Restaurants

Leave ice cream behind and dive into a serving of Botolino’s, which is made in Dallas. Owned by Carlo “Botolo” Gattini, a Dallas transplant from Tuscany, where his father owned MoMo Italian Kitchen, this little taste of Italian tradition is one of Dallas’s best spots for frozen treats. A kid-sized cup gets two scoops, while the larger cup gets three. Mix-and-match the flavors, with refreshing options including coconut stracciatella, mascarpone and fig, lemon and rose sorbetto, red guava sorbetto, and Thai iced tea. Botolino also makes cakes, sundaes, and affogatos.

With a name like Bubba’s, great fried chicken makes sense, but this homey, diner-style restaurant is a Dallas classic that thoroughly exceeds expectations. The #1 combo – a piece of chicken, one side, and a roll – makes for an excellent light lunch, but go ahead and splurge on the three-piece if you’re feeling like a baller.

Burger House has served patties to Dallas-Fort Worth since 1951, and its success sure has something to do with the special seasoning used on those patties. As advertised, everything here is old-school, from the big, fat, juicy burgers to the logo. These patties are cooked on a griddle and served on sesame seed buns, with mustard as the default condiment. Add chili, cheese, or get your onions grilled. The atmosphere is best described as awash in vibrant blue and yellow, its thematic colors, and offering walk-up window ordering. You’re not here for vibes or service, you’re here to eat a damn burger.

What has long been touted as the best burger in Dallas finally finds a permanent home in a standalone restaurant in Lake Highlands. The ample space features a full bar, giving chef Dave Culwell room to roll out a menu of just under a dozen varieties of smash burgers, along with fries, onion strings, and fried pickles. Burger Schmurger features booths and tables suitable for families, bar seats and intimate tables for casual dates, and a small, covered patio. Get the OG Schmurger if you haven’t had it yet, but the Pasadena (a nod to Culwell’s hometown) and the blue cheese burger are also highlights.

Desperados has served Tex-Mex on Greenville Avenue since 1976, when founder Jorge Levy and two partners opened a twelve-table dining room with recipes carried up from Mexico City. That original Uno location is still going. The menu centers on the signature Desperados Tacos — two flash-fried flour tortillas with melted jack cheese, marinated beef or chicken, pico de gallo, and sliced avocado — plus sizzling beef, chicken, or shrimp fajitas served with bean soup and guacamole. Other standouts include the brisket-filled Tacos Albanil, a poblano chile relleno stuffed with slow-roasted brisket and almonds, and bacon-wrapped gulf shrimp with queso rancho. The bar’s La Margarita has run on the same recipe since 1985.

A relative newcomer on the fried chicken scene is Goldie’s in Lake Highlands. The swanky neighborhood bar and bistro recently introduced a weekly $32 per person Sunday Chicken Feast, featuring a full platter of crispy, juicy fried chicken alongside chicken nuggets, chicken salad, fries, cole slaw, pickled veggies, a King’s Hawaiian roll, a sweet chili sauce, and a horseradish honey mustard — all designed to be paired with bubbles.

The Bourdain, named after the late renowned chef and food critic Anthony Bourdain, is the burger to get at Goodfriend. Conceived at the height of the smash burger era, it features two patties, American cheese, Kewpie mayo, tomatoes, lettuce, and all the trappings. Despite its seemingly smaller-than-average size, this burger is a beast to get through because that’s one dense patty inside delightfully chewy buns. Pro-tip: get the sweet potato fries to go with it. The P.L.O.T. (horseradish pickles, lettuce, onion, tomato, and white cheddar) and East Side (smoked brie, sunny side up egg, and pepper bacon) are solid too. Most people come here to sit on the covered patio, which is equipped with fans and AC for the brutal summer months.

Looking for the restaurant to be at on Lower Greenville? This dressed-up bistro is it. Stop in for succulent bone-in pork chop, pan-roasted halibut, or the damn fine burger. Or simply share a plate of crispy zucchini chips and cheese beignets during happy hour. Those in the know already know that Goose Bar, tucked away in the back, is a great destination for happy hour or an after-dinner drink. Look to discover a beautifully painted mural featuring several owners’ dogs and a pegasus as an ode to the city.

Does Keller’s serve the best burgers in town? Absolutely not. It does, however, offer the quintessential drive-in burger experience in town. It’s a requisite experience to pull up, place your order with a carhop who might call you “sweetheart,” have a greasy bag delivered straight to your car, and enjoy it right then and there. If you haven’t enjoyed one of these poppy seed bun burgers under the glow of the neon Keller’s sign on Northwest Highway (the best of its locations), then you’re not truly a Dallasite yet.

The Landing knows that nothing goes with a beer like a burger, and with that, it’s created a great dive bar burger. There’s nothing special hidden in the burger; it is just a solid third of a pound of quality beef cooked well, and topped with tomatoes, white onions, lettuce, and a choice of mayonnaise or mustard (you will never hear anyone here utter the word “aioli”). The aesthetic of this spot is as straightforward and no-frills as its burger. The secret to the killer burgers here is that some incredibly overqualified people sometimes cook them — Lakewood is one of the handful of popular hangouts for service industry folks in Dallas.

Liberty Burger offers a family-friendly atmosphere and a crowd-pleasing menu of burgers. The classic Liberty Burger boasts an all-American combo of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickles. The burgers get inventive here, from the Napa (arugula, green olives, roast tomatoes, red onion, gorgonzola, and a basil and garlic aioli) to the Baby Bella (a giant onion ring with queso and sautéed baby bella mushrooms). Our favorite is not a burger if beef is a disqualifier, but the Jackie O, a ground lamb patty with baby spinach, roasted tomatoes, feta, and tzatziki sauce. The fries are excellent, coming in skinny form or sweet potato.

Take a trip to Vietnam via this beautiful, plant-filled cafe, named after owner Carol Nguyen’s mother. It serves Hanoi-influenced dishes like savory bun cha Hanoi (vermicelli noodles with pork belly and grilled pork patties), summer beet rolls, shaking tenderloin (a take on the famous shaking beef), and a luscious duck curry served with blue rice that gets its hue from the addition of butterfly pea flower. For dessert, try the Vietnamese egg coffee, a sweet and decadent treat that diners won’t find elsewhere in town.

The dream of this ice cream shop came to its husband-and-wife owners after a trip to Italy heightened their appreciation for the sweet treat. On a recent trip to this shop in East Dallas, the irresistible scent of cinnamon and sugar permeated the air as Parlor’s team was busy making waffle cones. Pair one of those warm cones fresh out of the waffle press with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream for a joyful experience. Parlor’s partners with local suppliers and Texas-based brands to craft its farm-to-scoop offerings. Try flavors like brownies a la mode, sweet cream, mint chip, and milk and cookies.

Looking for ice cream with a natural sweetness? The soft serve ice cream in this spot is sweetened with raw honey sourced from a local beekeeper and is made with local, organic Texas milk. Try its honey, butter pecan, or dark chocolate flavors, but the banana cream pie soft serve is the star of the menu. The shop sells by the cup or by the carton. There are also sundaes, shakes, and ice cream nachos.

Sister serves Italian-ish and Mediterranean-ish fare, the “ish” being a staple of Duro Hospitality’s style: a mixture of trendy and classic. Inside, the space feels like a chic Italian grandma’s living room, if she had a thing for spritzes and took reservations. The Moroccan spiced chicken is a perennial favorite, while the pancetta carbonara takes comfort food to another level.

A Lower Greenville slider bar built around mini burgers on toasted buns. The menu is anchored by the Classic — beef, comeback sauce, American cheese, and pickle — alongside signature sliders like the Popper (fried jalapeño and cream cheese, bacon, pepper jam), the Cowboy (pimento cheese, crispy onion straws), a Nashville hot fried chicken slider, and the Big Kahuna, which puts yellowfin tuna on a King’s Hawaiian ube coconut roll. Order the three-slider combo, mix the Classic with the Popper or the Smokehouse, and add onion rings and a hand-spun shake.

This colorful spot, led by a pair of Mexican immigrants — CEO and executive chef Fino Rodríguez and his business partner Victor E. Rico — is all about Mexican cuisine. The menu travels all over the country, from Vera Cruz-style seafood-heavy dishes to Oaxaca-inspired moles to the ranches of Northern Mexico where fajitas were born. The covered patio houses an outdoor bar for festive feels. And, depending on who is in the kitchen, this place frequently doesn’t hold back on the spice.

When dessert time comes around at Via Triozzi, order the Cannolo Sbagliato, which is a sort of deconstructed cannoli. It’s made using pizzelle (Italian wafer cookies) with cannoli cream between, candied orange peel, cacao nibs, and crushed pistachio. It’s one of the more modern dishes on the menu, but its old-school, familiar flavors are right at home in the cozy, dim dining room that’s decorated with family heirlooms from owner Leigh Hutchinson.