A Fare Forecast for 2025

As Fort Worth’s population continues to soar — we’re now the fourth largest city in Texas, as of a few days ago — so does the need for places for all these people to eat. 

While 2024 saw a tremendous number of new restaurants open, ‘25 could be even bigger. Some of our city’s most well known chefs will unveil exciting, long-awaited new concepts while new-to-the-scene upstarts will introduce themselves with dishes that span culinary traditions from around the globe. Expect to find everything from innovative takes on classic Italian to bold explorations of Southeast Asian flavors, all within a few blocks of each other.

Here, then, is our sneak preview of new restaurants opening in and around Fort Worth in ‘25: 

Bella Gente & Bocado

Opening: Mid-2025

This pair of high-end restaurants — the first, an Italian spot, the latter a glitzy Mexican restaurant — will occupy downtown’s The Tower, perhaps marking a turning point in the area’s struggling restaurant scene. Like the original in Dallas, the Fort Worth location of Bocado will open for dinner, lunch, and brunch, and will serve items such as sea bass tacos, molletes (an open-faced sandwich topped with refried beans, cheese and other ingredients), and menudo, against an upbeat, nightclubbish backdrop. Bella Gente will feature freshly made pizzas and sandwiches. Menu items will include a salmon and zucchini sandwich and a pizza topped with black angus beef and truffles.  

Details: 500 Throckmorton St., bellagentedfw.com, bocadodallas.com

Blue Mint Thai & Asian Cuisine

Opening: Early to mid 2025

Veteran-owned Thai restaurant in Mansfield expands to Arlington with a soon-to-open location in the city’s downtown Urban Union District, a collection of retail shops and restaurants not far from UTA. Blue Mint will offer a menu made up of Thai staples, along with dishes you don’t always see, like roasted duck in red curry. 

Details: 380. E. Front St., bluemintrestaurant.com 

Broadway 10 Bar & Chophouse

Opening: Spring/summer 

Downtown’s newest steakhouse will be located on the ground floor of Deco, a 27-story high rise featuring deco-style, luxury apartment homes and penthouses. Broadway 10 Bar & Chophouse, which will be open for lunch, dinner and brunch, will be the property’s signature restaurant and, as its name implies, there will be a focus on hand-cut steaks, along with fresh seafood, sushi, and family-style sides such as smoked gouda mashed potatoes and lobster mac and cheese. This will be the restaurant’s second location; the original is in Oklahoma City. 

Details: 969 Commerce St., b10chophouse.com 

Cafecito

Opening: First quarter 2025

What started out as a food truck, then graduated to a food hall space will now morph into a full-on brick-and-mortar. Voted by Fort Worth Magazine readers as the best place to breakfast in Fort Worth in ‘24, the Duran family’s Mexican breakfast and lunch spot, known for its pink tortillas, will soon take over the Magnolia Avenue space last occupied by Eazy Monkey. 

Details: 401 W. Magnolia Ave., cafecitofw.com 

Capo

Opening: Mid to late 2025

After opening French restaurant Le Margot and smoked meats spot F1 Smokehouse, prolific restaurateur Felipe Armenta and business partner/celebrity chef Graham Elliot now turn their attention to Italian fare with Capo, opening later this year in the Montserrat area of Fort Worth. Armenta, who also owns Pacific Table, Cafe Press and Maria’s Mexican Cuisine, among others, says he shelved a planned steakhouse, Cowboy Prime, to focus on this forthcoming ode to Italian classics; Armenta says he is also opening a location of Pacific Table in Dallas in ‘25.  

Details: 9300 Team Ranch Road

Carne Asada’s Mexican Food 

Opening: Late December, early January

Joel Gutierrez, owner of the popular Mexican seafood restaurant Acapulco on the city’s North Side, is slated to open a new breakfast/lunch/dinner concept just a few blocks away. Gutierrez and his team have turned a 1930s, 750-square-foot building into a drive-thru/walk-up spot with patio seating. Gutierrez says Carne Asada will be open seven days a week, from sun up to sundown, serving Tex Mex and Mex Mex classics, such as tortas, enchiladas, nachos, chingon fries (fries topped with carne asada, cheese, guacamole and other toppings), menudo and breakfast burritos. There will be freshly made aguas frescas, too, plus assorted iced coffee drinks.

Details: 1234 NW 28th St., instagram.com/carneasadasmexfood/

Dos Mares

Opening: Mid to late 2025

Dos Mares is a new coastal Mexican seafood concept coming later in the year from the owners of James Beard-nominated Don Artemio, one of the city’s best restaurants. The two restaurants will be side by side practically, as Dos Mares will occupy a 3,500-foot space adjacent to Don Artemio. 

Details: 3260 W. 7th St. 

Drinks ‘N Such

Opening: First quarter 2025

Drinks ‘N Such will feature the culinary handiwork of one of the city’s most well-known chefs, Dave Hollister, last seen at the fantastic sandwich shop Boozie’s on Camp Bowie. Located close to TCU, in the space briefly occupied by Carter’s Coffee, DNS will offer a food hall-inspired experience — multiple dishes culled from multiple styles of food — in a sports bar atmosphere, according to CultureMap. For this unique concept, Hollister has hooked up with three partners who each have strong ties to the Fort Worth bar/restaurant community. Can’t wait for this one. 

Details: 2736 Stanley Ave.

Duchess

Opening: Mid to late 2025

Dallas native and former Top Chef contestant Casey Thompson returns to Fort Worth, this time as consulting chef for Duchess, a new American restaurant inside the forthcoming Nobleman Hotel, to be built in and around the historic No. 5 Fire Station in the South Main area. Thompson established a presence in Fort Worth as consulting chef of Brownstone, a well-liked restaurant in the West 7th area that specialized in New American fare. The Duchess menu will be somewhat similar, with dishes such as ricotta gnocchi with truffle butter, red snapper with butter beans, and crispy chicken croquettes. 

Details: 503 Bryan Ave.

Holy Cue

Opening: Early 2025

Mary Patino Perez, owner of Fort Worth’s Enchiladas Ole restaurant on Camp Bowie, is behind this soon-to-open ‘cue spot a few miles to the east, which takes over the old Samsons Ethiopian restaurant. Perez has been testing the waters for a Mexi-cue spot for several months, serving smoked meats and sides at Enchiladas Ole.  

Details: 4307 Camp Bowie Blvd. 

Ko Thai

Opening: February/March

This upscale Thai restaurant will occupy a newly built two-story building on Magnolia Avenue in the Near Southside. The second story will feature an outdoor deck that’ll look upon Magnolia. Ko Thai comes from the same owner as Koracha Thai Restaurant in Bedford but will have a more classy vibe and opulent decor, including a Thai statuary, according to CultureMap. The menu is still in the works but look for fancy renditions of Thai classics, like pad Thai and basil fried rice. 

Details: 725 W. Magnolia St., kothai.co

Los Vaqueros Restaurant

Opening: Now open

The Cisneros family’s beloved Stockyards Tex Mex restaurant has moved from its longtime home to, just a block or so away, the historic Stockyards Exhibits Building in Rodeo Plaza. On weekends, the restaurant will offer late night eats like enchiladas, tacos and specialty breakfast items until 12:30 a.m. and bar service until 1 a.m. 

Details: 2513 Rodeo Plaza, losvaqueros.com

Margie’s Italian Gardens

Opening: By spring

Westland Restaurant Group, which brought back Pulido’s, is in the process of resurrecting this iconic Italian joint, which most of us remember as Margie’s Italian Restaurant. Westland tidied up the name a bit, as it’s doing with the restaurant itself. Look for it to reopen by spring, says Westland owner Gigi Howell. 

Details: 9805 Camp Bowie W. Blvd., margiesitaliangardens.com

Milo’s Cocina Mexicana

Opening: Now open

Milo’s Cocina Mexicana is a just-opened spinoff of Fort Worth Magazine favorite Los Jimadores, a well-liked chain of local Mexican restaurants whose food goes above and beyond the norms of Tex Mex fare. Hermilo “Milo” Acosta Milo’s offers a slimmer menu than Los Jimadores, in a sleeker, more modern setting. There are the traditional enchiladas and chimichangas, but go for the more adventurous dishes such as the Pollo Xochitl, a pan-fried chicken breast smothered in a rich tequila cream sauce over chipotle mashed potatoes and spinach, or the salmon Azteca, comprised of your choice of  pan-seared or blackened salmon served over shrimp chilaquiles, all topped with two sauces: a sweet pineapple sauce and a savory poblano cream sauce. 

Details: 8407 Blvd. 26, North Richland Hills, losjimadoresfw.com

Palate Garden

Opening: January 3

Nepali and Indian cuisine comes to Saginaw, courtesy of this mom-and-pop spot. The menu will include momos (Nepalese dumplings made with minced meat in a flour dough), various biryani dishes, curries, and sel roti, a sweet, ring-shaped pastry made from fried dough that looks like an onion ring but tastes like a doughnut. 

Details: 1029 N. Saginaw Blvd., Saginaw, thepalategarden.com

Rex’s Bar & Grill

Opening: Early 2025

This new bar and grill going into the old Macaroni Grill on University Dr. is from Rex Benson, who owns the well-known spot next door, Ol’ South Pancake House. Rex’s will feature a menu designed by onetime Reata chef Brian Olenjack, says the Star-Telegram, with items such as chicken-fried steak, garlic baked chicken, and pork chops. They’ll keep late hours on weekends. 

Details: 1501 S. University Dr., rexsftw.com

Taste Project

Opening: Early 2025

Fort Worth’s popular pay-what-you-can, non-profit restaurant expands to Arlington, where owners Jeff and Julie Williams will soon open a spinoff location in a cool 1920s, city-owned building that was once home to the water department. Expect the menu to be similar to Fort Worth’s, with a focus on chef-inspired takes of American classics. Also like Fort Worth, diners will pay what they want or can — a unique concept designed to help those in need. 

Details: 200 N. Cooper St., tasteproject.org

Terra Mediterranean Grill

Opening: Now open

Some of us never knew how much we loved this long-running, family-owned Mediterranean restaurant until it abruptly disappeared in 2019. But our cravings for their killer salmon and roasted cauliflower can now be sated as the restaurant recently reopened, just a block or two from their original location. 

Details: 2932 Crockett St., terramediterranean.com

Unnamed restaurant from Hao Tran

Opening: Late 2025

After years of hosting pop up events and running a market on the south side, well-known local chef Hao Tran will finally open a long-awaited, full-fledged restaurant in Entrepreneur Park, a mixed-use complex owned by Frank Kent Motor Co. in west Fort Worth. While she’s still finalizing details, including the name of the restaurant, Tran says the focus will be on Vietnamese fare, along with freshly made dumplings and baked goods.

Details: 405 Jim Wright Freeway