In Texas Monthly’s annual list of the best new restaurants in the Lone Star State, three of the 10 are in Dallas.
They span three neighborhoods in Dallas — Uptown, downtown and East Dallas — and three cuisines: French, Japanese and fancy junk food. (We’ll explain later.)
The list of 10 also includes BonFire, a French restaurant with a Texas twang about 100 miles northeast of Dallas, in Paris. Sounds worth a drive.
First up in Dallas: If you’re the betting type, we hope you put your money on Mamani. This new French-Italian restaurant, Dallas’ only new Michelin 1-star restaurant from 2025, is an easy “in” for a list like this one. TM critic Paula Forbes lauded Mamani’s executive chef-partner Christophe De Lellis for his whole duck, which she described as “a master class” that was “perfectly crisped and rendered.”
Restaurant News
Mamani is located in The Quad, the new name for the redeveloped Quadrangle in Uptown Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
Forbes also suggested diners “trust in the wine list” because of its great selection from all over the world. That’s true, but note, friends: Some glasses of wine run well over $40 each, so scan the menu before saying “yes” to a server’s recommendation.
Mamani was one of the most talked-about new restaurants in Texas last year because it snagged 1 Michelin star after serving just 48 dinners. It remains on the lips of savvy Dallas diners today.
Mamani is at 2681 Howell St., Dallas. Dinner only.
Related
The list then turns to “junk food from a world-class chef” at Misti Norris’ newish spot Rainbowcat. It’s not technically a restaurant; it’s a concept within Old East Dallas bar Saint Valentine.
Related
At Rainbowcat, almost nothing is what it seems. Here’s chips and dip. Or, as chef Misti Norris explains it: whipped sour cream and onion pimento cheese, garlic chive and dill oil, surrounded by Magic Molly potato chips.
Steve Hamm / Special Contributor
The food from Norris was bound to be surprising, given her work at one of Dallas’ most esoteric restaurants, Petra and the Beast, before it closed in late 2024. The food at Rainbowcat is less thinky, but Forbes rightly points out that its chef is still having fun.
Norris “cooks like some kind of genius space alien,” the article said. “Her food doesn’t make any sense if you’re just looking at the ingredients on the menu: chicken tenders, cheese-amino toffee and submarine sauce? But when you take a bite, her vision becomes clear. The crunchy strips of poultry are vinegary, salty and a little sweet.”
Rainbowcat’s food is served at Saint Valentine, a bar at 4800 Bryan St., Dallas. Dinner and late-night only.
Sushi Kozy, a Japanese restaurant in downtown Dallas, is named for chef-partner Paul Ko.
TM “fell back in love with omakase” at Sushi Kozy, the final new Dallas restaurant on the list of 10 heavy-hitters. Sushi Kozy opened quietly in mid-2025, selling something like 17 courses in a small, modern space in downtown Dallas. The magazine praised chef-owner Paul Ko for his smart small plates and “intensely, traditional, expertly executed nigiri.”
In early 2026, The Dallas Morning News reported that Dallas chef RJ Yoakum was hired as chef de cuisine at Sushi Kozy. Yoakum’s aim is to elevate the small plates even further. He formerly worked at The French Laundry in California and Georgie in Dallas.
Sushi Kozy is at 2000 Ross Ave., Dallas. Dinner only.
If you’re enticed to visit any of these three Dallas restaurants, make plans in the evenings. All are dinner or late-night only.
TM’s new restaurant of the year is Agnes and Sherman in Houston, an Asian-American diner with a “killer soundtrack.” Read Forbes’ full list here.