Restaurant News Roundup

Brisk opening and closing action packs this Dallas restaurant news

An array of new dishes from Carraba's.

Carraba's

This roundup of restaurant news around Dallas includes new restaurants opening, old restaurants re-opening, new-ish restaurants closing, and then the usual assortment of new dishes and menu items, some from local indies, others from big chains. New dishes don't care. They're going to show up where they're going to show up, and that includes showing up in this roundup.

Here's what's new in Dallas restaurants:

The Porch, the once-buzzy restaurant at 2912 N. Henderson Ave., is reopening March 6, following a two-month closure for renovations. They're already doing to go orders online, for items like chicken fried steak with garlic mashed potatoes, beef stroganoff, grilled cheese, and smoked ham Mac & cheese. The Porch was originally opened by chef Nick Badovinus and Tristan Simon but is currently owned by Joule Dallas hotel owner Tim Headington. They've been posting updates of their progress on Instagram; they're expanding their outdoor space with a beer garden.

Evan’s Meat Market is a new butcher shop located in The Shops at Highland Park at 4266 Oak Lawn Ave. with a modern Lafayette, Louisiana twist, offering meats, po’ boys, and ready-made dishes and sides. It's open Monday-Saturday 11 am-6 pm, and Sunday 11 am-3 pm.

National Anthem the downtown Dallas restaurant from chef Nick Badovinus is opening a location at the Omni Hotel at Battery Atlanta, steps from Truist Park stadium. This isn’t the first restaurant from a well-known chef to open at the Omni at Battery Atlanta: In 2018, chef Hugh Acheson opened Achie’s at the hotel, but it closed in 2019.

Anamia's Tex-Mex is opening a location in Prosper on the northern city limit at 2001 N. Preston Rd. #10. This will be the sixth location for the popular family-owned chain founded in Coppell in 2014 by husband-and-wife Jay and Anna Ortiz, and named for Anna and their daughter Mia.

Sky Rocket Burger is opening a location in Lewisville, at 2425 FM 544, Bldg 2 #100. This is the fourth location of the chain which was founded in 2018 by husband-and-wife Scott and Tio Wagner. The concept was briefly under the umbrella of Milkshake but they parted ways in 2022. This new location is a franchise, while Wagner he still owns and operates the original location in North Dallas on 7877 Frankford Rd.

Merit Coffee, a Texas-based coffee shop, opened a location at 11700 Preston Rd., the fourth Merit Coffee in Dallas, joining Deep Ellum, Highland Park, and Preston Hollow Village. They're an offshoot of Local Coffee, founded in San Antonio in 2008.

PT Neighborhood Pizzeria, a sibling to the Pie Tap pizzeria chain that opened in 2021 during the pandemic with pizza by the slice and an abbreviated version of Pie Tap's menu, has unfortunately closed. Fortunately, there are four Pie Tap locations including the Design District, Henderson Avenue, Addison, and Plano, plus another opening soon in Frisco at 4880 Eldorado Pkwy, #100.

Iconic Eatery & Ice Cream Bar is the latest enterprise from Uncle "Oncle" Otis, now a pop-up serving vegan foodstuffs at Ann's Health Food Center at 2634 S. Zang Blvd., including sandwiches, comfort food entrees, egan ice cream & milkshakes, smoothies, and fruit bowls. It's open Sunday-Monday 11 am-6 pm and Tuesday-Saturday 11 am-7:30 pm. Ross has previously done food trucks serving vegan sushi and vegan ice cream.

American Airlines Center has introduced new vegan menu items at its in-house eateries. Modelo Gold Lion Bar & Grill is serving a vegan burger and a vegan brat with spicy mustard. El Taco Tex has vegan nachos and vegan tacos. Market 2 Go has a power bowl with spinach, quinoa, garbanzo beans, tomato, and cucumber.

Gorji Restaurant celebrates its 20th anniversary during March with complimentary desserts. The restaurant currently functions as an intimate five-table restaurant serving Mediterranean cuisine. Muscle and Health named Gorji in their international selection of 5 Restaurants Every Foodie Must Visit at Least Once in the Fall 2022 issue. Over the years, their trend-setting initiatives have included no TVs, no young children, and no tipping.

Darna Mediterranean Eatery at Legacy West in Plano is spotlighting four seafood dishes: salmon with blistered tomatoes, mashed potatoes, Moroccan carrots; Seafood Risotto with Scallops, salmon, shrimp; Paella for two; and Trout & Shrimp with preserved lemon, olive, roasted potato.

The BopBop, a Korean BBQ food truck concept, has an outlet in Garland at Revolving Kitchen. They do a decadent version of bibambap, the Korean specialty featuring rice topped with veggies, sweet potato glass noodles, meat (or not), and sauces. They've recently launched two new dishes: a brisket bop topped with brisket that's been smoked 12 hours; and one with Filipino-style lechon roasted pig.

Jinya Ramen Bar has two new dishes: Suan-La-Tang Tsukemen Dipping Noodles, thick noodles with hot-and-sour pork broth, pork soboro, green onion, shiitake mushroom, bamboo shoot, egg, bok choy, and nori; and Curry Rice Croquettes, seasoned curry rice balls stuffed with white cheddar cheese and fried.

Maple Leaf Diner has brought back its Corned Beef Hash Poutine in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day for the month of March. It's topped with corned beef, banana peppers, green onion, and cheese and is $16.99.

Isla & Co. in Bishop Arts has a new dish: skewers of kangaroo over lentils with tahini, cucumbers, and pickled onions. They call it the ultimate share dish. They also share a "fun fact", that kangaroo is one of the oldest food sources on Earth, hunted for centuries by Australian indigenous people using fire, spears, and boomerangs. One would hope the human race would advance from all that, and from eating animals entirely, but hey, kangaroo.

Thirsty Lion Gastropub is serving Irish dishes from March 2-17 such as Bacon Cheddar Potato Cakes, Scotch Eggs, Reuben Sandwich, Irish Shepherd’s Pie, Beer Braised Corned Beef & Cabbage, Irish Whiskey Salmon; and Whiskey Bing Cherry Bread Pudding with whiskey caramel sauce, at four locations in Grandscape, Preston Hollow, Irving, and Euless.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is introducing the new Fajita Quesadilla as a digital-only menu item on the Chipotle app and Chipotle.com. The quesadillas have Monterey Jack cheese, protein of choice, and veggies, and will be available starting March 2.

El Pollo Loco has added a new option to its Double Tostada Salad lineup: Double Shredded Beef Tostada Salad, featuring a crisp tostada shell filled with a double portion of shredded beef, Hass avocado, shredded lettuce, pinto beans, Mexican rice, sour cream, Monterey Jack, and pico de gallo, with creamy cilantro dressing. It joins its sibling the Chicken Double Tostada Salad and is available until April 19.

Carrabba's Italian Grill has new dishes for spring: Linguine Primavera with asparagus, peas, roasted tomatoes, & artichoke hearts in basil pesto cream sauce; Tuscan-Grilled Lamb T-Bones with bourbon mint demi-glace; Tomato Caprese with burrata, tomatoes, basil, red onion, & balsamic glaze; Citrus Olive Oil Cake with lemon curd, whipped cream, & blackberries; and Passion Pear Spritz cocktail with New Amsterdam Passionfruit vodka, desert pair, pineapple juice, & Riondo Prosecco. They begin on March 7.

Fuzzy’s Taco Shop has a new Margarita Shrimp Taco, with flavors inspired by the taco brand’s signature FuzzyRita.The Margarita Shrimp Taco is prepared with fried or grilled shrimp, Tajin garlic sauce, cabbage, lime crema, and a margarita-tomatillo pico made with lime juice and agave on a flour tortilla, topped with feta & cilantro, available through April 9.

Salata, the salad chain, has three new pickled topping options: Pickles, Pickled Okra, and Spicy Giardiniera, which you can put on any salad or order one of these three new salads: Dill Pickle Salad, Jalapeno Okra Salad, and Spicy and Sweet Salad.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams has a new limited-edition flavor to promote the March 15 return of the TV series Ted Lasso, in which the title character has a daily ritual of biscuits with the boss. The flavor features shortbread cookie crumbles folded into a salted butter sweet cream ice cream. It launches March 2 and runs until April.

Dunkin’ has new spring menu items including Caramel Chocolate Cold Brew, with caramel and milk chocolate, topped with Chocolate Cold Foam and Cocoa Caramel Sprinkles; Carrot Cake Muffins, featuring shredded carrots, raisins, crystalized ginger pieces, and cream cheese icing; Chocolate Croissants; and Irish Crème Flavor coffee.

Visit Plano has a new "foodie pass." Now through September 30, you can accumulate points by checking-in at participating restaurants and redeeming coupons, then cash in for prizes from Visit Plano. Register at visitplano.com/tasteofplano.

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Food trends

Dallas-Fort Worth pitmasters lead Texas’ growing halal BBQ boom

Levant BBQ

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FORT WORTH, Texas (RNS) — At 9 am on a scorching Saturday in June, nearly 100 people were already lined up outside Goldee’s BBQ, a small, wooden-shack restaurant.

First in line was 30-year-old Thanh Huynh, who had been sitting in a lawn chair on the joint’s rustic porch since 6:30 am.

“I have, like, a whole list, and I’m going to spend lots of money here. It’ll be worth it,” he said, laughing while rattling off a long order of meats and sides from his phone’s Notes app as a sweet, smoky scent from nearby pits hung in the air.

Opened in 2020 by a group of his friends, the restaurant was named the No. 1 barbecue spot in the state by Texas Monthly a year later, and then won a Bib Gourmand award from the prestigious Michelin Guide, given for “great food at a great value.”

The restaurant serves classic Texas barbecue like craft pork belly, sausage, and ribs. But it also offers halal brisket, turkey, and lamb.

"Halal" means meat raised and butchered in accordance with Islamic guidelines. It refers to the method in which the animals are slaughtered, one that focuses on humane treatment, cleanliness, and acknowledging the value of life — similar in concept to kosher food in Judaism.

A growing number of halal places have opened around Fort Worth in recent years, and there are also non-halal restaurants that use halal beef, such as burger institution Kincaid's, the new Burger Vault in Keller, and the forthcoming Tick Tock Taco in Colleyville.

Growing Texas trend
At a time when Republican leaders are increasingly targeting the state’s growing Muslim communities, halal barbecue joints like Goldee’s are thriving in Texas. Across the state, Muslim pitmasters are gaining recognition for putting their own spin on one of Texas’ most iconic culinary traditions.

Goldee's Barbecue is an acclaimed BBQ joint in Fort Worth. Goldee's Barbecue/ Facebook

At least a dozen barbecue spots now serve halal meats, including Yearby’s Barbecue & Waterice, run by Black Muslim couple CJ and Sabrina Henley, soon-to-be in Plano; and Levant Mediterranean BBQ, a restaurant with locations in Houston and Frisco and whose all-beef menu includes a brisket shawarma sandwich.

“Now there are so many options, and for us to have highly rated barbecue, it’s a blessing,” said Haris Ghaffar, who drove an hour from Celina and stood in 90-degree weather for nearly two hours with a friend for the halal options at Goldee’s.

Growing up in the 1990s, Ghaffar said a McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwich was one of the few halal meals he could eat while dining out. Back then, halal food was seen as serving a small community. Today, it’s a multibillion-dollar industry that’s part of the American culinary mainstream, said James Beard Award‑winning food writer Farhan Mustafa, who wrote about the rise of American halal barbecue for Bon Appétit magazine in 2025.

“Halal food is American food,” said Mustafa, who is based in Seattle. “It belongs on your plate. It belongs in the casual chat. It belongs in hip hop tracks. It’s the most American thing there is.”

Mustafa said Muslims are part of a growing list of communities putting their stamp on Texas barbecue. “Whether they’re first, second or third-generation Muslims or Muslim Americans or just Americans, they’re bringing what they know and what excites them,” he said.

More than salt and pepper
Texas barbecue is typically defined by salt-and-pepper brisket and pork ribs, but this new crop of halal pitmasters are adding inventive twists, often based on their own family heritages.

Zain Shafi, a pitmaster and co-owner of Goldee’s, previously ran Sabar Barbecue, a food truck that offered Pakistani-infused halal dishes, such as brisket with rub that included spices like bay leaf and coriander.

Sabar was nominated for Best BBQ in CultureMap's 2025 Tastemaker Awards, and made the list of Texas Monthly's Top 50 Barbecue Restaurants of 2025. The restaurant was also featured in a recently published BBQ book Texas BBQ: The Art of Low and Slow. He closed Sabar in December 2025 after two years.

Sabar BBQ Sabar Barbecue offered a Pakistani twist on BBQ. Sabar Barbecue

Shafi brought tandoori smoked turkey to Goldee’s menu. And sourcing halal cuts, he said, was a natural choice because they are “the highest quality” meats.

Goldee’s chef and part owner Nupohn Inthanousay also blends his Laotian heritage, serving a smoked Lao “sai oua” sausage with sticky rice and a fiery, tangy dipping sauce.

At Kafi BBQ in Irving, owner Salahodeen Abdul-Kafi brings halal Wagyu beef and Iraqi spices to classic Texas barbecue, challenging what he said is the “traditional old guard of Texas barbecue.”

“My goal at Kafi BBQ is to make the best barbecue in Texas,” Abdul-Kafi said. “I have not been shy about that at all, and making the best barbecue in Texas does not necessarily have to include pork.”

A former Silicon Valley tech worker, he moved to Texas six years ago in search of a Muslim community. On weekends in his backyard, he smoked brisket for friends. By 2024, he bought a smoker and opened Kafi BBQ.

He said he spent months testing and perfecting recipes and finding local producers. Abdul-Kafi attributes his obsession with crafting a stand-out menu to the Islamic concept of “Ihsan”— an Arabic term meaning doing something with excellence for the sake of God.

On a Sunday afternoon this summer, the restaurant’s red booths were packed with diners, drawn to menu items like the 13-spice Wagyu brisket, pomegranate-glazed beef belly burnt ends and Iraqi-inspired spicy beef sausage.

“That sausage, I’d probably put it at the top sausage I’ve ever had, and we eat barbecue a lot. This place is unique,” said Jonathan Tate, a Fort Worth resident who came to Kafi BBQ with a friend after reading about it on a Facebook foodie group.

“I don’t necessarily have to have it halal, but it’s nice to know they took good care of the food, the meat,” his friend Jon Sklar said, before going back in line to order oxtail.

Meat at Kafi BBQ in Irving. Kafi BBQ

'We love barbecue'
Although political rhetoric against Muslims in Texas has become increasingly hostile — some GOP lawmakers even discussed a ban on halal food at a conference this month — pitmasters like Abdul-Kafi see the rise of halal barbecue as an effective counterargument.

“It’s an example of exactly the opposite of what the Islamophobes talk about, right?” he said. “They say, ‘oh, Muslims don’t integrate, they stay alone, they don’t help society and all this stuff.’ And it’s like, I’m sitting here contributing to the most well-known cuisine of Texas.”

One of the diners at Kafi BBQ, Houston native Muhammad Sohail, 23, said the restaurant reflects who he is — a proud Texan and Muslim. “This place is super important because I can see halal within the culture of Texas, which is my culture at this point,” Sohail said. “We love the food. We love meat. We’re Muslims and we love barbecue.”

After finishing a big lunch with 10 relatives, Areeba Ali, a Dallas native of Indian heritage, said the restaurant’s appeal cuts across communities, which she said is evidence that halal barbecue isn’t a niche but resonates broadly with Texans. “If you look around in the restaurant, you see everybody in there — it’s not just one demographic in there,” Ali said.

For Mustafa, that success is ultimately a testament to the resilience of Muslim American communities.

“No matter how much they try to erase us, our food is here to stay,” he said. “You will see the power of just good food and the fact that most people really seem to understand that this is just as American as anything else.”

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This story was written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. It also includes information from the CultureMap archives.

halal halal barbecue muslim communities pitmasters religion texas texas barbecue trends culinary traditions goldee's barbecue