The event will culminate with an awards ceremony that will reveal the winners in all categories, which we’ve been featuring in our special editorial series<\/a>. Awards will include Chef of the Year, Bar of the Year<\/a>, Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year<\/a>, Rising Star Chef of the Year<\/a>, Dessert Program of the Year<\/a>, Coffee Shop of the Year<\/a>, Best Sandwich<\/a>, and Best New Restaurant<\/a>. (Vote for your favorite<\/a> new restaurant now in our bracket-style tournament \u2014 it’s the only category where readers determine the winner.)<\/p>\n Limited tickets remain, so get yours now<\/a> before they sell out. And now, we present the nominees for Fort Worth Restaurant of the Year:<\/p>\n The Blue Room Bricks and Horses Cattlemen’s Steak House The Chumley House Clay Pigeon Food & Drink<\/a> Coco Shrimp<\/a> Lonesome Dove Western Bistro Malai Kitchen Margie’s Italian Gardens
<\/a>The Crescent Hotel upgraded Fort Worth\u2019s fine dining scene in 2024 with the opening of this luxurious hidden space tucked inside its signature restaurant, Emilia\u2019s. With just a dozen or so tables, blue-hued furniture, and a Texas-inspired six-course tasting menu, The Blue Room draws a discriminating clientele for special occasion dining. Standout menu items include venison carpaccio al pastor, Gulf catch with gumbo, and boar sausage-stuffed quail.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Bricks and Horses is Bowie House\u2019s signature restaurant, where hotel guests and locals alike gather for modern chophouse cuisine under the direction of chef Antonio Votta, who\u2019s trained at Michelin-starred restaurants in California. The Bowie House lobby has established itself as West Fort Worth\u2019s posh living room, where neighbors convene for cocktails and conversation before or after dinner at luxe steakhouse. Fan-favorite items range from chorizo corn fritters and pepper crusted steak Diane to the Texas broil with chimichurri for two.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The landmark Stockyards steakhouse opened in 1947 as a beacon of new development with its Vegas-style flashing lights and steaks grilled on hot charcoal right in the dining room. But not much changed over the next seven-plus decades until Fort Worth native TV producer-director Taylor Sheridan purchased Cattlemen\u2019s in 2023, completely reinventing the restaurant with a new patio, music stage, multiple bars, updated furnishings, and an underground private club that\u2019s seen in Landman season two. As for the menu, steaks are now sourced from Sheridan\u2019s Four Sixes Ranch, and there are new additions like blue lump crab cakes, steak tartare, and Wagyu meatballs with cheesy polenta. Even longtime local regulars \u2013 who may have been skeptical at first \u2013 are impressed.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The wow factor exuded by this sophisticated European-style steakhouse \u2013 Duro Hospitality\u2019s first venture outside of Dallas \u2013 has not let up since its opening in late 2024. Guests are still raving over The Chumley House\u2019s opulent old-world feel, luxurious intimate setting, and superior service, and even more so about signature dishes like beef Wellington, butter chicken pie, tenderloin stroganoff, and tallow popovers. Dining here is a treat \u2013 a hard one to get based on ongoing limited reservation availability. <\/p>\n![\"Chumley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776967586_583_chumley-house.jpg\")
Since launching Clay Pigeon in 2013, chef Marcus Paslay has established a portfolio of notable Fort Worth restaurants that showcase his scope of work, including Italian, coastal seafood, Southern, and even Tex-Mex. Clay Pigeon is where Paslay and his team get creative with fancy scratch-made dishes like grilled bone marrow with fennel salad, caviar-topped deviled eggs, and prime beef tartare served with aioli and a smoked egg yolk. The cocktails and rustic-chic atmosphere match the upscale cuisine. <\/p>\n
What started as one food truck in a north Fort Worth hardware store parking lot became a restaurant phenomenon thanks to a Hawaiian-inspired menu and atmosphere to match. (Think videos of surfing on repeat, just like many eateries in Maui.) Coco Shrimp \u2013 now with locations all over Texas following its Near Southside brick-and-mortar flagship \u2013 keeps things focused. It serves only butterfly shrimp in five flavors, including butter garlic, spicy, sweet and spicy, lemon herb, and the namesake coconut shrimp. Presented in easy-to-transport cardboard containers, the dish feels like a vacation in a box with its standard sides of butter garlic white rice and fresh green salad. Add pineapple for even more island vibes.<\/p>\n
<\/a>When a young Tim Love opened a fine dining restaurant in the Fort Worth Stockyards in the year 2000, local restaurateurs thought he was crazy. After all, the Stockyards were dead \u2013 only busy on the weekends with rowdy late-night crowds \u2013 certainly no one looking for inventive wild game dishes like elk, wild boar, kangaroo, and rattlesnake. Fast forward two-and-a-half decades and Lonesome Dove Western Bistro has established a legacy of urban Western cuisine, anchoring a district that\u2019s rapidly grown into one of the country\u2019s hottest travel destinations. Now locals and guests from around the world visit Lonesome Dove for an authentic taste of Texas and a time-honored slice of the Fort Worth Stockyards.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Husband-and-wife team Braden and Yasmin Wages started this modern Viet-Thai restaurant chain in Dallas in 2011, eventually expanding to four locations with two in Tarrant County: Clearfork and Southlake. With pretty interiors and creative dishes, Malai Kitchen is a go-to for a fresh and approachable take on Southeast Asian cuisine. Traditional Vietnamese pho is labeled \u201cVietnamese noodle soup.\u201d Tom Kha soup is labeled \u201cThai coconut soup.\u201d Curry dishes, wok-fried rice; entr\u00e9e salads; and even specialties like branzino, sea bass, and trout round out the menu, along with beer from Malai\u2019s nano-brewery in Southlake.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Chances are, many Fort Worthians had never heard of Margie\u2019s until restaurateur Gigi Howell and her Westland Hospitality Group (JD\u2019s Hamburgers, Pulido\u2019s, West Side Caf\u00e9, Magdalena\u2019s, among others) took ownership and refreshed the classic Italian destination in 2025. Margie\u2019s had previously been open (on and off) since 1953, serving as a far West Fort Worth staple for no-frills pasta dishes and pizzas, with \u201cair conditioning\u201d listed out front as a diner perk. Now Margie\u2019s is a popular spot for date nights and family gatherings, just as the original founder \u201cMama Meatball\u201d Margie Walters intended.<\/p>\n