Where to Eat

Where to eat in Fort Worth right now: 6 restaurants with new menus for fall

That acorn squash is so autumnal.

Photo courtesy of Pinstripes

Fall has arrived, and local restaurants are marking the changing of the season with a change in menu. Fortunately for diners, there's more to it than pumpkin spice. There's decadent burrata salad, pastas, roasted squash, and even seasonal ice cream.

If you're looking to eat seasonally, this month's Where to Eat is just for you. Here are six restaurants with new fall items.

Aventino's Italian Restaurant
Usually when falls rolls around, restaurants add heavier, more filling dishes. This long-running west side Italian spot goes against the grain by introducing salads. The Italian chopped salad features grilled chicken, arugula, artichoke hearts, and a housemade red-wine vinaigrette. Chef Chris Hight's play on a caprese salad comes with a bonus ingredient: prosciutto. And the rocket salad stars bacon, hard-boiled eggs, and spinach tossed in an orange-bacon vinaigrette.

Gypsy Scoops
Julie Markley's charming ice cream shop on the east side rotates flavors seasonally. Her fall lineup includes the return of her popular maple walnut, along with several new flavors: tres leches, pumpkin pecan pie, apple cinnamon, and the gloriously rich Texas whiskey pecan. Markley is also teaming up with Fort Worth-based Sweet Lucy's Pies for an ice cream-pie combo flavor to be announced later this month.

Piattello Italian Kitchen
The city’s best Italian restaurant introduces new menus like clockwork. For its new fall menu, there's bucatini with octopus and Calabrian chiles; strozzapreti with house-made sausage, brandy cream sauce, and broccolini; and butternut squash ravioli with brown butter, sage, and almonds. For lighter appetites, there's a roasted beet and farro salad with frisée, apples, mint, pistachios, and burrata.

Pinstripes
Bowling-entertainment-and-eating spot has three new autumn-inspired dishes. A fall-themed salad has spinach, arugula, roasted butternut squash, Humboldt Fog goat cheese, pomegranate seeds, avocado, and spiced pecans in a maple-pecan vinaigrette. Burrata salad has roasted acorn squash, arugula, burrata cheese, and salted pumpkin seeds. San Marzano tomato soup has Carmelina-brand tomatoes, fennel, cream cheese, mascarpone, and shredded mozzarella.

Taste Project
Pay-what-you-can restaurant on the Near Southside recently rolled out several new dishes for fall. Among them: a big-enough-for-two mac and cheese made with cheddar, swiss, pecorino, and cotija; housemade veggie tamales stuffed with black beans, mushrooms, spinach, onions, and cotija cheese, then topped with spicy tomato sauce; and harvest pot pie with chicken, sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and turnips. The real star may be the bread pudding, with layers of chocolate and peanut butter, topped with Texas whiskey sauce.

Velvet Taco
Late night taco shop in the West 7th area recently introduced a handful of new tacos, all of them brunch-inspired. There's a chicken and waffle taco, made with a thin-cut waffle in the shape of a tortilla, holding chicken tenders, peppercorn gravy, peppered bacon, red chile aioli, and maple syrup. The bacon and eggs taco brings together its two namesake ingredients, along with tater tots, charred poblano salsa, and chili butter. The restaurant's play on a Monte Cristo sandwich is comprised of strawberry jam, honey ham, gruyere, and strawberry jalapeño salsa, all on a flour tortilla dusted with powdered sugar.

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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.

bests holidays where to eat