Where To Take The Fam

Where to eat in Fort Worth right now: 10 best restaurants for out-of-towners

Chicken fried steak at Horseshoe Hill Cafe

CFS is so FW.

Horseshoe Hill Cafe/Facebook

Tis the season for out-of-town relatives and friends to come to town. They'll be hungry, too, and depending on you for dining-out guidance. Your assignment: Find restaurants that can handle big groups, appease a variety of tastes, represent Fort Worth well, and, with any luck, not financially drain you. After all, you still have Christmas shopping to do.

Here's our list of Fort Worth restaurant suggestions for where to take your holiday company:

Babe's Chicken Dinner House
With communal seating and family-style servings of fried chicken and all the fixin's, this small chain with nine locations around DFW is a wise choice for holiday gatherings. The original store in Roanoke offers fried chicken and chicken-fried steak only; other locations also serve fried catfish, hickory-smoked ribs, chicken tenders, smoked chicken, and fried catfish. Vegetable plates are available for those not into meat, and there's also a kids' menu. If you're looking for kitschy Christmas décor and servers who do the chicken dance, hit the location in Burleson.

Billy's Oak Acres BBQ
No trip to Fort Worth is complete without barbecue. Billy's offers some of the best in town in a charmingly rustic building full of Texana memorabilia; out-of-towners love that stuff. Barbecue can be ordered by the pound — a good option for big parties who want to sample a little of everything. Point your party in the direction of the brisket, pork ribs, or pulled pork. Desserts are a cut above the rest, especially buttermilk pie and banana pudding, both made in-house.

Brewed
Finding a good breakfast in town isn't hard, with veterans such as Ol South, West Side Café, and Paris Coffee Shop. For breakfast with a bit more pizzazz, there's this hip spot in the Near Southside area. Diners can build their own breakfast plates, choosing from items such as serrano grits and housemade sausage. Biscuits are a big deal here and come stuffed with any number of ingredients, from avocado to Veldhuizen cheddar cheese. Waffles come in sweet and savory versions. Excellent coffee drinks, too.

El Rancho Grande
Tex Mex is another gotta-have cuisine for any out-of-towner visiting Fort Worth. Joe T. Garcia's is the obvious choice, but the food is better and the lines are shorter at El Rancho Grande, a long-running mom and pop spot on the north side. Generously stuffed with cheese, shredded chicken, seasoned beef or spinach, enchiladas here rank as some of the city's best. Extra thought is given to small details: corn and flour tortillas are made on-site, and the housemade chips are light and airy, so they won't fill you up. Finish off with a slice of the restaurant's signature margarita pie.

Grace
Visiting downtown during the holidays is a must. Christmas lights twinkle everywhere, and in the center of the happening Sundance Square Plaza shopping mecca is a 65-foot-tall Christmas tree. Just a few blocks away is this fine-dining spot, regarded as one of the best restaurants in the city. Dress up for chef Blaine Staniford's modern American cuisine: steaks topped with espresso horseradish sauce, lamb belly dumplings, Maine diver scallops with caviar butter sauce. There's also a seven-course tasting menu, including a new all-veggie option.

Horseshoe Hill Café
This rustic café specializes in what may be the city's official dish: chicken-fried steak. But not just any CFS. Chef Grady Spears, himself a Fort Worth institution, offers it several ways: covered in peppered cream gravy, doused in chile con carne, topped with an ancho cheese enchilada. One order is big enough for two. Shareable sides include beer-battered okra and baked beans cooked with Dr Pepper. Bonus: The restaurant is located in the heart of the Fort Worth Stockyards, the city's top tourist destination.

Istanbul Grill
There's more to Fort Worth than hamburgers, barbecue, and chicken-fried steak. Our city's Mediterranean-food game is strong, too, thanks in part to this classy spot, which opened downtown earlier this year. For Mediterranean novices, there's hummus, grilled salmon, and chicken shish kebab. More adventurous eaters will find a terrific lamb shank and pan-fried zucchini pancakes. Large portions are perfect for sharing, and extra rounds of pita bread are complimentary.

Lucile's Stateside Bistro
This west side spot is great for those who can't decide where to go. You want pizza? They have it, cooked in a wood-fired oven. Burgers? Some of the best in the city, they're chargrilled wonders, juicy, and smoky. The menu also includes a half-dozen steaks, several seafood options, soups, and salads. Lucile's occupies a cool old building that dates back to 1927; grandparents will eat that up.

Rodeo Goat
There's bound to be someone who wants a burger — this is where you take them. At this West 7th area spot, burgers come straightforward or unusual, with toppings such as bacon and onion marmalade, grilled peaches, green chile chutney, and blackberry compote. There are also veggie, turkey, chicken, and salmon burgers. Hand-cut fries and kettle chips made in house are both excellent sides, and plentiful, too, enough to share. Communal tables guarantee legroom for big groups.

Woodshed Smokehouse
Five years after opening, Tim Love's ode to campfire cooking remains one of the top tables in Fort Worth. Parked on the bank of the Trinity River, the open-air restaurant offers killer views of the river down below and the sky up above. In addition to barbecue standards, tacos, and sandwiches, there are several family-style dishes: a gargantuan beef shin, smoked for 16 hours; paella with mussels, clams, shrimp, rabbit-rattlesnake sausage, smoked garlic aioli; and a tomahawk prime rib so large that it causes the entire restaurant to rubberneck when brought out.

where-to-eat holidays

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