Searching for Dallas restaurants with outdoor patios where you feel more comfortable and can social distance amid the pandemic? The Dallas food scene isn’t just barbeque and Mexican food. As we head into cooler temperatures, let’s explore 16 Dallas restaurant patios in no particular order where we can safely enjoy a variety of gourmet meals and stay comfortably warm.
1. Fearing’s Restaurant
Chef Dean Fearing’s Fearing’s Restaurant at the famed Ritz-Carlton has a shady outdoor patio with a large brick fireplace and portable heaters. This full-service bar is famous for Dean’s Margarita or his signature southwestern barbecue shrimp tacos with tropical mango salsa. Live Oak Bar — the outdoor portion of the restaurant — is abuzz with patrons most of the year except when it’s raining.
2. The Porch
The Porch, a gastropub owned by Tim Headington, reopened September 11th, with a shorter menu including its most famous dishes, like the spinach and parmesan dip, classic cheeseburger, and the short-rib stroganoff. Order a Strawberry Crush or a sparkling rose. Enjoy the open porch area, Fridays and Saturdays only for dinner.
3. Sky Blossom
Sky Blossom offers a beautiful and spacious patio area on the rooftop with incredible views of Downtown Dallas. You will find lots of Instagram photo opportunities here. This fusion Vietnamese Bistro and Bar offers quick-serve dishes during the day and a fine dining/lounge concept in the evening. For lunch, get traditional Pho soup, Blossom tacos, or a Banh Mi Vietnamese sandwich. Enjoy specialty cocktails like the Blue Mermaid or Midnight Unicorn.
Pro Tip: Please book 14 days in advance to get rooftop seating on a Saturday night.
4. Henry’s Majestic
Henry’s Majestic offers a roomy patio and a relaxed ambiance in the dining room from 4 to 11 p.m. You can conveniently make reservations for patio seating online for Prime New York Strip or Avocado Shrimp Salad. Since I left Peru, the closest thing to a Pisco Sour is the Inca Knife Fight with coconut-infused pisco. Or try the Headless Manhattan with pumpkin-infused rye whiskey.
5. BrainDead Brewing
BrainDead Brewing in Deep Ellum is back open from 11 a.m. to midnight for brews and bites on the comfy outdoor patio. Choose from a menu of their core or seasonal beers to go along with your Coma Burger with house-ground brisket and bacon or the wagyu chuck Thick and Morty Burger. The T. A. B. L. E. Sandwich features tomato, avocado, bacon, lettuce, and egg atop a sourdough bun.
6. Truck Yard
One of our favorite outdoor hangouts in Lower Greenville, the Truck Yard, recently reopened from Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to midnight. Known for its sprawling beer garden, quirky signage, and treehouses, you can choose a Philly Cheesesteak, Ribeye Nachos, or the Chicago Beef Sandwich. For brunch, choose a Bucket-O-Mosas with a champagne bottle and two juices like grapefruit, blood orange, or pineapple. Or choose from a list of draft beers, like Revolver Blood and Honey Wheat, or craft cocktails like the Mother Trucker.
7. HG Sply Co.
This classic Lower Greenville spot has one of the best rooftop patios around, weather permitting. HG Sply Co. has tables with strings of lights hanging above, plus a covered, shady area if the weather is too much. You can reserve a table via Resy for roof drinks only, or a roof table from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can find American meals, craft beers, or cocktails at this rustic-chic locale. Try a Hunted/Gathered Bowl like grilled Texas gulf shrimp with quinoa, black beans, salsa, avocado, pineapple pico, and tortilla chips. I like the Strawberry Smash made with strawberry pink peppercorn infused gin.
8. The Rustic
With one of the largest outdoor spaces in Uptown Dallas, The Rustic is a great spot to socially distance, enjoy brunch, and free live music, Thursday through Sunday. Part of the large patio is covered by a climate-controlled tent for winter, lined with heated panels, still offering a starry Texas sky view. Scattered throughout the area, find patio heaters and fire pits. Enjoy a paperless menu via your mobile device, then order a wood-grilled salmon Caesar salad or the Rustic Burger with a Red Eye Negroni or a pitcher of Bellini’s.
9. Stirr
Another Deep Ellum neighborhood restaurant and bar, Stirr, has an excellent rooftop area with a bar and comfy chairs. Open for brunch, lunch, happy hour, and dinner; enjoy shrimp pappardelle, blackened redfish, or surf ‘n turf, a petite filet with a Maryland-style crab cake. For drinks, order the Don’t Fear the Reaper made with Mezcal Patron Reposado or Blood Moon with Scotch and blood orange juice.
10. The Henry
The Henry has made a name for itself as a chic restaurant with a rooftop patio for the perfect happy hour spot, as you sip a unique cocktail and enjoy the picturesque downtown skyline. Partially covered, with patio heaters scattered across the rooftop bar, The Henry is open until midnight on weeknights and 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. The Upstairs Menu offers butter-poached king crab, grilled prime skirt steak, or the wagyu diner burger. Save room for warm croissant bread pudding topped with toasted pecans, caramel ice cream, and whiskey raisins. For cocktails, choose a classic old-fashioned or jet-black carajillo with espresso-infused vodka, cold brew, and Spanish vanilla, served up. Or order champagne, sparkling wine, red or white wine.
11. Oddfellows
The popular Oddfellows brunch spot utilizes its outdoor space in the Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff. The restaurant has plenty of patio seating where you can enjoy brunch or al fresco dining as you order from the walk-up window. You can also shop for groceries like milk, produce, and bread, with service available until 9 p.m. Wrapping up its 10th year, enjoy deviled eggs, shrimp and grits, 44 farms meatloaf, or the staple, the Oddfellows burger. Save room for the beignets. Order the featured cocktail like spiced sangria, or white or red, $5 a glass.
12. Taverna
The enclosed patio at this relaxed neighborhood Knox Street Italian restaurant near the Katy Trail is heated comfortably while still entertaining people-watching. Enjoy Risotto Ai Frutti Di Mare with shrimp, calamari, mussels, clams, and tomato at this go-to spot for delicious and reasonably priced Italian fare. Eggplant Parmigiana here is the real thing. Partake in several low carb dishes like Salmone Picatta, pan-seared in a lemon caper sauce served with sauteed spinach and asparagus. Save room for Taverna tiramisu, the chef’s specialty.
13. Toulouse Cafe And Bar
Next door to Taverna on Knox Street, find a French restaurant, Toulouse Cafe and Bar, where the patio can be quickly enclosed with clear panels when the weather gets colder. Start with a basket of classic French cheese pastry puffs drizzled with truffle oil for the table. Order lobster bisque with creme Fraiche, then the Toulouse salad with bib lettuce, endive, poached pear, toasted walnuts, Roquefort cheese topped with raspberry vinaigrette. If you still have room, for the main course, short rib bourguignon or trout almondine. Save room for dark chocolate mousse topped with Chantilly cream, fresh raspberries, chocolate shavings or les souffle, Grand Marnier, chocolate, and raspberry. A champagne cocktail with a splash of Zephyr gin goes nicely. Or, if you dare, indulge in a bottle of Dom Perignon, 2010 at $350.
14. Meddlesome Moth
The covered patio seats 44 people at the Design District gastropub called Meddlesome Moth. Retractable canvas panels with windows on three sides allow for open-air dining in fair weather, plus a heating system kicks in during inclement weather. The Beer Garden seats 50 with heaters for the short Texas winters and fans and air conditioning when the weather heats up. Check the cocktails, beer, and wine menu and see the drafts wall for the latest brew. Choose dishes from the lunch, dinner, brunch menus like shrimp and grits or grass-fed chuck burger.
15. Paradiso
A southern-European inspired restaurant centered with a charming courtyard patio transports you to a lush garden in Europe. Located in the Bishop Arts District, you’ll enjoy brunch, lunch, happy hour, and dinner at socially distanced tables inside and outside. The QR code pulls up a PDF menu on your phone featuring fresh, seasonal ingredients, like oysters lavender with grapefruit, Fresno mignonette, or fried baby artichokes with ricotta. Try a wood-fired pizza, pork tenderloin, or stuffed quail. Save room for chocolate hazelnut bounet, a praline ganache, hazelnut crunch, cocoa brittle. Accompany your meal with the Life in Paradiso: gin, Strega, Topo Chico, mint, lemon with passionfruit orange flower.
16. Jaxon Texas Kitchen And Beer Garden
Enjoy craft cocktails, beer, wine, and Southern dishes from a scannable QR code menu on an expansive patio in downtown’s new AT and T Discovery District. Try a gulf shrimp boil, the Jaxon cheeseburger, or chicken fried steak on spaced out tables outside. For cocktails, sip on a Texas draft, a spicy pineapple margarita, or boozy hot apple cider. Open 10:30 a.m. to midnight. Happy hour pricing, 4 to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, Sundays after 7 p.m., or anytime it’s raining.
Hungry for more? Enjoy our other Dallas recommendations below.