An Irving Restaurant Makes The New York Times Best 50 Restaurants

Simply South is one of the 50 best restaurants in America. Never heard of it? Us neither. Get ready for the three-hour wait.

By Lauren Drewes Daniels

September 25, 2024

The New York Times has updated its list of 50 best restaurants in America, with some surprises. Alison McLean

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Since 2021, The New York Times has issued an annual list of restaurants it deems the 50 best in America. Over the years, many North Texas restaurants have rightly graced the list.

In 2022 Dallas native and New York Times food writer, Priya Krishna, anointed Smoke'N Ash B.B.Q. in Arlington to the list. She lauded the Texas barbecue fused with an Ethiopian flare, and brisket laced with the berbere sauce. That same year, Sister on Greenville Avenue, one of the Observer's Top 100 Restaurants, also made the list, for its Italian-ish food "with an emphasis on ish."

Roots Southern Table absolutely was on the list in 2021 (also on our top 100) with duck-fat-fried chicken that "is the equivalent of a bear hug."

For this year's fresh and clean list (no restaurants seem to stay on the list from year to year), 32 of the restaurants are newly opened this year. But the overall list includes some longstanding staples, including one restaurant that opened in 1976.

A few Texas restaurants made the list including Barbs B Q in the Central Texas town of Lockhart. There, a Franklin and Goldee's vet, Chuck Charnichart, brings a "distinct point of view that makes her food stand out in a crowded meat landscape." Can a meat landscape really ever be crowded though? Alas, Krishna writes that the "brisket is tender in all the right ways, with a smoky, peppery crust, but a piquant rub of chile de arbol and chile de guajillo brings an unexpected flash of heat."

Near Houston, a cajun restaurant on NASA Road 1, Viola and Agnes' Neo Soul Food, is a "soul-food dreamscape," where "Puffs of cornbread disappear into the various porky, spicy stews, and into your mouth." Sounds like a fantastic road trip: a NASA tour and soul food. Maybe even go look at the Gulf after.

You won't need to travel far for one of those top 50 restaurants in America, however.

Simply South in Irving opened in February of this year along Interstate 635, in front of a Target and down from a nail spa. In the review, Krishna writes that on Sundays the wait is three hours, as it has quickly earned the blessing of Dallas' sizable Indian population. Owner Andhra Pradesh is from southern India and three chefs have created a spot that tastes like home cooking from the region

"The flat discs of gunturu thatte idli, made with fermented rice, come steaming and soaked in ghee and podi, a deeply savory blend of dry lentils and chiles," Krishna writes.

This restaurant hadn't even entered our radar screen, but now it's a beeping bright dot in the middle.

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Lauren Drewes Daniels is the food editor of the Dallas Observer. She started working as a freelance writer in 2013 and became editor in 2021. She covers Dallas' evolving dining scene, the many openings and closings as well as trends and breaking news. She oversees annual lists including Top 100 Bars and Top 100 Restaurants and contributes to the Best of Dallas. If you have a tip about an amazing pastry, pie or taco, let her know.

Contact: Lauren Drewes Daniels

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