Dallas–Fort Worth, TXMiddle Eastern

This West Village spot blends Lebanese and Moroccan cooking inside a Marrakesh-market-styled dining room from the team behind Medina Oven and Bar and Farnatchi. Standouts include baba ganoush, fattoush, chicken shawarma, and merguez lamb sausage, all built for sharing over wine in a room that leans into its North African theme.

This Iraqi bakery and restaurant slices beef shawarma from a rotating spit and builds it onto soft Iraqi bread with tahini and fresh vegetables, sandwiches the Observer called hall-of-fame material for well under six dollars. The kitchen also does hummus and tabbouleh alongside a family grocery that dates to 1978.

The Turan family, who relocated to Dallas in 2012, run this ocakbasi-style Turkish grill on Bryan Street, where chefs cook over charcoal in full view of diners at the counter. Charcoal-grilled lamb, chicken, and beef anchor the menu alongside fresh pide and lahmacun.

Nehme and Christina Elbitar have run this Lebanese kitchen for two decades, naming it for Nehme's home village in northern Lebanon. It is genuinely Lebanese rather than the more common Syrian or Turkish styles around DFW, and since 2022 it has run mostly as takeout and catering out of a compact space on Galveston Avenue.

Opened in 1996 around a book of recipes from Mama Nazy, this small Lower Greenville restaurant cooks a home-style blend of Greek, Turkish, Lebanese, and Persian dishes and won Dallas Observer's readers' choice for Mediterranean cooking. It is an unfussy neighborhood spot more than a destination, which is part of its long-running appeal.