When I reviewed this Henderson Avenue hot spot a couple of years ago, I wrote that Victor Tangos was not a gastropub, as “gastropubs don’t crank up the music with a pounding beat.” I have since loosened my definition.
After all, what else can you call a bar where the chef serves up octopus salad with piquillo, or duck sausage with braised beans, or a chai-scented pumpkin pudding? Victor Tangos fans may show up more for the scene, and the cooking doesn’t have the finesse it did when I reviewed it in 2010 (Kirstyn Brewer recently replaced longtime executive chef Greg Bussey), but this still stands out among the best in Dallas’ gastropubs. In fact, Victor Tangos’ crisp-edge flatbread topped with lamb sausage, shaved Manchego, oven-dried tomatoes and arugula, on the menu since 2009, has become a gastropub standard. Leslie Brenner/Guide