Our weekend getaway to Dallas was fun and restful and all the things you’d want from a trip, but the best part was the food! Here are a few of the best places to check out for food, coffee, and drinks among Bishop Arts District restaurants.
Bishop Arts District Restaurants
Living in a small town means giving up access to things I used to not think twice about. Mostly, that means restaurants.
Don’t get me wrong, I love to cook and when I try something new at a restaurant, my first thought is if I can replicate this at home. I love trying new things and being adventurous in the kitchen.
But.
Sometimes, I want food that I didn’t cook. And when I want that, I want more than fast food. I want decent food. Or foods I can’t easily make at home, things like the perfect tikka masala (trying, but no winner yet) or beef bourguignon. Sometimes I can’t even get the ingredients l need (yet to find pork belly in Altus, even if I felt confident enough to not mess up the preparation).
So unsurprisingly, travel has become mostly about food for us right now. I don’t need Michelin-starred fine food, but I do need great meals and for goodness sake, something that’s not fast food!
Our recent trip to Dallas ended up being 99% about the food, and it was glorious. Here are my favorite places we ate!
Brunch
Brunch is crucial in millennial and hipster culture, and Bishop Arts is rolling in both. Here are my two favorite breakfast & brunch places we discovered:
Bolsa
By far, my favorite meal we ate on this trip. Bolsa is a dinner & drinks kind of place, with ambiance that transports you to a trendy bar in a big city. We arrived for brunch right as they opened and didn’t have to wait for a table.
The entire menu looked absurdly good, and we debated for a while what to get before settling on splitting the Brunch Deluxe. Which was perfect because its bits of three entrees: french toast cakes, eggs, maple bourbon glazed pork belly and a perfect little warm potato pepper and onion dish. That pork belly was ridiculously good! All the things I love about bacon without being greasy.
Don’t overlook the drink menu: we loved the manmosa (beer & orange juice), and the pineapple mimosa was a lovely little twist on the traditional.
Oddfellows
According to the interwebs, Oddfellows is probably the most popular brunch spot in the area, for good reason. Everything on the menu looked amazing! This place does classic brunch dishes with a Southern twist, as well as a really delicious coffee selection. We ended up getting the chicken & waffles and a croque madame, complete with friend okra and macaroni and cheese on the side.
The croque madame turned out to be more than twice as big as I was expecting, and smothered in gravy as well as cheese and an egg! I wasn’t expecting to love gravy on a ham and cheese sandwich, but it was surprisingly good, giving it a bit of a country edge. Needless to say, plan to share dishes or bring home leftovers.
Meals & Drinks
Eno’s Pizza Tavern
We picked Eno’s for dinner because we wanted pizza, but as we wandered the Bishop Arts District and asked around it seemed to be one of the perennial favorites. On a weekend it’s nuts, so plan to make a reservation or wait, but it’ll be worth it!
The restaurant is in a converted house and the second floor curves around itself in a series of rooms, making it feel cozy. We split an order of bruschetta and the Meatball and the Goat pizza. Who can resist that name?!! It was a perfect dinner for two. The bruschetta comes on one huge slice of fresh bread, which struck me as unusual but tasty. The pizza itself is thin crust and hits the perfect point of crispy but not cracker-like, with oozy goat cheese and slices of beef and boar meatballs.
Ten Bells Tavern
Technically we ate off their weekend brunch menu when we visited (which I also recommend), but Ten Bells Tavern feels more like a place you meet your friends for a beer and appetizers after work. We walked in and were immediately transported back to a little pub we discovered in Edinburgh: this place looks just like a legit British pub, dark with red walls, small tables and a jumble of maps and paintings on the walls.
The authentic feel juxtaposes with the hipster music and staff, which I kind of loved about the place. If you’re grabbing brunch, go for the duck confit hash – all the best parts of eggs Benedict but with duck. Yes please.
Just outside
Deliciousness can’t be constrained by neighborhoods. Here are a few of my favorites technically outside Bishop Arts District but close enough to not get overlooked.
Cheesesteak house
Our waiter at Ten Bells sent us here, and he was right. Cheesesteak House is a hole-in-the-wall place, generic looking in a strip mall. The menu is all different combinations of meat, bread and cheese, so our expectations weren’t high. I got a classic cheese steak and Logan chose the Alan burger. Both were delicious! The cheesesteak was everything you’d want in a cheesesteak: gooey cheese, completely crave-able, and so satisfying. The Alan burger, essentially a burger with cheesesteak meat and cheese and queso on top, was phenomenal. Try both with their spicy chipotle mayo, it adds a spicy kick.
BB Bop Seoul Kitchen
Love bimibop? Go here. The menu is a fusion of korean dishes with American ingredients. My favorite was the For Realz Bop, which had bulgogi and a good spicy kick. Another fun thing about BB Bop is the sauces: they have about six different sauces to add to your dish, each one completely different than the one before. My surprise favorite was the Thai peanut sauce!
JOY Macarons
Macarons. Do I need to say more? But seriously. It’s a bit pricey, but macarons hold a special place in our hearts since our trip to France and I couldn’t resist. It was 100% a good decision though – JOY Macaron’s flavor offerings were a good mix of classics like chocolate and pistachio and unusual options like Italian cream or violet and black currant. Their monthly special was an elderflower and strawberry flavor that I loved, but the salted caramel blew me out of the water – possibly the best macaron flavor I’ve ever had.
We loved eating our way through the Bishop Arts District restaurants! If you go, add these to your must-eat list. (Yes, I usually have a must-eat list on vacations. Doesn’t everyone?) What do you look for in restaurants when you travel?? Comment below to let me know!
Opinions are my own & I didn’t receive compensation for my writing. The links above contain affiliate links, which means I get a few cents (at no extra cost to you) if you book or buy something via that link. This helps me keep costs down & posts up! All images copyright Teaspoon of Nose.
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These look like awesome restaurants! Now I’m craving coffee and brunch ;D lol
Aren’t we all??? 😉
Ohh all these photos had me going crazy! I would love to visit there someday!
[…] For more of our weekend in Dallas, check out our favorite Bishop Arts District food. If you check it out and use my tips, be sure to let me know and tag your photos with […]
Food looks fantastic and I’m jealous because I really want to go to Dallas! there are so many places in the states i want to see, I’m thinking more and more about trying to plan a trip there!
I feel the same way about visiting Europe! So many things to see and not enough time!! 🙂 If you do head to Dallas, you should let me know and I can meet you there!!!
I’ve never been to Texas, but oh man, those brunch pics made me think it may be worth it! That looked so tasty!
It definitely is! I’m loving the Dallas-Ft. Worth area a lot, and I haven’t even been to Austin or San Antonio!
Love the wooden plate from Bolsa, sooo cool and unique! Bookmarking this for my next trip to Dallas!