One important factor in comparing Dallas to San Antonio would be the quality and quantity of restaurants in each city. I've checked a major rating organization for the number of restaurants that rated at least one star for both cities, and added a few other cities to put it in context.

Dallas is way ahead of SA for restaurants, and everybody wants to eat, right? My reference is the URL at the bottom.

Chicago - 220 restaurants

5 stars - 2
4 stars - 8
3 stars - 56
2 stars - 107
1 star - 47


Dallas - 184 restaurants

4 stars - 3
3 stars - 41
2 stars - 97
1 star - 43


Boston - 102 restaurants

4 stars - 6
3 stars - 34
2 stars - 50
1 star - 12


Washington DC - 97 restaurants

4 stars - 3
3 stars - 28
2 stars - 34
1 star - 32


Houston - 91 restaurants

4 stars - 1
3 stars - 21
2 stars - 45
1 star - 24


San Antonio - 41 restaurants

4 stars - 1
3 stars - 8
2 stars - 19
1 star - 13



http://www.mobiltravelguide.com/mtg/...gs&bodytid=102

This is a great post, but no one seems to get a hint of the real historic Texas - a shame, as Texas is, and Texans are, really wonderful.
That said, I'm relocating to my home in SMdA,MX, as the Feds are .......
M

Personally, we don't eat in 5-star restaurants even at home, and definitely not in San Antonio. When we are there, we favor the "mom and pop" Mexican restaurants that make traditional Norteno Mexican food that we can't get in Dallas: guiso, steak tampiquena, authentic chile rellenos, and cabrito. We've found a few places in Dallas that make these specialties, but not as well as in San Antone.

The very best MX food is served in the houses of the educated mamas in the State de Guanajuato and perhaps in the city of San Miguel de Allende.
TEX/MEX is not a close second.
M

I agree with Mikemo. I'd also like to add that I like San Antonio and Dallas each for their own reasons and certainly not one over the other. Sometimes I feel like being in the big city, and sometimes I prefer the quaint atmosphere of San Antonio. Sometimes I even prefer to "degrade" myself so much as to visit Bandera.

The restaurants noted above are obviously only those who decided to list with the Mobil Travel Guide, which I wouldn't typically rely on for great cuisine recommendations myself. There are literally 1,000's of restaurants in the Houston area, and certainly more than one four star.

Just my two cents.

Statia, the Mobil Travel Guide and the AAA guides are the most prestigious rating systems in the USA. They have a large staff of professional inspectors who apply uniform standards of evaluation to the properties they review. If there are any restaurants in a town that deserve one or two or three stars, they will get it. It is to the financial advantage of the Mobil Travel Guide to be as inclusive and as complete as possible.

Restaurants do not "choose to be listed", Mobil chooses the restaurants to list, and to award stars to.

Do you know of a Houston restaurant comparable to a Mobil 4 star, but not on their list at all? They sure didn't miss any Dallas restaurants.

Christie, I don't eat in 4 star restaurants either, but I do eat in lots of 1 and 2 star ones. I thank God every day that I live in a city that has more of them than even Boston and Washington does, and far more than San Antonio does.

No, the little joints are not better in SA, they're just different, in a way that you like.

xbt, I quite frankly don't have the time that you must have to research statistics on the internet regarding which restaurants, hotels, attractions, etc. receive various ratings according to whomever evaluates them. As we all know, that varies by the rater. For the time you commit to this little project, however, I must commend you.

At your request I quickly found the following stats with regards to restaurants between "The Big H" and "The Big D," as I was raised to refer to them in the "Loud Mouth's CB Club" when I was just native traveling Texan "young-un."

There might be a couple of more "highest rated" restaurants in Dallas, but I think that most of us dine at the "mid to high end" establishments on a regular basis, for which there are a higher number in Houston, as you can see. As I stated before, however, there is definitely more than "one" high end restaurant in Houston, and I'm sure this doesn't even scratch the surface.

16/20 rating:
Big D: 7
Big H: 5

16/20 rating:
Big D: 13
Big H: 34

14/20 rating:
Big D: 34
Big H: 11

Dallas Results
http://www.gayot.com/restaurantpages/tally.php?code=DF

Houston Results
http://www.gayot.com/restaurantpages/tally.php?code=HO

Please note that neither city had a rating over 16/20. I think those are probably reserved for the likes of NYC and other larger metro areas, myself.

In closing (since I won't be reading this thread any longer) I would like to add that IMHO most cities in Texas, both great and small, have something to offer tourists and Texan's alike. I was raised in Houston, but have now lived overseas working as an international buyer for more than a decade. Houston will always have my heart, but I must admit I have also had some wonderful adventures in Dallas, including retail buying at the Dallas Mart. I still enjoy San Antonio, and yes, even Bandera and the beautiful Texas hill country just as much though.

I think it all boils down to what you are looking for in either a weekend jaunt (as the OP asked about) or a lengthy vacation. Texas is a "whole other country" and all of it has something for everyone.

I sure wish Fodors would enlist an edit function one of these days. Pardon my typo in the second listing above. It should read 15/20, rather than 16/20. Sorry!

Statia, I agree with you about an edit function.

Never heard of your "Guyot" rating organization, but the Mobil restaurant and hotel system is pretty much the gold standard in America. When they publish a list of their stars, national newspapers like USA Today print the results.

So I'll stick with them.

And interestingly enough, the number of restaurants they star is in rough proportion to the size of the metro area they are in. Dallas is the 5th or 4th largest metro in America, and its restaurant count is the 5th best in America, behind the likes of NY, LA, Chicago and San Francisco.

Houston is perhaps the 8th largest metro, and its restaurant count in Mobil is comparable.

I guess it's all relative to where you look and who you ask.

According to the following link, Houston is the 4th top city in the US by population and rank. San Antonio is 8th and Dallas is 9th. I guess these numbers speak for themselves if, as you say, the population of a city is the end all of what makes it superior.

However, I still stand by my statement that each of those three cities have their positives and negatives, all being relative to what specifics a person is looking for.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763098.html

No, Statia, these numbers do not speak for themselves.

By "city", the link really means "municipal government".

Since metro Dallas is fragmented into many municipal government, a meaningful figure would be the population of each metro area.

According to the US Census in April 2000, these are the numbers:

1 - New York - 18,323,002
2 - Los Angeles - 12,365,627
3 - Chicago - 9,098,316
4 - Philadelphia - 5,687,147
5 - Dallas - 5,161,544
6 - Miami - 5,007,564
7 - Washington 4,796,183
8 - Houston - 4,715,407
9 - Detroit - 4,452,557
10 - Boston - 4,391,344

... other cities ...

27 - Sacramento - 1,796,857

29 - San Antonio - 1,711,703

31 - Columbus, OH - 1,612,694

Since Dallas had a growth rate of 29% during 1990-2000, its current estimated population would be about 5, 800,000, putting it about equal to Philadelphia in population.

The URL: http://www.census.gov/population/www...0/phc-t29.html

Wow, I think the San Jose obsessive moved to Texas. You all need to learn the lesson it took us so long in CA to learn. Ignore. Otherwise they don't ever stop.

Disagree, Grasshopper... people deserve a clear and accurate picture of the difference between Dallas and San Antonio.

Some people tend to forget that gzseattle has a 9 months old baby..I presume that she is not interested in going shopping at Versace's , going to the museums or eat at fancy restaurants either..
I have been to Dallas only once and to be honest the city left me cold..The only thing that I enjoyed there was watching my first professional American football game, The Cowboys versus the Red Skin.
Other than that, Dallas is just another big city with a lots of traffic..

I take San Antonio anytime..
People are much more friendly, the Mariachis, the wonderful River walk has so much flair with his cafe and restaurants , very European.
It is so nice just to sit outdoors , sip a cappuccino or a Margaritas and watch the people go by..

We should not forget the Fiesta, the River Parades, the Battle of the Flowers and most of all the Alamo..
Dallas cannot compare to San Antonio at all..

TxTravel, I may be a breath of sanity and clarity in a world of illusion, but to you, I'm just a nightmare. If so, you've got problems. You need to learn to accept points of view that contradict your own.

Kismet, many people with 9 month old children like to patronize specialty shops, eat in good restaurants, see some of the best art in the world, listen to music in one of the best halls... Bass Hall in FW, Meyerson in Dallas. Or sit in one of Dallas' urban pedestrian zones with a good latte and watch the world go by. We even have "cry-baby matinees" at the art film houses, where mothers can bring babies and still enjoy a good film.

If SA does rings your bell, but you don't appreciate the cultural and social opportunities of a city the size of Dallas, that's OK with us. We don't have to put up with your griping, and SA will appreciate your cries of joy and pleasure.

Now if your attitudes were the general opinion, SA would be the biggest resort in the world.

xbt,

Before you go away, could you look at my question about Italian restaurants in Dallas? LOL

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=34544683

Jocelyn, I'll be glad to help any way that I can... before TxTravelPro consigns me to cyberspace Hades.

Around McKinney Avenue where the trolley is, there is, of course, Il Molino... a branch of a famous Italian eatery in Manhattan. But they might be expensive and, in a word, high-falutin. You might try Pomodoro-Arcodoro on Routh Street. It's about a 1-2 block walk from McKinney Avenue.

I don't know about smaller children, but my 7 year old granddaughter really enjoyed visiting Olk City Park, just south of downtown Dallas. It's a city park that has been converted into a village of 19th century buildings... farmhouses, town houses, a blacksmith shop, farm animals... she enjoyed petting the donkeys, feeding hay to the sheep and the blacksmith even made her a nail.

Jocelyn, how could I forget?

Gelato is also an Italian treat.

The local Paciugo's chain of gelato stores was started by an Italian couple, and it has taken the city by storm. There are several locations to get it, but the easiest is to take the McKinney Ave trolley to the West Village, and walk to the Paciugo's near the Magnolia Theatre.

Excellent stuff... got to taste it.

Thank you! The Old City Park sound perfect. That should round out our day nicely. We have a Paciugo here in Tulsa, conveniently located a block away from the kids' preschool. We were just there last week. Have you tried the pumpkin pie gelato???

By the way, San Antonio's next, as we're going there in March. I'm looking forward to both.

Grasshopper,
I had the same thought about the San Jose thing (about 60 posts ago, LOL) but at least xbt is truthful and definitely more respectful. In reality, this thread is a wealth of information about both cities.