tate of Restaurant Ava, Boulevardier is the gourmand pick of the moment; in fact, it just made Texas Monthly's Pat's Picks. The menu is supercalifragalicious if you like meat. There is charcuterie, steak frites, cassoulet, marrow bones, burgers, lamb stew and — no surprise from these oenophiles — a big wine list.

East Hampton Sandwich Co.
Huh, a place that specializes in sandwiches. Potbelly? No, silly: East Hampton Sandwich Co., where sandwiches are fancy and, at $8 to $16, pricey too. The menu includes the new must-have, a lobster roll, plus turkey with avocado, three chicken sandwiches and the always-popular cheeseburger. Unlike Potbelly, EHSC has beer and wine.

Mecca
If you weren't all over the old Harry Hines spot, now's your chance to try Mecca, the breakfast institution, which moved to this new location in East Dallas, in the old Tipperary Inn space, in September. Breakfast is the thing to get, and it's served all day: pancakes, migas and the signature big-as-a-house cinnamon roll.

Nora
For five years, Afghan Grill served excellent middle-Eastern dishes in a modest space in far North Dallas. Now its younger sister, Nora, gets the spotlight, bringing unique specialties like braised pumpkin to the gourmet-starved neighborhood of Greenville Avenue.

Ocho Kitchen + Cocktails
As you might surmise from the name, Ocho Kitchen + Cocktails is equal parts food and booze. Owners of this Preston Center spot include Benjamin Crosland and Brian Black (Il Sole, Mi Piaci), while Santa Fe chef Eric DiStefano devised the menu of Mexi-American dishes such as meatloaf and mashed potatoes and a Kobe burger. Mexi? Well, the meal does start with chips and salsa.

Sea Breeze Fish Market & Grill
Many people insist that Sea Breeze does the best, most authentic lobster rolls in town; they were certainly the first. Many people like the lobster roll so much, they'll drive to Plano to get one. Here's another reason: Sea Breeze is doing whole-belly fried clams, another New England signature, in which the entire clam is fried, not just the chewy muscular "strip." Nobody else has them — not yet, anyway.

Start
Park Cities mom Erin McKool couldn't find suitable fast food for her kids. So she opened her own place: Start, where the burgers are grass-fed, the eggs are cage-free and the fast-food chowing can go down with less remorse. Even the compostable to-go containers are guilt-free. Yay, Mom.

Tillman's Roadhouse
Before Bishop Arts became the white-hot center it is today, Tillman's Roadhouse was there first, doing funky down-home food with a fun, party vibe. The digs have gotten a lot nicer, but 20 years later, the spirit is the same. Owner Sara Tillman celebrates her anniversary October 5 with live music and a cake and a party all month long.

Tried and True
Hyperkinetic chef Nick Badovinus expands his empire with Tried and True, taking over the old Neighborhood Services Tavern space. It's different from NST. It's more like his other concept, Off Site Kitchen. And, yet, it's not exactly the same. Anyway, it's Nick. What more do you need to know?

Urban Rio
If you like upscale Tex-Mex, then Urban Rio must be on your list. D Magazine's Nancy Nichols loved its complex sauces and salsas, and the cocktails aren't bad, either. For dwellers of the northern 'burbs, it's a snap. For everyone else, it's right off the DART Rail downtown Plano stop.

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Tex-Mex News

Get Tex-Mex and bargain margs at Alexander's Cantina in North Dallas

A Mexican restaurant with a killer happy hour has debuted in North Dallas: Alexander's Cantina & Cocina, a family-owned restaurant and bar, has opened at 4805 Frankford Rd. #105, a space most recently occupied by Casa Don Luis Tex-Mex and before that, a Corner Bakery.

Alexander's is a bigger-and-better spinoff of Alexander's Mex Cuisine, a restaurant opened in Plano in 2023 by Bernardo Garduño and his family, featuring Tex-Mex and street food from his hometown Mexico City.

Garduño worked for many years in the service industry before coming to Dallas in 2015. He crafted Alexander's menu by drawing on his restaurant experience, along with recipes from his mom.

Signature dishes include:

Pambazo — Mexican bread dipped in chili sauce, filled with potatoes, chorizo, and queso, then fried
Alambre — steak, ham, and bacon with onion, peppers, and cheese
Bistek a la Mexicana — steak tips, onion, and bell pepper simmered in a spicy tomato sauce until it turns into a stew

Other crowd-pleasers include chicken mole, brisket tacos, birria, fajitas, enchiladas, and more. They have a big selection of seafood including tacos with salmon and coconut shrimp, plus vegetarian options such as veggie fajitas and spinach enchiladas. One favorite extra: Their chips come not only with salsa but also black bean dip.

The new location has given them room to grow in a way they were unable to do in Plano, Garduño says.

"Plano is doing very well but that location is small, and there was no room to expand," he says. "We did extensive renovations at the Dallas location that included the addition of a bar, as well as room for parties and entertainment, like salsa on Fridays and Saturdays."

The menu at the two locations is basically the same but Dallas has a few new dishes such as mojarra frita, a whole tilapia fried and served with rice, plus carnitas, and a few more tacos, he says.

One item they recently dropped: soft-serve margaritas. Garduño was quick to jump on that early 2026 trend, and Alexander's made many a "soft-serve margarita" list, but the trend turned out to be short-lived.

"It did well for a month, but people went right back to regular margaritas," he says. "Those drinks are fun but they're very sweet. The mix has to be highly sugared in order to get the texture correct. The ingredients and equipment to make it were expensive, which meant we had to charge more for it — $16 as opposed to $10 for our regular margaritas."

Garduño has kept an eye on the trend. "We're not the only place no longer doing it," he says.

Besides, it was not a good fit with Alexander's generous happy hour, featuring $5.50 house margaritas, $6 flavored margaritas, and $4 beer, available from 11 am-6 pm every day at the Plano location, and Sunday-Thursday at Dallas.

"Our happy hour has become one of our trademarks," he says.

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