Dallas Dining
 

I've been asked a few times by various folks for restaurant recommendations for Dallas.

So here are a few of the places I've taken out-of-town FTers who have come to visit. (And to clarify, I don't take my out-of-town friends to eat or drink anywhere I wouldn't go normally....)

Abacus

http://www.guidelive.com/profile/294183/

The Green Room

http://www.guidelive.com/profile/101904/

Sambuca

http://www.guidelive.com/profile/101898/

Il Sole

http://www.guidelive.com/profile/294046/

Monica's Aca Y Alla

http://www.guidelive.com/profile/101910

The Blue Goose

http://www.guidelive.com/profile/101309/

Esparzas

http://www.guidelive.com/profile/104570

Joe T. Garcias

http://www.guidelive.com/profile/104831

Citizen

http://www.guidelive.com/profile/294186/

The Library

http://www.guidelive.com/profile/105800

Via Real

http://www.guidelive.com/profile/100275/


[This message has been edited by techgirl (edited 11-24-2002).]

Dallas Dining (merged threads)
 

I had a meal at the Mansion, and was a little
disappointed. For the money & its reputaion I thought the service was little
short and the food a little gregarious but not great. Real glad I went. I
met Dean Ferring (Chef).
I had a fabulous dinner at
the York Street retsauarnat at 6047 Lewis 214-826-0968. I also had a
wonderful latin lunch at La Duni 4620 McKinney Ave 214-520-7300.

Excellent dining in Dallas. Head on up to Addison and there are tons of nice restaurants. Lawry's the Prime Rib, 3 Forks, "Texas de Brazil" and Fogo de Chao, Kobe Steaks, tons of other options.

I'm suprised nobody's posted this yet:

A great Italian restaurant near White Rock Lake, Alfonso's. Fantastic Chicago-style pizza! Also, the proprietor is our own PETEFLYS. Alfonso's is located at 718 N. N. Buckner Blvd. (Loop 12), (214) 327-7777.

Very nice sushi, sashimi, robata, and other Japanese buffet at Osaka out in Plano.

Every Wednesday night, Papacitos in Arlington has all-you-can-eat lobster for $29.99. They serve you whole lobsters (tails are 4-6 oz), and service is prompt, until the bugs are gone. My record is 5. Two co-workers devoured 9 each. Not even close to the record, which we were told was 31.

Besides stellar food, The Green Room has one of the best wine lists in Dallas. All of the waitstaff know their way around the wine list, especially Chris. Message to out-of-towners: don't be put off by the funky neighborhood and outside appearance. Food & drink are first class.

For homemade Tex-Mex try Avila's on Maple; for more upscale try Javier's, and also Ciudad (same owner as Monica's Aca y Alla). All are great.

[This message has been edited by globalguy (edited 12-03-2002).]

[This message has been edited by globalguy (edited 12-03-2002).]

I had dinner at Abacus this weekend and was disappointed. The room is modern, but very loud, ok service and the food is very elaborate but not tasty enough for the price. The lobster shooters taste like fish balls to me.


I had a very good lunch at the Lonesome Dove Bistro in Ft Worth stockyards.


[This message has been edited by GM99 (edited 12-16-2002).]

Just go to Addison http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/wink.gif

Tokyo One and Fogo de Chao right next to each other.

My two favorite restaurants http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...um/biggrin.gif

If you like Tokyo One, Osaka in Plano might be a very nice surprise.

For those who like the churrascarias (ala Fogo de Chao), I also like Texas de Brazil. They have three locations - Addison (Restaurant Row), Fort Worth (a short walk from Sundance Square), and Uptown (in that fabulous building where The Joint used to be).

We did New Years Eve at the one in Addison this year and I found the meat to be OH SO wonderful and the wine list to be full of reasonable gems.

Best Burgers in DFW
 

This is one of those highly debatable topics, but I'm going to throw it down and name my personal favorite:

Kincaid's on Camp Bowie

Kincaid's (officially the Charles Kincaid Grocery and Market) has been a fixture since long before I was born. I can remember my grandmother's maid taking me with her grocery shopping and then stopping off at Kincaid's for a quick lunch at the counter and a flirt with the grill boy.

These days, Kincaids no longer sells groceries (although the old waist high counters still have lots of vintage product underneath them) but does fire up the best burger around.

What makes it good?

Well, it has everything to do with "meld"... you know, the way the bun sticks to the cheese which sticks to the meat? The buns are lightly toasted on the grill, the veggies always fresh and sized just right.

Some folks love their fries, but I am a Texas traditionalist and always go for fried okra and ranch dressing as a side for my bacon cheeseburger.

Kincaids seems to always be packed during the day - many of the locals skip the clubhouses at Rivercrest and Shady Oaks CCs and instead head to Camp Bowie to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with all the other westsiders at the family style long tables (or stand at the old counters).

Service is bare bones - you queue up, order off the old letterboard, the counter girl will write your name and order on a white paper sack. Head over to the register and tell them what you ordered, grab a drink, and wait for your sack to be filled.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm....

I'll put my vote in for the Hole in the Wall on Harry Hines just south of LBJ.

It's been around forever and lives up to its name. It's basically a bar that seems to cater about 50% to bikers and 50% to blues fans.

But the burgers are handmade and some of the tastiest around. They'll come wrapped in paper, dressed with mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion & pickle (or however you request). Doubles available, but the singles are pretty generous.

The fries suck (greasy and sometimes undercooked). There's a few other things on the menu (BLT, CFS, chicken sandwich) but I've never seen anyone order them.

There's music every night (except Sunday, when they're closed), some of the best blues in town, actually. In particular, check out the Wednesday night jam. Once the music starts, the place fills up, and and if it's too cold for the patio, you may have a hard time finding a spot to eat.

No cover, $5 annual membership to drink alcohol.

I'm sorry to hear that one of my favorites was disappointing.

I do agree with you that the room can be loud... although I actually like not being able to hear the conversations of those at the table next to me (since no one ever said Dallasites were quiet by nature).

I'm still a huge fan of the lobster shooters... although now that I have the recipe I think I'm very likely to make the "sake" (broth) as a stand-alone dish.

The dessert menu has had some rotation lately... a Godiva chocolate soup has been added with lots of neat stuff in it. It was too-die-for. http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...um/biggrin.gif

Has anyone here tried Steel? I've been there twice and found it to have the freshest sashimi in the city. They told me it is flown in daily from a seafood purveyor on the W Coast. I used to live in Tokyo. We'd go to the Tsukiji fish market and buy stuff. Steel is as close as I've had to that. Other than sashimi, I've not tried any of the Vietnamese dishes there. Any opinions on those? One caveat: the wine list is a little pricey.

My vote.....ADAIR'S in Deep Ellum. They cook'em on an old fashioned steel griddle. Don't be in a hurry though. Adair's is not a fast food joint, as it takes 20 minutes to cook the thick patty. Any place that serves cold Pearl beer and a burger with a whole jalapeno on top rates A+ by me.

GLOBALGUY,
Ditto on your recommedations, will add that anyone going to Avila's try their house specialty, Spinach Enchiladas and Javier's
Shrimp Barra Navidad. http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...orum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...orum/smile.gif

Coming into town next week and eating at:

Sunday - Fogo de Chao
Monday - Oceanaire Seafood Room (Westin)
Tuesday - Star Canyon

How did we do as far as choices?

Well, if you eat at Fogo on Sunday, you may not be hungry until Tuesday...

http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...orum/smile.gif

Very well... I haven't been to Oceanaire yet, but I keep hearing great things about it... and Star Canyon has been a (by reputation) "destination restaurant" since it opened in the early 90s.

Ok, so a short recap on our dining experiences. Just to let you know, our company held it's annual (beer) sales convention in Dallas this year. The main body in attendance is our collection of wholesalers from around the country. Imagine a few thousand millionaires in one city and you get the picture.

Sunday: Fogo de Chao (pronounced 'Fogo de Show)
Well this place lived up to its billing as a place to gorge yourself on meat. I took advantage, and I'm not a large guy at all. It was a 3 hour eating extravaganza of all meat products. I tried everything and decided I liked the house specialty beef the best. The chicken and pork offerings were a bit too 'smokey' for my tastes.

Monday: Oceanaire (in the Westin hotel)

The highlight of the trip. Eating out on my company's dime is usually an extravagant affair, so I'm surprised to say that this place is probably the best restaurant I've eaten at during the last 2-3 years. No exaggeration. In terms of food, service, and atmosphere it was top-notch. The appetizers were great, entree of Chilean sea bass was phenomenal, dessert was totally over the top (two desserts per table of six was too much). The service was simply head and shoulders above anything I've had recently. To cap it all off the decor was fantastic and the atmosphere even on a Monday night was electric.

Tuesday: Star Canyon (as mentioned above, an old standby)

I would consider this pick something of a compromise. We had a group (9) dinner at 5:30pm in order to finish in time for the private John Mellencamp & Sheryl Crow concert being staged for our convention. We've been there before and the location is good for downtown convenience. Obviously, the early arrival meant we were well cared for. Our meals were all quite good, though the menu seemed a bit limited and 'old'.

***************

So, all in all a great dining trip. Dallas as a convention city is not all that great. Any change of locale whatsoever requires jumping in a cab for a minimum 15-20 minute drive. Thankfully there are lots of cabs around (some don't smell so great). However, the restaurants are simply fantastic. I think you have an incredible pool of serving talent to draw from. And the patrons are an obviously sophisticated bunch.

Some other locations that colleagues visited and had nice reviews include: Abacus, Bob's, The Palm.

Dallas Dining (merged threads)
 

My sorority alum group held a wine tasting at this venue last night.

Wow!

An impressive selection of unusual wines... many that I've enjoyed on my international travels and a few neat domestics too. The majority of the wines in the store (and all of those on the walls) are $15 or less per bottle.

The wines in the store are all grouped by "taste" rather than by varietal. All have a store written description highlighted and "useful" pairing suggestions (like "tastes great with Thai take-out" or "serve with bbq").

I was thrilled to find this place and I will definitely return to purchase wine soon.

They have a tasting bar with selections rotating daily. Single glasses are $4 to $4.50 and flights (red or white) are $8 to $10. On Saturdays, they have a guest chef in during the afternoons to demo cooking and discuss wine pairings.

I'm hooked... and may have to post a FT wine tasting night there soon!

As a California wine lover who travels to the Dallas area regularly, I am always interested in finding places that serve a variety of good, and not too expensive, wines.

Your post caught my attention, but it doesn't identify the place you are talking about. Please elaborate on it, and any others you care to share.

Thanks.

Best Cellars is located on Knox Street (one block over (west) from Restoration Hardware.

I don't have any additional information (phone/specific address/hours) but I CAN tell you what we tasted:

- Reserve Saint-Channelle NV
- Red Hill Reisling 2001 (New Zealand)
- Santa Julia Viognier 2001 (Argentina)
- Terra Sana Rouge 1999 (South of France)
- Castas de Santar Dao 2000 (Portugal)
- Bonny Doon Framboise

Six glasses (healthy pours - more generous than a normal flight) over two hours made for a FUN party. http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...um/biggrin.gif

The store probably had about 200 wines total... and of those, over 150 were $15 or less (many $10 or less). The assortment was not your "usual" heavily marketed wine list and had several treasures I've found at off-the-beaten-path vineyards.

Also, with Knox-Henderson being such a trendy upmarket neighborhood, the crowd was young and professional.

While Thai Orchid is definitly not a 5 star dining establishment it is one of my favorite Thai Restaurants. I make a point to head over everytime I am in Dallas. It is in a strip mall on Restaurant Row in Addison but the prices are reasonable and the food is all very fresh and cooked to order.

http://www.torchid.com/

Check out Marty's on Oak Lawn. They've got a unique licence that lets them both serve wine in-store as well as at retail. So the wine list is the entire store inventory, served at dinner with no mark up.

Review: http://www.guidelive.com/profile/103134/

Marty's is great too... lots of range there (from bargain wines to rare vintages). I also enjoy popping into Tony's on Oak Lawn when I'm looking for a particular French or Italian wine - they are heavy on the European vineyards.

I went back to Best Cellars last night to meet up with a girlfriend before dinner... we split a bottle of an unusual sparkling muscat from Valencia, Spain before dinner. They waived my corkage fee since I also purchased a mixed case for home.

Dined at Fishbowl on Knox Street last night.

Has never been a "favorite" of mine, but it was across the street from Best Cellars where we started and since I was looking to dine solely on sashimi, it would give my companion more options.

I think that the a la carte sushi and sashimi here is excessively priced, but that the chefs combo plates are a good value.

My companion had a tuna roll ($6) and a soft shell crab roll ($12). The tuna roll was spicy (there appeared to be a slight layer of wasabi between the tuna and rice) - and fresh looking. Her soft shell crab roll looked disappointing to me (I'm used to having them at places where the roll is served with large protruding pieces of the crab - and here it was clearly trimmed) - but she said the flavor was good. For $18, I was disappointed in the amount of food on her plate.

I ordered the chef's choice sashimi plate for $20 and was VERY pleased. Several varieties of sashimi (14 pieces total) including ahi, salmon, mackerel, squid, yellowtail, and snapper. The cuts were very generous and I was filled up nicely.

The service (we sat in the bar/lounge, not the dining room) was a bit disappointing. Our server seemed miffed that we would not be ordering their fancy $12 cocktails... and was slow to come around to fill water glasses (we had to ask). At the end of the meal, my companion paid cash and he never returned with her change (which was around $25 of the total bill) and copped attitude when she finally had to call him over to ask about it.

All in all, I think I will return for their Thursday night patio specials again (one of the best deals in Dallas with $1 Sake and $1 Sushi) or perhaps one of their dining prix fixe events, but not the best Uptown choice for sushi with so many other standouts nearby.

Dallas - Paris Vendome
 

Tonight was night one of Restaurant Week.

One of my girlfriends had been dying to hit the M Crowd's French eatery for some time (the M Crowd being a Dallas restaurant ownership group) so we headed to West Village to Paris Vendome.

Like much in the West Village, Paris Vendome is another neighborhood transported to metro Dallas. If it weren't for the valet out front, I could swear the patio was on a Parisian boulevard, not in a parking lot off McKinney. The interior is LA-meets-brasserie, but without the Disney-esque drama. In other words... very French, but not in-your-face.

The service, sadly, was typical Dallas. As we had a Restaurant Week reservation, the hostess only sat us with Restaurant Week paper menus. I asked to see a wine list and a regular menu - (as a former snooty colleague of mine once snipped at a waiter, "Its called upselling... you ought to try it").

Nothing on the Restaurant Week menu sounded wonderful... no wonder they didn't want to present the regular menu beside it... when we figured out we could get a better three courses for the same $30 (and get the same three wines paired for much less than the additional $25 they were charging for the pairings), we were both amused and annoyed. (Amused because we saw diners all around just ordering off the RW menu... and annoyed because the restaurant was clearly profitting from their ignorance.)

I had the escargot... and while the little critters themselves were good, the butter tasted slightly off. http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...orum/frown.gif My girlfriend had a mixed green salad with lemon vinigrette. The baby greens were beautiful... and oh-so-simple.

We both decided to go with the "signature" dish of Paris Vendome... the PV burger. This would be the Dallas version of the $49 hamburger... ours is $16 and is stuffed with foie gras and braised shortribs and served with a cone of pomme frites. In a word, heavenly. I popped mine off the bun and enjoyed it with a knife and fork.

None of the desserts sounded that stellar after we had that delight, but against our better judgment, we ordered anyway. We both ended up ordering the double chocolate mousse with raspberry cream. I was not impressed and wished we had gone next door to Paciugo for gelato instead. The mousse was served with a fork (??!!) and came piped on a salad plate in a presentation that looked much like three turds with a pinkish puff in the middle. Three blueberries sat in small pools of raspberry sauce to form a triangle around the turds.

Service was painfully slow and relatively uninformed... our waiter seemed to have graduated from Chilis or Fridays within the last month. The atmosphere is odd too... everyone from folks in shorts on a shopping break to dressed up business folk entertaining clients. The restaurant needed some background filter... either slightly louder music or better white noise.

All in all, I would skip this place if offered the opportunity to dine there again... if one must dine at an M Crowd place, stick to one of their other venues. Chris Ward is completely out of his element with everyday French. http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...orum/frown.gif

I can't picture this in my head. Do the foie gras and shortribs actually comprise the "burger" or are they stuffed into ground beef?

What other Dallas restaurants are owned by the M Crowd?

They are "in" the burger... it appears to be a normal hamburger until you cut into it and then you see a bit of the "string" from the shortribs. You can't actually see the foie gras, but you can taste it... like butter melted into the burger. Yum!

Mi Cocina
Taco Diner
The Mercury
Mercury Grill

I think they also had Taqueria Canonita (which is now a Taco Diner) in Las Colinas. I notice the one in Las Vegas at the Venetian is still open though.

Dallas - Mortons of Chicago
 

I'm not a big chain restaurant fan at all. My friends know this too. So when Restaurant Week rolls around each year, I'm always amused at folks who want to go eat at chains. A couple of folks suggested Palomino (I mean, HELLO?!... every week is Restaurant Week there with the coupons they constantly send me that seem to imply they are a week away from going under).

I did, however, give in to my friend Jodaho on his suggestion that we dine at Mortons. And I should note that this was a BIG sacrifice for me as I had just done Mortons in San Francisco with a colleague a couple of weeks before.

So... here is my review of Restaurant Week at Mortons in Dallas.

RW reservations were noted by the staff... when we were seated we were given RW week menus rather than the regular menus. (Note to restaurants participating in RW... you SHOULD at least offer to add on additional items... not all of us are such cheap .......s that we might not spend additional money beyond the $30... hell, I even had to ASK for a wine list. Tacky, tacky, tacky.) We also got to skip the usual cart presentation (Meat 101, as I've heard it called).

Our first course was a choice between a casear salad or a Mortons salad with bleu cheese. I had the Mortons and my friend had the caesar. I don't particularly like hard-boiled egg... so it would have been nice to know in advance that the salad came coated in egg (and that it was pretossed with the dressing... so it was impossible to try to pick out lettuce that wasn't dripping with bleu cheese).

Our second course was a choice between a single cut filet, chicken, or salmon. All had sauce but since we both wanted beef all I recall is that came with beirnaisse. We both had our steaks rare and they came out a delicate pink. A single cut is MORE than enough for me (I had leftovers for lunch today) and all entrees came with a separately plated side of broccoli with hollandaise sauce (on the side) and a plate of mashed potatoes (with a choice to add in butter, sour cream or bacon added tableside).

Dessert was a choice of NY cheesecake or nothing. We (of course) chose the cheesecake. http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/wink.gif It was good like a fresh baked cheesecake should be... great texture and taste. Mmmmm...

Overall, I would give the food itself a 7 out of 10, the service a 4 out of 10, and my opinion of Mortons remains that it is a great place to go if you need to entertain 10 or 15 clients in a private room and you have your basic easily impressed "don't eat out much" types. It is a lousy place for a date (tables are too close together) and a bad place to go for good service unless you are spending $200 a head.

http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...um/biggrin.gif

My server last night at Smith & Wollensky told me that the Mortons in Addison closed recently.

(I guess North Dallas "Steakhouse Row" really HAS hit its saturation point!)

Been to the Morton's in Addison and could not agree more that it should be closed.

------------------
"The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You"

[This message has been edited by JAWS_II (edited 08-25-2003).]

More proof of this. I ate last weekend at Copeland's on Beltline. They now have added an 2nd, separate menu of their "steakhouse" offerimgs, including prime steaks, and steak-housy sides. Hardbound and everything.

It's just a matter of time before the local McDonalds offers a Prime McRib. http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/eek.gif

Great recommendations here.

I'm bringing this back to the top since I have a short trip coming up - any recommendations for a good Tex-Mex or BBQ place between DFW and the Dallas Parkway area? Those mom-and-pop Tex-Mex places (or even the more upscale ones) are always a favorite.

Thanks.

Since it hasn't been mentioned, Truluck's Steak & Stone Crab is an excellent choice, whether you order Stone Crab appetizers or the "full blown" meal. Truluck's steak, especially the filet, is excellent. I recently dined with a lady-friend at the Addison location.

------------------
"The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You"

While definitely upscale and not a mom-and-pop place, I would recommend Ciudad as the best Mexican restaurant in Dallas. Although bear in mind that this is not Mexican food as we have come to know it but rather elegant continental Mexican cuisine (Mexico City cuisine is what they purport to be). Owner Monica Greene is the local authority on Mexican food and also owns Monica's Aca y Alla, a more casual Mexican restaurant in Deep Ellum.

As a side note, I've noticed a definite lack of good mom-and-pop authentic Mexican places here in the Dallas area. The selection of good, cheap hole-in-the-wall taco stands is nothing here like it is in LA and the SF Bay Area, for example.