Two Dallas restaurants have earned slots on the 23rd edition of Texas’s Best New Restaurants, an annual list from Texas Monthly magazine, compiled by editor Patricia Sharpe, and a third has received an honorable mention.

In order to be considered for the list, restaurants must have opened between December 1, 2022 and November 30, 2023. It must also be a restaurant's first Texas location.

The two Dallas restaurants that made the top 10 include Quarter Acre, the French restaurant on Greenville Avenue from chef Toby Archibald; and Via Triozzi, the Italian restaurant also on Greenville Avenue. Sushi restaurant Naminohana earned an honorable mention.

At Quarter Acre, which came in at No. 3 on the list, Sharpe touts the beef tartare, linguine, and chicken-fried quail, as follows:

"When I saw peanut butter and jelly ... listed as part of an appetizer, I thought, 'This chef is either nuts or he knows something I don’t.' Turns out to be the latter. A native of New Zealand, Toby Archibald cooked in top kitchens, such as Café Boulud in New York and Toronto, before coming to Texas in 2016 (his wife was born in Dallas). Quarter Acre’s beef tartare arrives in a dramatic cloud of smoke under a glass dome, the chopped meat bound with an olive oil emulsion and jazzed up with shaved brisket jerky. Hot smoked salmon and nuggets of fried sourdough star in a seaweed-and-lettuce salad, while a novel linguine is enlivened with black olives, prosciutto, and earthy sunchoke puree. As for that peanut butter, it’s cooked with cream and piped onto a thin cracker that’s served alongside delicately battered chicken-fried quail on a plate swiped with house-made blueberry jam (yep, it works)."

At Via Triozzi, which came in at No. 9, Sharpe praises the lasagne and cannoli:

"Many dishes owe their inspiration to [founder Leigh] Hutchinson’s thrifty grandmother; others she learned while studying with an Italian chef in Florence and eating her way around the country—one fine example being coccoli, yeasty orbs of fried dough served alongside San Daniele prosciutto and stracchino cheese. Entrées are likely to be traditional, including her lasagna with besciamella and her robust pork-and-beef Bolognese, but she takes liberties with cannoli, substituting waffle-textured pizzelle cookies for the usual tubular pastry shells and giving the well-worn favorite a fun new twist."

Fort Worth scores two slots on the list: Le Margot, a French restaurant from former Masterchef judge Graham Elliot, which is No. 2; and Italian restaurant 61 Osteria, which is No. 4.

Houston leads the way, as it did on the 2023 list, with three entries in the top 10 and also takes the top spot for the second year in a row for Katami, the upscale Japanese restaurant from the team behind Kata Robata. Other Houston restaurants include Gulf Coast seafood restaurant Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition and Midtown pizzeria ElRo Pizza & Crudo. Jūn and Little’s Oyster Bar earn honorable mentions.

Austin restaurants include Bureau de Poste, a French restaurant from Top Chef contestant Jo Chan; Ezov, an Israeli restaurant; and Bacalar, Top Chef winner Gabe Erales’s Mexican restaurant, which earns an honorable mention.

The sole representative for San Antonio is Peruvian restaurant Leche de Tigre Cebichería Peruana. Japanese restaurant Nineteen Hyaku and Padadar, a Mexican and Cuban restaurant, land honorable mentions.

The top 10 is as follows:

• 1. Katami, a Japanese restaurant in Houston
• 2. Le Margot, a French restaurant in Fort Worth
• 3. Quarter Acre, a French restaurant in Dallas
• 4. 61 Osteria, an Italian restaurant in Fort Worth
• 5. Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition, a seafood restaurant in Houston
• 6. Bureau de Poste, a French restaurant in Austin
• 7. Leche de Tigre Cebichería Peruana, a Peruvian restaurant in San Antonio
• 8. Via Triozzi, an Italian restaurant in Dallas
• 9. ElRo Pizza & Crudo, a pizzeria in Houston
• 10. Ezov, an Israeli restaurant in Austin

“The Texas restaurant scene is as delicious as it’s ever been,” Sharpe declares, but the writer has some concerns about the present dining moment. Her complaints include the push towards ever more prominent (and more expensive) cocktail lists and the vibe dining trend, but her introduction ends on an optimistic note.

“But even though drinking while dining is fast becoming the new normal, I’m glad to report that kitchens are as disciplined and chefs as talented and ambitious as ever,” she writes.