Monday, August 31, 2026

The Best Places to Eat in Dallas, by the Record

  1. Rank 99. Dayne's Craft Barbecue

    Texas-Style Barbecue




  2. Rank 104. B4 Barbeque & Boba

    Texas-Style Barbecue



  3. Rank 104. North Texas Smoke BBQ

    Texas-Style Barbecue


  4. Rank 104. Partenope Ristorante

    Neapolitan Pizza



  5. Rank 104. Sabar BBQ

    Texas-Style Barbecue



  6. Rank 104. Smoak Town BBQ

    Texas-Style Barbecue



  7. Rank 113. Alamo Club

    American

    The owner is often spotted bussing tables or running food on a busy night, which sets the tone for this Lower Greenville bar and American kitchen that manages to feel like it's been around forever. Cozy enough for a quiet date, loose enough for drinks with friends, it occupies that useful middle ground between neighborhood bar and proper dinner spot. An English chef handles the kitchen, keeping things grounded rather than showy.


  8. Rank 113. Apothecary

    Avant-Garde Cocktail Bar

    You will walk past it. That's by design. Apothecary is a dark, hushed cocktail lounge on Greenville where the seasonal menu gets a full thematic overhaul each year and bartenders can narrate the origin story of every pour from memory. The team spends months developing each recipe, and it shows. A James Beard Outstanding Bar Semifinalist, it draws the kind of crowd that actually reads the menu before ordering.




















































  9. Leon Bridges played the open mic here before he played anywhere else, which tells you something about Opening Bell's ear for talent. It's a coffee shop that moonlights as a live music venue, with one of the longest-running open mic nights in DFW and occasional national touring acts rounding out the calendar. Beer and wine are on hand if coffee isn't your thing, and there's food beyond pastries: sandwiches, soups, salads.



  10. Rank 152. Read Shop

    Coffee













  11. Rank 177. Midnight Rambler

    Cocktail Bar

    The mirrored back bar, lit from behind like a stage set, makes the priorities clear before you even sit down. Midnight Rambler is a subterranean cocktail lounge under the Joule Hotel, all art deco bones and low light, with a soundtrack chosen as carefully as the drinks. The cocktail program leans neo-classic, and the bartenders are the kind who can track down whatever obscure thing you're about to describe to them.





  12. 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.


  13. Peticolas runs a split-level taproom out of an industrial building in West Dallas, with English, Irish, and Scottish-style ales brewed on-site. It's a semi-official FC Dallas supporters' bar, showing everything from Champions League to regional Mexican matches, which explains the noise level on a Tuesday. When there's nothing on the screens, the upstairs has foosball, ping pong, and shuffleboard to fill the gap.











  14. Rank 192. Ginger's

    Cocktail Bar






  15. Rank 197. Armoury D.E.

    Cocktail Bar

    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.



Browse a location

Current Location

Cities within Dallas

Metros

Recents

  • No recent searches yet.

Eat Score

The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

    How we score →

    Drink Score

    The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

      How we score →

      Stay Score

      The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

        How we score →

        Do Score

        The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

          How we score →

          Best Place Score

          The Best Place Score rates the area around a point, not any one place. It runs on the scored places nearby: more good stuff within reach, higher score. If it looks low, we probably haven't found enough critics out here yet.