People come to the Fort Worth Stockyards to witness its history, Western fashion, and to have a good meal. Some come because Cattlemen’s Steakhouse recently got a facelift, others because Taylor Sheridan, part-owner of the restaurant and creator of the hit TV series “Landman,” has left his mark on the place. And yet, none of that brought the restaurant its latest claim to fame. That honor goes to something smaller, crunchier, and entirely unexpected — the onion rings, which have earned the rare “Certified Delicious” seal from the National Onion Association.
Greg Yielding, executive vice president of the NOA, explains why it matters: “Today’s restaurants have many choices when it comes to their menu items. They can buy frozen, canned, or freeze-dried. But when they choose to use fresh ingredients and take the time to make an ordinary side item into a delicious serving of onion rings, they have made the conscious decision to value and serve quality. That’s an effort not every restaurant commits to.”
And what an effort it is. The kind of onion rings that earn the NOA’s nod are made from scratch, with fresh onions, hand-battered and fried just so, never greasy, never falling apart, with a crisp snap that makes the first bite a quiet revelation. “It’s kind of like, oh, onion rings, okay, well, all onion rings aren’t the same,” Yielding says. “They’re not. And they’re not the same as using fresh onions and cutting your onions and having your batter done the right way.”
The award itself isn’t something a restaurant can buy, apply for, or bribe its way into. It’s the result of careful observation, word of mouth, and a discerning panel of onion aficionados. Yielding recalls how Cattlemen’s came to the NOA’s attention: “It wasn’t anything to do with ‘Landman’ or anything. Dawn Elisabeth Olinger just went in there, ordered the onion rings, and said, ‘These people deserve this.’ That’s really what it was.”
The NOA, founded in 1913, has members spanning the country — from Washington to Georgia, New York to Texas — who keep an eye out for restaurants that go the extra mile with onions. Yielding himself has visited countless kitchens, sampling onion-laden dishes and often finding that many fall short. “Believe it or not, I’ve been to places and tried stuff, and they would not win,” he says. “Nobody can call us and say, ‘Hey, I want to do this, and you’ll come down and try our onions.’ That doesn’t happen.”
Onion rings might seem like a simple comfort food, but the NOA knows better. The type of onion, the batter, the frying technique — all of it matters. Short-day sweet onions, Yielding points out, can release too much water, resulting in limp, falling-apart rings. The “storage onions” from Oregon or Idaho, in contrast, hold their shape and snap. The difference, he says, is everything.
Olinger summed it up succinctly: “Seriously, the best onion rings I have ever had.”
Cattlemen’s now joins a small but growing roster of restaurants recognized for turning an ordinary side into something remarkable. And while some awards are flashy or fleeting, this one carries a quiet authority — bestowed by experts who live and breathe onions, who care deeply about freshness, technique, and respect for the vegetable that sits at the center of so many dishes.
In Fort Worth, at least, you can now order your steak, sit back, and let the humble onion ring remind you that, sometimes, greatness comes in small, crispy circles. As Yielding says: “In some places they’ll say, ‘Oh, well, our onions are frozen, but they’re really good.’ Well, it’s nothing like making your own, and I know I’m being specific on the onion ring deal, but that’s an important factor for sure.”