Agnes and Sherman in Houston and Le Calamar in Austin are named in BA’s list of great, new restaurants. They span from New Orleans to Los Angeles and from Santa Fe to New York.
The nation’s best restaurants had “clear perspectives, with the will — and the confidence — to take risks,” BA wrote. Said another way, these chefs know who they are and they’re putting their personalities on the plate, which is also one of the five criteria Michelin critics use when picking star-studded restaurants.
D-FW’s biggest contender for a list like BA’s is probably Mamani, the French-Italian restaurant that earned one Michelin star in 2025. French chef Christophe De Lellis has an impressive resume as a protege of Joël Robuchon. But is Mamani “fearless”? Not exactly.
Fort Worth’s Chumley House, while wonderful, opened in late 2024 and therefore wasn’t considered for best new restaurant, as it had to have opened between March 2025 and March 2026, according to BA’s methodology.
Refreshingly, some of the restaurants on BA’s list seem extremely unfussy, like Agnes and Sherman, the Houston diner that sells cheeseburger fried rice as its star. “It’s a mishmash of two iconic dishes in their own genres,” the magazine wrote, “but, together, something wholly emblematic of the food that owners Nick Wong and Lisa Lee are putting forth.”
Austin bistro Le Calamar also seems worth the drive from D-FW, in part for its “dynamic update” to the classic steak au poivre.
Topping my list to try from BA is Creepies, a French bistro with a silly name in Chicago. It serves Brie gougères, but make ’em messy, and a plate of gnocchi gallivanting as a “delightfully imaginative update on croque madame.”
Yes, please, then bring them to Dallas.
Dining and Cooking