Cotton Patch Cafe Wins 3 Gold and 2 Silver in Best in DFW 2026

Cotton Patch Cafe won three Gold and two Silver awards in The Dallas Morning News’ 2026 Best in DFW. North Texas readers voted us Gold for Best Comfort Food, Best Kid-Friendly Restaurant and Best Dessert, and Silver for Best Burger and Best Chain Restaurant, in the paper’s reader-voted Best in DFW: People’s Choice awards, published September 27, 2026. See our wins on The Dallas Morning News’ Best in DFW page.

Cotton Patch Cafe’s 2026 Best in DFW Results

Cotton Patch Cafe placed in all five categories it was nominated for in the 2026 Best in DFW awards. That’s five medals, up from three Golds in 2025, and two of them came in categories we had never been nominated in before. Here’s how this year stacks up against last year:

Our 2025 Best in DFW Gold wins set the bar, and DFW raised it. It’s also our second readers’ choice Gold of 2026, following Best Cheap Eats in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s 2026 DFW Favorites.

Why DFW Voted Us Best Comfort Food Again

Readers gave us Gold for Best Comfort Food two years running because we still cook it from scratch, every day, in every cafe. Our chicken fried steak is hand-breaded in the kitchen and smothered in the same scratch-made cream gravy we’ve been stirring since we opened in Nacogdoches, Texas, in 1989. The rolls are baked fresh, and our food is made with no additives or preservatives.

Comfort food also has to be something you can come back for on a regular Tuesday, not just a special occasion. That’s why our $9.99 Texas Value Meals put scratch-made favorites on the table at an honest price. If you’ve ever wondered what makes a dish count as comfort food, we dug into it in what is the most common comfort food.

Best Kid-Friendly Restaurant: Gold Two Years Running

Cotton Patch Cafe won Gold for Best Kid-Friendly Restaurant in both 2025 and 2026. DFW parents know the difference between a restaurant that tolerates kids and one that actually wants them there, and we want them there. A few of the reasons families keep choosing us:

• A kids’ menu built for real kids, with simple favorites that come out fast.
• The Reading Rodeo, our summer reading partnership with local libraries. Kids who hit their library’s summer reading goal earned a free kids’ meal and a scoop of ice cream, with DFW libraries in Denton, Grapevine, Mansfield, North Richland Hills and Lewisville taking part. See how the Reading Rodeo works.
• A long record of showing up for Texas kids, including years of support for Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.

Gold for Best Dessert on Our First Nomination

Cotton Patch Cafe won Gold for Best Dessert in 2026, the first year we were ever on the Best in DFW ballot for desserts. Our dessert case leans Southern and homemade: Mama’s Butter Cake, warm cobbler with vanilla ice cream, and our newest favorite, the Layered Strawberry Shortcake, with fresh strawberries layered between vanilla sponge cake and whipped cream. Going from not nominated to Gold in a single year is the one that made our kitchen crews grin the widest.

Silver for Best Burger and Best Chain Restaurant

Cotton Patch Cafe took Silver for Best Burger and Silver for Best Chain Restaurant in the 2026 Best in DFW awards. Burgers were brand-new to our ballot this year, so a podium finish in a metro with this many burger joints means a lot. Wondering how Texas earned its burger reputation? We covered it in is Texas known for burgers.

The Chain Restaurant Silver speaks to consistency across 46 cafes in Texas and New Mexico (as of September 2026). We’ve grown a long way from our first cafe in Nacogdoches, and since June 2026 we’ve been part of the Dallas-based Local Favorite Restaurants family. The goal hasn’t changed: the chicken fried steak in Frisco should taste exactly like the one in Weatherford.

How the Dallas Morning News Best in DFW Awards Are Decided

The Dallas Morning News Best in DFW winners are chosen entirely by readers. Each spring, readers nominate their favorite local businesses, with nominations open through April 30. Businesses with enough nominations advance to a final ballot, the public votes online throughout June, and the winners are revealed in the paper’s Best in DFW magazine, which came out September 27, 2026. According to The Dallas Morning News, 2026 was the program’s sixth year, with 129 categories spread across nine groups.

That’s why these medals matter to us. Nobody bought them and no panel handed them out: North Texans took the time to vote, and you can browse every winner on the Dallas Morning News Best in DFW page.

Find Your Nearest Cotton Patch Cafe in DFW

Cotton Patch Cafe has 19 cafes across the Dallas–Fort Worth area (as of September 2026). Pick the one closest to you:

Outside DFW? See all 46 Cotton Patch Cafe locations across Texas and New Mexico.

Frequently Asked Questions