Living near food in Dallas

[Chris Hennes]

My wife and I are contemplating a move to the Dallas area, and in an ideal world we would like to live within walking distance of some decent restaurants. They don't have to be four-star places, but nice places you might want to be a "regular" at. I looked at condos in downtown Dallas, but there really don't seem to be that many food options there. If we want to live in a "food-friendly" part of town, where should we be looking?

[Richard Kilgore]

The intersection of Central Expressway and Knox-Henderson may be the single best walking-to-very good to excellent-restaurants area in the metroplex. There is also one developing in Plano near the North Dallas Tollway and Legacy.

[theabroma]

Cedar Springs-Lemmon-Oak Lawn area puts you in walking distance to several places and within very short driving or feasible taxi distance to many others, inluding the SMU area at Hillcrest and Lover's Lane, Uptown, and the Knox-Henderson area. You are also close - but not walking distance - to several edge of downtown locations.

Of course, that does depend on what you mean by 'walking distance'.

Regards,

Theabroma

[Richard Kilgore]

theabroma alludes to an important fact about the Dallas area. It is in general not a walking city. Even in these areas that are more open to walking, you are likely to want to explore areas that are not in walking distance or not in safe walking distance. And if you are interested in exploring the wide range of "ethnic" restaurants and markets here, you'll need to get your roller skates on.

[Chris Hennes]

theabroma alludes to an important fact about the Dallas area. It is in general not a walking city. Even in these areas that are more open to walking, you are likely to want to explore areas that are not in walking distance or not in safe walking distance. And if you are interested in exploring the wide range of "ethnic" restaurants and markets here, you'll need to get your roller skates on.

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Thanks for pointing that out: I spend most of my big-city time in Philadelphia, which definitely is a walking city. Dallas in fundamentally different, and I definitely understand that "exploration" will require a car (or roller skates ). I am just thinking of those days when we get home from work and the last thing I want to do is cook dinner. It would be nice to have a couple nearby options, say within a six-block radius.

[Grovite]

I'll second Mr. Kilgore's suggestion of the Knox/Henderson area. A lot of great places in a central location (Alcott west to Travis/Monticello south to Armstrong). On top of that, the #21 DART bus runs throughout the Uptown/Park Cities area and stops at Mockingbird Station which has several restaurants.

[jsmeeker]

Dallas is a big driving town. No matter where you live, you'll still wind up needing to drive places. That said, I agree the Knox-Henderson area down to Uptown gives you easy access to a lot of great restaurants. And you'll still drive. Walking a few blocks in Dallas isn't like walking a few blocks in another city. It's just really not usually that pedestrian friendly.

But don't let that scare you off. You should come down here.

To give you an idea, I think the area at Knox and McKinney is awesome. Has three great dining experiences all within 2 blocks. Abacus, La Duni, and Wild About Harry's. It covers the range from high end down to cheap. And to make it even better, there is an Apple Store right in the middle of it all. Icing on the cake!

[Chris Hennes]

Dallas is a big driving town. No matter where you live, you'll still wind up needing to drive places.  That said, I agree the Knox-Henderson area down to Uptown gives you easy access to a lot of great restaurants.      And you'll still drive.  Walking a few blocks in Dallas isn't like walking a few blocks in another city.  It's just really not usually that pedestrian friendly.

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I will try to keep that in mind... it is strange to me, though, the idea of driving when you only need to go a few blocks. Even growing up in Minneapolis, which I would consider a "driving town," I still frequently walked three blocks to the nearest bakery on Saturday mornings, etc. The thought of driving such a distance would never occur to me. When I have visited Dallas I never ventured far from downtown, but I take it parking is not a problem? I could hardly believe the plethora of spaces available downtown, but there wasn't a whole lot to eat there!

[Kevin72]

I'm really bad about which parts of town are where, but I'd also recommend looking into the area around the Lemmon/Blackburn exit off of 75. Quite a few neat restaurants in that area as well.