On October 8, 2026, the Michelin Guide released its Texas selection. Dallas got no new stars, and only one Dallas restaurant earned a new Bib Gourmand: Resident Taqueria, at 9661 Audelia Road, Suite 112, in Lake Highlands Plaza Shopping Center. The award came 11 years to the day after Andrew and Amy Savoie opened the restaurant on October 8, 2015.
Lake Highlands has no single main street. Its restaurants, errands and neighborhood gatherings are spread across shopping centers along Audelia, Skillman and Northwest Highway. This fall, those centers produced the city's only new Bib Gourmand and a family pizzeria revival, and one of them will host Halloween on Saturday.
What Michelin Actually Handed Out in Dallas This Year
The Bib Gourmand is not a star. According to the Lake Highlands Advocate, the award recognizes restaurants that serve high-quality food at moderate prices. Resident's listing on the Michelin site carries a single dollar sign. Statewide, Michelin's 2026 Bib Gourmand roundup added six new Bibs, and Resident was the only one in Dallas.
Here's how the 2026 update played out for Dallas and nearby cities:
| Category | 2026 Result |
|---|---|
| New Dallas Bib Gourmand | Resident Taqueria, Lake Highlands |
| Returning Dallas Bib Gourmands | Cattleack Barbeque, Gemma, Một Hai Ba, Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen, nonna |
| Dallas stars | No new stars; Tatsu and Mamani kept one star each |
| Regional promotion | Goldee's Bar-B•Q in Fort Worth moved from Bib Gourmand to one star |
| New Recommended, Dallas area | Fond, Mābo, Olōyō, and Jashan in Plano |
The Dallas Observer headlined its coverage as an update "without much good news for Dallas." That makes the Lake Highlands win stand out more. In a thin year for the city, the one new value award went to a taqueria between other storefronts on Audelia Road, not to a new restaurant in a mixed-use development.
It took a while. D Magazine called the Bib "deserved-from-the-start" and said it came "after two years of snubs." Resident did not appear on the Recommended lists in either the 2024 or 2025 Texas guides, as compiled by the Dallas Observer. The only other new East Dallas name this year was Olōyō, an upscale Mexican restaurant that D Magazine says opened this spring to national attention. Two Mexican kitchens, two very different price points, both recognized in the same release.
A Fine-Dining Résumé Behind a Strip-Center Door
Resident's chef-owner, Andrew Savoie, trained at Baltimore International College. He cooked in kitchens including The Inn at Little Washington, Bouchon and Jean-Georges, then taught at the Art Institute of Dallas. He has described the tortilla as a vehicle for flavor, which Community Impact put in its headline.
That background explains how a fine-dining-trained chef ended up winning a value award. The cooking takes the effort of a tasting-menu kitchen, but the format is a taco, and the price is set for a weeknight. A strip-center lease lets a small kitchen keep the format that simple.
The restaurant's own statement after the award, quoted by the Lake Highlands Advocate from an Instagram post, put the neighborhood first: "We wanted to create something special in Lake Highlands: a neighborhood restaurant where creativity meets familiarity … Thank you, Lake Highlands. This will always be your taqueria."
If you haven't been in a while, these are the dishes the press has singled out over the years:
- Pork-rib carnitas, when it's on as a seasonal special. The Dallas Morning News described ribs slowly braised, crisped and finished in salsa macha, served bone-in with tortillas and slaw so you build your own tacos.
- Braised chicken with mole, one of the tacos highlighted in Eater Dallas's opening-day report in 2015.
- House-made chorizo with potato, from the same first-day menu.
- Cauliflower-kale, the vegetable taco Eater called out at opening.
Menus at a chef-run taqueria change over 11 years, so check what's on the board before you set your heart on a specific taco.
Northview Plaza Is Running the Same Playbook
Up on Northwest Highway, the fall's other notable food story follows the same logic. Ghost Pizza recently opened in Northview Plaza at 10675 E. Northwest Highway, Suite 1635. Owner Frank Nuccio's parents ran Pizza by Marco, the family pizzeria that started on Preston Road, as the Lake Highlands Advocate reported in an October profile. He told the Advocate he named the new place for the feeling that his parents were nudging him back into the business: "Their ghosts were talking to me."
The business model is what links it to Resident. According to the Advocate, Nuccio is keeping menu prices at 2019 levels. He has put less money into renovations and staff to keep overhead low, and he plans upgrades gradually, such as replacing tables with booths later this year. The money goes into the food. He uses organic flour, cooks sausage and hamburger meat in-house, fries appetizers in beef tallow, and uses imported olive oil and tomatoes from Italy and California.
The prices, as reported in the October 1 Advocate profile:
- Two pizzas for $20
- One 10-inch pizza and a 20-ounce soda for $6.99
- The Maximus, loaded with ten toppings including two kinds of olives, starting at $14.95
- The Spartan, a meat-heavy pie with bacon and Canadian bacon, starting at $14.95
- Calzones at $9.95 and fried ravioli at $8.95
The neighborhood response came quickly. The Advocate reports Ghost Pizza sold roughly 150 pizzas on its first Friday, more than Nuccio expected. One longtime Pizza by Marco customer who lives by the Galleria told the paper he had to come once he heard it opened.
One owner trained in some of the country's best-known kitchens, and the other grew up making pies in his father's shop. Both chose a Lake Highlands shopping center, spent on ingredients instead of buildout, and priced for regulars. Michelin's value award rewards exactly that kind of math.
The Parking Lot Is Also the Town Square
The same centers that feed the neighborhood also host it. The Lake Highlands Public Improvement District's Trunk-or-Treat is on Saturday, October 31, at 2 p.m. in the Lake Highlands Village Shopping Center parking lot at 8676 Skillman Street. In Old Lake Highlands, the neighborhood association builds a Halloween map of homes handing out candy on October 31. The sign-up deadline was October 28, so check the association's calendar for the finished map.
After Halloween, the PID's calendar moves into the holidays:
- Hope for the Holidays, December 5 at 11 a.m., location still listed as TBD
- Holiday on Forest, December 12 at 11 a.m. at Forest Audelia Park, 9759 Forest Lane
Old Lake Highlands' calendar also lists a Chili Cook-Off Porch Party on November 13 and its Jingle & Mingle on December 5 on the 400 block of Parkhurst Drive. Details on community calendars can shift, so confirm before you go.
A neighborhood without a traditional main street ends up spreading those jobs across a handful of centers along its arterials. Lake Highlands Plaza now has a Michelin Bib, Northview Plaza has a pizzeria built on a family recipe, and Lake Highlands Village Shopping Center gets the costumes at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
At Lardner Group, we pay close attention to which addresses a neighborhood actually uses, because that's where much of a place's value is created. If you own a home or a small property near these centers and want to talk about how that neighborhood activity fits into your plans, schedule a consultation with our team.
