Where to eat

Where to eat in Dallas right now: 10 fun restaurants for August 2026

Gnoccho fritto at Scilla.

Photo by Chase Hall

This late-summer edition of Where to Eat in Dallas, the monthly column by CultureMap offering hot tips on hot restaurants, is brimming with fun. Two of the recommendations on this list are "eatertainment"-style places, where restaurants sit side-by-side with games, so fun — but both restaurants feature menus that go beyond the usual bar fare. There's also tacos, a hot chicken place, and a retro burger joint.

Here are 10 restaurants to try in August 2026:

Casa Comal Cocina
Mexican restaurant now open at Cypress Waters in Irving as a great new destination for tacos, which they serve in a wide variety: everything from Mexico City-style offerings like carnitas and al pastor, to upscale tacos like lemon pepper chicken with arugula, to quesa-birria, the trendy taco with shredded beef and crisped jack cheese. In addition to tacos, there are nachos, quesadillas, empanadas, sopas, gorditas, and torta sandwiches. Owners Bachir and Elisa Ramadam and their partner Alejandro Vera brought the concept to Texas where they have family, after founding the original in Santa Barbara, California in 2021.

Dave & Buster's McKinney
Newest location of this locally-based entertainment venue chain just opened a 40,000-square-foot location in McKinney — its fifth in the DFW area — with arcade games, gaming suites, sports viewing, and a full-service restaurant and bar. They serve bar basics like burgers, BBQ ribs and wings, but elevated — the wings, for example, come in bone-in and boneless options. There's a plant-based black bean burger with sweet potato fries, and a Philly cheesesteak with thinly sliced steak, grilled onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, and white American cheese on a warm hoagie roll. There's even a salad with grape tomatoes, red onions, basil, and balsamic vinegar. Fun desserts to share include funnelcake fries with whipped cream, caramel, and chocolate.

Harissa Mediterranean
Family-owned Mediterranean, which opened in fall 2025 at Plano's Lakeside Market, is from brother and sister Jimmy and Rima Sejdini, who've owned and operated a variety of restaurants north of Dallas including Hemingway Brunch and Townhouse Brunch. Their menu at Harissa features Middle Eastern favorites executed with precision: hummus, falafel, grilled haloumi, lamb chops, all kinds of kebabs, a Greek gyro platter, and notable Northeast-style dishes like chicken lemon rice soup and a lahmacun flatbread topped with ground beef, onion, tomato, garlic, and red peppers. Prices are moderate, and there's a full bar with cocktails such as an espresso martini made with Turkish coffee.

Pane Vino North
Plano residents are pumped by this quintessential neighborhood Italian restaurant which recently opened at the key intersection of Park and Preston — a spinoff of the original Pane Vino Osteria, opened a decade ago by brothers Joseph and Vigan Ajro on the border of Dallas/Addison. There are all your Dallas-Italian classics: calamari, pork chop Milanese, pappardelle Bolognese, and linguine carbonara with pancetta, peas, & Parmesan. Most dishes are priced at a crowd-pleasing $20 or under, with a few exceptions including the bestselling lobster ravioli pescatore topped with shrimp, scallops, crab, spinach for $28. There's a full bar, and desserts like tiramisu.

Harissa Plano Salad at HarissaPhoto courtesy of Harissa

Patty Lou's Smashburgers
Retro-style burger shop in downtown Plano has a limited menu starring smashburgers with American cheese and onion, plus smashed chicken burgers, hand-cut fries, onion rings, and milkshakes. It's the latest concept from Urban Family Concepts (Urban Seafood Co., Urban Rio Cantina & Grill, Urban Crust), and is named for Patty Lou Peters, of "Patty Lou and her Texas Sweethearts" fame, an all-female Western swing group founded in the '40s. She was also the mother of Bonnie Shea, who co-founded Urban Family Concepts with her husband Nathan Shea. Milkshakes can be ordered spiked; there's also beer, wine, and a fun frozen Jack & Coke.

The Red Chickz
Nashville hot chicken chain founded in Los Angeles in 2018 just made its Dallas-Fort Worth debut in Carrollton, serving a halal version of Nashville hot chicken. The menu includes Nashville hot chicken sandwiches; plus tenders served with waffles or French toast; plus loaded mac & cheese topped with chicken. But they expand beyond the usual hot chicken lineup, offering tacos with chicken, shrimp, or cauliflower done Nashville hot style; and interesting sides such as crispy corn ribs with chipotle mayo. The chain has five locations in California and one other location in Texas, in Cypress, outside Houston, which opened in 2024.

Scilla
New concept from Duro Hospitality (The Charles, Sister, Mister Charles, El Carlos Elegante, Norman's Japanese Grill) is a neighborhood restaurant now open in the new 8111 Douglas office tower in Preston Center. The menu is coastal Italian: house-made pastas, raw seafood bar, and wood-grilled dishes like branzino, red snapper, Wagyu ribeye, and lamb kabobs. Highlights include seafood paella, lobster arancini, and gnoccho fritto, a puffy fried bread from the Emilia-Romagna region that's a popular starter. The bar boasts an Italian-style aperitivo program, and true to Duro form, the interior is a knockout with hand-painted murals and artisan finishes inspired by old-world European craftsmanship.

Sip’Stroke
New entertainment destination in Plano combines restaurant and bar with golf simulator and indoor putt-putt course. To give the food that something special, owner Kushal Raj Bastakoti — who also owns Skyline Lounge in downtown Dallas — recruited accredited chef Madan Oli to oversee a thoughtful menu featuring steak, burgers, bar snacks, and desserts. Highlights include prime ribeye frites, saffron salmon, maple leaf duck breast, Cabernet-braised short ribs, Wagyu sliders, and tacos with garlic shrimp, priced from $20 to $35. A second Sip’Stroke location is also in the works next to Skyline Lounge, is expected to open before the end of the year.

Tayta
New family-owned restaurant in Richardson is serving Peruvian entrees, Peruvian-Chinese fusion (chifa), seafood, and rotisserie items cooked in a special charcoal oven imported from Peru. Menu picks include lomo saltado, the classic stir-fry with beef, red onion, and tomato; and ají de gallina, shredded chicken stew with yellow ají amarillo peppers. Tayta is a family venture from Nidia Torres and her sons, Andreé and Diego Florez. Torres started her catering business, María Elena, more than a decade ago; in 2024, they launched Tayta as a ghost kitchen operating out of Revolving Kitchen in Fairview, before expanding with this brick & mortar.

Trucker’s Cafe
Southern soul food restaurant started out in Lancaster south of Dallas, before relocating to Richardson in 2020. Alas, that location at 1580 W. Arapaho Rd. #406 suffered a fire in July 2025, and they closed for a year. (Meanwhile, owners Marcell and Paulette Woods opened a convenience store in North Dallas at 10304 Forest Ln., which is still open, serving turkey necks and other Trucker's Cafe fare.) On August 1, the Richardson location made its triumphant return with its trademark cafeteria-style steam table loaded with meatloaf, fried pork chops, burgers, fried chicken, wings, steak tips, and vegetable sides like greens, mashed potatoes, sweet potato, and okra, cooked until nice and soft.

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Spring Arrival

West Dallas gets new Spanish-Peruvian restaurant with big-name chef

Photo courtesy of Ulloa's

Paella will be on the menu.

A new restaurant with a high-profile culinary director will bring Spanish and Peruvian flavors to West Dallas: Called Ulloa’s, it is coming to 727 Fort Worth Ave., with a projected opening in March 2027.

The concept is from philanthropists Susan and Woodrow Gandy, who were previously investors in the historic Belmont Hotel just around the corner. They've teamed up with Dallas celebrity chef Kent Rathbun as culinary director, along with Christopher Tunnell as general manager to lead the front of the house.

Rathbun is a name Dallas diners know well, with a resume that includes The Mansion on Turtle Creek, the Landmark Restaurant at the historic Melrose Hotel, Seventeen Seventeen at the Dallas Museum of Art, Abacus, Jasper's, Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen, and more. He's won numerous awards and made multiple appearances on Food Network. He was most recently behind the launch of On The Rocks, an Italian bistro in Burleson.

Chef Kent Rathbun will be the culinary director of Ulloa's. Photo courtesy of Kent Rathbun

Tunnell’s background spans both culinary direction and front-of-house operations. He worked at Los Angeles hot spots Ketchup, Geisha House, and Les Deux, as well as the Mandalay Bay and The Mirage in Las Vegas, before moving to Dallas to open The Mexican, the upscale restaurant in the Design District.

“I am truly excited to partner with Chef Kent Rathbun, whose reputation is amazing — not only in the DFW Metroplex, but in the culinary world,” Tunnell says. “He has been with this project since the beginning, helping develop it; this will be a very chef-driven, culinary-forward restaurant.”

The team's vision for Ulloa’s is both culinary and urban, with hopes of anchoring the corridor and attracting other businesses to Fort Worth Avenue — a stretch connecting downtown Dallas with Oak Cliff that remains somewhat underdeveloped despite its panoramic skyline views.

The restaurant is named for Spanish explorer, astronomer, and scientist Antonio de Ulloa, who spent extensive time in the Mexican peninsula before becoming Louisiana’s first governor. During his travels, Ulloa documented a fogbow — a circular rainbow formed when sunlight meets mist that causes silhouettes standing between the sun and fog to appear ringed in light, a phenomenon known today as “Ulloa’s Rings.”

That vibrant phenomenon inspired both the restaurant's identity and logo. The concept promises "bold, worldly flavors in a welcoming neighborhood setting inspired by exploration and discovery,” the owners say.

Ulloa's Rendering of Ulloa's.Rendering courtesy of Ulloa's

While the menu remains in development, Tunnell describes the culinary direction as “Spanish soul with a Peruvian heart.” The kitchen will merge the coastal flavors of both traditions — ranging from paellas and ceviches to crafted cocktails and signature adaptations by Rathbun.

The 200-seat, two-story space will feature a downstairs dining room, a large bar, and an outdoor patio. Upstairs, plans call for a secondary bar, a private dining room, a patio, and an expansive balcony patio, offering views of the city's skyline and of the Margaret Hunt Hill and Margaret McDermott bridges.

While the upstairs space will be available for private events, the owners intend for it to operate primarily as an organic extension of the main restaurant. The buildout will include a guest elevator along with ample parking, including both self-parking and valet options.

The team says the restaurant will have have an aesthetic that's “warm, theatrical, generous, elegant but alive, with the energy of a great Spanish tapas bar and the soul of Peruvian hospitality.”

Ulloa’s plans to launch with dinner service first, followed by lunch and weekend brunch.

restaurants bars peruvian flavors west dallas oak cliff kent rathbun