DALLAS — North Texas more than held its own on a new ranking of the best new restaurants in the state.
Texas Monthly published its 10 best, plus a few honorable mentions, and new restaurants in Dallas and Fort Worth accounted for four of the top eight, including three of the top four.
Le Margot (2nd) and 61 Osteria (4th) in Fort Worth and Quarter Acre (3rd) and Via Triozzi (8th) in Dallas made the rankings, while Naminohama in Dallas received honorable mention.
Here's what Texas Monthly's Patricia Sharpe had to say about our local restaurants:
Le Margot, which opened in Fort Worth in June 2023, was the highest-ranked local spot at No. 2, behind Houston's Katami.
At Le Margot, Sharpe wrote, "French is spoken with a Texas accent and a sense of fun."
Owner Felipe Armenta and executive chef Graham Elliot "stick to the rules with dishes such as a satiny French onion soup fashioned from portobellos under a cap of melty Gruyere toast," Sharpe wrote. "Ditto a super-slow-cooked salmon filet resting in a buttery Cabernet reduction—it defines perfect fish cookery."
Le Margot is located at 3150 S. Hulen St. in southwest Fort Worth.
Quarter Acre, which opened in Dallas in December 2022, drew praise for its beef tartare, seaweed-and-lettuce salad, and even peanut butter and jelly.
"As for that peanut butter, it’s cooked with cream and piped onto a thin cracker that’s served alongside delicately battered chicken-fried quail on a plate swiped with house-made blueberry jam (yep, it works)," Sharpe wrote.
Quarter Acre is located at 2023 Greenville Ave. in East Dallas.
61 Osteria was another Fort Worth restaurant on the list, checking in at No. 4. Chef Blaine Staniford's spot was praised for "beautifully handled" seafood, including wood-grilled blue prawns "in a caper-studded salsa verde," Sharpe wrote.
61 Osteria's "Serpente" stuffed pasta also got attention as a signature dish.
"Should overindulgence make you ready for a nap, the triple-threat tiramisu—espresso, cold brew, and coffee liqueur—will wake you right up," Sharpe wrote.
61 Osteria is located in the First on 7th Building at 500 W. 7th in downtown Fort Worth.
Via Triozzi, which opened in August 2023 in Dallas, gave North Texas another spot on the rankings, at No. 8. Chef Leigh Hutchinson studied in Italy, "imagining how it would feel to own a restaurant like the ones she had come to love there," Sharpe said.
"Entrées are likely to be traditional, including her lasagna with besciamella and her robust pork-and-beef Bolognese," Sharpe wrote, "but she takes liberties with cannoli, substituting waffle-textured pizzelle cookies for the usual tubular pastry shells and giving the well-worn favorite a fun new twist."
Via Triozzi is located at 1806 Greenville Ave. in Dallas.
Naminohana, a sushi restaurant at 5521 Greenville Ave. in Dallas, received an honorable mention in the rankings.
"It’s a pleasant, unpretentious spot focusing on excellent nigiri, sashimi, and rolls," Sharpe wrote. "Here you can dive into an order of luxurious otoro (the richest part of the belly of the bluefin tuna) or sample a selection of uni (sea urchin) from Hokkaido and Santa Barbara."