For Fort Worth, Michelin Guide restaurant awards are just a retread
Texas paid $2.7 million in public money to get our own Michelin Guide travel guidebook.
It would have been cheaper to send every tourist a map to Houston, Austin and San Antonio
The 2025 version of the annual Michelin awards turned out an overhyped rehash of the 2024 awards. Only three more restaurants earned a coveted Michelin Star. Only about 20 locations were added to the shallow overall 2024 list, which celebrated Texas “barbecue cuisine” but not much else.
In the Fort Worth area, Michelin listed the same four barbecue restaurants and a taqueria, representing a “high standard of cooking.”
No Fort Worth-area restaurant won a Michelin Star. The only restaurant to make “Bib Gourmand” — a special recognition for cooking and value — was perennial barbecue winner Goldee’s Bar-B-Q south of Kennedale.
“For any restaurant, it’s tough to maintain quality,” Goldee’s co-founder Jonny White wrote in a text message, “so that’s really our main goal.”
Goldee’s, 4645 Dick Price Road, fell from No. 1 in the state to No. 3 in Texas Monthly magazine’s Top 50 barbecue list this year. But it didn’t slip with Michelin.
Panther City BBQ, 201 E. Hattie St., repeated on Michelin’s list of “Recommended” restaurants. Same for Smoke’N Ash BBQ, 5904 S. Cooper St., Arlington, and Terry Black’s BBQ, 2926 W. Seventh St, honored for its Austin location.
The only other Fort Worth-area restaurant to make the Michelin list was repeat choice Birreria y Taqueria Cortez, 2220 E. Rosedale St.
Three Fort Worth fine-dining restaurants were longshots to be added, but all three were shut out.
The Chumley House, 3230 Camp Bowie Blvd., is a corporate cousin to Michelin Recommended restaurants Mister Charles and El Carlos Elegante in Dallas. But Chumley did not join them, although company co-founder Chas Martin was honored for “exceptional cocktails.”
Don Artemio Mexican Heritage, 3268 W. Seventh St., was a rare Texas finalist for national recognition in the 2023 James Beard Foundation Awards but once again did not earn a Michelin mention.
The Mont, 4729 Saint Amand Circle, is an ambitious new fine-dining restaurant for west Tarrant and Parker County but was not listed in the awards.
Once again, most of the winners and new honorees came from Austin, Houston and San Antonio.
Two of the three new Michelin Star winners were from San Antonio. The other was Mamani, 2681 Howell St., Dallas, that city’s second Star winner ever following Tatsu.
Mamani’s menu includes New Zealand lamb chops, Amish chicken and Australian rib-eye or filet mignon, all at reasonable prices for ambitious fine dining.
Of the 16 new Texas restaurants to make Michelin’s “Recommended” list, nine were from Houston and five from Austin. The only new restaurant from North Texas on that list is Sushi Kozy, 2000 Ross Ave., Dallas.
It wouldn’t be so bad if we hadn’t spent state and local dollars to find out the Michelin judges only like our barbecue and tacos.
This story was originally published October 30, 2025 at 9:15 AM.
