Notably, barbecue and tacos didn’t make the list.
Also, steak is no longer the main character in the story of Dallas food, Albee asserts. Dallas “resists a tidy regional script,” she wrote, with great food from Mexico, Laos, Korea, India and more. The list was created in collaboration with Visit Dallas, the city’s not-for-profit tourism group.
The eight essentials include dishes from one Michelin-starred restaurant, three Bib Gourmand restaurants (which is the designation for value-driven food) and four Recommended restaurants. Read the picks here. Some highlights, for me, are:
Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen’s papaya salad: Zingy and crunchy, this starter is satiating in every way. Owner Carol Nguyen told Albee she learned to make the salad from her grandmother. “When I make this dish,” Nguyen said, “I remember her voice.” You can nearly taste the tangy dressing tossed in green papaya, peanuts, Thai basil and more at Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen, a Bib Gourmand recipient. The salad tastes “like life itself,” Nguyen told Albee: “sweet, sour, spicy, salty and even a little bitter.”
Tei-An’s soba Bolognese: While new Japanese restaurants continue to open in Dallas, one of the city’s most skilled chefs, Teiichi Sakurai, sold a majority stake in his Japanese restaurant Tei-An. It’s still open, but Tei-An has been missing from recent conversations about Dallas food. Michelin’s list reminds us of this Recommended restaurant’s soba Bolognese. Made with squiggles of olive green pasta, the soba Bolognese is “meaty, savory and cheesy,” Albee writes, “but the softer soba, earthy matcha and fermented chili paste shift the balance toward Japan.”
Nonna’s white clam pie: To know Nonna is to love its white clam pie. When Michelin awarded Nonna a Bib Gourmand in 2024 (which it retained in 2025 and 2026), its secretive critics called out the white clam pie as a favorite. Nonna owner Julian Barsotti told Albee it’s the only sacred item on the menu — which makes sense, as it’s the only one that’s never left in nearly 20 years.
AloJapan.com