Italy has been exporting two things to the rest of the world with particular success for the last several centuries: its cuisine and the conviction that the way Italians eat is worth understanding. Oscar Farinetti built an entire retail concept around that second point when he opened the first Eataly in Turin in 2007 — a marketplace where the food and the knowledge of the food exist in the same room, where the person buying the flour can watch someone make the pasta and sit down to eat it within thirty feet. The idea spread. There are now more than fifty locations worldwide.
Dallas got one on December 9, 2020, and it occupies 48,000 square feet inside NorthPark Center between Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, which is either a deeply ironic location or a perfectly appropriate one, depending on how you feel about Italy’s relationship with luxury.
Eataly Dallas is at 8687 N. Central Expressway, Suite 2172 inside NorthPark Center. The philosophy is straightforward: eat, shop, and learn. The execution involves three sit-down restaurants, a cooking school, a wine program with a temperature-controlled rare wine room, half a dozen quick-service counters, a butcher, a bakery, and upward of 10,000 Italian and local products spread across two floors. You can walk in for a shot of espresso and leave three hours later with a wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano and a bottle of Barolo and a mild sense of having lost track of time, which is more or less what Italy itself does to people.
Open Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Phone: (469) 759-2800.
THE RESTAURANTS
There are three of them, each distinct in format and menu, and each worth treating as its own destination rather than incidental to a shopping trip.
Terra is the wood-burning grill rooftop restaurant — the most dramatic of the three, set above the mall floor in a greenery-filled room with skyline views and an open kitchen where fire and smoke drive the cooking. The menu rotates seasonally and leans on locally sourced Texas produce alongside Italian preparations, which is a combination that makes more sense than it might initially sound. Italy’s cuisine is regional by nature — a Milanese dish is as different from a Roman one as barbecue is from Tex-Mex — and the Terra approach of sourcing from the land it sits on while honoring Italian technique is a genuine expression of that philosophy rather than a marketing talking point. The wood-roasted meats, the burrata e pesche, the arrosticini d’agnello — the lamb skewers central to Abruzzo cooking — and the tiramisu della nonna are the dishes that get mentioned most. Weekend brunch Saturday and Sunday. Reservations on OpenTable. Open Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
La Pizza & La Pasta is the heart of the operation — a full-service restaurant anchored by a Neapolitan pizza program and an artisanal pasta menu that takes both subjects as seriously as they deserve. The Pizza Margherita Verace TSG is the certification that matters here: TSG stands for Traditional Speciality Guaranteed, a European designation that governs exactly what goes on a proper Margherita — San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella di bufala DOP, a specific dough process, specific oven temperature. The Tagliatelle alla Bolognese is the pasta standard-bearer: golden egg pasta, a long-cooked beef and pork ragù, nothing complicated, nothing forgiven. Happy hour runs Monday through Friday 4 to 8 p.m. at the bar with spritzes and wines at $10, beers at $6, and Italian bites including focaccia bianca, bruschetta, and polpetta della nonna. This is the aperitivo hour the Italians invented and most American bars have never properly understood. Open Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10:30 a.m. to 10 or 11 p.m.
Il Pastaio di Eataly is the pasta counter — counter seating, open kitchen, pasta being made in front of you by pastai who knead, roll, cut, and form each shape daily by hand. The word pastaio means pasta maker, and it is a job title that carries real weight in Italy, where the shape of a noodle is not a stylistic decision but a regional identity. The cacio e pepe, the butternut squash tortellini, and whatever the daily preparation happens to be are the reasons to sit here. The energy is the other reason — it is the liveliest seat in the building and the most Italian in spirit.
THE COUNTERS
The quick-service counters are where Eataly Dallas earns its daily crowd — the people who work nearby, the shoppers who need coffee, the families who want something fast without wanting something bad. Dallas was actually the first Eataly location to bring all the to-go counters together in a single section, which reflects the city’s car-centric relationship with food.
Caffè Lavazza is the espresso bar, running on beans from the Turin company that has been roasting since 1895 — the original Luigi Lavazza acquired a small grocery in the heart of old Torino and turned it into one of the most recognized coffee brands in the world. The Italian breakfast — espresso and a pastry standing at the bar — is the fastest and most civilized meal in the building. The affogato — a scoop of vanilla gelato with a shot of hot espresso poured over it — is the afternoon option that requires no further explanation.
Il Gelato is made in-house daily using whole milk from Mill-King Market & Creamery in Central Texas, with pistachios from Sicily, hazelnuts from Piemonte, and Venchi chocolate from Turin. The sorbetto is dairy-free and made with whole fruit. This is the gelato counter that makes everyone who walks past slow down whether they intended to stop or not.
Pizza alla Pala is Roman-style pizza by the slice — a different animal from the Neapolitan pizza in La Pizza & La Pasta, with a longer fermentation, a crispier bottom, and a topping situation that tends toward simplicity. La Panetteria runs the bread program: focaccia and baked goods made daily in a wood-fired oven using the house mother yeast — lievito madre, sourced from Piemonte — which produces a fermentation character that commercial yeast doesn’t replicate. La Gastronomia To-Go runs hot and cold prepared meals for the lunch crowd.
THE MARKET
The market is where Eataly separates itself from a restaurant and becomes something else. More than 10,000 products — Italian imports and local Texas producers operating alongside each other — organized by category across the floor. Extra virgin olive oils from every major Italian producing region. Canned San Marzano tomatoes. Imported pasta in shapes that most American grocery stores don’t stock. Aged balsamic from Modena. Parmigiano-Reggiano DOP, Pecorino Romano, Grana Padano, and a dozen other Italian cheeses at a proper cheese counter. Salumi and cured meats. Artisan chocolates. Panettone and gift boxes during the holidays. Cooking utensils. Rare spices. The kind of preserved anchovy that is not shelf-stable garbage but something you’d actually cook with.
The butcher counter sources from farms where animals are pasture-raised and humanely handled, with no antibiotics or added hormones — a standard that Eataly has held across all its locations and that is worth knowing if you’re buying meat to cook at home. The bakery produces fresh bread daily using that wood-fired oven and lievito madre, and the loaves are available in the market alongside the pastries and the focaccia.
The wine shop is organized by Italian region — all twenty of them represented — with a temperature-controlled Riserva room housing rare wines and spirits for the serious collector or the serious occasion. If you want to understand what makes a Barolo different from a Barbaresco, or why Sangiovese expresses differently in Chianti than it does in Brunello di Montalcino, this is the room to spend time in.
LA SCUOLA DI EATALY
The cooking school runs chef-led demonstrations, wine tastings, pizza labs, pasta-making classes, and charcuterie and cheese programs throughout the year. The classes are hands-on, the portions are generous — a charcuterie class runs around $70 and includes five blocks of high-quality cheese, crackers, nuts, fruit, and four pours of paired wine — and the instructors are the kind of people who actually know why the things they’re teaching work. Private events can accommodate anywhere from twelve guests at an intimate chef’s table dinner to a full gala for three hundred. Tickets and scheduling at eataly.com.
Eataly Dallas is at 8687 N. Central Expressway, Suite 2172, NorthPark Center. Open Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Phone: (469) 759-2800. Parking is free at NorthPark.
