The Best Places to Eat and Drink in Dallas

An upscale steakhouse on the seventh floor of a hotel that bills itself as Swiss hospitality in Texas, which tells you something about the room before you even sit down. The draw is the house Akaushi beef, raised by the team's own breeding program just north of the Red River, and it shows up across a menu built around the classics. White-jacketed service, a clubby feel, and a cocktail list you'll need before deciding.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Steakhouse · Best of Dallas

Black-and-white floors and a curved bar overlooking an open kitchen set the mood at this Oak Lawn trattoria. Homemade pasta is the point, from spaghetti with meatballs to lasagna Bolognese, backed by an all-Italian wine list. The room is bright and lively, the kind of neighborhood spot where the menu reads short because the kitchen means it. A Michelin Selected Restaurant.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The menu has exactly one protein, and the place is named after it. This casual taqueria built its following on birria, the slow-braised beef that started on a food truck before the team landed a brick-and-mortar spot on Rosedale. Tacos, quesatacos, flautas, tortas, burritos, and quesadillas are all on offer, but it's all birria all the time, served to a lunch crowd that already knows what it's ordering.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Baristas · Best of Dallas
2. Eater The 15 Coolest Coffee Shops in Dallas

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Day-to-Night Combo · Best of Big D
2. Eater The 15 Coolest Coffee Shops in Dallas

1. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Place to Have Coffee and Not Work · Best of Dallas
2. Eater The 15 Coolest Coffee Shops in Dallas

Wood floors, marble-topped tables, round-backed chairs: Mercat Bistro commits to the French bistro formula without a trace of irony. Escargots in parsley butter, French onion soup, moules frites, a croque monsieur at lunch. Nothing on the menu is surprising, and that's entirely the point. Business lunchers and neighborhood regulars share the room, and the service handles both without fuss. Grab a seat near the open kitchen if you want a little more noise with your classics.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Perched high inside The National, this Italian fine-dining room looks out over Dallas in a way that makes everyone feel like they're closing a deal. The menu runs handmade pasta, wood-fired meats, and premium seafood, with a wine list broad enough to keep the table arguing pleasantly. Dress up, bring an occasion if you don't already have one, and let the room do the rest.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Wagyu meatloaf and croissant bread pudding sit on the same menu, which tells you everything about how Stock & Barrel operates. It's a casual American restaurant in the Bishop Arts neighborhood, with an open kitchen, a convivial bar counter, and booths that fill fast with locals who clearly have a standing reservation in their hearts. The kitchen leans into Texas comfort food, then nudges it somewhere unexpected.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Specialty Lattes · Best of Dallas
2. Eater The 15 Coolest Coffee Shops in Dallas

1. D Magazine 2024 · Best Tex-Mex · Best of Big D
2. Eater Frozen Margarita · 14 Iconic Dallas Dishes Locals and Tourists Must Try

1. Texas Monthly Honorable Mentions · Texas’s Best New Restaurants
2. D Magazine The Best New Restaurants in Dallas

1. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Chocolate Chip Cookies · Best of Dallas
2. Eater The 15 Coolest Coffee Shops in Dallas

1. Texas Monthly #9 · Texas’s Best New Restaurants

1. Texas Monthly #7 · The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas

1. Texas Monthly Dishes We Wanted Seconds Of: Pan de Elote · The Best Things in Texas

1. D Magazine 2023 · Best Jazz Series · Best of Big D
2. Eater The 15 Coolest Coffee Shops in Dallas

1. Texas Monthly The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Texas · Anais Paniagua and Iris Rojas

1. Texas Monthly The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas

1. D Magazine #25 · The 50 Best Restaurants
2. D Magazine 2025 · Best Pizza · Best of Big D
3. D Magazine 2024 · Best Sandwich: The Super Jeff · Best of Big D

1. D Magazine #13 · The 50 Best Restaurants
2. D Magazine 2024 · Best Tacos · Best of Big D
3. D Magazine 2023 · Best Vegetarian-Friendly · Best of Big D

1. Texas Monthly The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas

1. D Magazine #5 · The 50 Best Restaurants

1. Texas Monthly The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas

1. Texas Monthly The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas

1. Eater The 38 Essential Dallas Restaurants

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas

1. D Magazine #48 · The 50 Best Restaurants

1. D Magazine #34 · The 50 Best Restaurants

1. D Magazine #47 · The 50 Best Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Dallas Restaurants

1. Dallas Observer Classic Dallas Restaurants · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now

1. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Restaurant with a Mission · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer Classic Dallas Restaurants · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now

1. Dallas Observer Neighborhood Staples and Gems · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now
2. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Philly Cheesesteak · Best of Dallas

Double D's is a wood-paneled cocktail bar that looks like a 1970s basement, and it behaves like two different bars depending on the hour. Around six it's draft Palomas and whiskey highballs, handy for a drink before dinner next door. By ten there's a line outside, a DJ working through hip-hop and R&B, and someone ordering a Razzle Dazzle shot to get the dancing started.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas

1. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best New Restaurant · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer Splurge Worthy Spots · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now

1. Dallas Observer New Restaurants on the Observers’ Top 50 · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now

1. Eater The 38 Essential Dallas Restaurants

1. D Magazine #39 · The 50 Best Restaurants
2. D Magazine 2024 · Best Chinese · Best of Big D

1. Dallas Observer Classic Dallas Restaurants · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now
2. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Chicken-Fried Steak · Best of Dallas

1. Dallas Observer Classic Dallas Restaurants · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now

Kilmac's is a neighborhood pub in Oakcliff, with dark wood, properly poured Guinness, and the same owners as Old Monk, so it knows its way around a bar stool. The cocktail list goes past what the setting suggests, including a freezer martini and a toasted coconut daiquiri. Thin, New York-style pizzas show up too, and they taste better on the big back patio, where you can sprawl out like the weather owes you. The Infatuation has it on its Dallas bars list.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas

1. Dallas Observer Neighborhood Staples and Gems · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now
2. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Oxtail · Best of Dallas

Las Almas Rotas is a Dallas agave bar that stocks small-batch mezcal, bacanora, and raicilla instead of celebrity tequila, which means the flights can include pechuga mezcal, distilled with raw poultry, and bottles that fit no known category. It was a James Beard Outstanding Bar Program semifinalist. Margaritas and palomas let the spirits do the talking, and carne asada tacos and pozole rojo keep the evening from getting too educational.

1. D Magazine 2024 · Best Agave Bar · Best of Big D
2. D Magazine 2023 · Best Agave Bar · Best of Big D
3. D Magazine 2025 · Best Agave Bar · Best of Big D

1. Eater The 38 Essential Dallas Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Dallas Restaurants

1. Dallas Observer New Restaurants on the Observers’ Top 50 · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now

1. Dallas Observer New Restaurants on the Observers’ Top 50 · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now

1. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

1. Dallas Observer Classic Dallas Restaurants · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now

1. Eater The 38 Essential Dallas Restaurants

1. D Magazine #32 · The 50 Best Restaurants
2. D Magazine 2023 · Best Vietnamese · Best of Big D

1. Dallas Observer New Restaurants on the Observers’ Top 50 · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now
2. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Carnitas · Best of Dallas

Shyboy is an underground Downtown bar where the soft-serve machine shares the building with serious DJ talent. Cocktails run to fizzy Japanese highballs and lychee sours, and the main room is big enough to dance and still find a table. The real draw is the Blue Room, a lounge behind a vault door with couches and a sound system that makes listening sessions feel like a small religious experience. Tickets are cheap, so dress for dancing.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas

1. Dallas Observer Neighborhood Staples and Gems · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now
2. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best State Fair Hack · Best of Dallas

1. D Magazine #45 · The 50 Best Restaurants

Sylvestro is a small Italian-leaning wine bar that shares a wall with its sister restaurant, Urbano Cafe, which makes it the easy answer to the question of where to take a date after dinner. The pastas come out of the same kitchen if you'd rather eat here, and the wine list leans Italian. The digestivo shelf is the real draw, deep enough to include a Japanese fernet, so you can digest in several languages.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas

1. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Restaurant for a Special Occasion · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer Splurge Worthy Spots · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now

1. D Magazine #37 · The 50 Best Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Dallas Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Dallas Restaurants

1. Eater The 38 Essential Dallas Restaurants

1. D Magazine #41 · The 50 Best Restaurants

1. D Magazine #29 · The 50 Best Restaurants

The walls at this Deep Ellum dive bar are covered floor to ceiling in years of pen-and-marker graffiti, and the house policy is to add your own. Adair's Saloon runs on outlaw country and live music most nights, with the honky-tonk crowd and the boot-scooters sharing space without much negotiation. The kitchen stays open until nearly two in the morning, which is exactly when a bar burger tastes best.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The Venn diagram of bar and restaurant has Angry Dog planted right in the overlap, and nobody seems to mind. Cold beer, a game on, chili cheese dogs, burgers, and salads that have no business being this good for a place that smells like fried onions. Close enough to the American Airlines Center and Deep Ellum that it fills up fast on event nights, but regular enough that it works on a Tuesday with nothing going on.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Hot Dog · Best of Dallas

Hungarian comfort food in a Deep Ellum cocktail bar is a combination nobody asked for and nobody wants to question. Armoury D.E. runs a casual, lived-in room where the drinks are serious, the kitchen leans into paprika-forward territory, and there's usually a free live show happening out back. The burger of the week has a following. Dallas Observer named it home to the city's best Bloody Mary and best bar food, which checks out.

1. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Bar Food · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
3. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Bloody Mary · Best of Dallas

The bookshelf at the back of this Bishop Arts cocktail bar is not for reading. Pull it open and you'll find a hidden back room that rotates global themes, which tracks for a place called Atlas. Out front, Aperol spritzes share the bar with Lone Stars, and the crowd runs from locals to tourists to first dates doing their nervous best. The pho, from a co-owner's family recipe, is a legitimately strange and welcome thing to order at midnight.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Ranch Water on tap sets the tone at this sprawling Maple Avenue sports bar. TVs cover every wall, there's a game room in the back for claw machines and pop-a-shot, and the patio handles overflow when a big game draws a crowd. College football dominates, though Love Island holds its own on the schedule. The kitchen turns out salads that have no business being as good as they are, plus flatbreads solid enough to keep you from just drinking through the evening.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Oak Cliff locals have been calling it "Barb's" for decades, which tells you everything about what kind of place this is. A low-key dive bar with a retro-cool vibe, it runs karaoke on Thursdays and Sundays and burlesque on the third Wednesday of every month, so there's always a reason the room is full. Between sets, the jukebox swings from disco to hip-hop without apology. Your bartender probably drinks here on their nights off.

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Hole-in-the-Wall Gay Bar · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The Centipede cabinet by the door tells you everything: this is a bar-arcade where a round of drinks and a Street Fighter grudge match are basically the same errand. Twenty-four draft beers keep the tokens flowing, and the front patio fits a crowd large enough for giant Jenga, which is either a selling point or a warning depending on your Friday night. The vibe hovers somewhere between dive bar and Chuck E. Cheese, and nobody here seems bothered by that.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

There's no sign in the dim Preston Tower corridor that leads here, which is either a design choice or a filter for the impatient. Bernie's is a cocktail bar with art deco bones, a playlist running Quincy Jones and Stevie Nicks, and drinks poured by bartenders who treat a proper old fashioned as a matter of professional pride. The phone doesn't eat first at the well-dressed bar, which suits the regulars just fine.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The whole room is dressed as a vintage luxury train car, TVs where the windows would be, all looping passing landscapes in sync. It's a cocktail bar, a narrow one, with a chandelier whose crystals would really benefit from something rumbling the floorboards. The drinks lean into the theme, shifting and a little secretive, the kind you order twice without quite knowing why. The bathrooms apparently have their own story, though you'll have to go find out.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The fried chicken gets a 24-hour brine before it hits the fryer, which tells you something about the kitchen's priorities at this Deep Ellum cocktail bar. Six house cocktails are priced like they want you to order a second round, and the vibe is the kind of loose, unhurried thing that feels increasingly rare on Commerce Street. The Dallas Observer handed it Best Fried Chicken in 2024, so the secret is somewhat out, but the room still has its own quiet momentum.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Late-Night Grub · Best of Dallas
3. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Fried Chicken · Best of Dallas

The "Be Kind, Unwind" sign sets the tone at this neighborhood bar just outside Deep Ellum, built from near-scratch inside the bones of the old Starlight Lounge. It's a no-frills spot with DJ nights, music videos, and karaoke keeping things lively. The frozen cherry limeade with vodka is the move, though an Old Fashioned made with Garrison Brothers Single Barrel is there when you feel like being about it.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Sangria in towers and a drink menu that lists "mimosas" as the soup of the day sets the tone fast at this sports bar on Greenville Ave. Every seat inside, on the patio, or up on the rooftop faces a TV, which makes the place essentially one large, well-lubricated viewing party. Best for a sunny afternoon when the patio fills up and someone's local team is on.

1. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Sports Bar · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A grilled pimento cheese sandwich and 24 taps anchor this low-key beer garden on the east end of Deep Ellum, where the patio comes equipped with heaters in winter and misters in summer, which is thoughtful given that Dallas has about nine months of summer. The beer selection runs deep into local cans and rotating taps, the bartenders actually know what's on them, and Wednesday brings a small Miller High Life with a Jameson shot for anyone who needs a Wednesday reason.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. D Magazine 2023 · Best Place to Day Drink · Best of Big D

Andes chocolate mints come with the tab, which sets the tone pretty well for this bar in the Ross Ave corridor. The whole room reads like a grandmother's parlor, elegant and faintly shabby, carpet included, paying loose homage to an old Dallas club of the same name. The drinks lean pricey and the crowd leans comfortable with that. A warm crab dip circulates if anyone gets hungry enough to order off the bites menu.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Local Beer: Honey Citrus Blonde · Best of Dallas
2. D Magazine 2023 · Best Taproom · Best of Big D
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A U-shaped bar, gold touches, and pink drapery tucked inside a Highland Park strip mall, which is either charming or deeply on-brand depending on your feelings about Highland Park. Coupes is a Champagne and wine bar with a serious poured-glass selection covering French bottles, Crémant, Blanc de Noirs, and Texas pours alongside cocktails for anyone not yet ready to commit to bubbles entirely.

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Champagne Bar · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Dive Bar · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A 99-tap draft list is the kind of thing that sounds made up until you're standing in front of it. This Deep Ellum bar and restaurant sprawls across a 10,000-square-foot dog-friendly patio, with heaters for the nights when Dallas pretends it has winters. Cocktails lean creative alongside the craft beer deep dive, and the kitchen runs brunch and bar food that takes itself seriously enough to matter.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Beer Selection · Best of Dallas

The long wooden bar and a crackling fireplace in winter tell you everything: this is a cozy Irish beer bar on Lower Greenville that has been around forever. Guinness, Harp, and Smithwick's anchor the taps, the whiskey shelf leans heavily toward the Emerald Isle, and the dart board sees real use. Food is American bar grub, which is fine, because nobody came here for the sandwiches.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Bar Game Night · Best of Big D
2. D Magazine 2024 · Best Taproom · Best of Big D
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Bar Stools · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Cocktail Bar · Best of Dallas
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A golden goose on an exterior black door is the only sign you're in the right place. Goose Bar is a speakeasy tucked behind Goodwins on Lower Greenville, warm-lit and quietly pleased with itself, the overhead mural instructing you to "hang in there" with no further explanation. The cocktails lean creative without being exhausting, and the crowd has mostly figured out how to drink without making it a whole thing.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The glowing green facade on Dyer Street means your ride-share driver already knows the address. Inside, it's a bass-heavy bar where SMU students fill most of the floor and the dancing starts before anyone asks. Bar food runs better than the usual, and Tuesday open mic nights pull in live music, slam poetry, and stand-up, in case you came with something to prove or just enough drinks to think you do.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Five feet of fried mozzarella sticks is the opening argument here. Happiest Hour is a sprawling bar and grill near the American Airlines Center, with a rooftop full of lounge seating, a big downstairs bar, and a lawn spilling out between them. It is loud and unapologetically crowd-pleasing, the kind of place that doesn't wait for you to have fun. Ample TVs cover every game, and the pregame energy rarely fully leaves.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Place to Pregame an Event at the AAC · Best of Dallas

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A neighborhood bar that's been around forever, Inwood Tavern is the kind of place where a Highland Park day trader and a regular Joe end up on the same barstool. The taps lean local, the back bar runs to 33 whiskeys and Scotches, and the porch is genuinely good. Scotty Scheffler reportedly drinks here, still in his Masters jacket, which says something about the room's lack of pretension.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A sprawling patio bar right off the Katy Trail, the kind of place cyclists arrive at with good intentions and leave an hour later than planned. Nearly thirty Texas beers on draft and a solid lineup of Texas whiskeys keep things local, while the kitchen handles dark-beer venison chili for anyone who needs ballast. The patio is large and loud in the best communal way. Exactly what Dallas was missing before it existed.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Spot on the Katy Trail · Best of Dallas
3. D Magazine 2025 · Best Bar Patio · Best of Big D

A coffee shop that turns into a bar without ever closing in between, La Reunion in Bishop Arts runs from 8 a.m. straight through to 2 a.m. Laptops and headphones fill the room by day, espresso martinis and carajillos take over by night, and on weekends the whole thing can spill into a block party with Dallas DJs. It's the kind of place that makes "work from a bar" feel like a perfectly reasonable lifestyle choice.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Red-lit and tucked into a corner of Bishop Arts that requires a little intention to find, LadyLove is a lounge and dance bar that somehow calibrated the music at exactly the volume where you can still finish a sentence. The crowd skews queer and curious, the patio turns strangers into regulars, and the house cocktails lean tart and a little spicy. DJ nights run on Saturdays.

1. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Lesbian Bar That Isn’t a Lesbian Bar · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
3. D Magazine 2025 · Best Dance Party · Best of Big D

The jalapeño beer-battered corn dog only appears after 11 p.m., which tells you everything about Lakewood Landing's priorities. This old-school dive bar packs a pool table, a jukebox loaded with local favorites, and a sprawling front patio into a small space that somehow feels lived-in rather than cramped. The burger has a loyal following, and the solo seat at the far end of the bar by the door is the best spot in Dallas for quiet, amateur people-watching.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Burger · Best of Dallas

Wood-paneled walls and old neon beer signs set the tone at Lee Harvey's, a classic Dallas dive bar that's been knocking the edge off long weeks for as long as anyone can remember. The patio is roomy enough to bring the dog, and the onion rings with chipotle aioli are the kind of thing you eat standing up and then immediately order again. Cold beer, no pretense, no dress code.

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Dive Bar · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Wine on tap is the organizing principle at this Greenville Avenue wine bar, where the keg system keeps every pour sealed from light and air the way the winemaker intended. The global list runs from super Tuscans and Garnacha to West Coast standbys, with enough deeper cuts to reward the curious. The cracker-thin pizzas are good enough to order twice. The original location has a looser, more free-spirited feel than the Uptown sibling, which suits the neighborhood just fine.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide