Where to Eat

Where to eat in Fort Worth right now: 5 hot new restaurants for October

Poke comes to the west side of Fort Worth.

Photo courtesy of Ohana

For most restaurants, expansion is a long-term goal that only a few manage to achieve. Lately, though, there have been several local expansion success stories, whether it’s a second location or an upgrade from a food truck to a brick-and-mortar.

For this month’s Where to Eat, we tip our hats to these newly expanded spots.

Hoang's Noodle House
The latest local food truck to graduate to a brick-and-mortar is Hoang’s Noodle House, which recently opened a storefront inside a Shell gas station at 8405 N. Harwood Road in North Richland Hills. Owner Johnnie Hoang serves food you wouldn’t normally see in a gas station restaurant, including fried lobster tail atop garlic noodles; meatball or chicken dry pho; shrimp and beef ribs over jasmine rice; and a salmon salad ladled with raspberry vinaigrette. He also serves specialty tea, coffee, and boba drinks.

Hot Box Biscuit Club
Hot Box started out as a pop-up — not just any pop-up but THE pop-up. Events sold out minutes after they went on sale, a good sign owners Sarah Hooton and Matt Mobley would do well with a permanent restaurant. That restaurant opened October 1 in the happening South Main area at 313 S. Main St., where they're open for breakfast and lunch every day but Monday. Of course, the buttermilk biscuits and biscuit sandwiches are the primary draw. But don't ignore the fried green tomatoes or the deviled eggs, topped with green onions and a dusting of Flaming Hot Cheetos.

My Lan
Second location of this long-running Vietnamese staple opened recently in Colleyville, where good Vietnamese food is hard to find. Regulars of the charmingly scruffy Haltom City original will hardly recognize the new location, at 5307 Colleyville Blvd. All-white décor is sleek and upscale; each side of the wall boasts a big-screen TV. The abbreviated menu offers many of the original's signature dishes, such as the crispy chow mein and a grilled pork and rice plate served with a side of crunchy egg rolls; along with several new drinks, including frosted limeade and various milk and boba drinks.

Ohana Hawaiian BBQ & Poke Bar
Poke comes to the west side of Fort Worth, to a strip mall space at 6328 Camp Bowie Blvd., thanks to this spinoff of a family-run spot in Garland. Poke bowl ingredients include classic ingredients such as ahi tuna, ginger, wasabi, avocado, and crabmeat, along with a few interesting items like scallops, purple cabbage, and corn. The menu is rounded out with Hawaiian-inspired fare, tough to find items that include musubi, blocks of sticky rice topped with spam and wrapped in dried seaweed; kalua pork, slow-roasted shredded pork served over a bed of rice; and loco moco, a hamburger patty topped with a fried egg and brown gravy and served over rice.

Panther City BBQ
One of the city’s best barbecue spots has made the jump from trailer to brick-and-mortar. Owners Ernest Morales and Chris Magallanes will officially unveil their new open-air digs, nearly a year in the works, on Saturday, October 12 at 201 E. Hattie St. Designed by Near Southside architecture firm Studio 97W, the new building features an outdoor seating area that'll hold up to 100 people. Magallanes says eventually they’ll add vinyl curtains to heat and cool the dining area. With the new building comes a new smoker — their third — and new menu items, including cheesy grits, cornbread pudding, and collard greens.

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where to eat

Where to eat in Fort Worth: 9 restaurants to take your holiday guests

Manny Rodriguez

Chumley House

The holidays draw near and for many of us, that means one thing: family’s coming to town. Cook your heart out for them, yes, but take advantage of Fort Worth’s thriving restaurant scene and show off some of our city’s finest places to eat.

For our annual December edition of our monthly Where to Eat feature, we offer suggestions for where to take the family, with a list that accommodates every type of eater — from the Tex Mex lover to vegans to big splurges.

Here's Where to eat in Fort Worth right now:

Best barbecue: Goldee’s Barbecue
Lauded by The New York Times, recently high-fived by Michelin, and ranked No. 1 on Texas Monthly’s best barbecue list, Goldee’s remains the top ‘cue choice for many in Texas and beyond. Part of the experience of eating here is the wait. Chances are, you’ll stand in line (or sit; you can bring chairs) for a good two or three hours, but with the wait comes a sense of community - and isn’t that what the holidays are all about? Maybe? You can’t go wrong with the expertly smoked brisket, huge beef ribs, or housemade Lao sausage. Be sure to get a couple slices of bread; it’s made in-house.

Best Tex Mex:Fiesta Restaurant
Fort Worth of course is well known for its Mexican cuisine, and zeroing in on one spot for all to try can be difficult. Open for more than four decades, this charming, uncomplicated restaurant on the south side is a good choice: Its menu is more expansive than others, offering dozens of varieties of enchiladas, nachos, chimichangas, and other Tex Mex staples. It’s one of the few restaurants in the area to offer parrillada, sizzling platters of chicken thighs, steak, pork, and veggies that are perfect for sharing. On weekends, there’s an all-day breakfast menu with items such as menudo, chilaquiles, migas, and breakfast tacos.

Best Hot New Spot: The Chumley House
This exquisite new European-inspired steakhouse in the museum district is definitely one of the toughest tables to get right now. A spinoff of the original location in Dallas, The Chumley House offers a variety of European-inspired dishes, chef-inspired takes on American classics, and homages to global cuisine, in a handsomely designed space. Dishes include butter chicken pie with coriander-glazed roots and ginger yorgurt, herb popovers with salted butter, the signature Beef Wellington, a center-cut tenderloin and spinach crepe hidden in a puff pastry, and a halibut “porterhouse” with chimichurri. Steaks include a NY strip and bone-in ribeye. For dessert, there’s salted caramel Biscoff trifle with sweet mascarpone and icebox pie with blackberry cobbler crumble.

Best Outdoor Space: La Cabrona
Patios may definitely be an option for Christmastime dining - remember, this is Texas and typically it’s nice this time of year. This new high-end Mexican restaurant in the W. 7th area has a real beauty for a patio - it’s festively decorated and overlooks all the W. 7th activity. The Monterrey-inspired menu includes dishes such as mole chicken enchiladas, pan-roasted cactus tacos, and carne asada, as well as lighter options such as shrimp cocktail, ceviche, and aguachile, a dish comprised of shrimp cured in a lime and serrano pepper marinade. Great selection of margaritas, cocktails, and beers, too.

Best for a Large Group:Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall
With a spacious dining area that spans three rooms and a bar area, Tim Love’s restaurant/music venue combo in the Stockyards is a good option for large groups. As if it were made for indecisive diners, the menu is incredibly varied, with an emphasis on classic American cuisine. Appetizers include grilled fish tacos, raw oysters, smoked crab and green chili dip, and tuna tostadas. Main dishes feature a dry-aged beef double cheeseburger, smoked baby back pork ribs, brisket enchiladas, beef stroganoff, and smoked chicken. A kids menu includes a cheese quesadillas and chicken tenders with fries. The restaurant and music venue are in separate areas, so there’s an additional cost to see the concerts.

Best Late Night:Pho 95
Late-night dining is becoming a thing of the past in Fort Worth - thankfully, Ol’ South is still around. But in Arlington, after-hours grub is still easy to find. Pho 95’s east Arlington location, at 2525 E. Arkansas Ln., is a good option for night owls craving Vietnamese classics, like bowls of piping hot pho, beef stew and other hearty soups. It’s a fun, no-frills atmosphere in which the tables and chairs are pushed so closely together, you’re bound to make a friend or two.

Best splurge:Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine
With some dishes hovering in the $60-$70 range, Fort Worth chef Jon Bonnell’s namesake restaurant is definitely on the upper end of the splurge scale. But this southwest Fort Worth restaurant is a truly unique experience, in that your guests may never eat food quite like this again. Among the entrees: pepper-crusted buffalo with whiskey cream, ancho chile-rubbed elk backstrap, made from a premium cut of meat that runs along the spine, and a larger-than-life tomahawk pork chop, rubbed with a special barbecue seasoning, with mascarpone whipped sweet potatoes. Appetizers include crispy quail legs and elk tacos - only in Texas.

Best on a budget: Sunny’s Cafe
Opened earlier this year in the space once occupied by Bavarian Bakery & Cafe, this second location of the Sycamore School Road staple offers breakfast and lunch essentials, made to order and priced inexpensively. For breakfast, try the excellent pancakes - pillow-y on the inside, with nicely browned edges on the outside. Home fries - cubed fried potatoes cooked with onions and peppers - are a must. Rotating lunch specials include chicken-fried steak, pork chops, Shepherd’s pie, and chopped steak, and come with your choice of two sides, usually for less than $12.

Best quintessential Texas: Dayne’s Craft BBQ
Though just a year old, Dayne’s Craft Barbecue has all the hallmarks of a quintessential Texas restaurant: It’s located in a small town (Aledo, about 20 minutes west of Fort Worth), it’s housed in a historic building that’s nearly a century old, and the dining room looks out onto railroad tracks. You can enjoy your terrific brisket sandwich or excellent smashburger while watching the trains chug by; that’s about as Texas as you can get.

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