Tastemaker Awards

10 best neighborhood restaurants in Dallas are your home away from home

Seafood from Anaya's.

Anaya's Seafood

The time has arrived for the 2024 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, our annual event celebrating the best in Dallas food and drink, where we honor nominees in a special editorial series, leading up to an awards ceremony at The Fashion Industry Gallery on May 16.

Deserving candidates in the food & beverage industry have been nominated in the following categories: Rising Star Chef, Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, Bar of the Year, Pastry Chef, Bartender, Best Wine Program, Best Patio, and Best New Restaurant, the only category determined by readers in a bracket-style online tournament.

Tickets for the event are on sale now, with a limited number of Early Bird tickets on sale at discounted rates of $60 for general admission and $99 for VIP (includes early access to the event, valet, and a dedicated bar). Prices increase March 31.

In this category, we are honoring Neighborhood Restaurants. These are the places nearby, the reliable go-to, the home-away-from home, the places that both serve and reflect the neighborhood where they reside..

Theser are the nominees for Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year:

Anaya's Seafood
Seafood restaurant concept was founded in 2020 by four brothers who learned the ropes by working at other restaurants such as Fish City Frill and Rockfish. The menu stars seafood, with a Tex-Mex Cajun theme that seems tailor-made for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, no matter which neifgborhood they're in - be it Richardson, Addison, Plano, or Frisco. The food is fresh and affordable, but the fun part is the Anaya family themselves: It's rare to find a family business like this where pretty much every family member is involved.

El Vecino
Mexican restaurant in Old Lake Highlands opened in the White Rock Center in Lake Highlands in 2017 at a time when the neighborhood had few restaurants. That alone would win it the admiration of the locals. But El Vecino is from veteran John McBride, great-grandson of Mike Martinez, who co-founded the El Fenix chain and knows the drill. "El Vecino” translates to “The Neighbor”, and that’s exactly what it is — a neighborhood Mexican restaurant with a menu dominated by the Tex-Mex dishes, margaritas, and efficient service that are comfortingly familiar to any local.

Jonathon's
Dallas breakfast and brunch institution is from husband-and-wife Jonathon and Christine Erdeljac, a pair of restaurant vets who opened the first Jonathon's in Oak Cliff in 2011, where it drew fans for down-home dishes such as chicken-fried steak & eggs, chicken & waffles, and biscuits & gravy. Thus followed a journey of expansions, then contractions, and finally a spin-off they opened in 2023 in North Dallas, in the former Kel's Restaurant, where they've earned an even more devout following, if that's even possible. They do classic breakfasts and diner-style food like patty melts, sandwiches, and salads, but always with a fresh, wholesome flair that surpasses expectations without emptying your wallet.

Meddlesome Moth
Meddlesome Moth was a pioneer in the Design District when it opened there in 2010, as well as an early entry in the gastropub scene, behind players such as the Fillmore Pub and Vickery Park. The craft beer trend has crested slightly but the Moth still burns that flame while also remaining ever-nimble, with a fluid menu that meets the needs of all of the special-interest vegetarian, vegan, keto, etcetera diners, as well as a bodacious weekend brunch.

Oishii
Massively popular sushi restaurant started out as a hidden find destination on Wycliff Avenue for two decades, and still has a devout following, even as it has opened additional locations, near SMU, in Plano, and in Grapevine - an expansion that chef-owner Thanh Nguyen Oishii initiated in 2019. Oishii serves as a convenient lunch spot with reasonable prices on favorites like the spicy salmon cabbage salad and sushi lunch platter. At dinner, it's specials like Peking duck, coconut sea bass, crab & Chinese asparagus soup, and the Royce sushi roll drizzled with truffle oil.

Rise Souffle
A restaurant dedicated to souffles seems an unlikely success, yet Rise has not only survived but thrived, with four locations - the original in Dallas which opened in 2008, plus Fort Worth, Houston, and Plano - serving sweet and savory soufflés alongside salads, sandwiches, and the occasional entree like steak & pomme de terre. What neighborhood wouldn't want a charming bistro with a French-Euro sensibility, darling decor strewn with French antiques unique to each location, doting service, and a not-too-high price?

Terilli's
Founder Jeannie Terilli opened her namesake restaurant on Greenville Avenue in 1985 with the idea of it being a fun Italian spot, and that spirit has prevailed, making the restaurant a revered mainstay in Dallas. The signature dish says it all: Jeannie wanted to serve pizza but in her past had sold many nachos, and decided to create her own pizza version of nachos called "Italchos." Now owned and operated by Jeannie Terilli, Joey Terilli, and Amanda Terilli Loyd, Terilli's remains a breezy hangout for neighbors and a perennial destination for old-timers.

The Henry
All-day restaurant at the Union building near downtown Dallas may be part of the Fox Restaurants Concepts family (Flower Child, North Italia, Culinary Dropout), but it still has that undeniable neighborhood-restaurant feeling with a youthful, casual sophistication that reflects its Uptown-adjacent address. It's open all three meals for the ultimate in thoughtful convenience, with dishes that range from avocado toast to roasted branzino - lots of options and price points - plus a lively bar and loads of outdoor patio space.

Vidorra
Meaning "the good life," Vidorra is a Mexican restaurant that opened in 2019 a cool Deep Ellum building with a rooftop patio offering views of the downtown skyline. The menu boasts bold Mexican flavors, along with a large tequila selection, unique cocktail program, and a lively social experience in a highly energized environment. That part is key. This is the neighborhood restaurant for the younger crowd. They've since opened locations in perfect neighborhoods for their concept: Grand Prairie and Addison.

Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse
Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse has ranch roots and those are reflected in its Texas rustic decor and menu featuring lots of wild game. But it's also a good-old steakhouse, which has served them well in their West End location, as the neighborhood has morphed from tourist attraction to its current revival with an influx of new residential buildings and hotels. It doesn't hurt that chef-owner Tony Street is part of Dallas' illustrious Street restaurant family, and if all that weren't enough, their smoked baked potato is simply a wondrous thing.

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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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