The Best Dishes Eater Dallas Ate in December

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.

Courtney E. Smith

Courtney E. Smith

El Carlos Elegante

Like everyone, getting to El Carlos Elegante in the Design District to try the fascinating menu this month was top of the list. For those who haven’t gone yet, please do it! My dining companion is a vegetarian, which the restaurant was able to accommodate with a lot of options. We put ourselves in the staff’s hands and let them bring us a slew of small dishes to share. Two standouts are pictured here, the charred eggplant one-hitter, which is packed with flavors, and the mole negro from the masa section of the menu, which is a house-made masa tortilla stuffed with ricotta. Incredible texture and flavors. Not pictured, but also a massive hit for the table, was the Mexican chocolate pot dessert, with stiff sheets of meringue over a chocolate dome.

CBD Provisions

For the holidays, ordering appetizers was a must. At CBD Provisions, the Texas charcuterie board scratched that itch. It is loaded with house-made sausage and bread, hot soppressata, various kinds of cheese, chicken liver mousse, and the best pickles you’ll find downtown.

Not pictured is the filet au Poivre ordered for the main, which scratched the itch for steak with a stunningly good sauce. Many thanks to our waiter, who talked us into the banana pudding — despite being full, we ate it all.

Mister 01 Extraordinary Pizza

The star-shaped pizza at Mister 01, with its crust filled with ricotta stars, lives up to the hype. The pizza is small, even when ordering the larger size, and thin. It’s also packed with flavors that work well together, from the spicy pepperoni to the fresh basil to the coolness of the ricotta. In short, it’s not an overwhelming project to take on and didn’t leave my stomach with regrets later about eating pizza.

Jalisco Norte

This restaurant knocked it out of the park at a dinner this month. Most impressive was the carne asada, made with 12-ounce prime ribeye and molcajete sauce, and the birria-style short ribs served with whole beans and tortillas that just came apart under the lightest touch of a fork. They were wildly different, and each delectable.

Restaurant Beatrice

Every time — every single time — showing up at Beatrice turns into one of the best meals of the month. This time we got the Louisiana charcuterie and were delighted to see the cochon corn dog from the restaurant’s October dinner had been added to it. And those biscuit crackers, made from leftover pastry dough, are still stellar.