The best takeout dinners of 2020: barbecue, fajitas, $15 salmon and a shareable feast
The safest place to dine is at home.
But pick up a takeout dinner from a local restaurant.
The carryout and curbside dinners of 2020 were so good, they’ll be hanging around in 2021.
Ordering them is easy. The best restaurants let you pick and choose from websites.
It’s a way to support the restaurants you love, and it helps keep workers on the job.
Here are some of the best takeout dinners of the year:
▪ The “Shareable Feast,” Byblos Mediterranean Restaurant, 1406 N. Main St., Fort Worth.
If you miss going to a big Greek or Lebanese buffet, Byblos sends it all home in a flashy boxed dinner with compartments for five meats, nine side dishes and pita. It feeds at least four people for a bargain $29.95.
Byblos, continuing the the 40-year Hedary family legacy, found new customers this year with the “Feast” and other family dinners, such as a $29.95 lemon-garlic roasted chicken family dinner, kebabs, gyros or falafel.
The “Feast” includes chicken and beef kebabs, kofta, kibbe and sausage, plus a giant sectional mezza tray with 11 different appetizers, including tabbouleh, hummus, stuffed eggplant and baba ghanoush.
Single dinners sell for $13-$18, with sandwiches and gyros for less and a rib-eye steak or lamb chops for $27.
It’s all packed meticulously and delivered curbside. Order at byblostx.com or on Squarespace at byblos-entertainment-inc.square.site.
(Chadra Mezza also has a good family-pack value.)
▪ The Heim Barbecue family pack, Heim Barbecue, 1109 W. Magnolia Ave. or 5333 White Settlement Road, Fort Worth.
The way to beat the crowd at Heim is to order the $74.99 family pack, pick it up at the separate takeout counter and saunter past the waiting line.
It includes everything you need: two pounds of any two meats, plus bacon burnt ends, quarts of two side orders and banana pudding. Trust me — you’ll eat for days.
Barbecue restaurants excelled this year, including the Kansas City-style Robinson’s BBQ smoked chickens, Hurtado Barbecue’s sampler, Panther City BBQ’s brisket elote, and smoked chicken at Angelo’s or Railhead Smokehouse (on Tuesdays and Saturdays).
But Heim is finally showing the consistency to match its quality; heimbbq.com.
▪ Combination dinner plus apps and churros or paletas, takeout or delivery only, Eat Fajitas, 3405 W. Seventh St., Fort Worth.
Chef Lanny Lancarte’s Righteous Foods started delivering out fajitas on the side, and they turned out to be first-rate.
The sirloin fajitas ($48) are some of the softest and most tender anywhere, unusual for a delivery dinner. (The dinner comes with three tortillas, but order more at 2/$1.50.)
There’s a combination dinner with chicken ($44) and sides of chips, queso, salsa and guacamole ($18 for all).
But the real bonus might be the churros with chocolate ($8) or MELT Ice Creams’ cajita flan or strawberry-mint paletas (6/$28).
Yes, you can order top-shelf margaritas, sangria, wines or beer, too; eatfajitas.com.
▪ Anything from Paris 7th.
The show-stopper of New Year’s Eve was Paris 7th’s Provence country-style rack of lamb dinner with a floating-island dessert, capping a year of remarkable four-star fine dining packed to reheat at home.
It’s amazing to think we can order a $49.50 beef-bourgignon dinner for two any night, or the Saint-Émilion roast duck for $27.50, or sole almandine or coq au vin for less than $20.
The chocolate cake (2/$10.50) is the eye-catcher dessert.
Some readers are still confused about these two neighboring French restaurants. Saint-Émilion’s French country fine-dining menu and chef moved to a larger space under the new name Paris 7th; paris7th.com or order at saint-emilionrestaurant.square.site.
Saint-Émilion is now more casual, and it’s still on a pandemic break.
▪ The Monday-Tuesday grab bag takeout specials at Local Foods Kitchen.
Local Foods Kitcnen, 4548 Hartwood Drive, gained more followers last year for its “drive-up dinners,” a $30 dinner for two with a different menu every night delivered to your car beginning at 4 p.m.
Unlike the family packs at nearby Bonnell’s, the dinners were meant for two, not four. But like at Bonnell’s, they often fed more or provided leftovers for another meal.
But Local Foods has a bonus nobody else can top: a $15 combo special Mondays and Tuesdays at 3 p.m., with a choice of entrees that often include seafood or pasta, a salad, a side dish and a cookie.
A $15 glazed salmon dinner with the extras was the best deal of the year.
Or maybe it was the chicken enchiladas. Or maybe it was the lasagna.
You have to go inside to see what’s in case, but they’ll try to help; 817-238-3464, localfoodskitchen.com.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
