All the Restaurant News

Holiday week is not slowing down this round of Dallas restaurant news

Shogun

This may be a holiday week but the Dallas restaurant scene is not slacking, with a whole wave of restaurants that are newly open or are just about to. There are also new menus, special dishes, and a nice celebrity tout for a local celebrity beer.

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

Sidelines Sports Tavern, a short-lived sports bar in Frisco just closed. It was the latest occupant of a space at 307 Main St. #105 at the corner of 423, which has had its share of turnover, starting out as Woody's Bar Kitchen, which closed in 2024. Sidelines opened in February 2025, and now it is gone.

Ateliê, a new restaurant from chef Wyl Lima, opened in Bishop Arts on December 15 at at 365 W. Jefferson Blvd. — a permanent home following years of underground dinners. It opens with a 12-item menu including vegetable-forward dishes such as Roasted Carrots with tofu curry, Garden Salad with frisée, fried egg, & radish, Mushroom Croquettes, Turkey Hot Pocket with truffle mornay & smoked gouda, Wagyu Melt with pastrami & caramelized onions, Fried Rice with egg yolk, garlic crisp, & nori, Cacio e Pepe, Lamb Shank with pomegranate & couscous, skirt steak with piquillo salsa and yuca, and Half Roasted Chicken with sweet plantains and Mediterranean chutney.

Noodle One is a new Asian restaurant in Frisco, 3311 Preston Rd. #1 in the former Nations diner space, serving dishes like beef noodle soup, stir-fried noodles, and wok-tossed fried rice. They specialize in handmade noodles — including a guy making them in plain view — along with lamb skewers, dumplings, and fried rice. owners are from Lanzhou, capital of the Gansu province in China. Nations closed that location in October but still has locations in Sunnyvale, Denton, Arlington, and Sachse.

Flying Fish, the Dallas-based mostly-Cajun seafood chain, is opening a location in Plano, in the former Dickeys space at 4032 Preston Rd., across from the H-E-B just south of Spring Creek Parkway. According to a spokesperson, they're in the thick of a remodeling with a grand opening coming in early 2026.

Caffe:in is a new restaurant and boba shop in Plano at 101 Spring Creek Pkwy. #735 on the northwest corner of US-75 in the same shopping center as 99 Ranch, taking over the space previously occupied by Tiger Sugar, another drink chain. The concept hails from California and specializes in authentic Taiwanese and Malaysian boba, desserts, and snacks such as Taiwanese popcorn chicken, a Malaysian street burger, and shaved ice topped with mango and cream — bringing back memories for California transplants.

Hoja Bubble Tea and Asian Street Food, an Asian restaurant that opened at 812 W. Spring Creek Pkwy. #208 in Plano in 2023, is another purveyor of Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken. Surely there is a third, so we can make it an official trend. Often called Taiwan’s favorite street food, the chicken comes in bite-size pieces, featuring a crunchy coating made with potato flour and flavored with five-spice seasoning and basil leaves.

Shogun Japanese Grill & Sushi Bar, a chain based in Houston, just opened its first DFW location in Plano, at 3916 Dallas Pkwy., in the space left vacant by Pappas Delta Blues Smokehouse, the upscale barbecue restaurant from Houston-based Pappas Restaurants which closed in 2024 after five years. Shogun, which is no relation to the Shogun in McKinney, or any other Shogun in the DFW area, serves sushi, sushi rolls — with a big selection of both cooked and raw — plus hibachi, hotpot, skewers, tempura, yakisoba noodles, plus favorites like teriyaki chicken and bento boxes. They're part of Shogun group from Houston which has 22 locations across Texas including Houston, Austin, and San Antonio — all cities which coincidentally have CultureMap bureaus as well.

Elm & Good, the restaurant at the historic 1916 Kimpton Pittman Hotel in Deep Ellum, has a new menu from newish chef JV Hernandez, which features a "modern American tavern" identity, with shareable plates and comfort-driven mains. Highlights include koji-aged Manhattan steak, cider-braised pork shank, Texas wild boar bolognese, hamachi crudo, and a warm sticky toffee cake based on his grandmother’s recipe. A native of Puerto Rico native and Dallas-trained chef, Hernandez grew up working on his great-grandmother’s farm, trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Dallas, and cooked in fine-dining kitchens from Maine to Denver to Salt Lake City alongside Michelin and James Beard recognized teams. A signature dish is the Puffy Potatoes — crisp, hollow potatoes with gribiche, parmesan, and chives, designed for the center of the table.

Soy Cowboy, the modern pan-Asian restaurant at Loews Arlington Hotel, has launched a new Dim Sum menu featuring sharable dishes like chicken dumplings, lobster wontons, Wagyu gyoza, crab tacos, Korean BBQ ribs, a variety of sushi rolls, plus sake flights and brunch cocktails available during daytime service.

Mirador in downtown Dallas is debuting new menus for weekday lunch and Saturday brunch which they say have a healthier slant for after the holidays. Highlights include chef’s selection of pickles, Caesar salad, farro bowl, lobster Cobb — although that dish has egg yolks and bacon, so can you really call that healthy? — wild mushrooms, chicken paillard with carrots & pickled golden raisins, ube bowl with fruit, and scrambled eggs with rosemary ham, also not particularly healthy, but whatever.

Grimaldi's, the pizza chain, has a new menu of winter specials, available through March 2 featuring the Duo Pizza with tomato and pesto sauce, topped with pepperoni and spicy cup ‘n’ char sausage; Cherry Pecan Salad with spinach and goat cheese; Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake; and Black Cherry Cheesecake.There are also drinks including a mocktail with cranberry juice, and a black cherry spritz with Aperol and Prosecco.

Mister O1 Pizza, the artisan pizza chain, has teamed up with Terry Blacks BBQ on the limited-edition Terry Black’s Brisket Pizza featuring Mister O1’s signature thin crust topped with brisket, tomato sauce, mozzarella, red onions, jalapeño, dill pickles, barbecue sauce, and cilantro — available at all Texas Mister O1 locations through February 28.

The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill has a new limited-edition dish: Loaded Feta Fries, topped with choice of chicken or gyro meat, crumbled feta, and garlic sauce. Available through December 31. The chain has four locations in the DFW area — Lewisville, Fort Worth, The Colony, and McKinney — and is opening two more locations in early 2026 in Burleson and Coppell.

Sunny Street Café launched a new winter menu featuring shareable dishes and seasonal sweets: There are breakfast nachos (housemade tortilla chips with queso, egg, chorizo, & avocado); Queso Breakfast Burrito with cheesy eggs, bacon, potato, avocado, & queso; Turkey Melt with Monterey Jack, cheddar, tomato, & chipotle mayo on sourdough; Maple Pecan Muffin; Butter Pecan Pancakes with caramel sauce; and Salted Caramel Cold Brew with vanilla cold foam. DFW locations include Carrollton, Keller, Little Elm, Haltom City, North Richland Hills, and Weatherford.

Salad and Go has introduced its first sweet treat: a Chewy Marshmallow Bar. They've also added Cold Foam, which can be added to any drink. Plus two limited-edition beverages: Toasted Marshmallow Lemonade and Toasted Marshmallow Cold Brew. Last but not least, they've added pulled chicken which can be added to any salad or wrap.

DQ restaurants in Texas have new breaded chicken tenders, which can be ordered solo or in a new Chicken Tender Country Basket, with fries, Texas toast, and choice of creamy gravy or DQ Texas sauce.

Cheba Hut has a new limited-time cocktail called Sleigh’d and Confused featuring Deep Eddy Lemon Vodka, lemon juice, and Coconut Berry Red Bull, available through December 31 for $10, but $3 off all day on Fridays.

The Salty doughnut shop has holiday doughnuts: From December 22—24, they have a Gingerbread Cheesecake Donut, a 24-hour gingerbread-man-shaped brioche filled with gingerbread cheesecake; and the “Not Little Debbie” Christmas Tree Donut, a 24-hour tree-shaped brioche filled with marshmallow fluff, dipped in white chocolate glaze. Both are $4.95. From December 31-January 1, they have an Espresso Martini Donut for $4.50 with a 24-hour mini brioche dipped in espresso glaze, filled with whipped coffee cream, and topped with dark chocolate drizzle and espresso beans.

Luckys, the diner on Oak Lawn Avenue, will feature a special spiked eggnog the week after Christmas, from December 26-January 1 made with milk, cream, sugar, eggs, Makers Mark, and rum for $9.75.

Frenchie, the bistro at Preston Center, has a new executive chef, Reilly Brown, who was previously executive sous chef at Georgie. His new menu items include Hiramasa crudo, bluefin tuna with tomato-soy glaze, and Castelfranco salad with duck confit, candied walnuts, pickled pear, and shallot vinaigrette.

Eight Beer, the craft beer label founded by Troy Aikman, got a serious shout-out on Landman, the Taylor Sheridan TV show that's been filming around the DFW area. Aikman shared the clip which shows series star Billy Bob Thornton ordering the beer "just out of respect" to Aikman for founding it.

news-you-can-eat lists

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