Where to Eat

Where to eat in Dallas right now: 10 hot new restaurants for November

Catch Seafood

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This month's installment of Where to Eat is bursting at the seams with newcomers and spinoffs. For November, we've got a vast range of cuisines, from Asian to seafood to the beloved Dallas staple, the Irish pub. To find many cuisines in one spot, there's also a new food-hall near downtown Dallas.

Here's where to eat in Dallas this month:

Boxcar
Train-themed restaurant recently rolled into a former laundromat on Greenville Avenue. The concept from owners Jordan Carson and Patrick Gorman features wall screens that simulate the interior of a train. The menu, crafted by chef Eric Freidline, includes a meat & cheese board, Wagyu pastrami French dip sandwich, cheddar corndog with garlic aioli, and butter croissant beignets for dessert. Cocktails have a train theme, and to really elevate the experience, all the meals are served on fine china.

Catch
Upscale seafood restaurant from Catch Hospitality recently opened in Uptown’s Maple Terrace. This is the eighth location in the U.S. From partners Tilman Fertitta, Mark Birnbaum, and Eugene Remm, the concept is known for its simple seafood menu and Wagyu program. Signature dishes include a lobster and caviar roll, mushroom spaghetti, and Cantonese lobster. They also offer sushi straight from Tokyo, Japan, such as hamachi crudo and truffle sashimi.

Dirty Birds
San Diego sports bar chain made its Texas debut in Plano's Lakeside Market shopping center, serving wings, drafts, and burgers. Wings are the standout item, boasting 37 flavors of bone-in and boneless wings, including apple bourbon chipotle, habanero lime, and teriyaki. They also offer bar snacks, such as crispy fried pickles, chicken tenders, and fried okra. As for beer, they have 16 options on tap, like the Dirty Birds IPA.

Donatos
Ohio pizza chain established in 1963 is now open in Frisco with its famous edge-to-edge pizza toppings. Introducing the brand to Texas are Ohio natives and franchisees Dr. Rico Singleton, Casey Dennis, and Cameron Hopkins. The menu features over a dozen pizzas, including hot honey pepperoni, mariachi beef, four cheese, and hot chicken on a choice of cauliflower or thin crusts. Visitors can start as small as a 7- inch pizza or go up to a 14-inch. Additionally, they offer baked wings, subs, and salads.

Empire Baking Co. - West Village
The former Bisous Bisous Patisserie in Dallas' West Village is now home to the Empire Baking Co., whose owners Robert and Meaders Ozarow took over the lease to expand their presence beyond their Lovers Lane and SMU locations. That means not only Empire's award-winning artisan breads, but grab & go sandwiches, salads, pastries, muffins, and weekly specials, too. They’re also ramping up their coffee menu at this location.

Feng Shui
Uptown Pan-Asian concept from hospitality veterans Fawn Zhao and Alan Ho is the realization of Fawn's vision to offer traditional dishes from three distinct cultures — Chinese, Japanese, and Thai — in a warm setting. The menu includes hamachi, a potato stir fry served cold, Thai-style beef jerky in sriracha sauce, and sushi rolls. A full bar includes sake, champagne, Japanese whisky, and specialty cocktails, and there's an especially robust selection of desserts, from green tea cheesecake to mini doughnuts.

Le PasSage and Rose Cafe
The Terminal at Katy Trail just welcomed two sibling restaurants: Le PasSage is an Asian-inspired concept with Cambodian, Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese dishes, such as green prawns with cashew, Peking duck, and winter squash. Rose Cafe is a French-Asian restaurant with quick bites, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including overnight oats, lemongrass shrimp summer rolls, cucumber-dill cream tea sandwiches, and pork shoulder bao buns.

Old Monk
After 25 years on Henderson Avenue, this revered Irish pub just opened a second location on Davis Street in Oak Cliff, in a brick building that was once F45 fitness. It has the same menu as the original location: fish & chips, mini whiskey cheddar bacon burgers, Guinness beef stew, smoked salmon sandwich, cheese boards, and lots of European and craft beers.

Scarlet Lounge & Kitchen
Deep Ellum concept just opened in the former Truth & Alibi speakeasy space where it's serving Spanish and American fare, such as Spanish risotto, flank steak with chimichurri sauce, and portobello steak until 10 pm, then segueing into a nightclub vibe. Though it's a switch from the speakeasy concept, owner Victor Garcia — a former Truth & Alibi bartender who knows the space inside-out — kept some of the original fittings including the glamorous chandeliers.

Victory Social
New food hall in Dallas' Victory Park from Hospitality Alliance recently opened with six eateries. Some of the featured concepts will ring a bell for anyone who visited AT&T's Discovery District which Hospitality Alliance previously managed, including Birdie, Rise & Thyme, Park Bistro, Itza Cocina, D'oro Italiano, and Victory Grill. The food ranges from tacos to in-house pasta to steak frites.

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Losing some spice

Beloved neighborhood taqueria to close after 37 years in Dallas' Oak Cliff

Facebook/El Padrink

Cafeteria y Loncheria El Padrino will close its doors at the end of 2026, following 37 years serving the neighborhood.

An Oak Cliff taqueria will close its doors at the end of 2026, ending nearly 37 years serving the neighborhood. Cafeteria y Loncheria El Padrino, the brightly painted-brick gem at 408 W. Jefferson Blvd., will lose its lease at the end of December, according to Juan Contreras, son of the restaurant's owner.

Contreras confirmed to CultureMap that property managers will not renew his father's lease and have given the restaurant less than three months to vacate.

“Honestly it’s not a surprise,” Contreras says in an Instagram post. “With Bishop Arts and all the development interest around it, something was bound to happen eventually.”

The little restaurant sits at the end of a row of thrift and quinceañera dress shops, a few blocks from Bishop Avenue and the evolving Bishop Arts District.

Contreras, who shares his father's name, says the little Oak Cliff El Padrino was his dad’s first restaurant. “His dream," Contreras notes. "He’s been feeding this neighborhood since 1989.”

The family later opened a second location in Pleasant Grove.

Both restaurants are beloved for their welcoming atmosphere and unfussy, authentic Mexican fare.

"As a small business in Oak Cliff, we know what it means to be part of a community. Our neighbors are not just customers .. they are family," notes a Facebook post from the taqueria.

While handmade tortillas and tacos are staples, customers also come for antojitos — or "little cravings" — such as guacamole, menudo, pan dulce, queso, French fries, and chips. Heartier options include machacado (shredded meat) and eggs with bacon strips and cheese in the beans.

Regulars know, love, and fear the camarones a la diabla — shrimp that made a deal with the devil — with shellfish "swimming in salsa roja so picante, it’ll make your abuela say '¡Ay, Dios mío!'," says El Padrio's Facebook page. They recommend ordering a cold agua fresca de piña bien before taking a bite: "That sweet pineapple coolness is your lifesaver."

The younger Contreras, who is involved in local advocacy and community organizing, says the history of Oak Cliff — particularly the area around his father’s restaurant — illustrates the less welcome side of neighborhood revitalization.

“This has been building for years. Elected officials and interest groups sell you a beautiful picture of what a neighborhood can become," he says in his social media post. "What they leave out is that the people who stayed and kept these neighborhoods alive when nobody else wanted them are usually the ones priced out or pushed aside for ‘better’ tenants.”

The elder Contreras came to the U.S. "with nothing but his hands and the hope that his kids would have it easier than he did," says the son, "the way so many of our fathers did."

Unless something changes before the end of the year, the Oak Cliff location will continue operating throughout 2026, Contreras says. The Pleasant Grove location will remain open and unaffected, he adds.

“If you’re one of the Oak Cliff regulars or you’ve been meaning to stop by, now’s the time,” he says. “Come eat, order out, and tell your friends. Every visit means a lot to my dad right now.”

Hope is not entirely lost for the owner and local fans of his restaurant, Contreras says. The Contreras family has weathered its share of challenges and does not intend to give up on Oak Cliff easily. They just need to find an appropriate and affordable space from which to operate.

“This isn’t our first rodeo. If you know of a move-in-ready space in Oak Cliff where my dad can plug in and cook, send me a message," he says.

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Losing some spice

Beloved neighborhood taqueria to close after 37 years in Dallas' Oak Cliff