Where to eat

Where to eat in Dallas right now: 11 hot new restaurants for March

Lobster roll at Ocean Ranch

Ocean Ranch

This month's edition of Where to Eat, CultureMap Dallas' column highlighting the best spots to eat, is focused on new openings, and there've been plenty: from a department store boutique to an Italian kitchen in an old converted gas station in Celina, this list covers lots of concepts and lots of mileage.

Here's where to eat in Dallas right now:

Cafe Dior
Upscale restaurant inside the new Dior shop in Highland Park Village recently opened at the end of February. Leading the concept is from Michelin star chef Dominique Crenn and partner chef Juan Contreras. Blending both dining and fashion, the menu offers dishes like chicken with Tuscan kale, marbella prawns, and sandwich petit fleurs. Reservations are already booked until April.

Cleaver & Co.
There'a new burger in town from the owners of Roti Grill with this new spot that recently opened in Uptown. There are burgers with avocado, blue cheese, and bacon-jalapeno jam, as well as a smashburger with American cheese. There are also chicken sandwiches, a falafel burger, milkshakes, and floats. This is a kind of test-run for the concept. The restaurant will operate from this location for a limited time since the lease is short-term.

Crazy King Burrito
Restaurant concept founded in Cozumel, Mexico opened a location in Dallas, at a storefront near the Galleria Dallas mall. They're obsessed with burritos — offering 14 options ranging from surf & turf to spicy to veggie to breakfast burritos. Sides includes queso and bean dip, and there are two desserts: churros and a tempting offering called Mexican ice box cake.

Malabar Kitchen
Takeout-only Indian restaurant now open in Richardson spotlights the flavors of Malabar, located on the southwestern coast of India. There are curry stews, vegetable fried rice, and flaky, layered flatbreads, and everything is under $20. Although there is no dining room, the restaurant is a pleasant space lined with shelves of imported Kerala dried goods like banana chips and rice crackers.

Mangiamo's Italian Market and Deli
Italian restaurant using family recipes is now open in an old Celina gas station. The concept comes from Jason Algiere and his dad, Robert, who previously worked in restaurant renovation. The menu features pizza, pasta, sandwiches, meatballs, salads, and Italian desserts. Customers have compared the pizza to what you'd find in New York.

Mr Habanero
Mexican restaurant just opened in February at Webb Chapel Village in northwest Dallas. It's a spinoff of Grand Prairie restaurant, Habaneros, and like the original, it offers quesadillas, flautas, and other staples people expect at a Mexican restaurant — but it does a whole lot more: upscale entrees like rib eye steak in a mushroom cream sauce; or tropical salmon salad with mixed greens and fruit. Prices are reasonable: The $25 rib eye is the most expensive dish

Ocean Ranch
Swanky new Italian chophouse just opened on Greenville Avenue, in the former Carte Blanche space, where it's doing a crowd-pleasing combination of seafood and steak with an Italian influence, featuring dishes like fish & chips, Wagyu meatballs, lobster roll, seafood risotto, penne a la vodka, and trendy steak frites. Founder Nando Silvestri and chef Enrico Glaudo are both savvy veterans of California's Italian restaurant scene.

Pan Asian Kitchen and Noodle
The Lake Highlands neighborhood got a new Asian restaurant from Jarren Wang, son of Dallas Chinese restaurant legend Howard Wang, which opened in the Lakeridge Village shopping center former Hei Hei spot in January. The restaurant offers dishes in three Asian cuisines: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean including yakisoba, fried rice, bibimbap bowls, ramen, salads, and soups.

The Quay McKinney
Upscale global fusion restaurant opened in February at McKinney's Adriatica Village in the former Waterfront Restaurant space. The concept comes from chef Saicharan Shankar, who also opened the Indian restaurant Tantra Modern Indian Bistro in the same center. The menu features a seven-course tasting menu with items like hotstone A5 Wagyu, Ruby Beet Chèvre, and risotto with prawns and truffle aioli. Unique vegetarian options include the botanica schnitzel made with king oyster mushroom.

Soulard Gyro
Fast-casual restaurant serving halal gyros made its Texas debut in Plano in February. The concept was started in St. Louis in 2009. This is the only location of the chain's five locations that is halal, using no pork and a beef substitute for bacon instead. There are a dozen gyro options, including doner kebab, Philly cheesesteak, and veggie. The menu also includes, wraps, salads, Greek fries, and hummus.

Soul Shack
Buzzy soul food restaurant made its way into Cedar Hill in January. The concept, which started in Chicago, was founded by restaurateur Erik "Rico" Nance and is led by his business partners Theous Griffin and Ronald Edwards III. Unlike the Chicago express location, the Dallas restaurant is full-service with a 1920's jazz lounge vibe. The menu features soul rolls— filed with jerk chicken, collared greens, sweet potatoes, and mac and cheese— oxtails, lamb chops, and grilled blackened salmon.

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Greenville Avenue News

Las Brasas to do Mexican and grilled meats on Dallas' Greenville Ave

Las Brasas

A meaty new restaurant is opening on Dallas' Greenville Avenue: Called Las Brasas, it'll open at 1424 Greenville Ave., next door to Palapas, the seafood restaurant from partners Tim Goza and Gustavo De Los Rios (owner of Mami Coco), who are also opening this new venture.

Goza says the concept is inspired by the cuisine found north of Monterrey and Mexico. It'll open in mid-March.

Goza first opened Palapas Seafood Bar in the former home of Dallas Tortilla and Tamale Factory in 2014, and has survived more than a decade on Greenville Avenue — no small feat. Las Brasas will be like a companion concept to Palapas.

"Palapas is very much about seafood while this will be primarily steaks and chicken, cooked over a wood grill we had made in Monterey," Goza says. "It's pulled from the style they do there — the way they cook meat over charcoal and wood. We had a grill custom-made, which helps you control your cooking by providing a way to pull your chicken and steaks off the heat cook it a little bit slower."

Las Brasas entrees will be brought to the table in portable little grills made of cast iron, almost like the plate used to deliver sizzling fajitas.

Everything is a la carte, whether its sliced rib eye, pork, or chicken cooked butterflied half or whole on the same grill. There are also Mexican dishes like Los Piratas — blue corn tortilla with Oaxaca cheese and choice of pork, chicken, steak, or sweetbreads, topped with pico and molcajete sauce. There are dishes to share like the Brasero for two, featuring a half grilled chicken, arrachera, half rack of pork ribs, and sausage, with corn, onions, charro beans, queso fundido, molcajete sauce, and tortillas.

They'll also be open for brunch with chilaquiles and huevos rancheros. And of course, there will be tequila from a brand with which Goza is involved.

"We'll also showcase Dos Perros tequila — the only tequila we'll serve," Goza says.

The space was recently home to a weekend brunch pop-up, but they've added decorative features, recycled from found objects such as a gas firepit that Goza had made out of an old wind pump from his ranch in Alvarado, and an old rail car that came from Cleburne rail yard, which will serve as a party table on patio.

"We feel like that will be a big hit for us," he says.

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