The food word for 2025 was beef.

In a glance at the 50 most-read Dallas-Fort Worth restaurant stories in 2025, we obsessed over burgers, we cried at the loss of longtime steakhouses, we binged on barbecue and we beefed about Michelin’s lack of attention.

The French company’s restaurant reviews in Texas dominated our food-news coverage last year — Michelin’s first year in the Lone Star State. Now in 2025, we were ready to see how well these out-of-towners got to know North Texas food.

What a mis-steak.

Fort Worth restaurants were ignored almost completely. Michelin didn’t seem to appreciate our Mexican or Tex-Mex food. The list of seven “value-driven” restaurants honored with a Bib Gourmand didn’t change at all from 2024.

Just two new D-FW restaurants were added to the Michelin Guide Texas, one of which was a brand-new French-Italian restaurant that earned a surprise star.

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As we look back at Dallas’ most high-profile food-news stories, there’s plenty to grumble about. But we also had the opportunity to tell the stories of the people behind the food.

There’s Greg Artkop, the barbecue fanatic traveling tens of thousands of miles this year to eat smoked meat. You met Drew Stephenson, who earned the nickname the Michelin Man for his obsessive visits to Texas’ 1-star Michelin restaurants. We told you about Petey Feng, the line cook detained by ICE who is getting support from high-profile Dallas chefs. We went behind the scenes with Mariano Martinez and his history-changing margarita.

Also in 2025, Dallas diners seem hungrier than ever for world-class food. Chefs are up for the challenge. But can we cool it with the prices? We’ll keep talking about that in 2026.

We look now at a dozen of 2025’s most popular food stories on dallasnews.com — the ones you clicked on most.

No, not the beef!

I couldn’t have guessed that the Dallas Morning News‘ top-read food story of 2025 would be about a 40-year-old steakhouse. Morton’s was “one of the best” steakhouses in Dallas in its heyday, The News said. It was a fancy place for a sophisticated meal, before Uptown Dallas was studded with beefy restaurants on every block. When Morton’s closed in late 2024, nostalgic Dallasites shared stories by the dozens.

“I fashioned a lot of what I do at Bob’s after the original Morton’s,” said Bob Sambol, of Bob’s Steak and Chop House in Dallas. Plenty of others in Dallas did, too.

‘Deadly’ fettuccine

Many of us went hunting through our fridges in September 2025 after the USDA warned of the dangers of heat-and-eat pastas sold at Walmart and Trader Joe’s. In this widely read Associated Press story, people were informed of exactly what to look for on the label to avoid the threat of listeria. Cajun chicken fettuccine Alfredo and linguine with meatballs and marinara had never seemed so scary.

End of an era

When the Meddlesome Moth’s owner Shannon Wynne announced to The News in early 2025 that he “couldn’t afford to stay” in the Dallas Design District, his comments set off a wave of concern from restaurateurs and diners that continues today.

On one hand, it’s exciting to see neighborhoods like the Dallas Design District become beacons for nationally known restaurants like Carbone and Delilah. On the other, rent prices in this neighborhood and others are going up by the year, and local operators are concerned they’ll be priced out entirely.

The Meddlesome Moth was a pioneer in the Design District, serving gastropub fare for 15 years. It closed in May 2025. Its iconic stained glass windows are still looking for a new home.

Fieri still on fire

The latest season of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives featured an impressive seven Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants, and News readers wanted all the details. We were pleased to see Food Network icon Guy Fieri visit some true local gems, like Chinese restaurant Hello Dumpling in East Dallas, barbecue joint Slow Bone in the Design District and vegan taco shop El Palote Panaderia in Pleasant Grove.

Yes, the beef!

For the first time in 105 years, fast-food burger joint White Castle will enter the Lone Star State. We broke the news that White Castle’s first stop in Texas would be in The Colony, just down the street from home decor megastore Nebraska Furniture Mart. We’ll have more on this brand expansion into Texas in 2026. For now, we’ll leave you dreaming of griddled onions, a hallmark of White Castle’s sliders.

Salad and Gone

When Salad and Go announced it was closing dozens of locations across Texas and Oklahoma, our Claire Ballor followed up with a list of which drive-throughs would close permanently. Your reactions were delightful surprises to all of us on the food team: Y’all love a drive-through salad! Part of the allure of Salad and Go is its low prices, to be sure. (We’re regular customers, too.)

Here’s some news you can use: Even though 18 Salad and Gos closed in D-FW, two-dozen stayed open.

Shutting the screen door

The Porch closed on Henderson Avenue in Dallas this year, a sudden move for the comfort-food restaurant. The company said the restaurant experienced a “perfect storm of losses” this year, despite efforts to drum up new customers with $5 cocktails. When The Porch closed, it was one of the last standing restaurants from an era when Henderson Avenue was at the center of the Dallas dining scene.

A moment for halal barbecue

Your top barbecue story from 2025 comes from Ballor, about Yearby’s relocation from Pilot Point to Plano. Its halal barbecue is some of the best in the state, and it earned a spot on Texas Monthly’s 50 Best list. The menu includes brisket, chicken and meatloaf — just no pork.

Consider stopping in to the new Plano restaurant over the holidays. Hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

So long to Hong Kong

Dallas’ longest continuously operating Chinese restaurant, Hong Kong, closed in mid-May 2025 after more than 60 years. For some Dallas-born neighbors, Hong Kong was their first foray into egg foo yung and yu dow gai ding. In fact, local middle schoolers took field trips there after learning about China in social studies class.

With Hong Kong Restaurant’s closure, a significant piece of Chinese-American food history is gone in Dallas.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

Babe’s Chicken Dinner House serves some of the best Southern food in the United States, Southern Living said. I think we can all see why that’s worth reading about! The writer said the food “brought a guest to tears — of joy.”

Remembering Chris Carpenter

Dallas bar partner Chris Carpenter died at age 41 — a surprise to friends and family. He opened Hendy’s on Henderson about a month prior, and customers saw him there nightly, leading the team. He had become a significant operator in the Dallas nightlife and bar scene.

“He lived fully, loved deeply and led with a rare combination of passion and generosity,” said Cote Bona, one of his best friends and a business partner in Hendy’s.

Bulldozing Sambuca

It’s been years since we’ve been to dinner-and-a-show restaurant Sambuca, as it closed on Dallas’ McKinney Avenue in 2018. The building stood empty at a busy Uptown Dallas intersection since then. In October 2025, excavators bulldozed Sambuca. Crews cleared the debris and laid grass in its place — so pretty and neat that it’s almost like Sambuca was never there. It isn’t clear yet what will happen to this prime piece of Dallas real estate.

The Dallas Cowboys’ late-season struggles continue, extending the team’s losing streak to three games after watching their NFL playoff hopes vanish earlier in the weekend.

On Sunday afternoon, the team once again struggled to get anything going and fell to the Los Angeles Chargers, 34-17, in the team’s home finale.

While the loss was disappointing, the silver lining for Cowboys Nation is that the team’s draft position continues to improve, with the team now sitting in the mid-teens with the No. 13 overall pick.

MORE: 3 frustrating takeaways from Cowboys’ loss to Chargers in Week 16

Dallas also got some help on Saturday night, with the Green Bay Packers falling to the Chicago Bears in overtime, moving the Cowboys’ second first-round pick to No. 21 overall.

Let’s hope that the team can make good use of the picks in the spring and double-dip on the defensive side of the ball to improve the roster on the defensive side of the ball. The Cowboys will finish off the 2025-26 campaign with divisional games against the Washington Commanders and New York Giants.

If the draft were to be held today, the Giants would hold the No. 1 overall pick.

A full look at the current 2026 NFL Draft order as the Cowboys observe their bye week, via Tankathon

MORE: 3 winners & 2 losers from Cowboys Week 16 loss to Chargers

Updated 2026 NFL Draft order following Week 16

1. New York Giants
2. Las Vegas Raiders
3. Cleveland Browns
4. New York Jets
5. Tennessee Titans
6. Arizona Cardinals
7. Washington Commanders
8. New Orleans Saints
9. Cincinnati Bengals
10. Los Angeles Rams (via Falcons)
11. Miami Dolphins
12. Kansas City Chiefs
13. Dallas Cowboys
14. Minnesota Vikings
15. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
16. Baltimore Ravens
17. Detroit Lions
18. New York Jets (via Colts)
19. Carolina Panthers
20. Pittsburgh Steelers
21. Dallas Cowboys (via Packers)
22. Houston Texans
23. Philadelphia Eagles
24. Cleveland Browns (via Jaguars)
25. San Francisco 49ers
26. Buffalo Bills
27. Los Angeles Chargers
28. Los Angeles Rams
29. Chicago Bears
30. New England Patriots
31. Seattle Seahawks
32. Denver Broncos

The 2026 NFL Draft will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from Thursday, April 23, through Saturday, April 25.

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The 2019 murder of 9-year-old Brandoniya Bennett in her Old East Dallas apartment rattled the whole city.

The bubbly girl, a rising fourth grader, was watching TV on a summer day when a bullet struck her. She was killed by a man feuding with a fellow rapper. The shooter had attacked the wrong apartment at Roseland, a cluster of Dallas Housing Authority properties.

Brandoniya’s death was framed as a turning point. City leaders, including Mayor Eric Johnson, vowed that Dallas would tamp down violence. But as revealed by a Dallas Morning News investigation this month, city officials and DHA had already put together a plan that was supposed to improve security at Roseland, a dangerous, high-crime complex. The plan was signed in January 2018, long before Brandoniya’s killing.

Despite this plan, violence continued to terrorize residents at Roseland. The complex is quieter now that it’s undergoing a planned renovation that has led many residents to relocate. City Hall and DHA find themselves at another crossroads, and it’s worth examining what went wrong with the 2018 plan so they can prevent a downward spiral once Roseland fills up again.

As our colleagues Sue Ambrose and Chase Rogers reported, Roseland for years has recorded enough criminal activity to qualify for a designation as a “habitual criminal property,” which should have led to increased police oversight. But former City Manager T.C. Broadnax opted instead for a more cooperative arrangement with DHA. The agreement called for crime reduction plans, meetings between DHA and city and police officials as well as record-keeping.

Neither the city nor DHA hewed closely to the agreement and its accountability measures. A DHA attorney referred to the documentation mentioned in the agreement as more of a wish list. Whatever you want to call it, the agreement was plainly a failure.

Shootings continued. More than one drug house took root. DHA initially resisted city requests for information about its rent roll, lease violations, community rules and a towing policy. The reports and briefings specified in the agreement didn’t happen.

We believe city and DHA officials are genuine about their desire to make Roseland safer. Police investigated crimes in the complex and made arrests. DHA invested in infrastructure and hired a private security firm in 2024 that significantly improved safety at Roseland. However, that firm left the picture in June after it couldn’t come to terms with DHA.

Dallas City Hall wisely recognized the problems at Roseland, but it was too lax with DHA, and the agency was too reluctant to cooperate. If safety deteriorates at Roseland again, the city must be more assertive about deploying its oversight powers.

Many public housing properties across the country have failed because authorities allowed crime to fester. DHA should cooperate with Dallas police to identify and expel bad actors from its properties. The agency’s No. 1 job is to create a safe and dignified environment for the families that depend on its services.