Zavala's Barbecue
Zavala's presses its own tortillas to go under the sliced brisket, and Daniel Vaughn names both.1
Why go
Joe Zavala got the street renamed Brisket Lane.1 José R. Ralat put the Sloppy Juan on Texas Monthly's fifty best tacos in Texas in 2024.2 The room opened in 2019 and the Dallas Morning News, writing about the year Goldee's took the state's number one spot, called out the beef rib here.4 D Magazine has it eighth in North Texas. Texas Monthly's 2025 Top 50 leaves it off the fifty and lists it among the honorable mentions from the same tasting run.73
Order this / avoid
- Order: the sliced brisket, with the house tortillas to eat it in.1
- Order: the Sloppy Juan, the taco Texas Monthly's taco editor put on his statewide fifty.2
- Ask about the beef rib. The Dallas Morning News called it drool-worthy in 2021 and it is a one-a-customer kind of cut.4
What locals & experts say
- Daniel Vaughn, Texas Monthly:
The sliced brisket always impresses here on the corner of Main and Brisket Lane (owner Joe Zavala initiated the street's name change), as do the tortillas.
1 - Dayne Weaver, now seventh in Texas, on the night Joe Zavala let him into this pit room in December 2017:
That was kinda my eye-opening moment with Texas barbecue.
5 - The Goldee's crew, before they had a building of their own,
held Sunday pop-ups at nearby Zavala's Barbecue, in Grand Prairie.
6 - D Magazine's judged panel places it eighth in North Texas.7
Good to know
Verdict
should-visit — A Grand Prairie pit whose sliced brisket and house tortillas are both worth ordering, and whose pit room hosted Goldee's Sunday pop-ups before they had a building. Order the brisket with the tortillas, add the Sloppy Juan, and ask whether there is a beef rib left.