Where to Eat Now

Where to eat in Fort Worth right now: 10 top new restaurants to try

For those who thrive on the thrills of trying new restaurants, these are good times. Gone are the days of having to wait for months on end for new spots to open. Give Fort Worth a week or two, and something new will come along.

For this month's Where to Eat, we toast the top 10 new arrivals.

East Hampton Sandwich Co.
After opening in Fort Worth two years ago, this East coast-inspired gourmet sandwich and salad shop is expanding to Southlake. A Dallas-based mini chain, East Hampton is best known for its $18 lobster roll. But better deals are to be had, like the fried chicken and pepper jack cheese sandwich or a goat cheese and mashed avocado salad, both under $10.

Great Scott
Charming new self-proclaimed "meatery" in Grapevine is headed up by former Abacus manager and wine guru Matthew Scott and features a pair of chefs: Norman Grimm, who's worked in kitchens from the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco to Souk, Baboush, and Kitchen LTO in Dallas; and sous chef Tom Yuengling, who worked under Michelin-star chef Markus Gass in Switzerland and, closer to North Texas, with John Tesar at Spoon and Jon Stevens at Stock & Barrel.

Boasting a Prohibition Era theme, Great Scott serves pasture-raised, Heritage-breed meat with charcuterie boards in sizes big and small. You can pick four to 18 items, including rabbit, duck pâte, and soppressata. Entrées include lobster strudel, confit chicken thigh, and brick-oven pizzas.

Heim Barbecue & Catering
Few restaurants have been greeted with as much enthusiasm as Travis and Emma Heim's first full-on restaurant, the first of many, if all goes according to plan. Contrary to what you may have heard about long waits, it's completely possible to eat Heim's brisket, ribs, and fantastic bacon burnt ends during your lunch hour. The line moves fairly quickly, and when it gets extra-crazy, bartenders offer seats at the bar, where it's full service. In the next few weeks, the Heims will unveil an evening bar menu, which will include bacon burnt ends and burgers.

HG Sply Co.
Another Dallas import, HG Sply is a Paleo-inspired restaurant and bar with a chef-designed menu from Danyele McPherson, of brief Top Chef fame. The namesake dish is bowls, comprised of "hunted" protein (Kobe beef, Scottish salmon) and "gathered" ingredients, such as honey-garlic Brussels sprouts and zucchini pasta. There are also burgers, tacos, salads, and cute desserts. Tucked into a nook in the WestBend development, the restaurant offers Instagram-worthy views of the Trinity River. A nearly 8,000-square foot patio is coming soon.

K-Pop Burger
A good find for offbeat burger lovers is this new burger joint in Keller, which does Rodeo Goat-style gourmet burgers in a simple, homey atmosphere. They're so ridiculously huge, some of the burgers, such as the towering, three-patty Big Bang, are meant to be shared. Among the more imaginative burgers is a breakfast burger topped with bacon, fried eggs, and hash browns.

Mudsmith
The long-vacant Love Shack space in So7 finally has an occupant, a Fort Worth spin-off of Dallas coffee shop Mudsmith. Like the Greenville Avenue original, this location — which is right around the corner from owner Brooke Humphries' other So7 hang-out, Barcadia — serves coffee, craft beer on tap, juices, and light food, such as a bacon and cheddar grilled cheese. Cool extras you don't normally see at a coffeehouse include New Orleans-style shaved ice and kombucha on draft.

Oni Ramen
Former Little Lilly Sushi exec chef Jesus Garcia opened this stylish ramen shop in the West Seventh spot most recently occupied by Kin Kin Urban Thai. The more than half-dozen variations of ramen come in broths both light and heavy, with ingredients such as pork belly, fishcake, and chicken thigh. Garcia's also serving the now-trending poke bowls. During lunch, it's counter service; at night, table service. On Friday and Saturday, the restaurant's open until 4 am.

Taste N See Chicken & Waffles
Newly opened family-run spot in south Fort Worth offers soul food staples such as shrimp and grits and chicken fried chicken, but focuses primarily on its namesake dish — puffy Belgian waffles topped with three chicken wings and your choice of toppings, from gravy to chocolate chips to good ol' fashioned butter and syrup.

Texan Diner
Four years after taking over the long-running roadside breakfast and lunch joint Vickery Cafe, chef/owner Curtis James opens a new home-cooking spot in Haslet, with a bonus course. In addition to breakfast and lunch, Texan Diner offers dinner, too, with entrées such as bacon-wrapped meat loaf and chicken-fried sirloin steak.

Tokyo Joe's
Following Taco Diner and Blaze Pizza, Tokyo Joe's is the latest restaurant to open in the Waterside shopping district, where Whole Foods will soon rise. A fast-casual chain out of Colorado, TJ's specializes in made-to-order Asian fare, such as sushi, salads, and rice or noodle bowls. A handful of menu items are unique to Texas, among them a sushi roll with grilled steak, avocado, and shrimp; and the Surf & Turf, a bowl of steak, shrimp, snap peas, sautéed red peppers, and mushrooms, over white or brown rice. There's also an iced tea bar with five different flavors of iced tea.

Oni Ramen

Photo courtesy of Oni Ramen

Oni Ramen

where-to-eat

Sandwich News

Where to eat in Fort Worth right now: 5 essential sandwiches to try

Facebook

Shredded chicken sandwich from Taste Project.

Summer is (almost) over, we're all headed back to school and back to work. We need lunch plans. We need a great sandwich.

When it comes to sandwiches, Fort Worth has its favorites. If this were that list, it would include classics like the — well, you know who you are: the Rachel at Carshons, the Italian grinder at the Colossal Sandwich Shop in Bedford, the Italian beef at Weinberger's Deli in Grapevine.

But this is not that list.

Instead, this list is five newcomers on the sandwich scene — whether a newly opened restaurant or else a new handheld from a restaurant we know and love.

For this month's Where to Eat, we present five new classic sandwiches in Fort Worth:

Po’ boys at Always Cooking Nola
Always Cooking is a new restaurant inside a Chevron station in River Oaks, at 5001 River Oaks Blvd., serving New Orleans and Cajun-inspired classics: dirty rice, etouffee, crawfish mac and cheese, gumbo, and jambalaya. Po'boys are a big deal here — good news for DFW which has a fondness this crusty Louisiana sandwich. Always Cooking owner Damian Crockem, a New Orleans native, stuffs his generously with choice of soft shell crab, fried shrimp, or fried catfish, and insists on using appropriately crusty French bread he brings in from New Orleans.

Italian beef at Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
Whether you credit Portillo's, the Chicago hot dog chain which entered the Dallas-Fort Worth market in 2023, or else FX series The Bear, this Italian beef sandwich — basically a pot-roast sandwich served on a soft hoagie roll, topped with provolone and pickled peppers — is having its moment. As you can guess by the name, this year-old, indie spot in south Arlington specializes in deep-dish pizza, but owner Ashraf Ghousheh also serves an excellent Italian beef. His is not quite as messy as others: the au ju, which the sandwich is typically dunked in, comes on the side, allowing you to control the napkin factor. The roast beef, sliced wafer thin, is topped spicy giardiniera, and served with a bag of chips - not a bad deal for $10.

Philly cheesesteak at Philly Dave’s
New sandwich shop in far north Fort Worth specializes in its namesake dish: the super cheesy, meaty and bready sandwiches known as Philly cheesesteaks. Opened recently in the old Stevie’s Diner space, the restaurant comes from 70-year-old David McCurtain, who ran a similar restaurant in Watauga, The Burger & Philly Shack, from 2009 to 2022. McCurtain’s experience shows: He builds his cheesesteaks out of shaved rib eye meat and Amoroso's rolls from Philadelphia, and douses them in your choice of cheese: provolone or melted yellow cheese whiz. Other toppings include hot and sweet peppers, grilled onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms. Many say there is no better Philly cheesesteak in town.

Jambon beurre at Swiss Pastry Shop
Long-running bakery on Fort Worth’s west side is famous for its Black Forest cake, pies, and other sweet and savory treats. Owner Hans Peter Muller loves to throw down a special — who could forget his epic burgers — and he recently introduced a sandwich that's startling in its simplicity. Called a jambon-buerre, it's a fancy take on a ham sandwich from France where it's typically made with just three ingredients: baguette, butter, ham. In Muller's version, he tricks it out with two extras — Dijon mustard and Gruyere cheese — and of course he makes the French baguettes in-house. To ramp up the specialness, the sandwich is available on Fridays and Saturdays only.

Eggplant parmesan at Taste Project
Fort Worth’s non-profit, pay-what-you-can restaurant on the Near Southside recently debuted several new dishes, including an eggplant Parmigiana sandwich. They use roasted Japanese eggplant, layered with various Italian cheeses and housemade marinara, and serve it on a toasted ciabatta roll — like a luscious Italian casserole in sandwich form. Even if this were not a fantastic sandwich, not to mention a fantastic vegetarian sandwich, it would be notable if for no other reason than the fact that you do not see eggplant Parmigiana sandwiches around DFW too often. The restaurant also introduced a new barbecue chicken sandwich, featuring shredded chicken and two sauces — Alabama white sauce and peach barbecue sauce — on a toasted bun.

bests lists where-to-eat