Fort Worth is known for cowboys, cattle drives, and Stockyards; the best restaurants in this North Texas city reflect that culture. Often overshadowed by Dallas, its glitzy neighbor to the east, the Fort Worth restaurant scene has much to offer visitors and residents.
After my first few visits to Dallas, I grew curious about seeing Fort Worth. It's the 13th largest city in the country and one of the fastest-growing. Despite the cold, wet autumn weather, what I found was a good time.
Between meals at the best restaurants in Fort Worth, there was two-stepping at Billy Bob's honky tonk in my new buffalo leather cowboy boots, modern art museums, and botanical gardens to explore.
In 2025, I returned with Kel for more. Saddle up, partner. Here are the best places to eat in Fort Worth, Texas.
Table of Contents
Where To Eat In Fort Worth
1. Don Artemio
Two hundred and fifty imported clay pots line the entrance to Don Artemio at the northern edge of the Cultural Arts District. Walking through this gauntlet of pottery and foliage sets the stage for what's inside. The restaurant's interior was built from over 20,000 imported terra-cotta bricks from Saltillo, Mexico, where chef Juan Ramon Cardenas runs the original Don Artemio.
At the Fort Worth location, where his son Rodrigo leads the kitchen, they've created a menu showcasing Northeast Mexican cuisine. Goat meat is a typical ingredient from this part of Mexico, and it appears in several lunch and dinner dishes, including tacos, a torta, stuffed chiles, and ribs.
The cabrito tacos are a must-try when dining here. Chef Juan Ramon Cardenas was featured in Netflix's Taco Chronicles (S2 E3), and Don Artemio made Texas Monthly's 2024 list of The 50 Best Tacos in the state.
Lunch specials like the pan-seared Texas striped bass in black bean herb sauce that I ordered average about $20. If cost isn't a concern, look to the dinner menu, where seared sea bass with Oaxacan mole negro and 29-day dry-aged tomahawk steaks are available. Either way, finish with the one-of-a-kind deconstructed tres leches dessert. 3268 W 7th St, Fort Worth, TX, donartemio.us
2. 61 Osteria
The elegant interior design of 61 Osteria, an Italian restaurant in downtown Fort Worth, is reason enough to dine here. Floor-to-ceiling windows, Indian Rainforest marble walls, the subtle use of mirrors, and a semi-open kitchen catch one's eye.
Chef Blaine Staniford's menu features inventive Italian dishes highlighting Texas ingredients, such as the semolina from Waco used to make their pasta. I tasted this when ordering one of the chef's most popular dishes, Serpente, made from a 16-inch piece of pasta coiled like a snake and filled with ricotta, hen of the wood mushrooms, and preserved lemons.
We also tried the Rotollo, a lasagna-like dish made of two pasta ribbons rolled into circles with Bolognese sauce and copious amounts of ricotta and mozzarella. For dessert, a tiramisu cheesecake with coffee cream. First on 7th Building, 500 W 7th St, Fort Worth, TX, 61osteria.com
3. Saint-Emilion
Saint-Emilion is a French restaurant named after a small medieval town in southwestern France, 30 miles east of Bordeaux. The city and surrounding area are a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to their long history of winemaking, churches (along the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain), and ruins.
I visited Saint-Emilion during my 2008 trip around the world and have fond memories of the place and the French couple who hosted me.
In Fort Worth, a few blocks north of the Cultural District, Saint-Emilion Restaurant, owned by chef Pascal Paviani, has served classic French food since 1985. Housed in a cute, ivy-covered brick cottage, the restaurant instantly transports you to the French countryside.
Our Experience
I relished our three-course dinner there, including a first course, main course, salad, and cheese (triple cream brie) for $55. Beverages, tax, and tips are not included. I went with the onion soup and filet au poivre with peppercorn-cognac sauce and French fries.
The Angus beef tenderloin was plump and juicy, cooked medium rare, as I asked, and the sauce was superb. We sipped 2019 Comtesse de Malet Roquefort, a Bordeaux Blend from a Saint-Emilion estate to complement the meal.
Kel and I ordered dessert à la carte, choosing the mousse au chocolat. A surprise ingredient, homemade "pop rocks," exploded in our mouths. Saint-Emilion is an excellent option for celebrating a special occasion, like a birthday, anniversary, or upcoming trip to France. 3617 W 7th St, Fort Worth, TX, saint-emilionrestaurant.com
4. Reata Restaurant
Reata is among the old guard in Fort Worth, having opened in 2002 following the success of the first location in Alpine, West Texas. This Southwestern restaurant was named after the ranch in the 1950s Western movie epic "Giant," starring James Dean, filmed near Marfa.
I could start and end with a single Reata original: tenderloin tamales with pecan mash. This appetizer, which comes with three meat-filled tamales, could easily serve as an entree.
Popular entrees include a pepper-crusted tenderloin with port wine sauce and a 20-ounce cowboy bone-in ribeye. We split a 6-ounce filet mignon with shrimp, asparagus, and mashed potatoes for our early dinner before the Stockyards Championship Rodeo. Reata's dessert taco with caramelized bananas was a delight. 530 Throckmorton St, Fort Worth, TX, reata.net
5. Clay Pigeon Food & Drink
Dedication to the fine dining experience and creating memorable meals drives the team behind Clay Pigeon. Inspired by his experiences hunting and harvesting while growing up in nearby Arlington, TX, executive chef Marcus Paslay attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York. After graduating, he worked in kitchens from Alaska and Hawaii to Seattle and Vail before returning to Texas to open his first restaurant in Fort Worth.
Clay Pigeon is located in the Foundry District and offers diners fresh, seasonal menus featuring local ingredients. My dinner began with prime beef tartare and white sturgeon caviar served with housemade potato chips. Grilled bone marrow, Brussels sprouts with bacon and dates, and butternut squash croquettes are a few more options.
Entrees range from $30 to $50, including housemade pasta, pan-roasted salmon, grilled duck breast, steaks, and sides. The salmon I ordered came with a caviar beurre blanc sauce and was served over green beans and potatoes.
As delicious as my main course was, I was a little envious of Kel, who'd chosen the CP burger with roasted garlic aioli and cheddar. Dinner concluded with a fabulous date cake served with Blackland Rye caramel sauce and housemade vanilla ice cream.
Happy hour here is known as "Sparkling Hour" and gets you 50% off bottles of sparkling wine and some appetizers. They also have three private dining rooms available for large groups. 2731 White Settlement Road, Fort Worth, TX, claypigeonfd.com
6. Lonesome Dove
I first learned of the Lonesome Dove Bistro when I moved to downtown Austin. Chef Tim Love opened a second location in Austin 15 years after his first in the Fort Worth Stockyards, and a third was opened in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Before dinner at Lonesome Dove, Kel and I walked around the Stockyards and watched a herd of Texas longhorn cattle walk down East Exchange Avenue. After trying on a pair of buffalo leather cowboy boots at Lucchese Bootmaker, I felt inspired to buy them. I began breaking them in on the walk to dinner.
Inside the Fort Worth restaurant, a full-service bar runs along the right side of the main dining room. The open kitchen in the back was bustling. The hostess led us to another dining room with animal heads on the walls and an antler chandelier (the mood was set).
We ordered Bees on Thyme and Bluebonnet cocktails and a trio of first courses: rattlesnake sausage, lobster hush puppies, and an elk slider with foie gras and blueberry jam. The elk slider was our favorite and one of my best bites in 2022.
Kel ordered the Texas red chili with avocado salsa, and I enjoyed the 9-ounce roasted garlic-stuffed beef tenderloin. A chili chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream proved an excellent choice. Kel declared the silky-smooth dessert her favorite of the year. 2406 N Main St, Fort Worth, TX, lonesomedovefortworth.com
7. Ellerbe Fine Foods
Farm-to-table fare is on the menu at Ellerbe Fine Foods on West Magnolia Avenue, a trendy street lined with cafes, bars, and restaurants at the edge of the Fairmount-Southside Historic District. The kitchen is led by co-owner and executive chef Molly McCook, a 2020 James Beard Award Semifinalist.
She grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, and the restaurant is named after the road on which her grandparents lived. In 2009, McCook opened Ellerbe with her lifelong friend, Richard King, who is the General Manager and co-owner.
Ellerbe was the first restaurant in Fort Worth to serve farm-to-table cuisine, and it was recognized for this the following year. In 2010, Bon Appétit named Ellerbe one of America's ten best new restaurants. The front dining room, with wall-to-wall windows, offers plenty of natural light and people-watching opportunities. I was happy to be seated there on a Friday night.
Our Dinner
Fall/winter appetizers include butternut squash, housemade herbed cashew cheese with torn baguette, and a wild rice and vegetable salad. I skipped a starter and got the roasted winter squash with grilled haloumi and Persian jeweled rice. Additional main courses include bacon-wrapped arctic char, braised veal bolognese, and a pecan wood-grilled steak with a port reduction.
We also got a side of the colorful First Earth Farm roasted carrots with whipped goat cheese and local honey. The signature dessert is Maw Maw's Bread Pudding with whiskey sauce, cinnamon whipped cream, and Texas pecans. 1501 W Magnolia Ave, Fort Worth, TX, ellerbefinefoods.com
8. Goldee's BBQ
Texas Monthly Magazine ranked Goldee's BBQ in southeast Fort Worth #1 in the Lone Star State in 2021. The meats at Goldee's BBQ have people lining up for hours every weekend. I should know; I was one of them.
The owners (Jalen Heard, Nupohn Inthanousay, Lane Milne, Dylan Taylor, and Jonny White) grew up together in Arlington, Texas, before dispersing to work in some of the state's best barbecue joints (including Franklin).
When they came together again to start a business, they found an abandoned building suitable for their Fort Worth restaurant and got to work. February 2020 wouldn't have been the ideal month to open a new restaurant, but the guys survived by pivoting to take-out and resumed dine-in service by early 2021.
They make barbecue in the classic Central Texas style, using post oak to smoke the briskets and beef ribs that'll have you drooling. I appreciated their attention to detail, such as baking white bread instead of relying on cheap, mass-produced loaves. If you're passionate about barbecue and can wait two to three hours to taste the best Texas offers, head to Goldee's. 4645 Dick Price Rd, Fort Worth, TX, goldeesbbq.com
9. Panther City
If you're not interested in a half-day pilgrimage, other incredible barbecue restaurants can be found closer to downtown Fort Worth. Panther City opened its doors in 2014 in the Southside neighborhood. Like Goldee's, it was named one of Texas's top ten best barbecue joints in 2021.
We went relatively light on lunch here as it was at the end of our stay in Fort Worth. We got beef brisket, brisket elote, and pork belly burnt ends. Of the three, the brisket elote blew me away.
First, the generous amount of meat included explains the $14 cost. Second, the richness of the smoked brisket mixed with the street corn (made with cream cheese, Mexican cheese, and cream) was heavenly.
Panther City has both indoor seating and an outdoor patio with picnic tables. It's the perfect place to enjoy a Shiner beer and barbecue. 201 E Hattie St, Fort Worth, TX, panthercitybbq.com
10. Le Margot
Francophiles will appreciate the classic French cuisine and modern decor at Le Margot in southwest Fort Worth. Entering the restaurant for brunch on a Saturday, I was struck by the large three-sided red bar, open kitchen, and coffered ceilings.
Appetizers include cold water oysters, tarte flambees, a charcuterie board, Burgundy escargot, and steamed mussels. The soups and sandwiches include many cheesy favorites: croque madame, French onion soup with gruyere, and a Royale burger with onion marmalade and brie fondue (my pick).
There's filet au poivre with Cognac cream, short rib bourguignon, seared scallops, and butternut squash risotto for heartier fare. Additional French favorites such as coq au vin, trout almondine, and beef wellington are served as Plats du Jour during the week.
3150 S Hulen St, Fort Worth, TX, lemargottx.com
My first few forays into Fort Worth's restaurant scene have been a success! I returned from both trips impressed by everything I experienced, from the barbecue at a casual restaurant like Panther City to fine dining at Saint-Emilion.
As always, I've got more places to eat in Fort Worth on my list for next time. These include Grace (New American food), Little Red Wasp (casual American), Paris 7th Restaurant (French), and Bonnell's Fine Texas Cuisine (Southwestern).
