Dozens of neighbors have already poked their heads inside Cantina La Rosa this week, wondering if this new Tex-Mex restaurant near West Northwest Highway and Midway Road is open yet.
Good news: Cantina La Rosa is serving lunch and dinner, seven days a week, starting Feb. 13, 2026. It’s heartening that the neighbors care, said partner Cameron Levine, because the Tex-Mex restaurant was created specifically to attract diners in nearby Bluffview and Preston Hollow, in an enclave of northwest Dallas that could use more dining options.
Neighbors might remember this space as the former Fernando’s, which closed in May 2025 after 20 years.
“We’ve had people coming up to the windows and say, ‘We used to do date night here. … Or, this is where we stopped before our kids’ sports games,’” Levine said. (During an hourlong interview with The Dallas Morning News at least five people swung open the door, asking if Cantina La Rosa was open yet.)
Restaurant News
Cantina La Rosa, a new Tex-Mex restaurant in Dallas, sits in a back corner of a busy shopping center near Central Market.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
“We’ve had a lot of pent-up excitement,” Levine said.
Cantina La Rosa comes from the team that owns East Dallas patio restaurant Smoky Rose. Some of the menu items were dreamt up as long as four or five years ago, said Oscar Aroche, director of operations.
Cantina La Rosa was originally slated for the former Dallas Eagle near Maple Avenue and Inwood Road, co-owner David Cash told The News in 2023. After that property was tied up in litigation, the team signed a lease in northwest Dallas instead.
The owners of Cantina La Rosa in Dallas said the restaurant was designed to be suitable for families, date-nights and groups.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
Dishes like chicken tinga tostadas ($14), blackened redfish ($27) and barbacoa tacos ($15) have been on their minds for years. The menu is rounded out with nachos, quesadillas, fajitas and enchiladas.
The team sees an opportunity to attract diners who want “a weekly restaurant,” Levine said.
The menu was broadened to include an unexpected chicken Caesar wrap with fries ($16) and a cheeseburger with poblano peppers ($17). Healthy eaters might look to the Cantina Protein Bowl ($17) with cilantro rice, beans, veggies and chicken or steak, a la Chipotle.
Aroche loves a $12 appetizer called Mexican “Mozzarella Sticks”, or crackly thin fried tortillas that ooze with cheese. Guacamole and salsa verde come on the side for dipping.
Several menu items are named for the owners or their family members, said Aroche, who was raised in Mexico City.
“When I eat something, it reminds me of my mother or grandma,” he said. “Every part of this menu is a part of us.”
For drinks, customers during preliminary opening dinners were reaching for the Spicy Señorita margarita and a cantaloupe cream tequila drink. Options abound, including four zero-proof cocktails.
The restaurant was designed with three distinct rooms.
Notable: The patio at Cantina La Rosa is covered.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
Through the first curved entryway is a family-friendly dining room with wagon wheel chandeliers and maroon tufted booths. The next room, the bar, has clay-colored walls and a livelier feel. The covered patio is a generous space that, somehow, doesn’t feel like it’s around the corner from a busy Central Market grocery store.
It’s fitting the owners of one of Dallas’ iconic patio restaurants, Smoky Rose, made the patio a priority at this new restaurant. The space is dotted with clay pots, greenery and equipale, or pigskin tables and chairs.
“It reminds me of Mexico,” Aroche said.
Cantina La Rosa is at 4347 W. Northwest Highway, Dallas. Open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, starting Feb. 13, 2026.