1st time to Dallas, HELP!

[FRED]

Never been, but I am excited. I will be in town on Thursday and Friday. I am looking for great steak, BBQ, etc. Any suggestions?? Thanks in advance.

[Steve in Austin]

Sorry, but the closest decent BBQ is in Ft. Worth at Angelo's. Railhead in Ft. Worth is also OK. Dallas simply lacks any consistent, good quality BBQ places unless you were at Sonny Bryan's about 30 years ago.

[Bigrayok]

For the past few months I have laughed at all of the posts about how bad Dallas's BBQ is and how the only good BBQ in Texas is in the Luling/Lockhart area. It reminds of the posts on other boards such as the only good Italian food is in New York City,the only good seafood is in Boston, or the only good Greek food is in Chicago. Most Dallas visitors will never venture to the BBQ meccas of Central Texas. To say there is no good BBQ in Dallas is comical in my opinion. For people that do not live in Dallas or eat much BBQ I am sure they can find something they would like. I have not been too every BBQ in Dallas, but I have tried Dickey's, Sonny Bryan's, Rudy's, Railhead, and Angelo's to name a few. I have enjoyed all of them, even though Railhead did not live up to its hype. I even tried Bone Daddy's, and yes, it does have a Hooters type atmosphere to it, but I thought the food was actually pretty good. Just because the BBQ in Dallas is not the same as Luling/Lockhart/Cooper or whatever, does not make it bad.

Bigray in Ok

[Steve in Austin]

"Just because the BBQ in Dallas is not the same as Luling/Lockhart/Cooper or whatever, does not make it bad."

Not necessarily "bad", but certainly far inferior.

After living about half my life around Austin and the other half around FW/Dallas, I believe I have as wide a range of Texas BBQ knowledge as nearly anyone.

To include those crappy chains Rudy's or Dickies in any conversation about "good" Texas BBQ is simply not accurate.

Angelo's and that "copycat" place Railhead in Ft. Worth are good at what they do, namely sliced brisket sandwiches and freezing cold beer. But that's about it in N. Texas on a CONSISTENT basis.

[Donnie C]

A buzzed out, Texas movie set kinda steak place would be 3 Forks just off the Tollway. It's huge with many levels and rooms and there is always a buzz. There are many high end steak places and many are near that part of the Tollway. Everyone seems to have a different favorite.
For fun bbq, try Bone Daddy's just off Central Expressway. It's not championship quality but it is passable and the waitresses dress and look like Hooters girls.

[Dallas Alice]

I agree with Bigrayok. My job provides me the mixed blessing of spending lots of time in the Lockhart/Luling area ("mixed" because the 'que is great, but there's nothing else decent to eat), and yeah, they know how to smoke meat down there, but it isn't like those folks invented barbeque and kept the recipe secret. You can get perfectly good barbeque in Dallas. Since I work downtown, I'm partial to Baker's Ribs in Deep Ellum and Sammy's in the State/Thomas area. I also like Big Al's near Love Field and Peggy Sue near SMU.

As far as steak is concerned, I think most folks would suggest Bob's on Lemmon Ave or, as already mentioned, III Forks. I'm not crazy about the atmosphere at either of those places, although they do serve great steak. III Forks is just over-the-top pretentious, and Bob's -- well, if I'm paying a fortune for a piece of grilled meat, I'd rather do without the tv's in every room. I think Al Biernat's on Oak Lawn does steak every bit as well as those places, and you're in a good restaurant that takes all of its food (not just the meat) seriously. Better service, too, IMHO.

I don't know what your budget is, but if you're interested in good food at moderate prices, for Southern (or Southern-inspired) cooking, try Hattie's in Oak Cliff or Hector's on Henderson. For Tex-Mex, I like Manny's in Uptown and Avila's on Maple. For Mex-Mex, Cafe San Miguel on Henderson, Vera Cruz in Oak Cliff, and Nuevo Leon on lower Greenville. For New American, Standard on Fairmount and Local in Deep Ellum.

If you have a stack of cash: Lola and York Street.

A frequent poster on this site has a very helpful website, dallasfood.org. Check it out.

Welcome to Dallas.