Best Albanian Restaurants in Texas: Must-Try Spots

8 min read

Texas isn’t the first state you’d guess for Albanian restaurants, but the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and Houston have built one of the most quietly interesting Albanian-owned dining scenes in the country. Most of these restaurants are Italian, which fits the national pattern: Albanian families who worked their way up through the Italian restaurant industry, then opened their own places once they had the capital and the crew. What sets Texas apart is the range. You have Houston old-school Italian (Adriatic Cafe), Frisco fine dining (Gallo Nero, Crudo Taverna), Plano brunch (Sofra, Texas Café), Dallas Lake Highlands pizza institutions (Tony’s), and even a small-town Italian restaurant in Uvalde (Luigi’s). Browse all Albanian restaurants in Texas →

Albanian-Owned Restaurants You Need to Try in Texas

1. Adriatic Cafe Italian Grill (Houston)

Cuisine: Italian, family-owned | Location: Houston | Style: Casual, family-run Adriatic Cafe is the Albanian-owned Italian institution of Houston. Family-owned, family-run, and quietly one of the most consistent Italian restaurants in the city. The pitch is honest: almost everything is hand-made daily in the restaurant, they cook with a specific olive oil they’ve chosen, they bake their own bread every day, and every sauce is prepared to order. The name references the Adriatic Sea, the body of water that borders Albania, but the menu is proudly Italian. Casual, humble, and one of the first Albanian names Houstonians learn. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their website

2. d’Alba craft kitchen & cocktails (Houston)

Cuisine: New American, craft cocktails | Location: Garden Oaks, Houston | Owner: Daut Elshani & family d’Alba is the newer, more ambitious Houston restaurant on this list. Opened by Daut Elshani and his family in Houston’s Garden Oaks neighborhood, it’s a craft kitchen and cocktail bar with a New American menu, the kind of place where the cocktail list matters as much as the food. “d’Alba” nods to the Elshani family’s roots (Alba being the Latin name Albanians historically used for their country), but the restaurant itself is contemporary American, not traditional Albanian. Good for cocktails-and-a-shared-plate, brunch, and date night. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their website

3. Crudo Taverna (Frisco)

Cuisine: Modern Italian with French & Mediterranean influence | Location: Frisco, TX (near The Star) | Style: Contemporary fine dining, wood-fired Crudo Wood Fired Taverna sits a block from The Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ training center in Frisco, and it’s one of the most polished Albanian-owned restaurants in Texas. The menu is a modern fusion of Italian styles with French technique and Mediterranean flavors, plus regular off-menu specials that are usually where the kitchen’s ambition shows most. The wine list is serious and the cocktail program is legitimately artisan. This is the Cowboys-fan post-game dinner reservation, but it also works as a normal Frisco date night. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their website

4. Mare e Monte Italian Restaurant (Texas)

Cuisine: Italian with a Texas twist | Style: Warm, family-forward Mare e Monte, “Sea and Mountain” in Italian, leans hard into the family-restaurant hospitality that Albanian-owned Italian restaurants across the US have built their reputation on. The pitch on the menu is unusually direct: come hungry, leave happy. Italian classics on the menu, but adapted to the local Texas palate. This is where you go when you want a big-portion, no-pretense Italian meal that treats you like a regular from the first visit. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their website

5. Gallo Nero Italian Bistro (Frisco)

Cuisine: Modern Italian | Location: Heart of Frisco, TX | Style: Bistro with serious wine list Gallo Nero, “black rooster,” the symbol of Chianti Classico wine country, is a modern Italian bistro in central Frisco. The menu is built around simple ingredients, homemade cooking, and a wine list inspired by Italian classics. Not a corporate chain, not a red-sauce joint, it’s the neighborhood bistro Frisco has been quietly wanting. Popular for date nights, small groups, and Sunday-night dinners. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their website

6. Bruno’s Italian Kitchen (Texas)

Cuisine: Traditional Italian | Style: Family-friendly, authentic appetizers Bruno’s Italian Kitchen brings a traditional Italian family-restaurant experience to Texas. Authentic appetizers, house-made pastas, and the kind of long-menu Italian-American cooking that works for a Wednesday-night dinner with the family or a Sunday afternoon meal after church. Not the fanciest Italian on this list, but one of the most consistent. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their website

7. Tony’s Pizza & Pasta (Dallas / Lake Highlands)

Cuisine: Family Italian, pizza & pasta | Location: Lake Highlands, Dallas | Longevity: 20+ years serving the neighborhood | BYOB: Yes Tony’s Pizza & Pasta has been serving Lake Highlands, Dallas for over 20 years, a legitimate neighborhood institution. The pitch is straightforward: fresh ingredients, prices that work for a family, and BYOB so you can bring your own bottle of beer or wine. This is a locals’ spot with a regular crowd, not a destination restaurant, and that’s exactly why it’s still around after two decades. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their website

8. Parma Pasta Pizza (Lewisville)

Cuisine: Italian pasta & pizza | Location: Lewisville, TX Parma Pasta Pizza is an Albanian-owned Italian restaurant and pizzeria in Lewisville, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb on the north side of the Metroplex. Straightforward Italian pasta and pizza menu, family-run, and one of the newer additions to the ALB Connection directory. If you’re on the Lewisville / The Colony / Flower Mound side of DFW, this is your Albanian-owned Italian pick. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their website

9. Bella Italia Ristorante (Plano)

Cuisine: Italian | Location: Plano, TX Bella Italia is Plano’s Albanian-owned Italian restaurant, one of two Albanian-owned spots in the “City of Excellence” (the other being Texas Café). Straight-ahead Italian menu, family-run. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their website

10. Roma’s Italian Kitchen (Texas)

Cuisine: Italian, family-owned Roma’s Italian Kitchen rounds out the family-Italian core of the Texas list. Standard Italian menu, community pricing, and the kind of family-run operation where the owners are in the dining room most nights. ➤ View on ALB Connection

11. Luigi’s Italian Restaurant (Uvalde)

Cuisine: Italian | Location: Uvalde, TX | Pitch: “Where flavor meets comfort” Luigi’s is the outlier on the list geographically, a small-town Italian restaurant in Uvalde, about an hour and a half west of San Antonio. Being the Albanian-owned Italian restaurant in Uvalde makes it one of the more unique listings in our directory. The pitch is warm and family-forward: they don’t just serve food, they serve experiences. Regulars come for the atmosphere as much as the pasta. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their website

12. Texas Café Breakfast & Lunch (Plano)

Cuisine: Country-style American breakfast & lunch | Location: Plano, TX (the “City of Excellence”) Texas Café Breakfast & Lunch is a straightforward country-style American breakfast-and-lunch spot in Plano, a great daytime pick if you’re on the north side of DFW. Traditional country breakfast menu, Plano prices, family-run atmosphere. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their Facebook

13. Sofra Breakfast and Lunch (Texas)

Cuisine: Breakfast & lunch | Style: Warm hospitality, memorable meals Named for sofra, the Albanian word for a low traditional dining table, symbolizing family and togetherness, Sofra Breakfast and Lunch is a daytime restaurant designed around the same family-forward hospitality the name implies. The menu is designed to deliver “a delightful dining experience,” and regulars will tell you the warm hospitality is what makes it a favorite. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their website

14. Eggcited Brunch House (McKinney)

Cuisine: Modern American & Mexican brunch | Location: McKinney, TX Eggcited Brunch House is a family-owned restaurant in McKinney offering traditional American cuisine with a modern twist, plus a Mexican influence that reflects the North Texas dining scene. Weekend brunch and weekday breakfast/lunch, done at neighborhood prices. ➤ View on ALB Connection | Visit their website

Why Texas Has an Albanian Italian Restaurant Scene

Almost every Albanian-owned restaurant in Texas is an Italian restaurant, and that’s not a coincidence. It’s the same pattern you see in New York, Michigan, and Ohio: first-generation Albanian immigrants historically found work in the Italian restaurant industry, learned the trade from the inside, and then opened their own places once they had the capital. Texas is a newer destination for the Albanian community than the Northeast or Midwest, but the same restaurant-ownership pattern has followed the community to Houston and DFW. The DFW Metroplex is the center of gravity, Frisco, Plano, McKinney, Lewisville, and Dallas together account for most of the state’s Albanian-owned dining. Houston is a distant second, but the two Houston restaurants (Adriatic Cafe and d’Alba) are two of the most established on the list. Uvalde’s Luigi’s is the geographic outlier that reminds you Albanian entrepreneurs have quietly spread across the state. What Texas doesn’t yet have is a traditional Albanian restaurant, no qebapa, no burek shop, no tavë kosi on the menu. The closest is d’Alba, which references the family’s Albanian roots in the name and cocktail program but serves New American food. For traditional Albanian food, you’re still looking to the Northeast, the Bronx and NYC generally.

How to Find Albanian Restaurants in Texas

In Dallas-Fort Worth: Frisco (Crudo Taverna, Gallo Nero), Plano (Bella Italia, Texas Café), Dallas Lake Highlands (Tony’s Pizza & Pasta), Lewisville (Parma Pasta Pizza), McKinney (Eggcited Brunch House). In Houston: Adriatic Cafe and d’Alba craft kitchen & cocktails (Garden Oaks). Outside the metros: Luigi’s Italian Restaurant in Uvalde (west of San Antonio). Reservations: Recommended for Crudo Taverna, Gallo Nero, and d’Alba especially on weekends. The family Italian restaurants (Tony’s, Parma, Roma’s, Bruno’s) are walk-in.

What to Order at an Albanian-Owned Restaurant in Texas

Because the menus here are Italian, New American, or breakfast-focused rather than Albanian, there isn’t a fixed dish list to look for. A few notes: At the fine-dining spots (Crudo, Gallo Nero, d’Alba), ask what’s off-menu that night, the daily specials are where the kitchens do their most interesting cooking. At the family Italians (Adriatic Cafe, Tony’s, Bruno’s, Mare e Monte, Roma’s, Bella Italia, Parma, Luigi’s), order pasta or veal parmigiana, those are the dishes these kitchens have been making for decades. At the brunch spots (Sofra, Eggcited, Texas Café), go for the weekend brunch menu, that’s when these restaurants are at their busiest and their best. For a broader introduction to Albanian cuisine, see: What Is Albanian Food?

Beyond Texas: Albanian Restaurants Across the US

• Best Albanian Restaurants in the Bronx, the Michelin-recommended dining scene
• Best Albanian Restaurants in NYC, all five boroughs
• Best Albanian Restaurants in Ohio, Cleveland’s Warehouse District fine-dining trio
• Albanian Businesses in Metro Detroit, the largest Albanian community in the Midwest
• Browse the full ALB Connection Business Directory →

Own an Albanian Restaurant in Texas? Get Listed

If you own or manage an Albanian-owned restaurant in Texas and your business isn’t yet on our directory, we’d love to feature you. ALB Connection is the largest online directory dedicated to Albanian-owned businesses in the United States, with over 3,000 listings across all 50 states. Submit your restaurant listing here | Browse all Albanian restaurants in Texas | Contact us

Full List: Every Albanian Restaurant in Texas in Our Directory

• Adriatic Cafe Italian Grill, Houston
• Bella Italia Ristorante, Plano
• Bruno’s Italian Kitchen, Texas
• Crudo Taverna, Frisco
• d’Alba craft kitchen & cocktails, Houston (Garden Oaks)
• Eggcited Brunch House, McKinney
• Gallo Nero Italian Bistro, Frisco
• Luigi’s Italian Restaurant, Uvalde
• Mare e Monte Italian Restaurant, Texas
• Parma Pasta Pizza, Lewisville
• Roma’s Italian Kitchen, Texas
• Sofra Breakfast and Lunch, Texas
• Texas Café Breakfast & Lunch, Plano
• Tony’s Pizza & Pasta, Dallas (Lake Highlands)

View all Albanian restaurants in Texas in the directory →

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there Albanian restaurants in Houston?

Yes, two are listed in the ALB Connection directory. Adriatic Cafe Italian Grill is the longer-standing family Italian institution, and d’Alba craft kitchen & cocktails in Garden Oaks is the newer New-American-with-craft-cocktails restaurant opened by the Elshani family.

Where can I find Albanian-owned restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area?

DFW has the highest concentration of Albanian-owned restaurants in Texas. Frisco (Crudo Taverna, Gallo Nero), Plano (Bella Italia, Texas Café), Dallas Lake Highlands (Tony’s Pizza & Pasta), Lewisville (Parma Pasta Pizza), and McKinney (Eggcited Brunch House) all have Albanian-owned dining options.

Do any Albanian restaurants in Texas serve traditional Albanian food?

Not yet. Every Albanian-owned restaurant in Texas listed in our directory serves Italian, New American, or breakfast/brunch cuisine, a common pattern in states outside the Northeast, where the Albanian community historically built its restaurant portfolio in the Italian food industry. For traditional Albanian dishes like tavë kosi, byrek, and qebapa, you currently need to travel to New York (the Bronx) or the Northeast more broadly.

What’s the best Albanian-owned restaurant in Frisco, TX?

For fine dining, Crudo Taverna is the higher-end pick, a wood-fired modern Italian restaurant a block from The Star. For a bistro night, Gallo Nero Italian Bistro in central Frisco is the go-to. Both are Albanian-owned and both are among the most polished restaurants in the DFW Metroplex.