Dallas is a BBQ town and the local place you recommended most for it is Deep Ellum’s Pecan Lodge. The come-up is legit - it started as a stall at the Dallas Farmers Market in 2010 and has grown to one of the most celebrated BBQ joints in Texas. The art they practice is smoke -  the key to what makes the meat special here…as they say, “the best things in life are smoked in a pit”. Central-texas style rub, East Texas spice and of course, chips and salsa with margs like any good Tex-Mex BBQ must have. Your perfect combo of old Texas and new.

Fans Recommend: Ribs. Brisket. Sausage. Go for lunch.

We can’t just have one BBQ rec in Dallas, and you made sure we had Texas Monthly’s #6 ranked BBQ in the state - Cattleack - on our list. This is one you’ve gotta earn - it’s in a nondescript building in North Dallas and is open only Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and the first Saturday of the month 10a-2p. Saturday is the move, as the parking lot opens at 9 for people to pregame and drink beer before stuffing their face. The oak-and-hickory-smoked brisket is the anchor, but the rotating specials are where it gets interesting: wagyu pastrami brisket, Hatch chile sausage, pork steak dripping with tangy mop sauce. Get there early. Bring a cooler.

Fans Recommend: Brisket. Beef rib.

Dallas wasn't exactly a bagel town until this place opened during the pandemic and took over. It’s your most recommended Dallas breakfast spot. Kettle-boiled bagels, seasoned on both sides, in whatever sandwich form you can think of. For breakfast it's the “Shug” - bacon, egg, cheese and hashbrowns on a salt bagel with hot sauce. Specialties all over the place. As a great philosopher once said, when you put pizza on a bagel, you can have pizza anytime…and Shug’s pizza bagel may be the best Bagel Bite ever. Have it at the Mockingbird Lane location - the OG of their two Dallas spots - late night until 2am Tuesday through Saturday.

Fans Recommend: Shug. Pizza Bagel.

A Deep Ellum vibe setter since 2000, AllGood is part diner, part music venue, part neighborhood living room. Mismatched coffee cups donated by regulars, origami cranes hanging from the ceiling, live music Thursday, Friday and Saturday. All from the comfort of classic red leather stools and booths. They call themselves a “funky little cafe with soul” and the food backs that up - chicken-fried chicken, biscuits and gravy and frito pies. Your local Dallas diner favorite.

Fans Recommend: Biscuits and gravy. Chicken-fried chicken.

Your most rec’d Dallas burger place is Goodfriend, an East Dallas neighborhood gem near White Rock Lake that helped transform the area into one of Dallas’ coolest little food corridors. They say they’re a beers, burgers and whiskey joint, but that’s an undersell. Malort. Bloodies. Burger shots. Their IG has them pouring something INTO a High Life.  Hawaiian hot chicken is their latest menu add. And the burgers are built from natural grass-fed beef ground in-house. “The Bourdain” - two smashed patties, American cheese, Kewpie mayo - is what fans talked about most. Add in a very dog-friendly patio and this is the spot.

Fans Recommend: The Bourdain burger

An upscale, authentic Mexican gourmet with a cigar room and its own habanero pepper hot sauce, Javier’s is another local icon you told us you love. Since 1977, Javier's has been doing Mexico City-style gourmet cuisine in a dark, romantic, lodge-style room a few blocks from Highland Park. Fresh seafood, prime-cut filets, cabrito fajitas and the legendary cigar bar that has hosted ZZ Top, Jimmy Page and George Strait. They apparently have a dessert they light on fire tableside, too. A great option if you want to class up your Dallas time a little.

Fans Recommend: Filete Cantinflas. Get a reservation!

Your favorite ramen in Dallas? Wabi House. An almost-upscale ramen and small plates spot in a cool exposed brick and wood building opening onto Greenville Avenue in East Dallas (with three more locations outside Dallas now). The tonkotsu broth simmers for eighteen hours -  the tsukemen arrives dry, noodles piled in a bowl with a thicc dipping broth on the side. They also double as a fantastic cocktail spot - a gorgeous slate of original drinks, Japanese matcha IPAs and happy hour every day 3-7p.

Fans Recommend: Tsukemen broth. Tonkotsu ramen.

You made sure we knew about “the dive bar with the best Pho in Dallas”. Another gem of a place that could be in DRINK, but the food rep is special enough to be the star. It started as a retro dive in 2000, decorated with thrift-store furniture, bubble lights and VHS tapes running on a loop above the bar. The Vietnamese food came later, when a bartender started selling banh mis on Monday nights to bring in early customers. Word got out. The menu expanded. The pho comes from a family recipe, handed down from parents who cooked street food in the Mekong Delta. Now sold out of a dive bar in Texas. A true only-in-Dallas unicorn.

Fans Recommend: Beef Pho. Banh Mi.

A taco window on Main Street in Deep Ellum that serves duck, octopus, cabrito, and al pastor on handmade tortillas made from heirloom corn imported weekly from Oaxaca. One of your most rec’d taco places. Around the corner of Elm St is the Gastro Cantina, a more casual sit-down sibling. If you’re feeling fancier, hidden in the back is a 14-seat dining room called the Purépecha Room, where an eight-course tasting menu unfolds at $150 a head. Six-time James Beard semifinalist. Featured on Netflix's Taco Chronicles. Has a great happy hour. Maybe a better logo.

Fans Recommend: Octopus taco

“Get smashed at Herby’s” they say. Okay Herby’s. We shall. Maybe the coolest burger spot in The Big D, you rec’d this retro smashburger joint in the quiet, leafy Elmwood neighborhood. Opened in 2023 and named after the owner's ten-year-old chiweenie (you can get burgers for your pups here, too - one of their specialties). They’ve got plenty of options to nosh, but the OG Smash burger is where you start. The other star of the place is the jukebox, curated by the co-owner aka DJ Sober. One of the only places in Dallas that can also claim to be Nardwuar approved.

Fans Recommend: OG Smash burger

 An iconic East Dallas greasy spoon you love, Goldrush has been in Lakewood since 1980 after taking over an old doughnut shop. The John Wayne is the dish you rec’d - hash browns layered with a sunny-side-up egg, bacon sausage or chorizo, wrapped in a flour tortilla and topped with salsa. Dallas Observer gave it Best Hangover Cure, which may come in handy during the tournament. Closed Sundays and Mondays - plan accordingly.

Fans Recommend: The John Wayne Breakfast

If there was ever a perfect place for this recommendation list, it’s probably Peticolas Brewing. Fans couldn’t decide if it was a better soccer bar or taproom…which is a wonderful problem to have. One of the first craft breweries in modern Dallas, Peticolas was founded in 2011 by a lawyer who left his practice for his two passions (and ours) - beer and soccer. The brewery logo is even styled like a football badge. The tri-level taproom in the Design District has 16 beers on tap, a games loft upstairs and a crowd full of footy supporters at almost all times. Aka heaven.

Fans Recommend: Velvet Hammer.

Open since 1973, when the founder bought an old drugstore called the Stoneleigh Pharmacy and smudged out the letters "harmacy" on the sign. Hence the P. The same family still owns it over 50 years later, and even a fire and forced relocation couldn’t kill the vibe - the neon, the pool table, the jukebox, the pumpernickel burger bun and the cheapest drinks in Uptown all made it to the new Lemmon Ave address intact. A local journalist called it “a time capsule that holds thousands of stories”. This is a DRINK and an EAT and probably a WATCH. A rare triple threat on our list.

Fans Recommend: Wings. Pizza. The Shrop burger

Named after Dallas's most infamous resident, this wood-paneled dive in the Cedars in South Dallas is one of our local fans’ favorite watering holes. Vintage beer signs cover every wall, the yard out front is full of picnic tables and dogs, and live bands play on weekends with no cover. Directly across the street is Lee Harvey's Dive In, an outdoor swimming pool and party spot. In June and July, in Dallas, that’s an option you’re not going to be mad at. Our only dive bar recommendation where you can also literally dive in.

Fans Recommend: Take a swim next door.

On May 11, 1971, a young Dallas restaurateur watched kids getting Slurpees at a 7-Eleven, went home, adapted a soft-serve ice cream machine to run on his father's margarita recipe, and invented the frozen margarita. For real. That machine now lives in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, next to Julia Child's kitchen. As it should. The restaurant is still here, still family-owned, still running the mesquite-grilled fajitas and cheese enchiladas topped with state fair chili that have kept Dallas coming back for over fifty years. You told us we couldn’t not put the place responsible for the frozen marg on the list. Which is more than fair. Salud to the OG.

Fans Recommend: Frozen margarita.

A neighborhood coffee shop in Bishop Arts that started in a 1975 VW Bus named Floyd in 2019 and found a permanent home on Davis Street in 2020. Our most recommended Dallas coffee spot. Quality beans from rotating guest roasters, syrups made in-house and an awesome space to drink it all in. A second location opened in the Design District for those staying closer to downtown. That one also hosts dance parties. The welcoming Big Tex holding a coffee on the front window tells you all you need to know for a great Dallas coffee experience.

The Londoner is your undisputed heavyweight Dallas soccer bar champ. It’s been recognized as one of the elite soccer bars in the country and you guys backed that up. The original location is in Addison, but you guys said the newer Dallas one is equally legit. It’s big. It’s set up perfectly. The food is better than it should be.You can get a good martini while guys in kilts play bagpipes. Total package pub experience.

Fans Recommend: Fish and chips, scotch eggs

Another A+ Dallas soccer pub you guys love is Blackfriar. Opened in 2003, this place is in an old frame house with interior woodwork that came from a castle owned by Pete Townsend of The Who. Add a beer garden in the front yard and two floors of TVs inside and you get a hell of a lot more than you’d expect from an old house. They officially rep Man U, the Packers and Bama if you’re into any of those, but this should be one of your World Cup watching spots either way.

Fans Recommend: Fish and chips

50 beers on tap, 30 screens, a giant projector and outside space in front and in back…what more do you need? Stan’s is the rare giant sports bar that you guys also called “a great dive”. It also is Dallas's oldest continuously operating bar, open since 1952 when blues musician E.E. Stanley built it so his band would always have a place to play. Another unique hybrid of a spot with some awesome history from our local Dallas die-hards.

The soccer pubs continue with another one of your North Dallas recs - The Irishman. An official Spurs bar that also has all the beers, TVs and giant projector you want…as the front of the place says, “PUB.GRUB.SPORTS”. The locals love this neighborhood bar’s match atmosphere, saying it’s one of the best in the city. Throw in pool tables, and outdoor space and live music and all the boxes are checked.

The bar you said might be the most fun on the list is The Old Monk, a Henderson Avenue institution since 1998 that’s made a great little strip of bars what it is today. It’s dark, it’s cozy, it’s got authentic old school bars and doors and decor. The fish and chips is one of the best you’ll find in Dallas. The location is fantastic to bar hop from (or just stay all night).  If you’re looking for a younger crowd and more of a watching-at-a-bar experience than the giant projector jams, The Old Monk is the play.

One of the great science museums in America and one of your top overall Dallas places to check out is The Perot Museum. And specifically for the World Cup, they opened a 10,000 sq-foot interactive exhibition called “Soccer: More Than a Game” on March 7. Developed in partnership with Mexico City's Museo Interactivo de Economía, it explores the biomechanics, data analytics and materials science behind the sport through twenty hands-on engagement zones. You can test your kicking power, design a stadium from scratch and dribble across a digital floor while dodging lava.

Our fans know what our fans like, which is why they had to recommend a book store bar that has a daily “Happy Book Hour” from 3-to-6 where buying something to read gets you a drink. Opened in 2014 by two Spanish ex-pats who wanted a spot that combined books and bars like places in their hometown did, Wild Detectives has become a pillar of Dallas literary culture. Located in an old house on the edge of the Bishop Arts neighborhood, the space is unique, the bar inside is great and the backyard is even better. You may run into a reading event, you may run into a chess club, you may run into them making paella in that backyard. All until midnight every day.

Dallas's original independent record store that you guys love. Around since 2000, Good Records has survived three locations - Deep Ellum, Lower Greenville and now Garland Road in East Dallas. It’s outlasted every shift in the music industry by staying small, staying curated and staying committed to the space they’re in. They’ve got a stage at the back for in-store performances and they’ll throw listening parties for new stuff all the time. After you grab some vinyl,  take your receipt and go next to for discounts on cocktails and food at the awesome Lounge here.

Opened by four brothers who grew up playing futsal on the streets of Brazil, City Futsal has been a part of the community since it opened in 2011. Their urban sports complex next to the Dallas Farmers Market is the most alive soccer space in the city - an outdoor turf field, a covered indoor court, adult pickup leagues running most nights and a cantina selling beer and boozy popsicles. You can rent a court, join a pickup game, or just sit at a picnic table with beers and watch. You guys said it’s the heart of soccer in Dallas and just a flat out awesome hang.

Dallas built a park over a freeway and it became the city's town square. The 5.4-acre deck above Woodall Rodgers opened in 2012 and does something few urban parks manage - it actually gets used. Over 1.5 million visitors a year come for the free daily programming: yoga, live music, outdoor films, food trucks, lawn games, and a children's park. It sits at the hinge between Downtown and Uptown, with the Arts District on one side and the Perot Museum two blocks away.

Fans Recommend: The food trucks!