For all the really old timers around here, perhaps you remember a thread about this....
Can’t remember the suburb- maybe it was McKinney - but that place seemed like it was chain restaurants and ONLY chain restaurants as far as the eye could see
Most of the places in both cities are slammed full of chains.
If you want Japanese, Nikko's in Southlake is pretty spectacular. Just ate there a couple days ago for the second time. The A5 steak and sushi were top notch.
Maple Landing is always good for brunch. Sevan G&G cafe is remarkably good Greek food and the 2nd best Greek I've had in Texas. First being this place in Abilene that is so out of place but amazing.
If you want good Mexican, there is plenty of that. I think Texas is the 2nd most overrated BBQ in the country after Memphis (KC is the best by far) but there are still some good dive BBQ places around Dallas. My favorite being a hole in the wall in Denton.
If you want to get fancy, you can. If you want the best fast food in the country, they have Braum's. I've had good Korean BBQ, Vietnamese and American classics in Dallas. One of my favorite places is EmpaMundo. A lady from Argentina owns the place and cranks out some amazing empanadas and they are cheap out this little store in a run down strip mall. It's right by DFW and I look forward to every visit. If you want good seafood you can get it but my only good experiences have come from fine dining and Baton Rouge blows away DFW when it comes to seafood on a budget but that's BR's only advantage.
Now, the good restaurants may be 45 minutes apart with 1100 chains in between but you can eat much better in the DFW metro than you can in Baton Rouge and it isn't close. DFW is also like 20 times the population of Baton Rouge so the comparison isn't fair when cherry picking restaurants.