News You Can Eat

It's the season for seasonal menus in this Dallas restaurant news roundup

A statuesque burger topped with fried jalapenos from DQ.

If trying new dishes and checking out new menus is appealing, then this is the time to go out to eat right now in Dallas. Nearly every nugget in this roundup of dining news around Dallas is about a new dish or a new menu, from an over-the-top lineup of Wagyu specials to a fun burger at the DQ.

Here's what's happening in Dallas restaurant news:

The Finch is celebrating its debut in Grand Prairie this Thursday, May 4. To kick off the festivities, the brand will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Grand Prairie Chamber of Commerce at 11:30 and will be serving complimentary hors d'oeuvres and champagne.The modern American neighborhood restaurant debuted in Dallas’ Mockingbird Station in November, joining Milkshake Concepts siblings Vidorra, Harper’s, Stirr, and Serious Pizza. A third location is slated to open this year in Nashville.

Mochio Donut is a new Asian-style doughnut shop in Allen at 1546 E Stacy Rd #195, in a space that has previously been home to Royal King Donuts and Morning Star Donut Shop. Many doughnut shops over the years, all of which have spelled doughnut "donut." Maybe that's a sign. Mochio opened in April and does the sort of still trendy "bubble" chewy doughnuts. Hope springs eternal! They issue trendy limited-edition flavors such as their current Pineapple with spicy Tajin, and Mexican Hot Chocolate with dark chocolate, cinnamon, & chili powder. They also offer delivery to certain neighborhoods, surely a new twist on the same old doughnut shop.

STK Steakhouse has a limited-edition menu of Wagyu specials including Japanese Joshu A5 wagyu tacos (3 for $49), Japanese Joshu A5 Wagyu 8-ounce steak ($195 for Delmonico cut; $189 for spinalis roll), American Rosewood Ranch 16-once ribeye for $149, Australian Carrara steak ($65 for an 8-ounce zingy skirt or $139 per lb for a tomahawk), and a Wagyu sampler with Masami bone marrow, 3-oz Australian skirt steak, A5 Japanese tacos (2), and 3-oz A5 ribeye spinalis for $149. Add A5 miso bacon butter to any Wagyu for $12.

Oddfellows in Bishop Arts has new seasonal dishes including cucumber cantaloupe salad with feta and pickled blueberries; duck rillette with crostini; and green bean salad with marble potatoes, almonds, & goat cheese. New brunch specials include chicken chilaquiles, and a duck bacon sandwich with house-made duck bacon, fried egg, arugula, & tomato on farmhouse white bread. New for dinner: duck confit with charred cauliflower puree; striped bass with gnocchi, peas, asparagus, & mushrooms; and tamarind short rib with parmesan farro & asparagus. Desserts include strawberry shortcake (and bread pudding with goat cheese & honey ice cream.

Grand Lux Cafe in Dallas has unveiled new menu items on its Specials Card, including but are not limited to Crispy Shrimp Rolls, lemon- Parmesan Brussels sprouts with Fuji apple, ahi tuna burger toasted bun with avocado & wasabi mayo, short rib rigatoni pasta with Parmesan cream and arugula, avocado benedict, profiterole housemade cream puffs with vanilla ice cream and chocolate fudge sauce.

Modern Market Eatery has a new summer menu with a dozen healthy options including seared ahi salad, flatiron steak salad with grass-fed steak & Gorgonzola cheese, smokey chicken bowl, greens & grains bowl, summer garden salad, B-L-Toast (avocado, on multigrain toast), salmon Caesar, strawberry Nutella waffle, and roasted veggies with broccoli, cauliflower, rainbow carrot, charred onion, and zucchini. Seasonal fan favorite Street Corn Pizza also returns.

Loop 9 BBQ in Grand Prairie has new menu items for May: Prime chopped brisket sandwich topped with onion rings, the Two-Hander with brisket, pulled pork, Elgin sausage, and onion rings, and brisket tacos with grilled onions and cotija cheese in a flour tortilla. They'll join Mexican corn, borracha beans, battered fried okra, fresh-cut fries, Key lime pie, and banana cream pudding.

Original ChopShop has a new Hot Honey Chicken + Hummus Protein Bowl with brown rice, spring mix tossed in red wine vinaigrette, cucumber, tomato, banana pepper, red pepper hummus, chicken, and topped with hot honey sauce, and Greek yogurt sauce. They also have a house-blended Red Pepper Hummus with chickpeas, lemon juice, roasted red pepper, garlic, and tahini, and served with new house-baked tortilla chips. Both are available May 9 through July 31.

First Watch, the brunch chain, has new limited-time dishes on the menu through May 28: Tacos Al Pastor Hash with pineapple and seasoned potatoes, eggs, avocado; Crab & Avocado Toast on whole grain toast, with two basted eggs; bananas Foster French toast, thick-cut challah bread griddled and topped with bananas, pecans, and caramel sauce; and Tropical Sunrise Juice with mango, pineapple, strawberry, and lime. First Watch’s executive chef creates 5 distinct seasonal menus in addition to core favorites; the Tacos Al Pastor Hash took 5 years of research and development just to make the limited-time offering.

Crush Taco, the modern taco shop with two locations in Frisco, has brought back a popular taco for its taco-of-the-month for May: chicken tikka taco featuring buttermilk fried chicken, tikka sauce, raita crema, with buttered basmati rice, in a flour tortilla.

Douglas Bar & Grill has revealed its May pasta special. Who knew Douglas Bar & Grill had a monthly pasta special? And yet the May edition is here: Spinach tortelloni filled with ricotta & parmesan paired with a carrot purée, herb oil, spring peas, and fried shallots.

Douglas Bar & Grill pasta Douglas Bar & Grill spinach tortellini, on the menu during May.Douglas Bar & Grill

Pizzana, the pizzeria on Knox Street, has a limited-edition pizza called The Messicana with chorizo, cilantro lime sauce, pickled sweet chile, jalapeño, and queso fresco, available through May 7.

DQ restaurants in Texas have a new limited-time spicy burger called the Jalitos Ranch Hungr-Buster, featuring a quarter-pound grilled burger with lettuce, creamy jalapeño ranch dressing, and pepper jack cheese, crowned with crispy jalitos between two buttery toasted buns. Pronounced “ha-LEE-tos,” jalitos are jalapeno strips crispy-fried slivers of peppery goodness that deliver a mild-to-medium punch and a zesty, satisfying crunch. The Jalitos Ranch Hungr-Buster is available through May 22 while supplies last, only at DQ restaurants in Texas.

SusieCakes is offering seasonal strawberry-themed cupcakes from May 8-14 including a Strawberry Rosé Cupcake – pink champagne vanilla batter with strawberries folded in, frosted with pink champagne buttercream and sprinkled with white sanding sugar; and the Strawberry Cupcake – vanilla cupcake filled and frosted with strawberry buttercream topped with red sprinkles.

Tiff's Treats has entered a cookie collaboration with Austin-based Cookie Rich that reimagines three Tiff’s Treats’ flavors in Cookie Rich’s signature bite-sized cookies with fillings. A box of 12 comes with six flavors: Three Tiff’s Treats flavors and three Cookie Rich flavors: Vanilla sugar cookie with mini M&M’s and milk chocolate mousse filling; dark chocolate with mini chocolate chips and dark fudge filling; oatmeal raisin with vanilla cream cheese filling; soft chocolate chip with dark fudge filling; cinnamon sugar with cinnamon brown sugar filling; soft red velvet cookie with vanilla cream filling. They're available online for $39 plus $10 shipping through September 1.

DQ — again! they're busy over there — has a new May Blizzard of the Month: The Peanut Butter Puppy Chow Blizzard. "Puppy chow" is the name for a popular, old-school-style homemade snack with cereal, melted chocolate, and peanut butter, and served as inspiration for the Peanut Butter Puppy Chow Blizzard Treat, consisting of crispy peanut butter puppy chow pieces and Choco Chunks, blended with soft serve and peanut butter topping.

The Crescent Club, located within Hotel Crescent Court has appoined Tony Johnson as executive chef. He received a scholarship to Johnson & Wales University after entering a recipe contest, and has worked at the Dorchester in London, England, where he was chef de cuisine, making fresh pasta daily and classic Italian dishes, as well as Lake Lanier Islands Resort, the Hilton Daytona Beach, Emory Conference Center Hotel, and Sirata Beach Resort.

Sheraton Dallas introduces new Executive Chef Andrew Cardillo, who will lead all aspects of hotel food operations, including catering for the hotel’s convention and meeting spaces, in-room dining, and the four food and beverage outlets within Sheraton Dallas. He was previously Executive Chef at the Des Moines Marriott Downtown and has worked with other Marriott properties across the country including Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina and Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile.

chefs news-you-can-eat

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

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Food trends

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