Catherine Downes

Stock and Barrel helps make Oak Cliff Dallas' best dining neighborhood.

Because we live in a culture where everything has to measure up to something else, we should probably pit Dallas' neighborhoods against one another as a function of their gustatory offerings. Also, it's useful: Say you're out and about on an evening Uber is using its dynamic-pricing model, and you want to make that single trip count. Choosing a neighborhood that offers the best possible restaurants yields the highest probability for an enjoyable evening.

You see? It's math. So here are the neighborhoods of Dallas ranked by the restaurant options you'll find within them. Choose wisely.

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Scott Reitz

Dallas' most famous stout has some serious competition

After Dallas' usual two weeks of beautiful fall weather the cold arrived with a vengeance and we skipped straight to an actual snowfall, in November. This means it's time to do away with those wimpy summer beers you've been slurping on for the six straight months of Texas summer, run past the 14,000 styles of pumpkin beer as fast as possible, and put some hairs on your chest with some real manly stouts, strong enough o keep you warm in the face of yet another icepocalypse. Here, in no particular order, are the pick of your local choices.

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Catherine Downes

Maybe we should rethink our holiday menus.

Does your family follow this tradition? After the table is set and a steaming turkey is placed just in front of your nose, your mother or some elder at the table makes everyone hold hands and announce what they are thankful for. At this point you've been watching football all day and are probably six beers in the hole. You're in desperate need for some solid sustenance, but your cousin Susie can't figure out if she's more thankful for the most recent season of Yo Gabba Gabba or puppies.

As trying as the process can be, with your stomach grumbling and your grandfather blaming the lumps in the gravy on Obamacare, it can be useful to take some time to reflect on the things that have made our lives worth living, especially from a epicurean perspective.That's what Thanksgiving is all about.

Forget the turkey for a second -- it's dry and mealy anyway. Here are 10 things to be thankful for in Dallas.

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Blue point oysters at 20 Feet.

It's time to look on the bright side of all this gloomy, frigid weather. You can sit and pout as that blustering wind paints your cheeks pink and turns your nose into a faucet, or you can take comfort in the fact that oysters all over the country are coming into their own. Summer's no good for gulf oysters because of terrifying things like the red tide. Oysters from northern waters are mostly safe year round, but the guys like to spawn in the summer time. They're much better in the winter when they're not working so hard. All they do is sit around, eat and turn into fat, plump bivalves that are the pinnacle of oyster-eating.

So quit being a chump, grab a scarf and get out there and eat some bivalves. Whether you enjoy them with beer, dry white wine or maybe champagne, this is the time to eat them till you split.

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Can Turkyilmaz

Casa Ribia's Omar Flores

We get it! David Uygur, Teiichi Sakurai, Matt McCallister and other highly lauded chefs are worthy of infinite praise. They've opened restaurants that have defined the Dallas dining scene and offer cooking that demonstrates unparalleled refinement. They were also the chefs we celebrated last year, and in some cases the year(s) before that, while consistently giving our bank accounts a big punch in the calf fries.

But other chefs are doing just as much, if not more, to shape the way we eat. They're opening restaurants that offer styles of dining and dishes that were previously unavailable, and many of them are providing great value as well. Others pay homage to Texas roots in new and innovative ways.

These Dallas chefs could use a bit more fanfare. Grab your air horn, jump up on their bars and let them know how much they're loved.

See also:
- How Dallas' Young Chefs Are Remaking its Dining Scene, in Their Own Words

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Kathy Tran

The greatest thing about sandwiches, beyond their hand-held portability and general deliciousness, is the infinite variety of sizes, shapes and flavors they come in. There are wraps, deli sandwiches, heros, paninis and more, and they come filled with just about anything you could otherwise consider edible. A sandwich can sate any craving your endorphin loops can conjure, and it can do it while you're walking down the street from your favorite sandwich shop. (Don't act like you wait till you get home.)

But for all the variety, some sandwiches are icons -- combinations of bread, meat, condiments and other garnishes that have stood the test of time. Iconic sandwiches can stir great debate when, say, Russian dressing is swapped out for Thousand Island or pastrami stands in for corned beef. Iconic sandwiches can stir old memories, and as the baton is passed from one sando-lover to the next, will surely create some new ones. But to make a lasting sandwich memory, the 'wich in question has got to be a great one. Here are a few of Dallas' most elite.

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Photos by Scott Mitchell

Though the finicky weather of North Texas denies it, winter is approaching. And whether that winter lasts a month or three, you're going to need to be prepared to make the seasonal food and drink switch. That means transitioning away from that iced coffee into something a little more hot and seeking out those foods which help you to gain that insulating layer of winter fat.

As far as filling, hearty foods go for those of the carnivorous inclination, a well made sausage is hard to beat. Something about a sheath of animal casing stuffed to bursting with a ground up amalgamation of meat cooked to perfection has a way of getting you to that food-coma breaking point so vital during the coming winter months.

Luckily, quite a few restaurants around Dallas have the sausage-making thing down. And even more luckily, we went out and ate these sausages to give you a list of best damned sausages in Dallas.

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Alice Laussade

Don't like sauce on your brisket? Fine. Just dip your face in it.

We get it: You're too good to put sauce on your barbecue or ranch on your pizza. Us? We like our food better when it's wet, especially when these condiments are involved.

Have a condiment you like better? Dip your laptop in it or something. These are better.

The BBQ Sauce at Slow Bone (above)
Cool, thanks a bunch Slow Bone! We can't buy barbecue sauce anymore. Your BBQ sauce is king-like. It's got richness, smoke and a roundhouse of acid, which combined with the melt-in-your-mouth brisket makes for some of the best, exciting sauce applications in Dallas. Few things are more fun than filling a spot on the cafeteria tray, which is normally reserved for sides, with ladles of your insanely good barbecue sauce. This will forever ruin anything you buy at the store. -- Nick Rallo

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Oh, Nonna.

For the past few months we've been nibbling like rabbits on vegetables while visions of ourselves in bathing suits flicker on the projector screen in our brains. But now there's a snap in the air, and skimpy clothes and frail fabrics will slowly take the back seat to wardrobes with bulk. You could hide a lot underneath your old, favorite sweater -- two or three cassoulets-worth.

So dig your coat out of the back of you closet and abandon all shame. Here's where to eat in Dallas, now:

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Spinach lasagna at Carbone's

Any restaurant that turns out a lasagna like the one pictured above has got to be jockeying to be the Best Italian Restaurant in Dallas. And it turns out Carbone's, the Italian restaurant responsible for that plate up above, won just that award in our recent Best Of Dallas feature that celebrates exemplary everything around the city and beyond.

There's plenty of red sauce to be found, but none of it ever seems to be plated this prettily. The tomatoes in that sauce pop with flavor, and beneath those sheets of tender pasta are layer after layer of soft melted cheese and plenty of spinach. Prefer meat? There's a bolognese version, and then there are sandwiches, salads and loads of other pasta dishes, too.

But don't think Carbone's is the only Italian restaurant that's welcome in The Family. Here are four more that could have made the cut.

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