Yelp’s Top 100 Restaurants of 2023: North Texas Spots That Made the List

Yelp recently published its top 100 list of restaurants of 2023, compiling this year’s most popular and highly rated restaurants based on user reviews. Though Yelp isn’t really clear about the metrics or methods used in compiling this list other than the aforementioned “according to our users,” it’s still a fun little read if not taken too seriously.

So, you might ask, how many restaurants from North Texas made the list? We’re so glad you asked. It turns out that Yelp users have placed three area restaurants in the top 100: Sunny Thai in Arlington, Fattoush Mediterranean Kitchen in Pantego and Ricky’s Hot Chicken in Richardson.

Pantego is a city inside Arlington. So are they saying two “Arlington” spots made the top 100? We think that’s what they’re saying.

Sunny Thai

4306 Matlock Road, No. 108, Arlington

Sunny Thai, which came in at No. 58, is a popular, no-frills family-run spot in South Arlington that is packed daily. The menu includes pho, noodles such as pad Thai and pad see ew, ka paw, fish and various curries such as Penang, green, red and jungle. Also here: fried rice and several vegetarian dishes, including crispy soy beef, soy salmon curry and pineapple fried rice with soy ham. Something for everybody it would appear.

Fattoush Mediterranean Kitchen

2304 W. Park Row Drive, No. 25, Pantego

Ranking No. 62 is Fattoush Mediterranean Kitchen in Pantego. The Observer wrote about chef-owner Al Mudhafar and his Iraqi-inspired menu back in 2018, and it’s nice to see Yelp taking notice of this in 2023. The chicken shish twaook will change your life, but don’t skip the kababs, grilled lamb chops or chicken kozi, which comes with two types of rice and either soup, salad hummus or baba ghanoush. One of the most important things you need to remember about Fattoush is it is closed on Tuesdays. The place gets slammed with to-go orders, so be patient if you go that route. 

Ricky’s Hot Chicken

100 S. Central Expressway, No. 18, Richardson

Coming in at No. 86 is the Richardson location of Ricky’s Hot Chicken’s, where you can find a version of the ever-popular Nashville-style hot chicken that is even halal. Available heat levels range from no heat to “a-bomb” with habanero, ghost, scorpion and reaper pepper added. You’ve been warned. These come as either quarters, tenders, wings or nuggets, and on Sundays, you can even opt for chicken and waffles.

So there you have it, the three spots from our neck of the woods that broke the top 100 according to Yelp users. Here are some other data points of interest:

Total number of Texas restaurants on the list: 8
Highest-ranked Texas restaurant: No. 15, Vietwich in Stafford, which serves banh mi.
Houston has two: No. 16 Crumbville and No. 47 burger-chan.
Austin also has two: 1618 Asian fusion at No. 22, and Kiin Di at No. 99.

The top overall restaurant is Broken Mouth | Lee’s Homestyle, located in Los Angeles, a Hawaiian-Korean hybrid that sounds really good for those who happen to be in the area.