Big Bites: An Inside Look at Dallas's Culinary Scene

In a town that knows how to eat big, finding a good restaurant is a tall order. One could easily stick with a Dallas classic, like Oak Lawn's LGBT-friendly Lucky's Cafe, home to giant omelettes and hearty chicken-fried steak. But this city has an abundance of options serving up everything Dallas is famous for -- from tacos to barbeque -- along with some tasty surprises.

El Fenix
How can you go wrong with "the original Tex-Mex?" Since 1919 El Fenix has fed Big D the best tamales, enchiladas, tostadas and addictive guacamole and chips. This longtime family operation has more than 20 outposts around Dallas County. But fear not the chain restaurant, for you can thankfully sip the award-winning Inca Gold margarita at every last one of them.

The original location on McKinney Avenue is the real prize. It's conveniently central near the downtown arts district, quaint despite its enormous square footage, and shares the block with a landmarked former tortilla-factory building, which today houses El Fenix's sister restaurants Meso Maya and Taqueria la Ventana, both serving traditional Mexican.

Stampede 66
Chef, author, philanthropist and fifth-generation Texan Stephan Pyles is a Dallas darling for his slick takes on all the flavors of home. Among this gay chef's multiple restaurants, downtown's Stampede 66 is the most enticing place to enter on an empty stomach.

Even a small appetite will find irresistible choices on a menu that lists honey-fried chicken with mashed-potato tots, homemade "freeto" chili pie, and fresh-caught Gulf shrimp and grits with tasso and pepper relish. And while the tableside margaritas made with liquid nitrogen are a bit gimmicky, they are mighty tasty. The restaurant has been open for only a few years, but it stays atop most "Best of Dallas" rosters for the cuisine, cocktails, and eye-catching original art. (Be sure to check out Sisa Jasper's "Boss Hog" pig sculpture made entirely of pork rinds.)

Don't worry if you find you can't get enough of Pyles' temptations -- he also operates two Sky Canyon restaurants in both Love Field and Dallas-Fort Worth Airports.

Lockhart Smokehouse
In the four years since Lockhart began serving its famous barbeque in Oak Cliff, its smoker has literally never stopped running. That means brisket is cooking 24/7 until it's cooked so tender nary a butter knife is needed to slice off hunks of spicy-sweet smoked Texas beef -- as the sign says, "No forks, no sauce needed!"

The restaurant is still relatively new to the famed Dallas smoked-meats scene, but the family legacy of barbeque know-how is cooked into the Lockhart Smokehouse flavor. Warning: After a sampler of brisket, meaty pork ribs, juicy chicken and turkey, and two kinds of sausage, you may have to take your sides of smoked potato salad, blue cheese slaw and daily-changing mac n' cheese to go.

Caf� Momentum
Sometimes eating well is about the food, and sometimes it involves a different kind of wellness. Caf� Momentum offers both, thanks to its innovative cuisine and its paid-internship program that teaches culinary and restaurant skills to at-risk youth. The restaurant draws a steady crowd for good prices and mostly locally sourced ingredients, with seasonal produce that, upon a recent springtime visit, included delights like fiddlehead ferns, fresh artichokes, and pea shoots. Intriguing combinations include smoked-carrot pappardelle with chicken-mole sausage and "steak and eggs" of wagyu beef with cabernet-poached eggs and potato strings.

Interns run the show in the kitchen and on the floor with expert guidance, and encourage feedback from diners. The "thankful wall" of hand-decorated plates proves just how well Dallas locals have taken to Caf� Momentum. Chef de Cuisine Eric Shelton humbly admits, it's "not bad for a bunch of kids who started with no culinary experience."