Restaurant in Dallas, United States
Dean Fearing's flagship: book for occasions, not impulse.
Fearing's at The Ritz-Carlton Dallas is the city's most credentialed Southwestern fine dining address, holding Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025 and a 4.6 Google rating across 1,000+ reviews. Book three to four weeks ahead for weekend dinners. At $$$$ it earns its price for special occasions where service quality and a regionally grounded menu both matter.
If you are planning a special occasion dinner in Dallas and want Southwestern cooking with genuine credentials, Fearing's at The Ritz-Carlton is the right call. This is Dean Fearing's eponymous restaurant in Uptown Dallas, backed by consecutive Michelin Plate recognitions in 2024 and 2025, an Opinionated About Dining ranking among North America's leading restaurants, and a 4.6 Google rating across more than 1,000 reviews. It earns its $$$$ price tag for diners who want polished service, a hotel-anchored dining room with real atmosphere, and Southwestern cuisine cooked at a high level. If you want a more casual or lower-cost version of Texas flavors, Cattleack Barbeque is the better route. But for a formal, occasion-worthy dinner in Dallas, Fearing's is among the strongest options in the city.
Fearing's sits inside The Ritz-Carlton at 2121 McKinney Ave in Uptown Dallas, which tells you a lot about the room before you arrive. The energy skews toward the polished end: expect a well-dressed crowd, attentive floor staff, and the kind of ambient noise level that stays controlled enough for conversation even when the dining room is full. This is not a loud, buzzy spot where you have to lean across the table. The Ritz-Carlton setting means the service infrastructure is genuinely there, and for first-timers, that matters. You are not gambling on whether the room will be staffed correctly.
The cuisine is Southwestern and American, rooted in what chef Dean Fearing has described as the Southern food and barbecue traditions his grandmothers cooked. That translates to cooking that draws on Texas and broader Southwestern ingredients and technique rather than generic American fine dining. For a first visit, treat this as an opportunity to understand what high-end Texas regional cooking looks like in a serious restaurant context, comparable in ambition (if not identical in style) to what chefs like Emeril Lagasse did for New Orleans regional cooking in the 1990s. The framing matters: Fearing's is specifically anchored to place, not to a generic fine dining template.
The restaurant runs three services daily from Monday through Saturday: breakfast (7 to 11 am), lunch (11:30 am to 2 pm), and dinner (5:30 to 10 pm). Sunday hours shift slightly, with breakfast until 10:30 am, a longer lunch window until 2:30 pm, and dinner closing an hour earlier at 9 pm. Breakfast and lunch here are worth flagging for first-timers because the room is significantly easier to get into outside of dinner, and the Ritz-Carlton setting makes both services genuinely pleasant rather than an afterthought.
Book dinner at least three to four weeks ahead, particularly for Friday and Saturday evenings. This is a hard-to-book restaurant for weekend dinners, driven by a combination of the Ritz-Carlton guest demand, the local following the restaurant has built, and its continued recognition on national lists. Booking difficulty is rated Hard. If you have a specific date in mind for a birthday, anniversary, or business dinner, four weeks is a safer window than two. Lunch and breakfast are more forgiving, but for weekend lunch you should still book at least a week out. The restaurant is open seven days a week, which gives you more scheduling flexibility than many comparable Dallas spots, but do not assume that translates into easy availability on desirable dinner dates.
For groups, the Ritz-Carlton setting means there is infrastructure for larger party coordination, but confirm directly with the restaurant regarding private dining options or larger table configurations before assuming a standard reservation will accommodate your headcount.
Fearing's is one of the restaurants that anchors Uptown's identity as Dallas's serious dining destination. At 2121 McKinney Ave, it sits at the heart of the neighborhood's highest-density stretch of restaurants and hotels. For visitors staying in the area, or for Dallas residents who want to bring out-of-town guests somewhere that reads as distinctly Texan without being a steakhouse, Fearing's fills a specific gap. The Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025 validates what local diners have known for years: this is not a hotel restaurant that coasts on its address. It competes on the merits of the cooking, which is why it shows up alongside venues like Tei-An and Tatsu Dallas in Dallas's top-tier restaurant conversation.
For context on how Fearing's fits into the broader national picture, it is operating at a level below the multi-Michelin-starred destinations like The French Laundry, Alinea, or Atomix, but it holds its own as a credentialed, regionally specific restaurant in a city where the dining scene has matured significantly. If you are visiting Dallas and want to understand what the city's serious restaurant culture looks like, this is one of the addresses you should know. See our full Dallas restaurants guide for additional context on where Fearing's sits within the city's full range.
Fearing's is the right choice for anniversary and birthday dinners where service quality matters as much as food quality, for business dinners where the Ritz-Carlton address and room tone are assets, and for visitors who want a specifically Texan fine dining reference point. It is also a legitimate option for breakfast or lunch if you are staying in or near Uptown and want a polished, unhurried meal. It is not the right call if you want a lively, informal dinner with a youthful crowd, or if $$$$ feels like a stretch for the occasion. For alternatives at that price point or below, Gemma and Lucia both deliver strong cooking at $$$ with easier booking windows. For other strong options in the Uptown and broader Dallas area, Mamani, Al Biernat's, Avra Dallas, and Babel round out the neighborhood's range at different price points and formats. You can also explore our Dallas hotels guide, Dallas bars guide, Dallas wineries guide, and Dallas experiences guide to plan around your visit.
Book three to four weeks out for weekend dinners. Friday and Saturday evenings fill first, driven by both hotel guests and a loyal local following. Lunch is more accessible but still warrants a week's notice for weekend slots. If you have a fixed date for a special occasion, four weeks is the safe floor, not the target.
Yes, it is one of the stronger special occasion choices in Dallas. The Ritz-Carlton setting delivers on service consistency, the room tone stays conversation-friendly even when full, and the Michelin Plate recognition (2024 and 2025) means the cooking holds up to the occasion framing. Anniversaries, birthdays, and significant business dinners all work here. If you want a comparably formal experience at $$$ instead of $$$$, consider Gemma.
At $$$$ in the context of Dallas dining, yes , if the occasion calls for it. The value case rests on consistent Michelin recognition, a 4.6 rating across more than 1,000 Google reviews, and a service level that the hotel infrastructure actually supports. If you are comparing it to Tei-An or Tatsu Dallas at the same price tier, the decision comes down to cuisine preference: Fearing's is your choice if you want regionally grounded Southwestern and American cooking over Japanese formats.
The Ritz-Carlton setting means private dining infrastructure exists, but confirm directly with the restaurant for groups larger than six. Standard reservations at $$$$ pricing in a hotel dining room of this profile typically have table-size limits for the main room. Reach out well in advance , at least four to six weeks for group bookings.
At the same $$$$ tier, Tei-An and Tatsu Dallas are the direct comparisons, both offering serious cooking in a formal register. At $$$, Lucia and Gemma deliver strong cooking with easier booking windows and lower spend. If Texas food culture is what you want at a fraction of the price, Cattleack Barbeque at $$ is in a different category entirely but worth knowing about. See our full Dallas restaurants guide for a broader view.
Tasting menu availability and pricing are not confirmed in our current data for Fearing's, so we cannot advise on this specifically. What the Michelin Plate recognition and OAD ranking do confirm is that the kitchen operates at a level where a tasting format, if offered, would be backed by genuine technique. Contact the restaurant directly to confirm current tasting menu options before building your visit around that assumption. For tasting menu experiences in comparable cities, Lazy Bear in San Francisco and Single Thread in Healdsburg offer useful benchmarks for what $$$$ tasting formats deliver at the national level.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fearing's | Chef Dean Fearing’s eponymous eatery at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas is inspired by his grandmothers’ love of Southern food and barbecue.; Michelin Plate (2025); Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Ranked #532 (2024); Michelin Plate (2024); Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Recommended (2023) | $$$$ | — |
| Lucia | $$$ | — | |
| Tei-An | $$$$ | — | |
| Tatsu Dallas | Michelin 1 Star | $$$$ | — |
| Cattleack Barbeque | $$ | — | |
| Gemma | $$$ | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
Book three to four weeks out for Friday or Saturday dinner — weekend tables at this Michelin Plate-recognised restaurant fill well in advance. Midweek dinners and lunch service are more accessible, sometimes bookable within a week. Don't count on walk-ins for dinner.
Yes, this is one of Dallas's most reliable special-occasion picks. The Ritz-Carlton setting at 2121 McKinney Ave delivers the service formality that anniversaries and milestone dinners require, and the Michelin Plate recognition gives the food genuine credentials to match. For a lower-key celebration where setting matters less, Lucia or Gemma are worth comparing.
At $$$$, Fearing's is priced at the top of the Dallas market, and the Opinionated About Dining recognition (ranked #532 in North America in 2024) suggests it earns that position within its category. The value case is strongest for diners who want Southwestern cooking with a full-service hotel-restaurant experience; if you want similar food quality at lower cost, Lucia offers a tighter, neighbourhood-restaurant alternative.
As a full-service restaurant inside The Ritz-Carlton, Fearing's is well-positioned for group dining — hotel restaurants at this tier typically hold private dining space for larger parties. For groups of six or more, check the venue's official channels to confirm private room availability and any minimum spend requirements.
Lucia is the go-to for Italian-leaning neighbourhood fine dining at a lower price point; Gemma suits a similar occasion-dining crowd with a more intimate room; Tei-An is the right call if Japanese soba and omakase formats appeal more than Southwestern; Cattleack Barbeque is the comparison if you want serious Texas barbecue credentials without the hotel setting; Tatsu Dallas suits those after Japanese fine dining with strong local buzz.
Tasting menu details are not confirmed in currently available data for Fearing's, so it would be misleading to assess format-specific value here. What the record does confirm: at $$$$ pricing with Michelin Plate recognition and Opinionated About Dining placement, the kitchen operates at a level where multi-course formats typically justify the spend — call ahead or check the current menu to confirm availability before booking around that format.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
