3 Texas Food Spots Among The 50 Best Restaurants In America

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If you're looking to add a new restaurant to your rotation, pay attention!

The New York Times just revealed what restaurants it's most excited about in 2022 in its "50 Best Restaurants In America" list. Here's what the news outlet said about its prestigious list released this week:

We traveled widely and ate avidly as we built the annual list of our favorite restaurants in America. From Oklahoma City to Juncos, Puerto Rico, to Orcas Island off the coast of Washington State, our food reporters, editors and critics found revelatory Ethiopian barbecue, innovative Haitian cooking and possibly the most delicious fried pork sandwich in the United States. While we love to see a dynamic new dining room open its doors, we’re equally impressed by kitchens that are doing their best work years in. So while some of our picks debuted just this summer, others have been around for decades. The one thing they do have in common: The food is amazing.

In Texas, three restaurants made the top 50. Here's a look at them:

Canje, Austin

Here's what the NYT said about Canje, a Caribbean restaurant that opened in October 2021:

The chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph made a name for himself in Austin with the pastries at Emmer & Rye and Hestia, which he co-owns. Here at Canje — an ode to his Guyanese roots, with a menu that also stretches across the Caribbean — he has switched gears, with brilliant results. The food is a tangy, spicy, bright, coconutty dreamscape. Tilefish soaked in tamarind and rum butter. Prawns brushed with a verdant green seasoning and smoked chiles. A tres leches cake drenched in coconut milk. What makes the jerk chicken so supercharged with flavor? Mr. Bristol-Joseph ferments his seasoning. And plan on at least one order of the buttery Guyanese-style roti per person.

Sister, Dallas

Here's what the NYT said about Sister, the Italian and Mediterranean restaurant that opened last September:

Sister is not afraid to have some fun. The dining room aesthetic can best be described as Grandma’s house, but make it fashion. (Think high-end light fixtures mingled with antique plates and checkered tablecloths.) And the food? Italian-ish, emphasis on the -ish. White soy and hijiki give the thick strands of spaghetti vongole a funky depth. Shiitakes punctuate the Parmesan cream that sauces buckwheat lumache. The eggplant dip is darkened in color and heightened in flavor by black sesame. Sister resides in the former space of a widely beloved Dallas restaurant, the Grape. It is a worthy successor.

Smoke'N Ash BBQ, Arlington

Here's what the NYT said about Smoke'N Ash BBQ, a BBQ joint that opened in January 2018:

The owners, Patrick and Fasicka Hicks, can thank their customers, at least in part, for their utterly unique offering: Texas barbecue fused with Ethiopian fare. Smoke’N Ash B.B.Q. opened as a traditional barbecue restaurant in 2018. A year later, the couple added an Ethiopian menu, serving the food Ms. Hicks had grown up eating. Diners started asking for barbecue atop injera. The Hickses realized that those people were on to something exciting. The vibrant Ethiopian flavors — brisket comes lacquered with awaze, a spicy sauce made with berbere — are an ideal match for barbecue.

Check out the full report.


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