Restaurants in Dallas

Under new ownership, Chen's Happy Garden’s chefs serve robust portions of Mandarin- and Cantonese-style dishes. Diners can start with an appetizer such as pot stickers, ideal for sharing among eight friends or ambassadors from each planet in the solar system. The mandarin steak's beef comes accompanied by bok choy, pea pods, and a spicy sauce. Vegetable-based and low-calorie entrees, including the braised bean cake with vegetables, satisfy herbivorous appetites. Combination dinners allow guests to sample several items—the #3 combo congregates pork chow mein, pork fried rice, sweet-and-sour chicken, and a crab puff into one dinner, as well as soup, hot tea, and a fortune cookie that tests the reliability of aging magic 8 balls.

Sol Picante espouses itself as a family establishment since its expansive menu of fajitas, burritos, and enchiladas urges communal feasting. The familial tradition continues with the eatery’s recipes, which have passed through multiple generations to inform ample combination platters, seafood dishes dotted with prawns, and hefty burritos filled with chorizo, cheese, and guacamole. To finish things off, the wait staff mixes white russians, shirley temples, and tequila-spiked coffee, just like Grandma used to make.

The tearoom at Scatter Joy brims with quaint touches, from the brightly polished silver spoons guests use to stir their tea to the pink roses that decorate many of the teapots stationed at each cozy table. The stout teapots release aromatic steam that carries the scent of loose green, black, or decaffeinated tea throughout the shop. Feminine plates hold artful arrays of tearoom specialties, including scones, fresh salads finger sandwiches shaped into delicate triangles or to-scale replicas of the queen’s fingers. Guests can sit down to a luncheon or, with advance notice, enjoy traditional high tea service where they can enjoy multiple courses of salads, sandwiches, scones, tapas, and desserts.