Where to Eat Now

Where to eat in Fort Worth right now: 10 best new restaurants in the 'burbs

Check out Fort Worth's suburbs for some hot new restaurants.

Photo courtesy of Mesa Dallas

No matter which direction you look, you can find restaurants opening all around Fort Worth. That means the suburbs, too, where new dining options are opening fast and furious.

For this chapter of Where to Eat, we look outside the loop, for the best new restaurants in the 'burbs.

Andy's Frozen Custard
Cool-treats chain from Missouri opens its first Tarrant location in Grapevine, in a new retro-style building at 1135 William Tate Ave. Custard comes in two flavors, chocolate or vanilla. Trick it out yourself with toppings like strawberries, cherries, nuts, and sauces. Or have it in a specialty sundae or concrete, like a James Brownie Funky Jackhammer, constructed of vanilla custard, hot fudge, and chocolate brownies. Andy's also serves malts, shakes, and frozen custard bars. The chain has stores in Carrollton, Frisco and The Colony; more are coming to North Richland Hills and Fort Worth.

The Catch
Head for Burleson to find this seafood restaurant at 1505 SW Wilshire Blvd. that's part of a chain based in East Texas. The Catch is reminiscent of Zeke's, J&J's Oyster Bar, and other places for which seafood generally means "fried fish." Not the healthiest stuff to eat, but it certainly fills a niche after the closing of J&J's Burleson location. The catfish has a light cornmeal batter, easy on the hands and stomach, as it's not greasy or super heavy. Circular hush-puppies, crisp and crunchy outside and warm and moist inside, are as good as they get.

El Tejas Mexican Restaurant
In North Richland Hills, this Mexican restaurant in the old Our Place space at 7630 NE Loop 820 is open morning, noon, and night — a rarity these days. Breakfast consists of both American and Mexican dishes, from pancakes and sausage and biscuits to chilaquiles and migas. Lunch and dinner options include obligatory enchiladas and fajitas, along with a few surprises, like the molcajete, a ginormous serving of pork tenderloin, steak, sausage, and chicken fajita meat, all plunged into a sizzling stone molcajete bowl.

Halal Grill
A strip mall in Arlington at 3701 S. Cooper St., just north of The Parks mall, has become a hub for ethnic cuisine. There you'll find Ahi Poke Bowl, Tarrant's first poke restaurant; El Mofongo, a new Caribbean spot; the long-running Thai House Restaurant; and now Halal Grill, a family-run restaurant specializing in Indian and Pakistani food. A must-try is the aloo gobi, an Indian dish made with potatoes, cauliflower, and turmeric, and you can smell the fragrant chicken biryani coming before it hits your table. Baked on site, thick and buttery naan bread is worth the short wait.

Havana Bar & Grill
Speaking of Arlington's ethnic row, next door to Halal is another new restaurant, this one specializing in the trending-up Cuban cuisine. The menu from chef Miguel Mendez is comprised of dishes large and small: from tapas such as empanadas and chorizo with onions and peppers, to show-stopping entrées including a mammoth paella filled with mussels, shrimp, lobster, and scallops. Good times are coming — it just got its liquor license and is hosting salsa nights on Thursdays.

Jamaican Summers Eatery
It's back to south of Fort Worth for Burleson's first taste of Jamaican cuisine with this three-week-old festive spot, situated in a vintage home at 217 Renfro St., where coffeehouse Dwell used to be. Outlined in a picket fence painted red, green, and gold, this restaurant from Jamaica native Richard Stirling features staples of his homeland cuisine: super-spicy jerk chicken, oxtails, curry goat, and rice and peas, all made in-house. Be sure to try a sorrel, a refreshing drink made with hibiscus, cinnamon, and ginger.

Liberty Burger
Founded by Mariel Street, whose father Gene is behind Good Eats, Black-eyed Pea, and other staples of North Texas’ restaurant scene, this Dallas burger-and-shake chain takes its first step into Tarrant County, with a branch in far north Fort Worth, near Keller, at 8917 N. Freeway. It's similar to Hopdoddy: Burgers are of the gourmet variety, with toppings like arugula and bella mushrooms, and shakes come in cool flavors like Orange Julius and Nutella and graham cracker. Those opposed to beef burgers will find plenty of alternatives, like an ahi tuna burger and kale salad.

Mesa
Grapevine scores with a second branch of this acclaimed Mexican restaurant from Olga and Raul Reyes. As with the Oak Cliff original, the menu at the Grapevine location focuses on dishes from the Veracruz region of Mexico, in addition to items such as mole with chicken leg and cochinita pibil. For Grapevine, standard Mexican dishes like tacos and fajitas have been added, and there's also a special menu of tequila drinks. The food isn't the only thing done by hand here; the breathtaking metal sculptures and woodwork were built mostly by Raul.

PastaMasta USA
Make one more trip to Arlington to 620 W. Park Row for this new fast-casual concept in which pasta is the star dish. Like Chipotle, you choose a pasta, then customize it with toppings and sauce. There are 15 pasta options, offered in every shape, from elbow macaroni to bowtie to cheese ravioli, priced from $2 to $4. Follow that with one of 15 sauces ($2 to $4) such as alfredo, marinara, or lemon butter, and meats and veggies for $2 to $5 each. Flavor bites like olives or Parmesan are 25 to 75 cents each. They deliver the food to your table — too bad it's all disposable plastic.

Seven Mile Cafe
Keller lands the third location of this locally owned mini-chain at 100 W. Vine St., where you can eat healthy or decidedly not. Breakfast selections include smoothies and fruit bowls with almond milk; as well as chicken and waffles; biscuits and gravy; and S'moreo pancakes topped with Oreo cookies, marshmallow, graham crackers, and whipped cream. You can also play it healthy or risky at lunch, with burgers made with beef or black beans, sandwiches stuffed with grilled cheese and/or avocados, or soups and salads.

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Sandwich News

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

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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.

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