Knox-Henderson runs roughly from the Katy Trail east along Knox Street and down Henderson Avenue, and on a good evening it is one of the most concentrated stretches of good food and drink in Texas. The neighborhood sits three miles north of downtown, bordered by Highland Park to the west and Uptown to the south, and for World Cup visitors it offers something the other Dallas neighborhoods don’t: the full range from a dive bar that’s been there since 1987 to a Michelin-recognized steakhouse, all within comfortable walking distance of each other. Park once. Stay all night.
THE HISTORY
Knox Street began transforming in the late 1990s when a handful of independent restaurants started taking root in the retail strip between the Katy Trail and Travis Street. Henderson Avenue followed — its stretch from McMillan south toward Fitzhugh gradually filling in with restaurants that attracted the kind of local regulars who care where they eat. By the early 2000s the corridor had an identity. By the 2010s it had a Michelin inspector. Today Knox Street is a fully planned dining and retail district anchored by The Knox development, while Henderson has kept its more organic, block-by-block character. Both are worth your time.
COFFEE AND MORNING
Village Baking Co. at 3219 Knox Street, Suite 130 is the neighborhood’s morning anchor — artisan bread, pastries, and coffee in a warm room that fills up with Katy Trail walkers and Knox Street regulars by 8 a.m. The croissants, sourdough, and seasonal pastries are made in-house daily. Open Monday through Saturday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Phone: (214) 258-5183.
BRUNCH
Knox Bistro at 3230 Knox Street, Suite 140 is the Michelin-recognized French bistro from Travis Street Hospitality — the same group behind Le Bilboquet and Georgie. Chef Armand Brunner trained at Ferrandi Paris and apprenticed at the French Senate before working in Michelin-starred Paris kitchens. The result is a French menu that earns the pedigree without wearing it heavily: soufflés, branzino, a chocolate dessert soufflé that is genuinely worth planning around. Fresh pastries on Saturday and Sunday. Brunch Saturday and Sunday 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Open daily. We reviewed it here. Fantastic dinner spot. Phone: (469) 250-4007.
Toulouse Café and Bar at 3314 Knox Street is the French bistro brunch that never disappoints — a year-round skylit garden escape with heritage olive trees, trickling fountains, and a menu that runs from croque monsieur and eggs Benedict to proper French onion soup and steak frites. A Knox Street institution since 2006. Brunch Saturday and Sunday. Open daily. We reviewed it here.
LUNCH AND CASUAL
Pizzana at 3215 Knox Street is the Neapolitan pizza concept from Los Angeles that opened its first Texas location on Knox in late 2023. Chef Daniele Uditi’s dough is fermented 48 hours, the sauce is San Marzano, and the crust has the char-and-chew that separates Neapolitan pizza from everything else. The cacio e pepe pizza is the one people order twice. Open daily for lunch and dinner.
The Charlotte at 2822 N. Henderson Avenue opened in September 2024 in the former Enrique Tomas space and became one of the most talked-about openings on the corridor. The 5,800-square-foot two-story room — mint and peach, life-size teddy bears as décor, rooftop — sounds like a concept built for Instagram, and it is. But the food holds up. Southern American with global flair: charred elote on the cob with cotija and cilantro, crab fingers with Cajun butter, a Wagyu Glizzy, a Porn Star Martini that has developed its own following. Happy hour Monday through Friday 4 to 7 p.m. Open Monday 4 to 10 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight, Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. We reviewed it here. Phone: (972) 803-6720.
Shell Shack at 2326 N. Henderson Avenue was founded by Dallas Hale in Uptown in 2013 and has been on Henderson since 2018. It has won best seafood in Dallas eight years running. The signature is the seafood boil — King Crab, Snow Crab, Dungeness, seasonal Bairdi Crab, crawfish — fully customizable with seasoning options including Cajun and the house Kitchen Sink blend. A full bar, a festive room, and a kitchen that stays open until 1 a.m. every night of the week. The late-night window alone makes it a World Cup asset. Open daily 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. (bar until 2 a.m.). We reviewed it here. Phone: (844) 588-2722.
The Old Monk at 2847 N. Henderson Avenue has been the neighborhood’s pub since 1998. More than 200 beers, housemade cocktails, a kitchen that runs until midnight, and a 7,000-square-foot patio with multiple TVs that will be showing every World Cup match. Feargal McKinney, who also owns The Skellig and Spider Murphy’s, built this place and it has never really changed. Open daily from 3 p.m. We reviewed it here.
Louie’s at 1839 N. Henderson Avenue has been on Henderson since 1987 — before Henderson was fashionable, before anyone was writing about the corridor. Founded by Louis Canelakes, who had been behind bars long before craft cocktails were a concept, it became the cocktail hangout for the Dallas media crowd and then, somewhere along the way, the home of the best thin-crust pizza in the city. Chicago-style brick oven, sweet mild sauce, sausage and mushroom, cut in squares. Guy Fieri came. The regulars didn’t care. 21 and older only. Open Wednesday through Sunday 5:30 to 9 p.m. We reviewed it here. Phone: (214) 826-0505.
Ziziki’s at 4514 Travis Street is the Greek restaurant that has been a quiet Knox-Henderson staple since 1994. Lamb chops, moussaka, spanakopita, a proper Greek salad, and three decades of feeding the same neighborhood. Lunch and dinner daily. We reviewed it here.
DINNER
Mister Charles at 3219 Knox Street, Suite 170 is the Michelin-recognized, OpenTable Top 100 restaurant in America that Duro Hospitality built inside the former Highland Park Soda Fountain — a building on this corner since 1912. Thirty-eight-foot ceilings, a dark moody lounge on one side and a bright soda-fountain-energy dining room on the other. The Dover sole filleted tableside, the brisket and foie gras ravioli, and the baked Alaska torched at the table are the reasons to come. The Michelin Guide awarded the bar program its Exceptional Cocktails recognition. Dress accordingly. Reservations essential. Open Sunday through Thursday 4:30 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 4:30 to 11 p.m. We reviewed it here.
Georgie at 4514 Travis Street is chef Curtis Stone’s steakhouse on Knox — serious beef, a raw bar, and a cocktail program that runs deep on aged spirits. The dry-aged ribeye and king crab are the table anchors. Open for dinner nightly, lunch on weekdays. We reviewed it here.
Green Point Seafood & Oyster Bar at 3219 Knox Street, Suite 100 is the Cape Town-inspired seafood brasserie from the owners of Beverley’s. The name comes from the South African coastal town where the owners’ family is from. Oysters to start, lobster bucatini, Maine lobster rigatoni, a cioppino, a whole roasted fish, and a lobster roll that has become one of Knox Street’s more talked-about dishes. Open daily 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 9 p.m. Sunday). We reviewed it here. Phone: (214) 258-6063.
Mar y Sol Cocina Latina at 4511 McKinney Avenue is the Latin American concept from Lombardi Family Concepts — the same group behind Taverna — that opened on the Knox Street corridor in 2024. The kitchen spans Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil. Live-fire cooking anchors the menu: Pollo a la Brasa, wood-fired Picaña steak, charred octopus with green chili purée, ceviche acapulco style, lobster rice. A Tulum-inspired room with warm wood and clay. Sunday brunch. Happy hour. Open Monday through Thursday 5 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 4 to 11 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Phone: (469) 949-3232.
Caffe Lucca at 4445 Travis Street is the Sicilian restaurant Jason Garrett opened with chef Julian Barsotti. Barsotti’s other restaurants carry Michelin recognition and the menu shows it: busiate al pesto Trapanese, Berkshire pork ragù, Moroccan-spiced lamb meatballs, whole grilled branzino. Reservations on OpenTable. Open daily from 5 p.m. We reviewed it here.
Tei Tei Robata Bar at 2906 N. Henderson Avenue has been on this street for 25 years. Founded by Teiichi Sakurai — a six-time James Beard Foundation semifinalist — who has been cooking Hokkaido-style robatayaki over Japanese oak charcoal on Henderson since 2001. The Wagyu beef on hot stone, the miso sea bass, and the super toro are the dishes that have kept people driving across the city for two decades. Sit at the chef’s bar. Closed Monday. Open Tuesday through Sunday 5:30 to 10 p.m. (11 p.m. Friday and Saturday). We reviewed it here. Phone: (214) 828-2400.
Le Bilboquet at 4514 Travis Street is the French bistro that came to Dallas from New York. The poulet rôti — the house rotisserie chicken — is the dish the restaurant is known for across all its locations and the one that makes first-timers understand what a French chicken tastes like when it’s done right. Brunch Saturday and Sunday, lunch and dinner daily. We reviewed it here.
Gemma at 2323 N. Henderson Avenue is the Michelin Bib Gourmand-recognized American bistro from chef Stephen Rogers and co-owner Allison Yoder, who ran Press in Napa Valley before returning to Dallas to open this. The room is warm, the patio is one of Henderson’s best, and the menu covers a lot of ground — fried Castelvetrano olives, duck confit with fried rice, housemade pastas, a rotating raw section. Happy hour includes half-priced oysters. Closed Sunday and Monday. Open Tuesday through Saturday 5 to 10 p.m. (11 p.m. Friday and Saturday). Reservations recommended. We reviewed it here. Phone: (214) 370-9426.
DRINKS AND LATE NIGHT
The Skellig at 2806 N. Henderson Avenue is Feargal McKinney’s Irish pub next door to The Old Monk — a slightly more intimate room, the same dedication to good beer, and the same philosophy of leaving the décor alone once it’s right. Open daily from 3 p.m.
RH Rooftop Restaurant at 3133 Knox Street is the rooftop at the top of RH Dallas with the best elevated view of the Knox Street corridor. Open-air, year-round skylit gallery setting, a full bar and menu running from morning through dinner. Open daily.
Barcadia at 2707 N. Henderson Avenue is the full-service bar with classic arcade games, skeeball, air hockey, foosball, and life-size Jenga — exactly what the World Cup crowd needs after a long match day. Cold beer, cocktails, 7,000-square-foot patio. Open daily from 4 p.m., until 2 a.m. on weekends.
NEW AND COMING
Sant Ambroeus is listed on the Knox Street directory and expected to open sometime in 2026 — the Milanese café founded in 1936 with locations in New York, Miami, Palm Beach, and Aspen. No confirmed opening date yet, but when it arrives it will be the most significant new addition to Knox Street since Mister Charles.
GETTING THERE
Knox-Henderson is three miles north of downtown Dallas on US-75. The McKinney Avenue Trolley runs free from downtown through Uptown and connects to the southern end of the corridor. Street parking is available throughout the neighborhood. Valet is offered at most Knox Street restaurants in The Knox development. The Katy Trail trailhead at Knox Street connects the neighborhood to Uptown and beyond. Most Knox Street restaurants are open daily. Henderson Avenue restaurants tend to close Monday or Tuesday — call ahead.
