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).]

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

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

My two favorite restaurants

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.

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.

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.