Dallas World Cup 2026 Guide | Where to Eat, Stay & Survive Match Day Like a Local

A local restaurant's honest guide to the nine matches at AT&T Stadium — match schedule, smart hotel base, Texas heat survival, and the food locals actually drive across the metro for.

• The 9 Matches at AT&T Stadium

• Where to Stay (Smart Base Strategy)

• The Story of Chef Point — Why Your Trip Should Include Us

• The Pre-Match Move That Saves Your Day

• Texas Heat — Take It Seriously

• For Mexico, Argentina, Brazil & England Fans

• Watching the OTHER Matches (The Londoner)

• How to Actually Get to the Stadium

• For Supporter Clubs & Big Groups

• A Note on BBQ — Pre-Order It

• The Dallas Fan Festival

• Insider Tips Locals Actually Use

• FAQ

A few things international fans should know first:

• The stadium is being temporarily renamed "Dallas Stadium" for the World Cup (FIFA rules don't allow corporate sponsor names during the tournament).

• It's not actually in Dallas. It's in Arlington — the city sitting between Dallas and Fort Worth. Your ticket will say "Dallas Stadium" but your GPS needs "AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX."

• It's hosting more matches than any other venue in the entire tournament — 9 in total.

Group Stage

• June 14 — Netherlands vs. Japan (Group F) · 3:00 PM CT

• June 17 — England vs. Croatia (Group L) · 3:00 PM CT

• June 22 — Argentina vs. Austria (Group J) · 12:00 PM CT

• June 25 — Japan vs. TBD (Group F) · 6:00 PM CT

• June 27 — Argentina vs. Jordan (Group J) · 9:00 PM CT

Knockout Rounds

• June 30 — Round of 32

• July 3 — Round of 32

• July 6 — Round of 16

• July 14 — SEMIFINAL · 2:00 PM CT

Worth flagging: defending champions Argentina play twice in Dallas, and the July 14 semifinal is the biggest day of the tournament outside the final itself. Hotels and restaurants for these dates will book up months in advance.

Here's the part most fans get wrong.

The default move is to book a hotel in downtown Dallas. Downtown Dallas is roughly 25 miles from the stadium. On a match day, with World Cup traffic, that's a 45-minute to 1.5-hour transfer each way.

Stay near DFW Airport instead. The cities right around DFW — Grapevine, Irving, Las Colinas, Colleyville, Southlake — sit much closer to the stadium and the airport at the same time. Here's why this matters:

• DFW Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world, with around 60% of its passengers being connecting travelers — the airport is built around being a hub. Most international fans will land here.

• From DFW, the stadium is about 18 miles. From the area around DFW, it's a 20-minute drive on a normal day.

• Hotels in this area are 7–20 minutes from the airport — meaning a fast arrival, less stress, and more time enjoying your trip.

• Food in this area is genuinely better than the chain options crowded around the stadium.

This area is also where Chef Point is located — Colleyville. Which leads us into the next part of the story.

This part isn't a sales pitch. It's a story worth knowing about the area you're visiting.

In 2003, Chef Franson Nwaeze and his wife Paula bought a Conoco gas station in Watauga, Texas. Franson was originally from Nigeria. He came to America planning to be a commercial pilot — and ended up falling in love with cooking while working as a dishwasher to pay the bills. When he and Paula tried to open a restaurant, no bank would give them a loan. They could get one for a gas station, though. So they bought the gas station, ripped out the back, and built a commercial kitchen behind the snack aisle.

Nigerian fine-dining-trained chef. Tex-Mex country. Selling duck à l'orange and lobster bisque next to motor oil and Slim Jims.

People started lining up. In 2011, Guy Fieri showed up with a camera crew and put us on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The lines got longer. We got featured in The New York Times, in Paula Deen Magazine, and on Food Network's Guilty Pleasures. The gas station kept selling gas with a 90-minute wait for a table out back.

In 2019, we opened a proper restaurant in Colleyville, 7 minutes from DFW Airport. In 2025, Guy Fieri came back and featured us a second time on Triple D Nation: Pickin' Up Flavor. The episode aired in August 2025.

That's our American Dream story — and we're proud of it.

Why does this matter for your World Cup trip?

Because if you fly thousands of miles to Texas, the worst thing you can do is eat at a chain restaurant attached to your hotel. Chef Point is the closest non-chain, Food-Network-featured destination restaurant to DFW Airport. People in Dallas drive 30+ minutes to eat here. You can be here from the airport in 7.

If you want one meal during your trip that you'll remember and tell people about back home — make it this one.

Famous menu items worth knowing:

• "Better Than Sex" Fried Chicken — yes, that's the actual menu name

• Lobster bisque

• Blackened pork chop stuffed with crab and pepper jack

• Oxtail — chef's nod to his Nigerian roots

• Signature bread pudding — the dish that put us on Triple D

From a Conoco gas station in 2003 to two Food Network features and the New York Times. You came thousands of miles for soccer. Spend one meal somewhere with a real story.

Most fans take a $60+ rideshare from their hotel to Arlington and try to find food in the chaos near the stadium. The food near AT&T Stadium on match days will be wall-to-wall with international fans, brutal wait times, and chain restaurants charging premium prices because everyone's stuck.

Here's the move locals have been using for Cowboys games for years:

Eat in Colleyville. Drive to the stadium.

Chef Point is 20 minutes from the stadium. You eat well, on your timeline, in a quiet place that isn't packed with stressed fans. Then drive 20 minutes — much of it on backroads through Euless and Hurst that locals use to avoid I-30 and TX-360 — and walk into the stadium relaxed.

It's the single best decision you can make about your match day.

This is the section international fans skim and regret later.

The World Cup runs June 11 to July 19 — peak Texas summer. Daily highs in the DFW area average 95–105°F (35–40°C) with humidity in the 60% range, meaning the heat index regularly hits 105–110°F. The stadium roof will likely be closed and air-conditioned, but everything around it — parking lots, walks to entrances, fan festivals — is fully exposed.

Walking long distances in Texas heat is not for the weak. A 15-minute walk from the rideshare lot in 100°F heat will leave you wrecked before the match has even kicked off.

What to bring (don't skip this):

• Sunscreen, SPF 30+ minimum. You can burn in 15–20 minutes here, even on overcast days. Reapply every 2 hours.

• Light, breathable clothing. Cotton, linen. Light colors. Heavy denim is a mistake. Pack a jersey for the match — but consider what you wear getting there.

• A hat or cap with a brim.

• A refillable water bottle (factory-sealed bottles up to 20oz are typically allowed inside the stadium — check current FIFA bag policy).

• A portable phone charger / power bank. Tickets are mobile-only. If your phone dies, you don't get into the stadium. The Texas heat also drains phone batteries faster.

• Sunglasses.

• Electrolyte tablets or packets. They're cheap, light, and worth it.

Pace yourself like a local: outdoor stuff before 11am or after 7pm. Indoor and air-conditioning during 2–6pm. Hydrate before you feel thirsty. Alcohol and caffeine both dehydrate you — for every beer or coffee, drink a full glass of water.

If you get heat exhaustion before the match starts, the trip is ruined. Don't underestimate this.

A quick word for the biggest visiting fan bases:

🇦🇷 Argentine fans — Two matches in Dallas (June 22 and June 27). The June 27 match against Jordan is a 9:00 PM kickoff, which is a blessing in Texas heat. Eat earlier than you think — a heavy meal at 6pm before a 9pm kickoff is uncomfortable when it's still 95°F outside at sunset.

🇲🇽 Mexican fans — DFW has one of the largest Mexican-American populations in the United States, so the food culture here will feel familiar in a lot of ways. But this is the move: try something distinctly Texan at least once. Texas brunch and elevated American comfort food is its own thing — different from Tex-Mex, different from anything you've had at home. That's where Chef Point fits in.

🇧🇷 Brazilian fans — Even if Brazil isn't drawn into AT&T Stadium matches, many of you will pass through DFW for connections (DFW is a massive hub — about 60% of its traffic is connecting passengers). Dallas is one of the easiest U.S. airports to base from for a multi-city tournament trip.

Most fans on a World Cup trip aren't just attending one match. You're watching matches happen all over the U.S., Mexico, and Canada — different days, weird local times.

So where do you watch?

Hotel rooms get old fast. American sports bars mostly show football, basketball, and baseball — not soccer. You need a real soccer pub.

The Londoner has been a DFW soccer institution since 1998, hosting watch parties for everything from the Premier League to the Champions League to every World Cup since the 90s. Their Colleyville location is a 2-minute walk from Chef Point — door to door. We're not in the same parking lot, but you can walk it easily, drink in hand.

The supporter clubs that meet at The Londoner are the real thing — Arsenal's Dallas Gooner Society, Aston Villa's Dallas Lions, and dozens more. If you want to watch a match with people who actually care, this is where you go.

The play locals use:

1. Eat at Chef Point

2. Walk to The Londoner Colleyville

3. Watch your match with real fans

4. Drive to AT&T Stadium when it's your turn

One trip. Full match-day experience.

For their other locations:

• Addison — original location since 1998, North Dallas

• Mockingbird Station Dallas — closest to downtown Dallas

• Arlington — brand-new, near AT&T Stadium, opening for the World Cup

This is where international fans struggle, so here's the truth:

Arlington is the largest U.S. city without any public transportation. No metro. No light rail. No city buses. None. There is no train or subway to AT&T Stadium. This was a deliberate choice by Arlington voters over the years.

For the World Cup, here are your real options:

1. Official FIFA parking pass — $75–$200+ per match (dynamic pricing). About 16,600 parking spaces total around the stadium. Book in advance through FIFA's official parking partner JustPark. Spaces will sell out.

2. Rideshare (Uber/Lyft) — Designated pickup/drop-off is at the Esports Stadium Arlington parking lot, less than a mile from the stadium. Surge pricing on match days will be brutal. Post-match pickup is the worst part — agree on a meeting spot well outside the stadium before you go in.

3. Park-and-ride options — Local spots like J. Gilligan's Bar & Grill and Grease Monkey have run shuttles for Cowboys games for years. For the World Cup specifically, the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) is funding shuttle service from rideshare zones and outlying lots. Check arlingtontx.gov/worldcup and FIFA.com/transportation closer to the date for the latest shuttle routes — these were still being finalized as of early 2026.

4. TRE (Trinity Railway Express) + Shuttle bus — The TRE runs from downtown Dallas to CentrePort station, then DART buses or shuttles will run a "bus bridge" to the stadium on match days. Doable but slow — allow 90+ minutes door-to-stadium from downtown Dallas.

This is travel advice, not a sales pitch.

Texas BBQ is a religion here. The most famous places — Goldee's in Fort Worth (the current GOAT, ranked #1 in Texas Monthly's list), Cattleack in Dallas, Hurtado (close to the stadium with multiple locations), Terry Black's — are absolutely worth the trip.

But here's what visitors don't realize: these places sell out. Goldee's regularly has hours-long lines starting before opening, and they often sell out by mid-afternoon. Cattleack is only open a few days a week.

The fix is pre-ordering. Almost every serious BBQ joint in DFW takes online pre-orders, pickup orders, or catering orders. You can:

• Order ahead online and pick up without standing in line

• Place a pickup catering order and bring it back to your hotel or hotel suite

• Have it delivered to your group via catering

Worth doing once during your trip. Texas brisket is a thing you cannot get anywhere else in the world.

Dallas is hosting the official FIFA Fan Festival™ at Fair Park, June 11 – July 19, 2026. It's free, open to everyone, runs on all 34 match days. Massive viewing screens, live concerts, food stalls, mini-pitches, the Texas Star Ferris wheel in the background.

Important: Fair Park is in Dallas, not in Arlington. It's a 30+ minute drive from AT&T Stadium and is on the opposite side of DFW Airport from the stadium. This means you cannot do the Fan Festival and a match at AT&T Stadium on the same day — at least not without losing 2+ hours to driving and traffic.

Use the Fan Festival as a non-match-day experience. Save match days for the stadium.

Things that come up over and over from people who've done this for years:

• Don't get dropped "at" the stadium. The official rideshare lot is roughly a mile away. Get dropped a few blocks outside the stadium footprint and walk in — you'll often beat the people who paid double.

• Avoid I-30 and TX-360 on match days. Locals coming from Colleyville cut through the backroads of Euless and Hurst — slower posted speed, but you're actually moving. Your GPS won't always suggest it.

• Either get there 3+ hours early or get there late. The middle window is the worst traffic.

• Cash lots beat rideshare on cost and predictability.

• Walking back to your car beats waiting in the post-match parking lot. A lot of regulars say it's faster to walk a mile than sit in the lot for 60–90 minutes.

• Mobile tickets only. Tickets scan live from the FIFA app. PDFs and screenshots won't work. Bring a portable phone charger.

• Charge two devices. Have a phone with tickets and a backup phone or charger. The Texas heat drains batteries faster than you think.

• Clear bag rules are real. Check FIFA's current bag policy before you leave the hotel, not in the security line.

• AT&T Stadium is cashless. Bring a card. Most international cards with chip+PIN or contactless will work.

• The retractable roof will probably be closed. It's air-conditioned inside. The walk in and out is the hot part.

Q: How far is Chef Point from AT&T Stadium?

A: About 20 minutes with no traffic. On World Cup match days, plan for 30–45 minutes. We recommend leaving Colleyville 90 minutes to 2 hours before kickoff.

Q: How far is Chef Point from DFW Airport?

A: About 7 minutes. We're genuinely that close — the closest non-chain Food-Network-featured restaurant to the airport.

Q: What's the best Dallas neighborhood to stay in for the World Cup?

A: For match-day trips, stay near DFW Airport — Grapevine, Irving, Las Colinas, Colleyville, or Southlake. Closer to the stadium and the airport than downtown Dallas.

Q: Are you open during all 9 World Cup match days?

A: Yes. We strongly recommend reserving early — match days will be the busiest the metro has seen in years.

Q: Do you take large group reservations for supporter clubs?

A: Yes. We handle groups of 15–40+ regularly. Call a few days ahead and we'll set up the timing properly.

Q: Can you cater to my hotel for a fan group meal?

A: Yes. For orders over $250, we deliver within a 15-mile radius of Colleyville and bring full setup including chafers and sternos. That covers most hotels around DFW Airport.

Q: Where can I watch the matches I'm not attending?

A: The Londoner Pub. They have four DFW locations — Addison, Colleyville (2 minutes from us), Mockingbird Station Dallas, and a new Arlington location near AT&T Stadium opening for the World Cup.

Q: Is there public transportation to AT&T Stadium?

A: No. Arlington is the largest U.S. city with no public transit. You'll drive, rideshare, take a paid shuttle, or use a TRE+bus combination from Dallas.

Q: Will there be official park-and-ride shuttles for the World Cup?

A: Yes — the North Central Texas Council of Governments is funding shuttle service from rideshare zones and outlying lots, plus DART will run a "bus bridge" from downtown Dallas. Final routes were still being announced in early 2026. Check arlingtontx.gov/worldcup and FIFA.com/transportation closer to your match.

Q: Should I get the official FIFA parking pass?

A: For high-demand matches (Argentina games, semifinal), yes — book early through JustPark. For other matches, park-and-ride options are cheaper.

Q: Is Chef Point really started in a gas station?

A: Yes — 2003, Conoco gas station in Watauga, Texas. We could get a bank loan for the gas station but not for a restaurant, so we built a kitchen behind the snack aisle. Today we're a full restaurant in Colleyville. The story is part of who we are.

Q: Do you have vegetarian / halal / gluten-free options?

A: Yes. With international fans coming through, just let us know when you book and we'll walk you through what works.

Q: Texas in June — how hot are we talking?

A: Daily highs of 95–105°F (35–40°C) with humidity that pushes the heat index to 105–110°F. Bring sunscreen, a hat, light clothes, a portable charger, and a refillable water bottle. Hydrate before you feel thirsty.