Texas Monthly adds and updates approximately sixty restaurant listings to our Dining Guide each month. There’s limited space in the print issue, but the entire searchable guide to the best of Texas cuisine is at your fingertips online!
Below are a few highlights from the new restaurants reviewed in our June 2022 issue. Click “More Info” for further detail on each restaurant:
Fort Worth
The Fitzgerald
In a cool space with chandeliers, clean lines, and contemporary seaside paintings, guests dress up or down to sip clever cocktails while noshing on deep-fried lobster bites in jalapeño cornbread jackets and grilled oysters with cheesy or buttery toppings. The best starter is an heirloom tomato salad with lush ricotta, and we’d have loved the barbecued shrimp if a lighter hand had crafted the New Orleans–style sauce, otherwise perfect for mopping up with a garlicky baguette. Not into fish? Go for grilled bone marrow with blue cheese or a filet mignon with Bordelaise.
Seafood | ⭑⭑ | $$$ | More Info
Austin
Wax Myrtle’s
Named after the wispy, olive-green shrub, the Thompson Austin hotel’s spacious fourth-floor dining room—with its globe lights, rustic-looking wood floor, and earth tones—comes off more as a stylish den than a poolside lounge. You can meet for drinks (a great martini variation has dashes of herbed honey and lemon oil) and snacks (like smooth boiled-peanut hummus with roasted salsa verde and fabulous grilled bread). Or you can linger till dinner. The aptly named Big Ol’ Beef Rib, in a thick French onion gravy, could have fed a frat house (alas, one side was juicy and the other was dried out). A well-cooked salmon filet arrived awash in olive oil and herbs. Chocolate panna cotta, tricked out with pomegranate seeds and tahini “crunchies,” made a seductive finale.
Mediterranean | ⭑⭑⭑ | $$$ | More Info
Frisco
Lombardi Cucina Italiana
Alberto Lombardi has been in the restaurant business for 45 years, and he knows what his customers like. His newest venue, at the Star in Frisco, revives the name of his original Dallas venture and is by far his most upscale yet. Here you’ll find house-made pastas like bucatini cacio e pepe and tagliatelle alla bolognese, but also dishes like ossobuco and bone-in veal parmigiana. Seared foie gras on brioche, topped with a pistachio crumble, was a highlight; so were Wagyu meatballs slow-cooked in marinara. Fettuccine al limone came bathed in Meyer lemon cream and topped with
gigantic prawns.
Italian | ⭑⭑ | $$$ | More Info
Houston
Toro Toro
In the posh Four Seasons, this Pan-Latin steakhouse exudes energy and passion. Picture a dramatic sweeping staircase, stylish lounge, and warm yet modern dining room. Adding to the appeal are appropriately vibrant platings of seafood and grilled meats, like a 52-ounce tomahawk steak. We started with antelope anticuchos: skewers of tenderloin chunks, perfectly grilled and then drizzled with chimichurri atop crunchy charred corn. Our salad was masterful—glorious kale lightly dressed with white balsamic vinegar and tossed with tomatoes, rainbow quinoa, and sliced grapes—and our medium-rare filet mignon was flawless. But when we caught a glimpse of a show-stopping beef rib al carbón (grilled on the bone, with three dipping
sauces and Bibb lettuce wraps), we vowed, “Next time!” The downtown location seems perfect for drinks and bites before or after an event.
Steaks | ⭑⭑ | $$$$ | More Info
Willow Park
Cibi
Alumni from Fort Worth’s much-missed La Piazza have reunited to make dishes that transport us to Italy (both owners are from Milan). Handmade pastas steal the show, like mandilli di seta (“silk handkerchiefs”) with pesto made in the Genoese tradition; pappardelle tangled with braised lamb shoulder; and fettuccine with hen of the woods and porcini mushrooms. Ruddy beef meatballs, dressed in a robust marinara, make an ideal appetizer, as do generous orbs of burrata with arugula and cherry tomatoes. At lunch, skip the panini made with focaccia in favor of those crafted with the perfect pizza dough.
Italian | ⭑⭑⭑ | $$$ | More Info
Rating System
Our reviews are written by critics who live in the cities and regions they cover. They remain anonymous to ensure that they receive no special treatment. The magazine pays for all meals and accepts no advertising or other consideration in exchange for a listing. Comments? Write us.
