Tag Archives: Texas

Uptown Dumpling with Amazing Soup Dumplings and Peking Duck



A new Chinese restaurant opened on Preston Road in March and it’s already one of the more interesting things to happen to North Dallas dining in a while. It’s called Uptown Dumpling, and the chef running the kitchen — Hao Wenjie — has cooked at a level most people in this city have never encountered.

Chef Hao is a UNESCO Ambassador of Intangible Culinary Heritage. He personally led three China Day banquets at UN Headquarters in New York, events the Los Angeles Times once called an edible cultural white paper. He was part of the founding team behind the Michelin Guide’s launch in Beijing and holds accreditation as a judge with the World Association of Chefs Societies. He ended up at 18101 Preston Rd., Suite 204c, in a strip mall space that used to be Tian Tian. Dallas does things like that.

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The French Room Bar Throws Off Vibes from Another Era

A note before we go further. The French Room itself — the grand gilded dining room that earned its reputation over generations — remains closed for dinner. It still hosts afternoon tea and the occasional holiday service, but if you are picturing a full evening inside that baroque space, set the expectation aside for now.

What is open, and what Dallas should be paying attention to, is the French Room Bar next door. This is a separate, smaller room inside The Adolphus, and it is where the serious eating and drinking is happening right now.

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Richardson Has a Pizza Secret and It’s Time to Tell It

There is a pizzeria in Richardson that most people drive right past. No sign on the building, no marquee, no indication from the street that anything remarkable is happening inside. Just a small space at 514 Lockwood Drive, next door to Lockwood Distilling, where Maen Azzam and Sonia Khan are making some of the most serious Neapolitan pizza in North Texas.

The place is called Farina in Grani. It opened in November 2024 and came out of the pandemic the way a lot of the best food businesses do — from boredom and obsession. Khan started baking during lockdown, moved on to pizza, made it for family and friends, then catered events with a portable oven, then decided to do it for real. The name means “flour in grains” and refers to the whole-grain wheat flour they use in the dough — germ, bran, and endosperm together — which gives the crust its signature golden color and a depth of flavor you don’t get from refined flour.

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Shell Shack Cracks into Arlington with New Location

Shell Shack is opening a new Arlington location on April 27 at 4000 Five Points Blvd., Suite 101, with hours running daily from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. It’s the brand’s second location in Arlington, joining the existing spot at Lincoln Square.

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The Saint Is Pairing WhistlePig Whiskey With Wagyu for One Night Only

The Saint in the Dallas Design District is hosting a WhistlePig and Wagyu dinner on Wednesday, April 29, running from 5 to 9 p.m. Reservations are required and seats are limited.

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4/20 at Cocodrie’s Means Four Pounds of Crawfish for Twenty Bucks

Crawfish season is here, and Cocodrie’s Bayou Kitchen in North Richland Hills is doing something about it. Starting today, April 20, the restaurant is running a 4/20 crawfish special — four pounds for $20 — plus buckets of beer for $17. That’s a hard combination to pass up on a Sunday.

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The Usual Has a Big April — New Cocktails, Weekly Gatherings, and a Dinner Worth Reserving Now

If you have not made it to The Usual on Magnolia Avenue in Fort Worth lately, April gives you several good reasons to fix that. The bar — which opened in 2009 and has the quiet distinction of being the second oldest craft cocktail bar in Texas — is rolling out a new seasonal menu, launching a weekly creative gathering series, and hosting a dinner on April 26 that pairs sous chefs from Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine with one of Fort Worth’s best bartenders. Three different things happening in one month is more than most bars manage in a year.

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Crossbuck BBQ’s Tim McLaughlin Competes on Food Network’s BBQ Brawl Season 7

Tim McLaughlin

Dallas has quietly produced one of the most interesting careers in American barbecue, and now the rest of the country is about to find out. Tim McLaughlin, chef-pitmaster and founder of Crossbuck BBQ in Farmers Branch, will compete on Food Network’s BBQ Brawl when Season 7 premieres on May 11 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Episodes stream the following day on HBO Max.

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