Hungry? Three Top Spots for Lunch in Dallas, Texas

If you happen to find yourself looking for a good lunch at a good price in downtown Dallas, Texas, you will want to check out the restaurants in this article. This article reviews Twisted Root Burger Company, Campisi's, and Hook Line and Sinker. My husband and I tested these fantastic lunch hot spots for you. Although these restaurants offer three very different tastes, they do have one thing in common: really great food!!

Twisted Root Burger Co.

This restaurant, founded by three chefs, not only offers the best burgers in Dallas, but quite possibly the best burgers in Texas! If you're in Dallas, you don't want to skip the burgers here.

This burger joint is located on the edge of Dallas's Deep Ellum area. There are meters, but parking along the street is free during daytime hours. As you enter the building you will immediately notice the industrial, but fun, atmosphere. One wall is decorated with corrugated metal and there is corrugated metal along the bar. If you enter the restaurant at any time near the normal lunch hour, you will also notice that the place is packed.

There are four main categories to the cuisine here: Meats, Roots, Sissy Food, and Sweets. On our visit, we didn't sample any Sissy Food (salads) or Sweets.

We chose the ½ lb Black Angus Burger and the Turkey Burger with the Hand-Cut Twisted Sweet Potato Chips and the Beer-Battered Onion Rings. (We could have also had a Real Buffalo Burger, a Chicken Sandwich, or a Veggie Burger.) You can add bacon, grilled onions, blue cheese, or goat cheese to any burger. We added bacon to the Black Angus Burger.

Twisted Root offers their own condiments: Horseradish Dijon, Grandpa's Secret BBQ Sauce, and Chipotle Ketchup. We had Horseradish Dijon on the Angus Burger and Grandpa's Secret BBQ Sauce on the Turkey Burger. The sweet potato chips did not need any type of dressing (more about the sweet potato chips later), but we dipped the onion rings in the Chipotle Ketchup.

The Angus Burger was exactly what you'd expect a good burger to be: thick, juicy, and flavorful. The Horseradish mustard was the perfect accessory. The Turkey Burger was okay, but truthfully, not anything special. What made the visit, though, was the Hand-Cut Twisted Sweet Potato Chips. They were light and flavorful without being greasy with just the right texture. They were easily the best part of the meal. In fact, I wanted to ask for seconds.

The two of us ate for about $20.00, including beverages.

The Twisted Root Burger Co. in Dallas at 2615 Commerce Street. Their website is at www.twistedrootburgerco.com.

Campisi's

Campisi's is a family-owned business. There are actually seven Campisi's in the Dallas area now, which just goes to show that good pizza is still popular. Campisi's is much more than pizza, though, as this review will show.

We visited the Campisi's on Elm Street in downtown Dallas, so this article is based on that location.

We visited right at lunchtime on a busy weekday, so we found Campisi's to be crowded and noisy. We had to wait in a long line to get our food, but the line moved quickly and in the end our food was worth the wait.

Campisi's menu ranges from pizza to traditional Italian fare to steaks to salads and to sandwiches. One of us had the delicious Toasted Ravioli w/ Side of Sauce. (Of course, the sauce didn't actually stay on the side.) This item is billed as an appetizer, but is quite filling. The other one of us had the delicious Manicotti w/ Ricotta Cheese (served with house salad and fresh-baked bread). The manicotti was deliciously cheesy with ample sauce, just the way I like it. I would gladly order either of these delicious items again.

We were much too full for dessert on this visit, but Campisi's has a scrumptious-sounding dessert menu with Italian Cream Cake, Black Forest Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Marble Cheese Cake, New York Style Cheesecake, and Tiramisu.
There were no private banquets the day we visited Campisi's, so we were seated in one of the main dining areas without difficulty. I loved the fact that the room we ate in had art from local artists lining the walls, but then I've been known to visit art museums just for fun.

The downtown location has several rooms and a patio that can be rented out for private banquets. The Stone Street Dining Room can accommodate 150 guests. The Urban Dining Room can accommodate 100 guests. The patio can accommodate 150 guests.

Two of us enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Campisi's for slightly over $20.00.

Locations include: Elm Street in downtown Dallas, Inwood Village at Lover's Lane, Parker and Independence, Coit and Campbell Road, and a new location serving Plano and Frisco at Highway 121 and the Tollway. The original Campisi's Egyptian Lounge on East Mockingbird Lane is still open and there is even a Campisi's in the Kroger grocery store on Mockingbird Lane. The website is at http://campisis.us.

Hook Line and Sinker

Get a really good, reasonably priced lunch in reasonable time at Hook Line and Sinker. This very casual (paper towels on the table serve as napkins) restaurant serves catfish and seafood, but without that fishy seafood taste. This restaurant is a favorite that we come back to again and again.

Despite being full, service was both quick and friendly at Hook Line and Sinker.

For under $10.00 a person you can easily find tasty lunches ranging from fresh-tasting catfish filets, jumbo shrimp, fried oysters, or their delicious Po'Boy sandwiches. Almost every seafood meal here comes with a generous helping of fries and hush puppies. They also serve great burgers.

In general, I'm not a fish or seafood lover, but I love the fried shrimp that they serve at Hook Line and Sinker. There's something about the way that they season the shrimp that makes it just right and the shrimp cocktail sauce is fabulous.

If you have room, try their delicious pies. Despite being full, my husband and I indulged on both the sweet potato pie and the chess pie. I had never tasted chess pie before, but I will definitely have this dessert again.

Hook Line and Sinker is located at 3103 Lemmon Avenue, near downtown Dallas. There is not a website for Hook Line and Sinker.