State Fair News

Dallas restaurants salute the State Fair with their own funky fare

CBD Provisions is doing fried Oreos.

CBD Provisions

As the State Fair of Texas readies for its 2024 debut, fairgoers are anticipating the dozens of new food items that have been added this year's lineup. But on those days you're not visiting the fair, you can still indulge, since some Dallas restaurants are joining in with their own renditions of State Fair-style food.

Here are restaurants where you can to find State Fair of Texas themed food and beverages with specials running from September 27-October 20. (And we'll be adding more as they come in.)

CBD Provisions restaurant at the Joule Dallas hotel in downtown Dallas has introduced two limited-time Fair-inspired dishes: loaded fries with smoked brisket and bacon; and deep-fried Oreos in cinnamon batter with cream cheese icing.

Chef Point Bar & Restaurant is bringing back their State Fair Bloody Mary, stacked with a turkey leg, corn on the cob, deep-fried PB&J, waffles, and more.

Community Beer Co. released its annual Funnel Cake Ale, a special State Fair-style brew it serves every year during State Fair time. It combines all of the sweet and toasty flavors of a funnel cake in a convenient beer. It was released on August 22 and will be available at both Community Beer on tap and in six-pack cans and at the State Fair of Texas.

Dragonfly at Hotel ZaZa has $15 special bites, including The State Fair Poutine volcano salt fries topped with chopped brisket, BBQ sauce, scallions, cheddar cheese, and chopped onion; and blackberry cobbler, with white chocolate cream, cinnamon streusel, and graham cracker.

Fletcher’s Original Corny Dogs will not only be at the State Fair of Texas, but it also has a food truck every Friday through Sunday from 11:30 am-7:30 pm at Klyde Warren Park, where it serves all six corny dogs including The Original, Jalapeño and Cheese, the turkey Bird Dog, and a veggie corny dog.

Flying Fish is offering a Larry’s Deep Fried Banana Pudding with whipped cream, cinnamon sugar, powder sugar and topped with a vanilla cookie for $8; and alligator queso starting at $9 for a cup.

Lucky's Cafe has an $11 corn dog duo and fries paired with a $6 Cotton Candy Pilsner from Texas Ale Project.

Meddlesome Moth will offer several specials starting at $12 available after 4 pm, including Tex’s Blue Ribbon Feast, which is fried chicken, whipped sweet potatoes and marshmallow, cheddar mac and cheese, braised greens, and cornbread.

Pete's Dueling Piano Bar has alimited-time $14 cotton candy cosmopolitan featuring a lemon-flavored vodka-base, lemon juice, a splash of soda, and cotton candy-infused simple syrup.

Snuffer's is serving $8 chili cheese mini corn dogs topped with house-made chili, onions, cheddar, and jalapeños.

The Statler is all in on the fair: Overeasy will offer guests fried Monte Cristo bites for $16; Scout has funnel cake fries for $8; and Waterproof has a cotton candy cosmopolitan for $12.

UnaVida has a churro banana split, featuring fresh strawberries, Mexican vanilla ice cream, espresso chocolate sauce, brûléed bananas, caramel-filled churros, and fried candied peanuts for $12.

state-fair

Dumpling News

Chef Sun's Chinese restaurant steams into McKinney with noodles and dumplings

Chef Sun's

Chef Sun's rainbow dumplings

There’s a Chinese restaurant serving steamed dumplings and hand-pulled noodles in McKinney: Called Chef Sun’s Noodle and Dumpling, it’s in the former Fork and Fire space at 7540 SH 121, #150 at Hub 121, where it opened in February.

Chef Sun’s is from Richard Sun, who previously operated restaurants in Houston and China before moving to Dallas. He opened the first location of Chef Sun's Noodle and Dumpling in Plano in 2024.

He's joined by executive chef Jianmin Xiao, another native of China who also has extensive restaurant experience. Sun is from northeastern China, and Xiao is from Sichuan. They met in Houston six years ago and reconnected when Sun had plans to move to Dallas and open the Plano Chef Sun's location. Sun's daughter Cassie Sun is also part of the team, serving as general manager.

"After my dad finished culinary school in China, he'd travel around to different cities there and learn how to make different cultural foods, such as Sichuan and dim sum (Cantonese dumplings)," Cassie says. "All of our chefs also have 20-30 years of experience."

The menu at both locations is the same, featuring popular soup dumplings, rainbow dumplings, and house biang biang, a chewy and wide hand-pulled noodle dish.

The Sichuan region of China uses a lot of Sichuan pepper and chili peppers in dishes, while northeastern fare is milder. Xiao has his own stir-frying process: for the three-flavor pepper chicken, he stir fries the pepper first, then adds dried chili peppers to layer the spiciness of the dish, then adds the chicken.

Chef Sun's does baked or fried piggy buns.Chef Sun's

While they take their dumpling making seriously and turn out an impeccably authentic version, they also do cute specialty dishes, like the baked or fried piggy buns filled with red bean paste and designed with pig faces on the outside. Dumplings are typically $13 and noodles are $12-S18.

While Plano is more casual, the new McKinney spinoff has an elevated atmosphere with counter seating and hanging chandelier lights ideal for date nights and family gatherings, plus a patio.

They don't serve alcohol but one thing that enhances the dining experience at Chef Sun's is the open kitchen where customers can watch through a small window as dumplings are prepared.

chinese restaurant handpulled noodles mckinney sichuan region steamed dumplings