Duck into these great downtown Fort Worth restaurants during arts festivals
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Reata is on the brink of turning 30 and begins its 30th anniversary May 3.
- Grace at 777 Main St. serves steakhouse favorites and its bar opens at noon all weekend.
- Nikuya Rooftop is a glassed-in sushi bar with 360-degree views on the 17th floor.
Downtown Fort Worth is lined with festival food for the weekend, but arts festival and fair week is also the time to see the central city’s best restaurants.
Led by downtown’s best-known restaurant of all — Reata, Fort Worth’s original home of “cowboy cuisine” — hosts are ready for anyone who wants a comfortable chair, a drink or simply to get out of the rain.
Reata Restaurant
Reata is the granddaddy, on the brink of turning 30 and still downtown’s home of Southwestern dining.
The move to 530 Throckmorton St. reduced the dining space but not demand for a generation of Texans’ favorite dishes: carne asada with enchiladas on top, beef tenderloin tamales, pan-seared pepper-crusted tenderloin or one of the city’s best chicken-fried steaks.
For Main St, Arts Festival weekend, Reata stocks up for busy lunch, dinner and weekend brunch.
This week’s specials are a bison cheeseburger with prosciutto and a taco salad with bacon and onion strings.
Dinner starts at 5 p.m. but it’s partly booked for items such as steaks, a bison rib-eye, a chicken chile relleno, redfish or salmon for about $24-$40 (the steaks are $54-$85).
Until 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, drop in for a moderate-price brunch including chilaquiles, carne asada with huevos rancheros, chicken-fried steak-and-eggs or biscuits with elk sausage gravy, all for $16 or less.
Plan to come back May 3, when the 30th anniversary party begins with a $175, 30-dish tasting dinner of Reata’s best items from the last 30 years.
Reata is also asking customers to share mementos at reata.net/scrapbook.
In a publicity release, owner Mike Micallef summed up the Reata’s enduring legacy as a survivor of both a tornado and the buffeting winds of downtown business.
“We didn’t survive a tornado, a subsequent building closure, a pandemic, the Great Texas Freeze, and two relocations just to let 30 years pass quietly,” Micallef was quoted as saying.
It’s open for lunch or brunch and dinner daily, but not in mid-afternoon. Park free in the Tower garage; 817-336-1009, reata.net.
Grace
Downtown is full of chain steakhouses.
But one local steakhouse is the old favorite: Grace, 777 Main St., remains Fort Worth’s local pick for Maine diver scallops, rack of lamb or prime strips or rib-eyes.
The Grace bar will open at noon all weekend and serve smashburgers along with Grace’s popular prime cheddar burger, chorizo-stuffed dates, crabcakes and other bar items.
Dinner is served nightly from 4 p.m. During the arts festivals, valet parking is on Sixth Street; 817-877-3388, gracefortworth.com.
Grace’s Italian cousin, 61 Osteria, is open nightly for dinner at 500 W. Seventh St. DIners like the cacio e pepe and the tagliatelle Bolognese.
Wicked Butcher, Nikuya Rooftop
Another very good regional steakhouse is Wicked Butcher, 512 Main St. in the basement of the historic Sinclair hotel.
It’s open for breakfast or Sunday brunch through dinner.
Anytime of day, don’t miss the hazelnut dark chocolate tart or molten chocolate souffle dessert.
During the festival, valet parking is a block away on Fifth Street at Houston Street; 817-601-4621.
But the new surprise is on the hotel roof: Nikuya Rooftop, a glassed-in upscale sushi bar with a 360-degree 17th-floor view of the festival and downtown Fort Worth.
Nikuya has some early and late reservations Friday and Saturday night. The later you go, the prettier the view; 817-697-7777, nikuyarooftop.com.
More picks
Polanco Fine Cuisine, 570 Throckmorton St., is a Mexico City-style fine-dining restaurant known for its braised short ribs, scallops in ajillo with guajillo and pork belly appetizer with macha sauce and serrano. It is adjacent to high-end Katei Omakase, which is booked.
Istanbul Grill, 401 Throckmorton St., is one of the prettiest and most interesting restaurants downtown. Try the Turkish lamb shank or hunkarbegendi stew (”sultan’s delight”), but don’t miss the kazandibi, a flan-like dessert.
Buffalo Bros, 415 Throckmorton St., known for hot wings and subs, and The Flying Saucer Draft Emporium, 111 E. Third St., popular for brats, burgers and pizzas, are both busy grill-and-bar choices with above-average food.
Little Red Wasp, 808 Main St., is a reliable bar and grill with a brunch menu. It’s the nearest restaurant to meet up on your way to or from Central Station and commuter trains.
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 4:24 AM.
