Texas Monthly’s annual list of the state’s top new restaurants is here, and North Texas dominated the lineup.
Of the top 10 restaurants on the list, four are in North Texas, with three of them coming in second, third and fourth – Le Margot in Fort Worth, Quarter Acre in Dallas, and 61 Osteria in Fort Worth, respectively. Dallas’ Via Triozzi came in at No. 8. In 2023, three D-FW restaurants made the list.
The magazine’s yearly list is curated by food editor Patricia Sharpe, who kicked off her 2024 picks by assuring readers that despite the many clubstaurants and over-the-top “vibe dining” experiences, Texas’ restaurant scene is “as delicious as it’s ever been.”
At Le Margot, a French restaurant with a Texas twang owned by Felipe Armenta and helmed by executive chef Graham Elliot, Sharpe called out the restaurant’s French onion soup, bèchamel-soaked burger, baseball-sized profiterole and salmon filet in a Cabernet reduction that “defines perfect fish cookery.”
Quarter Acre, a new concept from New Zealand chef and owner Toby Archibald, opened on Lower Greenville at the start of 2023.(emily loving)
The whimsical dishes at chef Toby Archibald’s Quarter Acre on Lower Greenville caught Sharpe’s attention, like the peanut butter and jelly chicken-fried quail and the beef tartar served under a glass dome clouded with smoke. At 61 Osteria, Sharpe praised not only chef Blaine Staniford’s pasta, short rib and blue prawns but also the restaurant’s tablecloths and carpet that reject “the naked surfaces that turn restaurants into noise pits.”
Via Triozzi’s commitment to the tenets of traditional Italian cooking and its nonna-inspired menu were highlighted in the list. Leigh Hutchinson, who opened the Lower Greenville restaurant last year after studying under a chef in Tuscany, has a story for every dish on the menu and every piece of art on the walls.
Another Greenville Avenue restaurant, Naminohana, received an honorable mention on the magazine’s list for its “excellent nigiri, sashimi and rolls.”
Find Texas Monthly’s full list here.