124 September 19 - 25, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER CONTENTS | READERS’ PICKS | SHOPPING & SERVICES | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | FOOD & DRINK | SPORTS & RECREATION Best State Fair Hack Southside Steaks & Cakes The State Fair of Texas lasts about a month in the fall, but you can get bonafide fried food treats year-round at this South Dallas restaurant. Southside Steaks & Cakes won a Big Tex award in 2022 for its Peanut Butter Paradise, which is a honey bun rolled in funnel cake batter and injected with caramel before getting a dunk in a deep fryer. It’s then topped with peanut butter and chocolate. You can also get cheesesteaks, which are a favorite at the State Fair. 3125 Al Lipscomb Way 469-399-7644, southsidesteaksandcakes.com Best Seafood Green Point Seafood and Oyster Bar Green Point opened on Knox Street in 2023, bringing coastal town breeziness to Weir Plaza. It’s from the Katz Brothers Hospitality Group (Beverly’s and Clifton Club). It’s open for lunch and dinner, and a seat at the horseshoe-shaped bar in the middle of the restaurant is a great perch. The space is chic and unfussy. Service is attentive but not stuffy. Oysters on the half shell are fresh and vary by day. Seafood is sourced from around the world and procured daily. If you’re peckish and looking to indulge, order the La Perla Tower with 10 oysters, eight jumbo cocktail shrimp and chilled lobster tail. 3219 Knox St., No. 100 214-258-6063, greenpointdallas.com Best Sandwich Shop Weinberger’s Deli We have a bit of a one-track mind when it comes to delis. Got a good muffuletta? Then the rest of the menu could be rocks and broken glass on a roll and we wouldn’t kick. Luckily, Weinberger’s Deli on Main Street in downtown Grapevine does way better than that. It serves up a muffuletta that rivals the original found at Central Market & Deli in New Orleans’ French Quarter. If a muffuletta is not your bag, you’re in luck. Somehow, this little corner shop has a massive menu of originals and every classic sandwich imaginable, along with dogs, sausages, gyros and a lean Italian beef so good it would make a homesick Chicagoan cry … if Chicagoans ever cried. That’s only natural, seeing as the Grapevine deli is an outpost of a string of delis born in the Windy City in 1952. 601 S. Main St., Grapevine, 817-670-5729, weinbergersdeli.com Best All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Ali Baba There’s certainly a good reason for the almost never-ending line outside the doors of Ali Baba from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. throughout the week (or 11–3 on weekends). That’s when the 25-year-old Lebanese restaurant serves its renowned all-you-can-eat lunch. The buffet is loved for its spread of Middle Eastern staples. Self-serve plates are stacked high, and huge trays are refilled every few minutes with freshly cooked kebabs, falafels, salads, dips and more. Don’t leave without sampling the pita breads, baked in an open-fire oven, or the signature rice pudding. 2103 N. Central Expressway, Richardson 972-437-1222, alibabamedgrill.com Best Restaurant Doing Good Norma’s Cafe Norma’s has been attracting fans of home cooking since 1956. For more than 30 years on Thanksgiving, the Oak Cliff restaurant has been opened to people who can’t afford a dinner, and the line is down the block. For its anniversary this year it offered plates of chicken-fried steak and slices for cake for $1.85, prices from the year it opened. The proceeds, $12,500, were donated to Big Brothers Big Sisters Greater Dallas. 1123 W. Davis St. 214-946-4711, normascafe.com Kathy Tran Southside Steaks & Cakes // BEST STATE FAIR HACK
