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The amount of excellent food available in Dallas is dizzying, yet mediocre meals somehow keep worming their way into our lives. With your Eater Dallas editor dining out frequently, that means coming across lots of standout dishes and drinks that need to be shared.
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Cenzo’s Pizza & Deli
1700 W 10th St.
The pizza at Cenzo’s is top-notch, but I went to try the sandwiches. It was my lucky day because owner Chad Dolezal told me it was Thursday — the only day the place serves its chicken parmesan sandwich, which he insisted I had to try. He wasn’t fooling around, and neither was the kitchen when they made this crispy chicken sandwich full of cheese and tomato sauce (both of which I managed to drip all over myself). It’s well worth making a Thursday appointment to get one of these.
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Via Triozzi
1806 Greenville Ave.
A friend’s birthday celebration brought me back to Via Triozzi, Eater Dallas’s pick for best new restaurant in the 2023 Eater Awards. Currently on the menu is a beautiful dish of mussels bathed in Calabrian chili butter and served with the house focaccia for dipping. The dish, developed by chef Sonia Mancillas, gives traditional mussels a bright kick. It is the kind of dish that makes you want to lick the bowl. Mancillas promises it will stay on the ever-changing menu for June, so there is still plenty of time to try it for yourself.
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Rye
1920 Greenville Ave.
Dinner to catch up with a friend brought me back to Rye in May, where a strawberry cake from its specials menu wowed at the end of a multi-dish dinner. It is strawberry season, so it is time to order such a dish. The combination of cake, strawberry puree, smooth ice cream, and crunchy, brittle-like bites hits every note the palette can take. The picture doesn’t do this dish justice — it was a remarkable plate of dessert.
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Red Herring
319 S 4th St. in Waco
No one was more surprised than me by the level of excellence in the food and service at Red Herring when I popped down to Waco to research the Eater Dallas travel guide this month. There were so many great dishes at this restaurant that it was almost hard to choose one. Perhaps the most surprising, and remarked on by various servers who came to my table, is this squid ink bucatini with red shrimp, octopus, and chorizo. The pasta was big and luxurious, while the seafood played off of it nicely and matched the texture. The chorizo was the wild card. The kitchens elected a variety that wasn’t too spicy but still offered a flavor and texture compliment to the rest of the dish. All those bread crumbs and chives pushed it over the top into heavenly.
