Earning a Michelin star in Dallas-Fort Worth is one of the most intense culinary challenges a Texas chef can face. It takes talent.
But it doesn’t necessarily take time.
At the 2025 Michelin Guide Texas ceremony on Oct. 28, 2025, two Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants received a 1-star honor. The newest honoree, Mamani in Uptown Dallas, has served fewer than 50 dinners. The second honoree, Tatsu Dallas in Deep Ellum, debuted in 2022.
“I’ve got to admit, I’m a little speechless,” said Mamani’s executive chef and partner Christophe De Lellis right after the ceremony. He was still wearing his new white chef’s coat given to each of the new Michelin star recipients.
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Chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi (center left) of Tatsu Dallas with his wife Hiroko (left) are pictured with some of the other Dallas winners, Chas Martin (center right) and Benji Homsey. Martin was honored for his Exceptional Cocktails at Mister Charles in Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
For Tatsuya Sekiguchi, the chef of Tatsu Dallas, his feeling was “relief.” His restaurant received 1 Michelin star in 2024 — Dallas’ only star that year. Michelin requires that each eatery re-earn its star every year. If the food doesn’t remain at a high enough standard, restaurants risk being stripped of a star.
Mamani and Tatsu, now in a fraternity all their own, are likely to see more diners vying for a reservation following the Michelin ceremony.
Here’s a look inside both of Dallas-Fort Worth’s Michelin-starred restaurants.
Mamani Dallas: an ode to a famous French chef
De Lellis wanted his restaurant to earn a Michelin star. But he didn’t expect to see Mamani on the Michelin stage so soon.
“We got a little confused when we received the invitation,” he said. “We came to the ceremony really humble.”
Put another way: They tried to keep expectations low, in case they left disappointed.
French-Italian restaurant Mamani opened Sept. 2, 2025 in Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
The restaurant has served just 48 dinners, including the night De Lellis missed service while at the Michelin ceremony with restaurant partners Henry and Brandon Cohanim. Michelin inspectors did not believe that short amount of time was too little — an impressive and surprising feat.
Mamani is a French restaurant and a love letter to Paris, where De Lellis grew up. It’s also where the Cohanims’ grandmother — that’s “Mamani” — has lived. The menu has some Italian influences, too, which honors De Lellis’ Italian grandparents.
De Lellis spent nearly 15 years working in Joël Robuchon restaurants, and he considers the French chef his greatest mentor. Robuchon’s restaurants collected dozens of Michelin stars over the years, and that level of greatness was on De Lellis’ mind.
“You think about it even if you don’t want to think about it,” the chef said. He called winning a star “a dream.”
Chef Christophe De Lellis makes a scallop and caviar appetizer at Mamani.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
The reason De Lellis moved to Dallas in the first place is because the Cohanim brothers loved the food at Robuchon restaurants, and they persistently persuaded the French chef to move to Texas and open his own restaurant inspired by Robuchon’s philosophies.
In essence, Mamani in Dallas is an expression of Robuchon, even after his death in 2018.
“When I make my own dishes, I pass it through the Robuchon filter,” De Lellis said. “I ask myself: Do you think he will like that?”
This, perhaps, is what French company Michelin felt when dining at Mamani.
For diners trying to get a seat at Mamani, De Lellis encourages them to order the whole duck or the veal cordon bleu, two entrees that embody his style of cooking. (And they’re some of the pricier items on the menu.) But there’s one more thing from Mamani: a side of mashed potatoes.
Mamani serves Robuchon’s pommes purée — the ones he was famous for. (When asked how they’re prepared, De Lellis said politely, “I cannot tell you the recipe.” Just know it involves high-quality, unsalted French butter. Lots of it.)
The team at Mamani make those potatoes every day, a constant reminder of where De Lellis came from.
He said of Robuchon’s legacy: “He’s always with us.”
Mamani is at 2681 Howell St., Dallas.
Tatsu Dallas: the essence of Japan, in Texas
Chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi of Tatsu Dallas with his wife, Hiroko Sekiguchi, wait with anticipation to see if their name is called at the Michelin Guide Texas ceremony in 2025. (It was.)
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
Tatsu chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi and his wife, Hiroko Sekiguchi, might have been the most nervous people in the Michelin ceremony. She: Fingers on one hand tightly crossed, as if to keep from jinxing their odds of earning their star for a second year. He: A man of few words, sliding his cream-colored cowboy hat down a bit more as he waited on the results.
They needn’t be worried, as Tatsuya Sekiguchi was widely considered a shoo-in for another Michelin star. But chef Tatsu, a fourth-generation sushi chef raised in Japan, is a perfectionist. He opened his restaurant three years ago in Dallas’ Deep Ellum, where a modern dining room seats just 10 people at a time for a 90-minute omakase dinner that costs $185 per person.
Tatsu is one of Dallas smallest and most focused restaurants — a winning combo for Michelin, it seems.
Now that Sekiguchi has earned the star again, he’s already focused on next year.
Chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi separates the bones from the fish as he prepares for service at his restaurant Tatsu Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
He has learned “to never be satisfied with where I am,” Sekiguchi said. “I’m always trying to brush up my skills.”
Rather than open a bottle of Champagne or treat themselves to a late-night dinner — as many chefs did after the Michelin Guide Texas ceremony — the Sekiguchis immediately got into their car and drove four hours home to Dallas in the dark.
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Sekiguchi will wake up early the next day and drive to DFW Airport at 8 a.m. to pick up his twice-weekly supply of fish.
Couldn’t someone else do the pickup the night after winning a Michelin star, we asked? Could he move it to another day?
“No,” he said. It wasn’t a sacrifice. It’s just how it works when you’re Sekiguchi.
Tatsu Dallas is at 3309 Elm St., Dallas.
What’s next
Both chefs at Dallas’ Michelin-starred restaurants are back to work. No rest for the restaurateurs.
“I can’t wait to go back and celebrate with everyone,” all three Mamani partners said. They seemed eager to bring the award back to their teams, making a special note that the star was earned by a large group of high-achieving people.
But, De Lellis notes: “I’m back in the kitchen tomorrow” — less than 24 hours after getting a star.
Same with Sekiguchi of Tatsu Dallas: The restaurant is open the day after the Michelin ceremony.
“Back to work,” he said.
This story is part of The Dallas Morning News’ coverage of the Michelin Guide Texas. Read more about the restaurant picks in Dallas-Fort Worth and across Texas.