Where to Eat

Where to eat in Fort Worth right now: 6 restaurants to hit post-vaccine

Tacos from Mariachi's Dine-In.

Photo courtesy of Mariachi's

After being cooped up for more than a year, you're ready to go out to eat again. You've got some catching up to do. Several new restaurants have opened lately, plus you want to visit some old faves. Where to begin?

This month’s Where to Eat combines new arrivals with longtime favorites. Here are six places to hit up after getting your vaccine:

Café Modern
After staying closed for most of 2020, the café at The Modern returns, with a new menu and new chef. Wolfgang Puck Catering has taken over the restaurant, and with that change comes new chef Jett Mora, who trained under Puck. By Café Modern standards, Mora's menu is ambitious, with appetizers such as fava bean fritters, and dates stuffed with chorizo and pimento pepper-tomato sauce. Entrees include pan roasted salmon with avocado butter and bengali curry; a marinated flank-cut beef bowl with chili garlic rice and housemade kimchi-pickled veggies; and an eggplant, portobello, and fontina cheese melt. The brunch menu includes birria migas and a pork belly benedict.

Little Red Wasp
Because of the pandemic, several downtown restaurants have closed over the past year. But Little Red Wasp is still going strong, after nearly eight years. The more casual spinoff of fine-dining spot Grace still specializes in sandwiches and hearty entrees, served quickly in an upbeat, diner-inspired environment. The cheeseburger and fried chicken sandwich are faves, and the Cobb salad, dotted with chopped bacon and avocado, might be the best salad downtown. For bigger appetites, there's spaghetti and meatballs, beer-battered fish and chips, and newer dishes such as pork shank carnitas and mac and cheese topped with pulled pork.

Mariachi's Dine-In
For years housed in a ragtag gas station east of downtown, this vegan-friendly Mexican spot recently upgraded to a brick-and-mortar location on the west side, taking over the space previously occupied by Mariposa's Latin Kitchen, at 5724 Locke Ave. The menu is made up of tacos, burritos, and other Tex-Mex staples, in both vegan and traditional varieties. Birria tacos are a major hit here – both the beef version and the vegan version, made with shredded jackfruit. The restaurant now serves alcohol, including margaritas, beer, and cool cocktails, such as a frozen Jack and Mexican Coke.

Maria's Mexican Kitchen
Several Mexican restaurants have opened in Fort Worth lately. This stylish entry in the TCU area comes from Felipe Armenta, the local restaurateur who also owns Pacific Table, Press Café, The Tavern, and others in Dallas and San Angelo. Maria's, which takes over the old Hoffbrau Steak & Grill House at 1712 S. University Dr., is named after Armenta's mother, and many of the recipes were hers. Enchiladas are the star: There's the unique crab enchiladas, stuffed with jumbo lump crab and topped with a creamy almond sauce, along with chicken, short rib, and mole enchiladas. Elsewhere, there are slow-roasted BBQ beef ribs, a ribeye seared over hot coals; and chicken, skirt steak, and shrimp fajitas, served with black beans, rice, guac, pico, and housemade tortillas.

Saint-Emilion
After more than three decades, this cozy French restaurant in the museum district remains one of the city's top spots. Nestled in a warm, inviting space built in the style of a Tudor home, Saint-Emilion serves a fixed price menu of classic bistro dishes, from coq au vin, chicken thighs braised in red wine with mushrooms, bacon, and onions; to snails and pâtés; to perfectly cooked beef filets and frites so good, you’ll never eat plain ol' French fries again. Owner Bernard Tronche maintains an extensive wine list, too, and a full bar.

Toque Mexicano
Newly opened in a west side strip mall at 5822 Camp Bowie Blvd., this family-run gem serves Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes with tiny, interesting twists. Start with an order of guacamole or white queso covered in leaves of spinach, both served with excellent corn tortilla chips and good salsa. Entrees include carne asada tacos, with meat still simmering when it hits your table; brisket enchiladas with guajillo chili sauce; chicken, beef, and sausage fajitas; and nachos piled with jumbo shrimp. Breakfast is served all day and includes breakfast tacos, huevos rancheros, and red or green chilaquiles. Cool little spot.

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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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