Fort Worth’s Best New Restaurants

Editor's Note:(Photos in this article by Darah Hubbard, Thanin Viriyaki, and Darrell Byers.)

Come for the barbecue, stay for the carbonara. That sentiment easily sums up Fort Worth’s culinary scene these days. While our city has made impressive strides in expanding its palate over the past few years, we are still a town unapologetically attached to meat — specifically, smoked meat, which has been Fort Worth’s signature dish as long as we can remember. 

It’s certainly about time the rest of the world recognizes our world-class barbecue joints. Over the past few years, local and national media outlets, from Texas Monthly to The New York Times, have told the world what we already know: That barbecue doesn’t get any better than places like Goldee’s Bar-B-Q in Fort Worth and Smoke N’ Ash in Arlington, two ’cue restaurants that have won numerous accolades. 

Just a few weeks ago, the Michelin Guide — considered by many to be the Bible of restaurant guides — weighed in, honoring Goldee’s, Smoke ‘N Ash, and Panther City Barbecue with awards that reiterate the impacts they’ve made on Texas cuisine. (Birrieria Y Taqueria Cortez was also among those honored with an award.) None were bestowed with stars — the ultimate Michelin seal of approval — but one might interpret their awards (Goldee’s received Michelin’s Bib Gourmand award for good food at a good price, and the others were “Recommended”) to maybe mean we’re on the right track to star-dom. 

But there has always been more to Fort Worth’s restaurant scene than barbecue. Come, tourists, and indulge in Panther City’s brisket elote and Hurtado BBQ’s Texas twinkies — but around the corner, you’ll find exquisite pastas, made by hand; seafood freshly flown in from around the globe; smashburgers worth every calorie and clogged artery; and chilaquiles that’ll send you to the moon. 

Which brings us to the topic at hand: Our annual best new restaurant story, a look at the best and most delicious restaurants to open over the past two years in and around Fort Worth. Any restaurateur or chef or server will tell you it hasn’t been easy keeping doors open, and sadly, many restaurants that could have and should have appeared on this list didn’t survive the staffing and supply chain challenges — not to mention a capricious economy — that plagued restaurants near and far.

Other restaurants flourished, finding their footing and their audience with the winning combination of food, drink, and vibe. 

Before we unveil our picks for the city’s best new eateries, a note: We usually pen this story every two years. Starting in 2025, it’ll become a yearly feature — a testament to the number of good restaurants that continue to open.

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Now, in alphabetical order, our choices for the city’s best new restaurants:

Bocca Osteria Romana

Opened: August 2024

Newly opened on South Main — and hidden down an alley that runs alongside the 411 building — Bocca Osteria Romana is the city’s best new restaurant not just because of what it is (a fantastic place to have a plate of pasta), but because of what it’s not. It’s not flashy, it’s not expensive, there’s not a name-brand chef in the kitchen (although we’ll argue owner/chef Alessandro Salvatore, who runs the restaurant with his brother, Alfonso, will soon become one). While many of the restaurants that have opened over the past few years have poured money and time and energy into how they look, Bocca depends more on how it feels — and it feels like a neighborhood restaurant, quaint but lively, energetic but not chaotic, cozy yet cool. The food, of course, is dynamite: Mostly everything is made in-house, including the pastas, which aren’t car crashes of multiple ingredients but simple, made with only two or three ingredients, like the pastas you get in Italy, which, after a trip here, you may never need to visit again.

What to order: Twice-baked lasagna, blue cheese gnocchi, pumpkin sage ravioli, cacio e pepe, carbonara — anything and everything we’ve had has been outstanding. A meal isn’t complete without an order of the freshly made focaccia bread, served straight out of the oven, still piping hot when it hits your table. There are artfully designed salads, too, peppered with fresh fruits, vegetables, and housemade dressings.

Details: 411 S. Main St., instagram.com/boccafortworth/

Brix Barbecue

Opened: August 2023

Fort Worth is definitely enjoying some newfound fame as a barbecue destination, and Brix BBQ is one of the reasons why. Trevor Sales’ South Main restaurant — a rustic double-decker with rooftop dining and a dog-friendly patio — is certainly steeped in tradition, as he serves expertly smoked brisket, ribs, and housemade sausage, but his ever-changing menu is catapulting the genre forward at a breakneck pace. Every week, it seems, Sales is testing out or introducing new menu items, such as steak frites, smoked chicken corn chowder, a smoked porchetta sandwich, and brisket ragu. Brix is also one of the few ’cue spots in Fort Worth to fully embrace Sunday brunch with items like a monolithic brisket and egg burrito and phenomenal lemon blueberry pancakes topped with burnt ends. Why the heck did it take so long for someone to combine barbecue with pancakes? Brix serves excellent smashburgers too, their patties etched in the perfect amount of crispness and greatness and blanketed in an addicting housemade sauce that should be jarred and sold. 

What to order: Barbecue aficionados will find much to love, from the moist brisket, with its wobbly fat that melts away at the touch of your tongue, to the housemade sausage, which jettisons a wild amount of juice and flavor when you bite into it. From that point, work your way around the menu to the burgers and his rotating specials. Those burnt end pancakes, we should reiterate, are a must. 

Details: 1012 S. Main St., brixbarbecue.com

Cafe Americana

Opened: March 2024

Arlington’s dining scene, as vast as it is, has lacked in the fine dining department. Cafe Americana is a step in the right direction. Don’t let the modest exterior or remote locale fool you into thinking this high-end, Spanish-inspired restaurant is anything but spectacular. Open the door and you’ll be greeted by walls adorned with vivid art, imaginative craft cocktails, and chef-inspired takes on tapas, paellas, and other staples of Spanish-American cuisine. The restaurant originally featured the handiwork of Fort Worth chef Mark Guatelara, fondly remembered for his Filipino food trailer Ober Here. Following his departure a few months ago, the restaurant now rests in the capable hands of chef Mouhssine “Moose” Benhamacht and Liesl Best, who’ve developed a menu that sticks close to Guatelara’s concept but also incorporates their own style. A quartet of steaks cozy up next to build-your-own charcuterie boards, fabulous paellas crackling with exotic spices and flavors, and freshly made empanadas. Everything’s meant to share, and the tables are situated so closely together, you’re bound to make new friends, even if they just want you for your food. 

What to order: Start with some small plates — the charred octopus, for sure, maybe the grilled padron peppers, definitely the potato and carrot stew empanadas. Your meal should also include a paella — we love the seafood rendition, spiked with mussels and shrimp. For entrees, Benhamacht offers four cuts of steaks, ranging in size and price, along with a near-perfect pineapple glazed salmon. Decadent desserts, such as coconut cake, are ridiculously huge — never, ever, ever a bad thing.

Details: 403 E. Main St., Arlington, cafeamericanatx.com

The Crescent Hotel’s The Blue Room

Opened: February 2024

The lavish and luxurious new Crescent Hotel offers several dining options, but its culinary pride and joy is The Blue Room, a restaurant-within-a-restaurant found inside Emilia’s, the hotel’s main in-house restaurant. Designed using a color scheme of blue tones perhaps meant to emulate the ocean, The Blue Room is aimed at well-walleted diners craving a more intimate and elevated experience than most restaurants offer. Service is highly personal: Servers dote and sweep away crumbs, a sommelier comes by to suggest wines, and chef Preston Paine may even visit your table to see how you liked the dover sole, which is of course fileted tableside, much to the oohs and aahs of guests. There’s an air of exclusivity here that extends to the menu, which is separate from Emilia’s. Smaller in size and specially curated by Paine himself, it typically includes entrees from the land, sea, and air, along with several small dishes where Paine often stretches his legs creatively. When we visited, hors d’oeuvres included a roasted squash tartlet, with caramelized peanuts and pickled mustard seeds, that ranked as one of the best one-bites we’d taken in a while. Caviar service has since been added, and along with big ticket items such as dover sole, you’ll find approachable — and more affordable — options such as seared Peking duck breast.     

What to order: You don’t go to Vegas just to play the penny slots. You go all in. Approach The Blue Room with the same philosophy — prepare to spend big and you’ll have fun. Made for two, the dover sole is the dish du jour. It comes with its own show: A server debones the fish tableside. Another showy dish is the rack of lamb, carved next to your table. Apparently, servers here are trained to be fishmongers and butchers. Sure things include light and divine scallops and fresh oysters served with a seasonal mignonette sauce. 

Details: 3300 Camp Bowie Blvd., thecrescenthotelfortworth.com

Dayne’s Craft BBQ 

Opened: December 2023

Over the past few years, Dayne’s Craft Barbecue has grown from a backyard business for owners Dayne and Ashley Weaver to a food trailer to a full-on brick-and-mortar, which the couple opened last year in Aledo, where they found the absolute perfect home for their skillfully crafted barbecue. It’s an old building, built about a century ago, with rickety doors and floors that squeal when you walk across them. Best of all, Dayne’s resides right next door to a set of train tracks. Peer out the window or grab a seat on the patio, and you can watch the trains zoom by day and night — the quintessential way to kill time in Texas. 

What to order: Of course, the vibe wouldn’t mean squat if the food wasn’t good, but you know it is — there’s usually a long line to get in. That line moves fast, though, as the Weavers now have a full kitchen crew and staff to dish out their robustly smoked brisket, ribs, chicken, and housemade sausage, plus terrific sides such as mac and cheese dusted with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and rotating specials like candy apple pork belly burnt ends. To answer before you even ask: Yes, Dayne’s is serving its popular smashburgers every day they’re open. The restaurant is now serving breakfast, too, with items such as meat-and-egg burritos big enough to split. 

Details: 100 S. Front St., Aledo, daynescraftbarbecue.com

Gusto’s Burger Bar + More

Opened: October 2023

A Coors Light, tater tots, a burger, and a big patio — that combo has worked wonders for Gusto’s Burger Bar + More, a laid-back spot on the Near Southside that serves some of the city’s best smashburgers. There’s an art to smashing burgers, and owner Jonathan Arguello has mastered it, assembling wonderfully messy burgers made from thin, smashed patties, American cheese, a special sauce, and not much else — not that much else is needed. The flavors are so perfect, you wonder how Arguello gets it right where so many others fail. He’s not afraid to season his patties or pour on the ketchup, if you so desire, and he doesn’t use pale, flimsy veggies for those who want LTO. He uses stuff that looks like it was just plucked from the earth, all color and crunch. Arguello’s graduation from food truck to brick-and-mortar has been serendipitous, for sure. His restaurant occupies the same cool bungalow where another great burger joint, the Bearded Lady, once called home. “It was meant to be,” he said to me soon after he opened. Most definitely. 

What to order: Although there are other menu items, you’re going to want a burger. Our go-to is the Backyard Burger, slathered in ketchup and mayo, and piled high with pickles, LTO, bacon, and melty American cheese. Get it with the terrific, thick-cut, appropriately salty fries and, of course, a Coors Light. 

Details: 1229 Seventh Ave., instagram.com/___gustos/

Lola’s Cuban Food

Opened: April 2023

Cuban food isn’t exactly a cinch to find in Fort Worth, unless you count a few shops that sell Cuban sandwiches. The cuisine’s scarcity in Fort Worth led couple and Cuba expats Miquelin Herrera and Linaim Morin to open a Cuban food truck in 2019. Parked on Henderson near downtown, the truck found its groove and its audience and often sold out in a matter of hours. Bolstered by the success of the truck, the couple opened a brick-and-mortar in 2023 in southwest Fort Worth — a groovy, upbeat spot that has provided a wider swath of Fort Worthians with a much-needed education in the ways of Cuban cuisine. 

What to order: When they advanced from truck to brick-and-mortar, they went from a dozen items to 30 or so, some known to casual food-lovers, like empanadas, some that dig a little deeper. A good place to start is the bistec encebollado, a classic Cuban dish made with steak and onions, or the vaca frita, a dish comprised of shredded and fried beef, a rollercoaster of flavors and textures. Served boiled or fried, a side of yucca should accompany every entree, and no meal is complete without one of their specialty coffee drinks and a piece of silky flan. 

Details: 4608 Bryant Irvin Road, lolascubanfood.com

Maiden: Fine Plants & Spirits

Opened: June 2023

Who would have thought there’d come a day when Fort Worth would be at the forefront of a vegan movement? But here we are, with a half-dozen vegan restaurants and food trucks, helping pave the way for vegan cuisine in a state known primarily for beef. Opened by Amy McNutt and James Johnston, who also own Spiral Diner, Maiden is the first vegan restaurant of its kind in Texas: a fine dining/tasting menu concept in which everything served is plant-based. Diners opt for a five- or eight-course seasonal tasting menu or nab a first-come, first-served seat at the stylish bar, which has its own menu with a la carte dishes such as meatless steak frites, baked white cheddar mac and cheese, and char-grilled artichokes. The restaurant also offers “tea time,” in which a large selection of hot and cold teas are served, along with tea-infused cocktails and light bites. 

What to order: The tasting menu changes with the season. Recent offerings have included Belgian endive and daikon salad, lemongrass grapefruit consommé, apple mille-feuille with buckwheat tartlet, and banana-apple-orange-spiced granita. 

Details: 1216 Sixth Ave., maidenvegan.com

Megu

Opened: November 2023

Peter Liang’s upscale, refreshingly unique restaurant in the TCU area has been a quiet sensation since it opened this past winter in the cool, midcentury-mod-style Campus Tower building on University. Megu’s menu is two-in-one, encompassing dishes from both French and Japanese cuisine. Liang’s extensive background in both types of food (he worked in several kitchens in New York and elsewhere before he landed in Texas) led him and a biz partner to open a similar concept in Weatherford, but Liang wanted to fly solo, and that’s when Megu came along. Not only is his menu unique, so is the service: Liang is often a one-man restaurant, handling hosting, serving and cooking duties; on busy nights, a small staff helps out. Few restaurants invite you to interact with the chef like this, which makes for a highly personal — and unforgettable — experience. 

What to order: Megu is one of the few Fort Worth restaurants to offer Japanese A5 Wagyu, a richly marbled cut of beef that may very well rank as one of the best things you’ll ever eat. But sushi is Megu’s specialty, and a great way to try much of it is the Love Boat, a gargantuan plethora of rolls and sashimi served in a big, wooden boat.

Details: 3113 S. University Drive, instagram.com/megu_tcu

61 Osteria

Opened: January 2023

Sometimes the best restaurants in Fort Worth are the ones that don’t feel anything like Fort Worth. Either through the decor or food, or both, they take you somewhere else, and for a few hours, you’ll completely forget you’re dining in our city. That’s what you can expect to happen at 61 Osteria, the modern Italian restaurant opened by Adam Jones and Blaine Staniford early last year in west downtown, on the street level of the First on 7th tower. Designed by Fort Worth-based architecture firm Ibañez Shaw Architecture, the restaurant combines design elements that are both modern and midcentury modern. Diners are engulfed by floor-to-ceiling windows, and everywhere you look, there’s something cool to see, whether it’s the rainforest marble wall that separates the dining room from the bar or, hovering above the main dining area, a series of sculptural elements designed to emulate the famous chandelier at the Four Seasons hotel in New York. Beneath, between, behind, there’s something to cool to see. 

What to order: Pastas, all painstakingly made by hand, are the focal point here, and there are several, such as Mafaldine Cacio e Pepe, a semolina pasta with cracked black pepper and pecorino pepato; Maine lobster gnocchi; serpent tail pasta stuffed with house ricotta cheese, with hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, black truffle, and preserved lemon; and tagliatelle bolognese made with braised brisket, veal and pork-based sugo, and topped with aged Parmesan.  

Details: 500 W. Seventh St., 61osteria.com

Plank Provisions

Opened: October 2023

While we typically seek out local and/or family-owned restaurants for our annual Best New Restaurants story, we sometimes make an exception for a formidable corporately owned restaurant, and that’s where Plank Provisions comes in. Developed by the same company behind the still-going-strong Blue Sushi, Plank Provisions is a stylish seafood restaurant located in The Shops at Clearfork shopping center. The kitchen is led by a North Texan, executive chef Jake Morgan, who has fresh fish flown in every week, if not every day. He takes an artistic approach to his food, marrying seemingly dissimilar flavors, then presenting them artfully, often beautifully. Plank is a different vibe than the clubby Blue Sushi. Muted colors abound, giving the space a serene, if not upscale, feel. 

What to order: For an appetizer, try any of the sushi rolls or the crispy and slightly spicy redfish ceviche. Entrees include an excellent rendition of fish and chips, made with flash-fried cod and served with dill slaw; nicely blackened catfish; and baja fish tacos wrapped in house-made corn tortillas. 

Details: 5289 Marathon Ave., plantprovisions.com

Si Tapas

Opened: January 2024

Many of us gave up hope that West 7th would ever become a haven for good restaurants again; Fireside Pies and Tillman’s seem like an eternity away from the West 7th of today. But strides are being made to bring good restaurants back to the area; Si Tapas is definitely a step toward achieving that goal. Tapas have never found their footing in Fort Worth, but maybe that’s because Ildefonso Jimenez wasn’t making them for us. Jimenez staked his claim years ago in the field of tapas, perfecting them at Dallas’ Cafe Madrid. Here in Fort Worth, where he has opened the second location of the Dallas-born Si Tapas, he serves beautifully crafted small plates like serrano ham croquettes and fried pork belly with chocolate sauce in the old Fireside space, which still retains its sepia tone, romantic charm, and old-world feel. 

What to order: The menu is absolutely huge, filled with plates both large and small. We suggest getting a little bit of everything, including the Spanish potato omlette and grilled baby lamb chops.

Details: 2949 Crockett St., sitapas.com

Teddy Wongs Dumplings & Wine 

Opened: October 2023

Through pop-ups, cooking classes, caterings and word of mouth, local dumpling aficionados Hao Tran and Dixya Bhattarai helped popularize Chinese dumplings in Fort Worth, opening the door for Teddy Wongs, which has given them a touch of class. A spinoff of a similar concept in Addison called Bushi Bushi Dim Sum, Teddy Wongs comes from New York chef Patrick Ru and Jeffrey Yarbrough, a Fort Worth native, hospitality industry veteran, and commercial real estate broker.  Together, they’ve created a restaurant, in what was once a gas station, that is both high-end and super-casual. Night-on-the-towners sit side by side, amid black tablecloths and clinking wine glasses, with folks in jeans and shorts and Toadies T-shirts. All come together for the restaurant’s signature item: dumplings, of which there are more than a dozen varieties, all made by hand. Elsewhere on the menu, there are Chinese classics such as kung pao shrimp, orange chicken, and various fried rice dishes, along with the less common (or less common in Fort Worth, at least) Peking duck, served half or whole. An extensive wine list features bottles from most corners of the world; there’s also a small but mightly sake list, too. 

What to order: Xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, which come in two flavors: pork or a mix of crab and pork. They’re served in a round bamboo basket to keep them warm. The restaurant recently added two new must-trys: lobster dumplings and Wagyu potstickers.

Details: 812 W. Rosedale St., teddywongs.com

Tesoro

Opened: October 2023

Tesoro is a wholeheartedly unique, family-run Mexican restaurant, open for breakfast and lunch only, that specializes in a dish that doesn’t get nearly the love it should: chilaquiles, the Mexican breakfast staple made with eggs and fried tortillas. While most Mexican restaurants that serve this dish only serve it one way, Tesoro offers a half-dozen renditions, with various toppings and salsas. Elsewhere on the Camarillo family’s menu, you’ll find other unusual offerings, including pancakes topped with strawberry and chocolate syrup and Gansito candy, and a breakfast burger topped with bacon and eggs. There are no chips and salsa, enchiladas or other Tex Mex mainstays — it’s not that type of place. And what a breath of fresh air that is. Most likely, there will be a wait, as the dining room barely stretches to 400 feet (there’s more legroom on the festively decorated patio). It’s not a restaurant for everybody, but its uniqueness makes it stand out among our city’s crowded Mex Mex and Tex Mex scene. 

What to order: The restaurant’s signature dish, chilaquiles. The OG version is made with green and red salsas and topped with pulled chicken is outstanding. Those into the birria craze will love the birriaquiles, a plate of crispy tortilla chips topped with birria beef stew, salsa, beans, cheese, sour cream, and cilantro. 

Details: 2919 Race St., instagram.com/tesoromexican

Walloon’s 

Opened: July 2023

Near the end of our list (its name does begin with a “W,” after all) but first on our minds when it comes to fine dining on the Near Southside, Marcus Paslay’s lively seafood-and-then-some restaurant is barely a year old, but with its neighborhood-spot charm, it feels like it’s been here forever. Perched on the corner of Magnolia and Hemphill, inside the historic LaCava building, it’s the fourth restaurant in Paslay’s small empire of eateries and, like his others, it has a style all its own. The cozy bistro-inspired tables, situated within arm’s distance of one another, conjure a New York state of mind, while the rollicking bar is straight out of New Orleans. Paslay describes the menu as his love-letter to the food of New Orleans, Chicago, and the Gulf Coast, so expect a seafood-first philosophy, along with some cool surprises, like an excellent Italian beef.

What to order: There are plenty of seafood options, and to sample many of them, splurge for the impressive seafood tower, jammed with poached shrimp, cold-water oysters and tuna crudo. Piled with thinly sliced, braised sirloin and crowned with crunchy and spicy giardiniera, the Italian beef is a fun and flavorful ode to the Chicago staple. Redfish is another must-try, its skin expertly seared, its texture appropriately buttery and smooth. Appetizers include oysters Rockefeller, steak tartare, French onion dip, Louisiana BBQ shrimp, and deviled eggs. 

Details: 701 W. Magnolia Ave., walloonsrestaurant.com

Warique Peruvian Food

Opened: July 2024

For the past few years, Peruvian restaurants have become popular dining destinations in locales such as New York, California, Miami, and Spain; a Peruvian restaurant called Central recently landed the No. 1 spot on The New York Times' World's 50 Best Restaurants list. The cuisine is definitely having a moment. But in Tarrant County, Peruvian food is still tough to find - one of the many reasons to seek out this family-run gem that opened earlier this year in Arlington. Owners Monica Lopez and Pedro Luis, a married couple who moved to Texas from Lima, Peru, have turned a fading Pulido's location into an exciting, energetic room, full of exotic aromas emitting from food as colorful as it is taste worthy. Guiding the kitchen is family friend Ayrton Velasquez, who also hails from Peru, where he worked as a chef in several restaurants. Their expansive menu will take some time to maneuver, especially for those new to Peruvian cooking, but servers are patient and knowledgeable, and more than happy to guide newcomers through this richly complex cuisine. 

What to order: Amid a backdrop of beautifully painted murals and, on weekends, live music, you'll dine well on essential Peruvian eats, such as ocopa, a dish comprised of potatoes painted with a creamy, green-colored sauce made from huacatay, a minty herb from Peru; parihuela, a hearty seafood soup made with sea bass, crab meat, and spices; and a varied selection of freshly made ceviches studded with mahi mahi, mussels, and shrimp, along with vegetables such as sweet potatoes, an ingredient you'll see time and again in Peruvian cuisine. A standout dish is causa. Similar to a casserole, it’s comprised of layers of mashed yellow potatoes, sliced avocados and your choice of octopus, shredded chicken, or tuna, mixed with mayo. The dish is finished in a drizzle of an aji amarillo sauce made with Peruvian yellow pepper paste and served with a hardboiled egg, sliced in two. Wash it all down with pretty cocktails made from pisco, the clear liquor made from grapes in Peru’s wine country. 

Details: 3330 Matlock Road, Arlington, wariqueperu.com