Panda Fest is coming back to downtown Dallas, so go hungry and wear comfortable shoes.
The traveling Asian food and culture festival made its Dallas debut at Carpenter Park last November, and it returns to the same spot, 2201 Pacific Ave., Nov. 6 through 8. This year’s lineup has more than 60 food vendors serving upward of 150 dishes, plus more than 20 merchandise vendors and a schedule of live cultural performances that includes kung fu shows.
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If you want to understand how chicken fried steak became Dallas’ everyday dinner, start at the corner of Cedar Springs Road and Reagan Street.
In 1975, Gene Street and his partner Phil Cobb opened the first Black-eyed Pea there, in a brick building that dates to 1933. The food was what people’s mothers made, and in Street’s case that was literal. Many of the recipes came from his own mother in Salado. There were fried okra, squash casserole, warm rolls in a basket, and a chicken fried steak that covered most of the plate under a pour of cream gravy.
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Knife Italian Steak has served its last dinner at The Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas. John Tesar’s restaurant at the Irving resort closed on Oct. 6. That ended a run of about two and a half years and left Tesar with a single Knife in North Texas, the one in Plano.
The resort confirmed the closing in a statement. It called the change part of the property’s evolution after its $65 million transformation into a luxury resort, and it thanked Tesar for his partnership. It also said a new signature restaurant is in development for early 2027, created with an acclaimed chef the resort hasn’t named yet.
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Maroma changes as the day goes on, and that is the whole idea. At lunch the room is bright and coastal, the sort of place where a ceviche and a cold glass of something make sense at noon. By dinner the lights come down, the patio glows, and the mesquite grill takes over. Chef Omar Flores calls it daylight to dusk. It is a simple concept, and the kitchen follows through on it.
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Lower Greenville is getting another restaurant, and this one has been a long time coming. Chef Aubrey Murphy, who ran the kitchen at SĒR Steak + Spirits atop the Hilton Anatole, is opening his first restaurant of his own. It is called Brute, and it is taking over the old Swizzle tiki bar space at 1802 Greenville Ave., Suite 110, between Via Triozzi and Wabi House. The target is November.
Murphy has been cooking in Dallas for years, and the SĒR run put him on the map. He was part of the team that won Best Food and Beverage Team of the Year, and he was nominated for Chef of the Year Awards. Those are big-hotel, big-production kitchens. Brute will be a different animal entirely.
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Weekend brunch at Mercat Bistro feels a lot like a long Saturday in Paris, only with valet parking. It is a European-style bistro in the Harwood District, and Michelin recommended the place and brunch is one of the easiest ways to see why.
Before you order, know one thing that sets this kitchen apart. Mercat cooks only with beef tallow, rendered in-house from the Harwood District’s own premium beef program, and it uses no nut or seed oils at all. The restaurant calls it a whole-animal, zero-waste approach. It matters most with anything fried, so pay attention to the potato galette and the frites.
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Fort Worth finally has its Michelin star, and it went to a barbecue joint on Dick Price Road. Anyone who has stood in that line on a Saturday morning will tell you it was only a matter of time.
The 2026 Michelin Guide Texas arrived this morning with no ceremony and no red carpet, just a list posted online. North Texas came away with a modest but meaningful update. Here is what actually happened, straight from Michelin’s own selections, and what we make of it.
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Most people do the State Fair of Texas the same way every year. Say hello to Big Tex, ride the Texas Star, find this year’s fried oddity, grab a corny dog, and head home full and sunburned. That is a perfectly good day. But Fair Park is 277 acres of Art Deco buildings, gardens and museums, and a lot of the best of it sits a few steps off the Midway, where the crowds never seem to look. With the Fair running through October 18, here is where to wander.
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