This year’s best new restaurants run the gamut from elaborately plated fine dining to joints peddling singularly satisfying hotdogs or soulful bowls of ramen. When it comes to flavor—to sheer gustatory pleasure—it can come from the high-brow or the no-frills, and from every corner of Dallas.
Only months into the position of full-time dining critic, I was weighing in on the year’s line-up. The first time is always a privilege, a challenge.
From a writing perspective, the task stands out. The (copious) eating done, the decisions made, these are nine love letters to restaurants that left an impression. For someone whose job is to be balanced in critique, it’s a pleasure to write missives of praise. (Does every restaurant has its unevenness? Yes. This is not a time to note the slip in the waiter’s description of the fennel-festooned pompano mid-way through visit number three.)
And there’s much to be impressed by. The ingenuity of chefs like Small Brewpub’s Misti Norris, the care in sourcing of chefs like Harvest’s Andrea Shackelford—all of which translated directly onto the plate. These were restaurants, like this year’s Restaurant of the Year, Madrina, that left me wanting to return again and again, each for its own reasons.
Discover the nine restaurants that stood out in the year’s flurry of openings—and the reasons why. And then go forth and dine! My list may not be your list. Let me hear from you. Either way, I want to know what you think.
