The 11 Best Restaurants in Fort Worth, Ranked

Don Artemio is first because a national panel put it there. In 2023 the James Beard Foundation named it a finalist for Best New Restaurant in America. No other restaurant in Fort Worth has ever reached that round. The kitchen cooks food from Coahuila in northern Mexico, and it opened on West 7th Street in March 2022.

The menu is not a Tex-Mex menu. Cabrito, which is young goat, is braised slowly and comes to the table at $56. The chile hojaldrado is $39.

There is sea bass in black mole at $59. The tortillas are made by hand from blue corn for $10. Texas Monthly reviewed it in August 2022 and praised the cooking. It did find the sea bass came out mushy on one of two visits.

Go for the happy hour if the prices worry you. It runs every day from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., with $4 off signature drinks and $6 house wine. Sunday brunch starts at 10 a.m. A full dinner for two can pass $200, per The Infatuation in July 2025. The early seat is the smart one.

Ellerbe Fine Foods has held the same corner of Magnolia Avenue since June 2009. That is most of the case for it. Molly McCook opened it with Richard King in the Near Southside. In 2020 the James Beard Foundation named her a semifinalist for Best Chef in Texas. Ten years before that, Bon Appetit called Ellerbe one of the ten best new restaurants in America.

The cooking leans Louisiana. Fried green tomatoes are $17 and the low country shrimp boil soup is $16. Entrees run from a $34 summer corn pasta up to a $58 pecan wood grilled steak. Pan seared halibut is $57 and cornmeal crusted redfish is $39. The creole mac and cheese is $14 and worth the add.

Come on the early side. Aperitif hour starts at 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, an hour before dinner service. The kitchen closes at 9 p.m. most nights and 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The room is dark Sunday and Monday. The menu is genuinely short, so check it online first if someone in your party is picky.

Goldee’s is the best barbecue in Fort Worth and among the best in Texas. Texas Monthly ranked it No. 1 in the state in 2021 and No. 3 in 2025. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand. In 2023 three of its founders were James Beard semifinalists for Best Chef. That is a lot of judges agreeing about one small building on Dick Price Road.

It opened in February 2020 and it is open three days a week. The doors go up Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 11 a.m. They stay up until 3 p.m. or until the food runs out. Usually it is the food. Goldee’s does not post prices online, so bring more cash than you think you need.

Plan the wait into your day. One diner arrived 70 minutes before opening and got through the door two hours and 45 minutes later, and the beef ribs were already gone. If you want beef ribs, get in line early. If you want a short wait, come at noon on a Sunday and accept what is left.

Bonnell’s has the highest diner score in this guide. It sits at 4.6 on Tripadvisor across 334 reviews, which puts it sixth out of 2,182 Fort Worth restaurants. Jon Bonnell opened it on Bryant Irvin Road in 2001 and has run it ever since. That is a long time to keep a room this full.

The kitchen cooks Texas game. Pepper crusted buffalo is $65, ancho rubbed elk backstrap is $62, and the pecan crusted redfish is $52. There is a braised lamb shank at $48 and a tequila lime game hen at $44. The hand cut steaks are listed at market price, so ask before you order one. Bonnell’s has held a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence every year since 2004.

It is open Tuesday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and closed Sunday and Monday. Book ahead. Two things show up in reviews often enough to mention. Service can start slowly, and one diner waited twenty minutes for a drink order. Steaks that appear online are also not always in the building that night.

Grace is the downtown room that has not wobbled. It opened on Main Street in 2008 and sits at 4.5 on Tripadvisor across 396 reviews. Texas Monthly called it downtown’s favorite gathering spot for refined food and drink. Fort Worth Magazine named it a 2026 editor pick for its wine and beer list.

The menu runs long and expensive. A Windy Meadows chicken is $39, the miso glazed black cod is $55, and an 8oz filet is $63. A 20oz dry aged bone in ribeye is $108. Maine diver scallops are $54 and the Colorado rack of lamb is $89. Chef Blaine Staniford has been running this kitchen for years, and the cooking is steady.

Two warnings before you book. Prices have climbed sharply. One diner in October 2025 wrote that the 8oz filet had gone from $42 to $63. Service also slows on nights when the room is half full. Several reviewers found that more annoying than a busy night. The bar opens at 4 p.m. and the kitchen closes at 9:30 p.m. most nights.

Tim Love opened Lonesome Dove on North Main in June 2000, when nobody put white tablecloths in the Stockyards. Twenty five years later the city marked the anniversary with a proclamation. CultureMap nominated it for a 2026 Tastemaker restaurant of the year award. It sits at 4.4 on Tripadvisor across 576 reviews.

The kitchen cooks game and cooks it loudly. Kangaroo nachos are $18, elk sliders with blueberry jam are $28, and blue corn lobster hushpuppies are $26. The Montana bison ribeye is $99.

The best deal on the menu is the 16oz prime rib at $24. That is less than a side dish costs at some places on this list. Lunch is served Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and a ground tenderloin cheeseburger is $15.

Call before you drive out on a weeknight. The official site only publishes lunch hours, and other listings disagree about Sunday. Reviewers also split on the expensive cuts, with some saying the tomahawk did not match its price. Park in a paid lot you understand. Stockyards lots do tow, and one diner paid $293 to get a car back.

Clay Pigeon was Marcus Paslay’s first restaurant, and it opened on White Settlement Road in 2013. He has opened others since. This is still the one that shows what he does with a wood fire. CultureMap nominated it for a 2026 Tastemaker restaurant of the year award, alongside Cattlemen’s and Lonesome Dove.

Prices spread wide, which is unusual for a room this serious. The CP burger is $21 with brie, jalapeno bacon jam, and fries. Bay of Fundy salmon is $38 and spiced duck breast is $42. Steak frites is $46, and the wood grilled lamb chops are $58. An 8oz eye of ribeye on its own is $60. Grilled bone marrow with sourdough starts the meal at $18, and dessert is $14.

Know two things going in. There is no lunch, ever. Doors open at 5 p.m. seven days a week. They close at 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Happy hour is Tuesday through Friday and lasts exactly one hour. Only 93 people have reviewed it on Tripadvisor, so treat the 4.4 as a smaller signal than Bonnell’s 4.6.

Cattlemen’s opened in 1947 and has fed the Stockyards ever since. Fort Worth Magazine named it the best steakhouse in the city in 2026. CultureMap nominated it for a Tastemaker award the same year. It is also the one place here open every day of the week. Doors open at 11 a.m. Monday through Saturday and noon on Sunday.

The steaks are priced like steaks. A 20oz Ranch Boss T-bone is $64.95 and a 16oz ribeye is $85. A 32oz porterhouse is $95, and a dry aged 32oz tomahawk is $165. The menu names the ranches, including Bosque Ranch and the 6666 Ranch.

Sides are separate: cheddar mac and cheese is $14.45 and mashed potatoes are $10.95. Taylor Sheridan and two partners bought the place by August 2023 but only announced it in June 2025. They are adding more than 20,000 square feet.

This is the weakest score here among the pricier rooms, at 4.0 across 1,174 reviews. The complaints cluster. Service comes up again and again, including on half full nights. Valet now runs $30, and diners say the free close-in parking disappeared with the new patio. Budget for the parking and the sides before you decide this is a $65 dinner.

Joe T. Garcia’s opened on the Fourth of July in 1935 and turned 90 last year. The James Beard Foundation named it an America’s Classic in 1998. The third generation of the Lancarte family runs it now. On a busy weekend it feeds more than a thousand people. Almost every visitor to Fort Worth ends up asking about this place.

It is ranked ninth here for one reason: the food does not match the setting for everyone. Its Tripadvisor score is 3.9, the lowest in this guide, across 2,945 reviews. That is a very large sample saying something honest. People come for the garden patio and the family style plates. They come for a room that has not changed much in ninety years.

Two practical things matter more here than anywhere else on this list. First, it takes cash or check only. The menu page says so in plain words and there is an ATM on site. Visitors still get caught by this constantly. Second, the patio line runs longer than the indoor line on a weekend. Decide which one you want before you join it.

Reata started in Alpine in 1995 and came to Fort Worth in 1996. Its first room here was on the 35th floor of a downtown tower. A tornado took that room out in 2000. It has moved more than once since. Now it sits on the ground floor at 530 Throckmorton Street, where it reopened in July 2024. It holds a 4.4 across 1,702 reviews, seventh out of 2,182 restaurants in the city.

The cooking is West Texas by way of a good ranch kitchen. Tenderloin tamales with pecan mash are $18. Calf fries with cracked pepper cream gravy are $14, and tumbleweed onion rings are $13. A grilled 6oz petite filet is $39 and the house ground buffalo burger is $18. Tortilla soup is $8 a cup. Lunch runs every day from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Take the validated parking. Three hours in the Tower Garage comes with the meal, which downtown makes worth having. Two complaints show up in reviews and both are fair to raise. One party was asked to give up a table in under two hours so a larger group could sit. Several diners also describe tough steaks at prices close to $60. The tamales are the safer order.

Paris Coffee Shop opened in 1926, which makes it the oldest room in this guide by nine years. It moved to 704 W Magnolia Ave in 1974 and has been there since. Mike Smith owned it from 1965 until 2020, when a group led by Lou Lambert bought it. They closed it in September 2021 and rebuilt the plumbing, wiring, kitchen, and bathrooms. It reopened in late May 2022.

It is the best value on this list. Five blue plate specials run $15.95 each. Take your pick of pot roast, meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, fried catfish, or a chicken enchilada casserole. Chicken fried steak is $18.95, steak and eggs is $22.95, and pan roasted salmon is $19.95. A slice of homemade pie is $5.95 and coffee is $3.50. Texas Monthly gave the reopened version three stars in 2022.

Get there in the morning. The doors open at 7 a.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. on Sunday. Everything closes by 2:30 p.m., so there is no dinner here. Two honest knocks. Prices went up after the 2020 sale, and longtime regulars still write about it. Reviewers also report uneven plates and servers who disappear at the wrong moment.