Dallas [merged]

Just got back from a weekend in Dallas. I missed several places I had hoped to hit, and hit a few places I did not expect, but all in all it was a good trip.

I really wish I’d carried my camera more, as I missed some great photo ops. Then again, my dismal shot of Mia’s brisket tacos probably means I’m better off with words:



The enchiladas came out looking little better (my sister doesn’t like beans, so she ordered extra rice:



Mia’s–On Scott–DFW’s recommendation, and a good one it was. Brisket tacos in all their Tex-Mex glory (albeit slightly untraditional Tex-Mex), brisket enchiladas for my sister and her boyfriend. I still don’t understand why they can’t export Tex-Mex up north. Mmmm…good.

Club Schmitz–A holdover fave from my college days, as much for the George Jones/shuffleboard/two teeth vibe as for the food, but they still griddle up a pretty darn good burger too. Fries are nothing to write (home) about. It’s a good place to drink a Lone Star.

Central Market–A grocery store run by the folks at H.E.B. with a number of locations in Texas, trying to compete for the Whole Foods demographic, and man, this place blows Whole Foods out of the water. I realize Central Market’s not an unknown quantity. I was expecting a lot, and it still blew away my expectations. This is what the chain grocers should be like. An enormous, beautiful produce section, wonderful-looking meat counter, bakery, wine–it was the whole package. And I loved the layout that forced you to meander through the store weaving around and mostly concealing the standard supermarket aisles. I didn’t taste much here (free samples would have been my only suggested improvement), and I didn’t look at prices, but it despite the obvious high quality, it didn’t strike me as as high-priced or hoity-toity as Whole Foods. A great concept, perfectly executed.

Café Kheyir–This place was new to me, and probably to just about everyone in Dallas, at least as a place to eat in. Catering mostly by food truck to cabbies at DFW, the Somalian proprietress recently (within the past month?) decided to slowly move toward sit-down business. Slow enough that there weren’t actually chairs at the tables when we walked in. Undaunted by the fact that the storefront was only barely recognizable as a restaurant, and attracted by a hand-written sign offering goat stew (and the attendant smells wafting forth from the kitchen), I peered into the kitchen and asked if we could eat.

The woman was friendly as one could hope for, and eager to serve. We pulled down some stacked chairs and sat at one of the three tables. I ordered the goat stew, and my sister ordered beef (the other thing written on the sign), which she was told was sort of like fajitas. Hey, we were in Texas. Each plate was heaped with the main dish, rice, and a side “salad” of shredded iceberg lettuce, a limp tomato, etc. The rice had slivers of potato, and were graced (we learned) with yellow food coloring. “Who wants to look at a big pile of white rice?” was the reasoning. Good question, I suppose.

The dishes were accompanied by a large container of sauce that resembled nothing so much as spaghetti sauce (and probably was, since we were advised, to our great surprise, that the other lunch option, besides the goat and the beef, was spaghetti. David Hammond gave the obvious explanation for this.)

Additionally, we were presented a green hot jalapeño-avocado “salsa” and a thick white yogurt/cream sauce. Oh, and a banana. “It’s just not lunch in Somalia without a banana,” she explained after first checking to make sure that a banana for lunch wasn’t too exotic for us gringos. And finally, after disappearing for a while immediately after taking our order, this very sweet woman gifted us with mango-guanabana juice, which was really quite excellent.

Now I’m no expert on African cuisine in general, or Somalian cuisine in particular, and I thought the food, all-in-all, was okay. An enjoyable meal, for sure, and at $3.95/plate, a heck of a deal. If I were still in college less than a mile away, I’d be back all the time. And even otherwise, I’d try it again. Maybe someone else will. Incidentally, or not so incidentally, I don’t recall if I spelled the name correctly, but the address is 317 W. Airport Freeway.

Café Jasmine–Or maybe it’s Jasmine Café. It’s a market (not really) and restaurant and hookah lounge in Richardson (I think). We ordered a lot of food here, and it was fairly mediocre, but I’m pretty spoiled by living within spitting distance of some pretty fantastic middle eastern food. We got hummous, foul, shawerma, dolma, pita, labneh, pickle tray, pita, maybe a couple other food items, and a big hookah with peach tobacco. Our server was just plain goofy, didn’t know what anything on the menu was, couldn’t really translate from the kitchen, and allowed us to double-up on various items as sides, entrees, freebies, as we couldn’t really tell from the menu what came with what. Still our total bill came to about $40 for three with way too much food and the hookah, so it’s worth a shot if you’re a Dallasite looking for middle Eastern. I’m not sure what the frame of reference is. If you’re coming from Chicago, I probably wouldn’t bother.

I should note that the hookah lounge, which was the main draw for my companions, was actually a couple doors now and had a somewhat swanker vibe than the sterile, fluorescent-lit café that we sat down in, much to our puzzlement. For what it’s worth, our café was pretty much all peopled by middle Easterners (save the wait staff), while the hookah lounge was decidedly not. Our chef was Palestinian.

I missed out for a variety of reasons on pretty much all my high-end ambitions for the trip–The Tasting Room at Lola, Ciudad, Lanny’s Alta Cocina, and lunch at the Mansion on Turtle Creek. Maybe next time.

Cheers,

Aaron

Since the recommendations for Houston were right on (Vieng Thai, Thelma's...and Robb Walsh's Tampico Seafood recs were great) I'm turning to you guys again for a single dining rec in Dallas. I'll be there on a Sunday night, and my colleague (another chef) and I want to eat right.

Suggestions?

No Dallas recs. East Texas bred in the bone I don't have much love for the Midlands. I recall a choir trip to the metroplex a couple of decades ago...you probably don't want to eat at the tower restaurant. But, maybe you do? It appears it's now an entity named, Antares.

Anyway: I look forward to reading your Houston experiences.

Queijo,

I lived in Dallas for two years and am a big believer in Dallas as a restaurant culture. There are hole-in-the-wall treasures (e.g., Ali Baba for Lebanese, Mia's for Tex-Mex), great high-end dining (The Tasting Room at Lola, Nick & Sam's) and lots of in-between choices (Local, Hatties, and Jaspers are personal favorites). Dallas also has an incredible amount of restaurant turnover. So, unfortunately, places that were turning out great food to a crowd in 2005 may be shuttered or headed by a new chef (e.g., Go Fish, Tutto, Saffron). Of course, this also means that lots of new places have opened since I moved back to Chicago almost two years ago (see Best of 2005 below) and you never run out of things to try.

My personal favorite in Dallas though, and a restaurant that has maintained consistency over dozens of visits over the past four years is La Duni. It also happens to be open on Sundays unlike many of the better/more interesting (than the norm, not than La Duni) restaurants in Dallas. There are two locations. While I have always enjoyed the original (McKinney Avenue) location, I prefer the menu at the new one (Oak Lawn Avenue). The Oak Lawn location also has fewer of the service issues (servers' leisurely pace) that you have to accept/embrace to enjoy the original location of La Duni.

While Dallas does not have LTH Forum, it does get some play on Chowhound - current hot topics are Stephen Pyles (which I've heard negative reviews of from friends) and Lanny's Alta Cocina (which is in Fort Worth but definitely sounds worth the drive, time permitting). Dallas also has a website Guidelive which some have referred to as the Dallas version of Metromix. I would argue that it's vastly more useful and the reviews are infinitely more trustworthy. I highly recommend the following two links as sources for Dallas restaurant information: Best of 2005 and Top 100. At the very least, it will give you hours, maps, an idea of the menu, etc.

Ali Baba
1905 Greenville Ave.
Dallas, TX 75204
Phone: 214-823-8235
Closed Sun-Mon

Mia's Tex-Mex Restaurant
4322 Lemmon Ave
Dallas, TX 75219
Phone: 214-526-1020
Closed Sun

Lola the Restaurant
2917 Fairmount St.
Dallas, TX 75201
Phone: 214-855-0700
Closed Sun-Mon

Nick and Sam's
3008 Maple Ave
Dallas, TX 75201
Phone: 214-871-7444
Closed Mon

Local
2936 Elm St.
Dallas, TX 75226
Phone: 214-752-7500
Closed Sun-Mon

Hattie's
418 N. Bishop Ave.
Dallas, TX 75208
Phone: 214-942-7400
Closed Sun Dinner-Mon

Jasper's
7161 Bishop Road
Plano, TX 75024
Phone: 469-229-9111
Open Daily but a bit of a drive

La Duni Latin Cafe
4620 McKinney Ave
Dallas, TX 75205
Phone: 214-520-7300
Closed Mon

La Duni Latin Kitchen and Baking Studio
4264 Oak Lawn Ave.
Dallas, TX 75219
Phone: 214-520-6888
Open Daily

Only one place to go (IMHO) Lefty's lobster & Chowder House

http://www.dallasdinesout.com/restrant/ ... /index.htm


One of the Top 100 Chef's Favorite Restaurants
Food Network - Chef's Night Out

Best Neighborhood Restaurant
D Magazine

3 1/2 Stars
Dallas Morning News

If you end up going on a Sunday night Zu should be behind the bar and Gus (one of the owners) will be seating people. Tell them you are from Chicago and that TwoDogs sent you. You will not be disapointed.

Thanks for the tips -- this is great stuff. TwoDogs -- what kind of grub do they serve there? The name of the restaurant implies fish - as a New Englander, would I be impressed by the fish? Or is there something else about it that makes it great?


one of these days I will get around to writing about Houston....not sure when...but I will.

If you haven't checked out Scott's site, http://www.dallasfood.org, you should. You'll see it starts off with a negative review of Stephen Pyles. Sounds like a lot of fluff. I know that he would probably recommend Lanny's without reservation. If you search his site you'll see at least a couple of reports on the place. It's more avant garde than traditional Mexican, though the roots are there, but Scott has told me privately that it's the best Mexican he's had in the U.S. (and yes, he has been to the Chicago big names). It's on the top of my list for my next visit to Texas.

Note that Lola has lost their chef, Uygar, that made the tasting room what it was. I know Scott has emailed me saying that the food he's putting out at his new place is pretty good, though I'm not sure if it's up to what he was doing at the Tasting Room. I had one of my best meals of that year at the Tasting Room, and that included trips to French Laundry, Gary Danko, and Chez Panisse that same year.

Also note that what's-his-bucket over at the Mansion at Turtle Creek has taken a job with the Ritz-Carlton, so that option may be in question, though certainly it's a good option if you're looking for something top end, but also regionally influenced. Crazy expensive, though. And I don't personally like the room.

Scott's done extensive BBQ and Mexican exploration on his site, if that's what you're looking for. Don't know if he'd recommend any BBQ in Dallas as being anything special. Look through his Mexican on Maple series, though, and you should find some taquerias of interest if you're so inclined. I like Mia's, especially the brisket tacos.

Really, just do Lanny's. If you're looking to be truly impressed, that's your best bet. Unlike Abacus or Lola or Pyles or (God forbid) the French Room, you'll be getting something that speaks of the locale as well as trying to push the boundaries of the cuisine.

Hopefully Scott'll pop up here, but I know he's quite busy.

Thanks Extramsg...will forward the info on Lanny's to my very easy-going companion and we will take a vote and Lanny's will win. Can't wait to try it.

I'd also consider Perry's, which is in a nice neighborhood and fits the mold of the "meat-focused restaurants" discussed here of late (David Burke, Keefer's, etc.). I've spent significant time working in Dallas, downtown, Turtle Creek and Plano. While I enjoy the town, I cannot agree that it is any sort of dining destination, not even within the state. The steak places are very good; the hipster places are silly and bad; ditto the high end, progressive places, with the notable exceptions raised by ExtraMSG.

My sister lives in Dallas and introduced me to Tres Meridas in Frisco. The former chef (who developed the menu and the recipes) worked for years at the Ritz-Carlton here and drew on her Venezuelan-Mexican-Spanish heritage (that's where the "Tres" comes in) while planning the menu.

The food is really good, ambience lovely, and prices not bad. I usually get the arepas or the tostones for lunch. For dinner, I've had the tilapia and the criollo and I'd highly recommend those, too. I was not keen on the chicken chowder, altho sis loves it. Wash it all down with a passion fruit Meridita.

Tres Meridas
2809 Preston Rd.
Frisco, TX 75034
972-334-0937

How far is frisco from Dallas?

Queijo wrote:How far is frisco from Dallas?

Queijo,

1735 miles, but residents don't much like frisco, preferring either the full name or the City.

Enjoy,
Gary

Scott emailed me this morning. Lanny's is no longer open on Sundays, sorry to say.

G Wiv wrote:1735 miles, but residents don't much like frisco, preferring either the full name or the City.

that's a groaner. Reminds me of the following:

Tourist in new york: scuse me, how do I get to carnegie hall?
NYer: Practice, practice, practice

Wow, even when I write a joke out, my delivery still sucks!

Extramsg: thanks for the heads up. I'm disappointed. sigh.

...and also, never, SF.

Queijo wrote:How far is frisco from Dallas?

20 miles north of Dallas; 25 minutes from DFW:

http://www.friscocvb.com/About/index.html

Having recently been on a couple of trips to Dallas, let me share my experiences on a few of the places mentioned above, and a couple of others:

Mia's - great place in many ways. Simple, good food, nice folks. Had the brisket enchiladas, which were not fabulous, just very good. Would go with the brisket tacos next time (see below).

Manny's Uptown Tex Mex - This is a sister restaurant to Mia's - same recipes, and I think Manny is Mia's nephew, or something like that. Fancier, full bar, slightly higher prices. Went there because I was hosting some clients, and Mia's seemed a little too simple. Quite good, and the food did seem almost identical to Mia's. Great brisket tacos.

Nick & Sam's - over the top expense account steak joint with a good, heavy California red, wine list. Mistake I made - since I do not know or much like a lot of California reds, I tried to order some French and Spanish reds from the scant selection. Not so great. Once I gave up and just provided parameters and let the waiter choose the wines the results were much better. Wet-aged steaks except the 26 ounce cowboy cut, which I had to order. Pretty good, marbled, dry-aged prime. Not great, but pretty good. Enjoyed the meal, but I really have no need to go back.

Back Country Bar-B-Q - This place was mentioned as pretty good Q at Dallasfood.org, which I used a bunch in choosing places. What I had was pretty awful Q, bland sausage, sweet, simplistic sauce, overcooked and chewy brisket, and ribs that had been held too long, obscuring any smoke flavor, and any good texture. The cafeteria atmosphere was pleasant enough, with lots of local sports memorabilia (definitely a decorated cafeteria and not a sports bar), and I wanted to like the place. But the Q was just plain bad.

Buck's Prime - My Dallas adventures ended at Buck's Prime, a place that advertises itself as "Mesquite-grilled hamburgers", on a pretty deserted strip in the midst of lots of big hotels on Market Center. Having spent most of five days in the humongous Hilton Anatole in conference lala land, I was ready to break out, and Buck's was an easy target within walking distance. Very good. Machine-made 1/2 pound patties, grilled over mesquite (btw, ironically Buck's seems to be operated, if not owned, by a Chinese family - I do love America), nice rub and good flavor. Good, slightly eggy buns. Full bar of condiments, though I went with burger, cheese and ketchup to get a pure experience. They offer lots of sides, including two or three kinds of potatoes (seasoned fries, seasoned wedges, etc.) but I settled on the beer battered onion rings. These were great - perfectly fried, nicely battered, excellent flavor, a real high point. Close to simple fritters with a core of melting onion within - easily the best onion rings I have had. Beverages include lots of canned pop, beer, and brewed iced tea. The tea was good. I probably should go back, because I was just delighted to be done, be free, be able to go explore, so I may be overly positive, but I do think Buck's is pretty good. Especially those onion rings.

Here are addresses for the places that were not noted in previous posts. All of these places are pretty much Mid-Town, excpet Back Country, I think:

Back Country Bar-B-Q
6940 Greenville Ave.
Dallas, TX 75231
Phone: 214-696-6940

Manny's Uptown Tex-Mex Restaurante
3521 Oak Grove Road
Dallas, TX 75204
Phone: 214-252-1611

Buck's Prime
1950 Market Center Blvd
Dallas, 75207
(214) 741-4141

Is Buck's a rip on Beck's Prime? They sound kinda similar. I have no idea if Beck's has made it that far north. It'd be mildly amusing if a Chinese family opened their own Dallas concept merely switching out the vowels.

Hey Dicksond, what are your experiences with Texas sausage? I ask this because on my trip around Texas (which I still haven't reported on, though the photos are up), we found the sausage in general to be on the bland side. Scott says they get their sausage from Rudolph's, one of the more respected sausage makers in Texas, so perhaps, like us, you're just not a fan of Central Texas style sausage. I didn't even think the Elgin stuff that so many people in Texas seem to absolutely adore, including Scott, was especially good. I think it may be a regional difference in taste.

Nick,

I've always said exactly that. Sometimes when we extoll the relatively unique virtues of the Delta/Chicago coarse, peppery, sage-filled hot link, we get responses from Texans and Sooners about the ubiquitousness of BBQ'd sausage in brisket country.

Yeah, but that stuff is typically like Hillshire Farms kielbabsa. The Mittel-European connection, obviously. IMO, not usually good examples of Bohemian/Polish/whatever sausage, even.

Now, that doesn't mean I don't enjoy a good combo in Texas, but the sausage is quite different and not as good.

I would qualify that, Jeff, by saying it's not as good TO OUR PALATE. Just to be clear. I like the grind on the better stuff. It's not overly processed. And it arguably highlights the meat and smoke flavors. But a friend I brought with me on my Texas trip really didn't like it at all because there was "no flavor". But I'm willing to admit it may just be I don't have a very subtle palate having grown up on Doritos and Mt Dew or that it's just something I'm not used to and would grow to like. My friend just thought it was bad. There were some exceptions, though, like the stuff at Mueller's in Taylor. And I liked the stuff they had out in Llano even less. It reminded me of odd store bought stuff like summer sausage.

extramsg wrote:Hey Dicksond, what are your experiences with Texas sausage? I ask this because on my trip around Texas (which I still haven't reported on, though the photos are up), we found the sausage in general to be on the bland side. Scott says they get their sausage from Rudolph's, one of the more respected sausage makers in Texas, so perhaps, like us, you're just not a fan of Central Texas style sausage. I didn't even think the Elgin stuff that so many people in Texas seem to absolutely adore, including Scott, was especially good. I think it may be a regional difference in taste.

Admittedly, this is my one and only experience with Texas BBQ sausage, so it could have been a perfect example of the height of the art. But it certainly was not to my taste.

Given that the ribs and brisket were pretty crappy, in absolute terms and based on a bit of experience, I was not disposed to give it the benefit of the doubt on the sausage, but your point is absolutely correct.

Isn't the big difference not a matter of style, but of species? I mean, beef, pork, that's a pretty big difference there. Pork is magical almost no matter how you put it in a casing. Beef requires more seasoning to become interesting, and my experience of beef sausages at the Austin-area BBQ places was simply a matter of seasonings which I found rather bland for the meat.

I believe they use a mix of beef and pork.

Who does? I'm pretty sure the ones in the Lockhart-Luling area were advertised as, and certainly tasted like, beef, period.

Ah, but I did qualify it; I said "usually."

I don't think I can blame my lying taste buds or my coarse elective affinities this time. Here is what I meant: (1) the Chicago BBQ links and TX sausages are different in the ways I stated, qualitatively different, and not intended by anyone to be the same; (2) the TX sausages have much more in common with the Eastern European encased meats that one practically trips over in the street here in Chicago; nonetheless -- and understanding very much how great a Central European style sausage from, say, Andy's, or Paulina, or even Bobak's here can be after a good long BBQ, a la Gary -- most of what I've tried in TX is not, apples to apples, so good.

Bobak's is like a buck a pound and it ships.

I will be going to Dallas (InterContinental in Addison) for a conference in December. Unfortunately, I must fly out on my birthday. I'm looking for recommendations on where I should celebrate w/my coworkers. La Duni sounds interesting.

Also, on one of the evenings, we have the option to choose from a handful of preselected restaurants. From their list, I've narrowed down my choices to Go Fish, Kenny’s Wood Fired Grill, or Sambuca Restaurant. Any recs? I have to submit my registration tomorrow, 11/9.

Thanks.

Can I add to Pucca's request--I'll be at a conference next week in Dallas, at the Adams Mark. Never been to Dallas, will be tied to a booth at the conference all day, not sure if it's worth renting a car....suggestions. Buck's Prime sounds like it's a possibility, but I'm not a burger person generally.

I've been sitting on a post about a recent Dallas visit. I'll do my best to get it posted in the next day or so. In the meantime, Have you checked out this thread?

Pucca wrote:I will be going to Dallas (InterContinental in Addison) for a conference in December. Unfortunately, I must fly out on my birthday. I'm looking for recommendations on where I should celebrate w/my coworkers.

I was in that area for a work trip a couple of years ago. There are so many restaurants over there. Here are a couple that were very enjoyable:

Mercy Wine Bar
5100 Belt Line Rd.
Dallas, TX
(972) 702-WINE (9463)
http://www.mercywinebar.com/

Clay Pit
4460 Belt Line Rd.
Addison, TX
972-233-0111
http://www.claypit.com/Home.asp?LOCID=1