In the eternal tussle between the Davids and the Goliaths of the restaurant industry, the littler guys brought impressive boldness to the Dallas dining scene in 2007.
Powerhouse imports like N9NE Steakhouse, Nove Italiano and Kenichi (all in Victory Park) and SushiSamba (in Galleria Dallas) contributed undeniable flash, and some solidly crafted vittles as well. Dallas is a welcoming port for national concepts, and more are on their way in 2008.
But restaurants either independently owned or operated by local companies dominate this year's top 10 list. New ethnic-minded spots offered diners true, specifically regional flavors of the countries from which their chefs or owners hail. Fresh perspectives from forward-thinking chefs are always welcome, and two toques cooking in Arlington and downtown Dallas stood out for their rousing creativity.
One unlikely revival of a retro franchise did slip into the mix. As, of course, did the wildly anticipated, much-ballyhooed megaventure by the city's arguably most famous chef, Dean Fearing.
The restaurants appear alphabetically, without specific ranking, and all have been reviewed in 2007.
Aló Cenaduria and Piqueos
Espartaco and Dunia Borga, the beloved proprietors of the La Duni restaurants, broadened their scope with this designed-to-the-hilt Knox-Henderson restaurant that focuses on Mexican small plates and Peruvian cuisine. The Peruvian dishes, in particular, are a noteworthy addition to the city's dining landscape: Creations like saltados (stir-fries combining meats with french fries) and aji de gallina (Peru's comforting answer to chicken Divan) astutely reflect the time that executive chef Julia Lopez spent researching that country's cuisine. The fun Latin-themed cocktail list careens across two elongated pages. And, in grand La Duni fashion, a meal must end with Mrs. Borga's symphonic desserts.
Bukhara Grille
If you visit Bukhara at lunch, you're likely to encounter standard Indian dishes being served buffet-style to local office workers. But order from the menu over a more leisurely dinner, and you'll discover tantalizing specialties like ustad ki dum biryani – marinated lamb and basmati rice cooked in a small pot and sealed with an overlay of naan dough. For a thorough ethnic immersion, visit Bukhara on weekends, when it often hosts feasts featuring different regional, traditional and even royal cuisines rarely offered in restaurants. Yes, the feasts are served buffet-style as well, but the uncommon dishes are so good that no one blinks an eye.
Dallas Fish Market
In downtown Dallas, where expense-account travelers most predictably seek out a Texas-size steak, the latest venture from Mike Hoque's Dallas Restaurant Group dares to specialize in the fruits of the sea. Executive chef Randy Morgan's seafood pedigree and whimsical, international style in the kitchen make DFM a draw for visitors and locals alike. He might pair Tuscan white bean ragout with skate wing, or offset the dense texture of swordfish with shaved fennel and almonds. His on-point lunch menu includes treats like snapper BLT and a lovely rendition of fish and chips. The stark, shadowy redo of the space that was formerly Jeroboam gives the restaurant an appropriately aquatic feeling.
Fearing's
Was there ever doubt that Dean Fearing's debut as chef-owner in the new Ritz-Carlton would be anything less than an immediate, frenzied success? The all-out design, a luxurious labyrinth of two bars and five settings that vary dramatically in style and formality, beautifully merges function and fantasy. Mr. Fearing's menu ranges from tortilla soup and barbecued tacos reminiscent of his Mansion on Turtle Creek days to fresh jaunts into Asian flavors with dishes like soy-glazed black cod in miso clam broth. Servers balance professionalism with warmth, and Mr. Fearing is often working the floor alongside them, beaming with his trademark graciousness.
Olenjack's Grille
Shrimp and grits punctuated by the one-two kapow of bacon and andouille sausage. Cumin-roasted pieces of boneless quail served with a warmly seasoned pinto bean ragout. A juicy boneless half-chicken over grits graced with a plucky mix of oven-dried tomatoes, broccolini, asparagus and capers. Chef-owner Brian Olenjack set out to create a genuine neighborhood restaurant, but by melding affordability with inspired dishes like these, he exceeded his own goals. The dining room has an '80s sensibility that borders on dowdy, but the steady crowds don't seem to notice or care.
Olivella's
Owner Charlie Green left behind a career as a software and medical supplies salesman and followed his driving ardor for sublime pizza into the restaurant world this year. His tiny spot, right across from Southern Methodist University, is named for business partner Salvatore Olivella, a New York pizzaiolo. The gorgeous pies pulled from the restaurant's wood-burning brick oven favor the Neapolitan style of pizza-making: thin, crisp crust with a carefully weighed balance of ingredients on top. Restrained variations, such as the Rustica with sausage and red peppers, allow the essential pleasures of the ingredients to shine on their own merit. If you're a pizza lover, this charmer is a must-try.
The Porch
Three words: comfort food extravaganza. This Henderson Avenue venture by Tristan Simon of Consilient Restaurants not only embraces Americana cuisine, it runs unapologetically wild with it. Brisket sliders, fried Port-Salut cheese (like upscale mozzarella sticks), a billowing Cobb salad topped with fried chicken nubs, and beef stroganoff starring honest hunks of melting short ribs only scratch the surface. The bar crowd in this open, expansive space is perpetually kinetic for two reasons: The bartenders pour smart drinks, and the restaurant doesn't take reservations. It can be a madhouse here during prime-time dinner hours.
Sangria Tapas y Bar
Longtime Dallas restaurateur Alberto Lombardi knows how to craft a concept, and nothing seems to whip folks into a convivial frenzy quite like a tapas bar. The restaurant's interior feels like modern Spain with a harmless touch of Disney. For the highest rate of satisfaction foodwise, stick to the classically Spanish tapas selections (nibbles like bacon-wrapped dates that gush Cabrales blue cheese and almond) and the small-plate specials listed above the window to the open kitchen. Dessert is all about the hot, crunchy churros, shrouded in sugar and accompanied by thick chocolate sauce.
Trader Vic's
Really? This old dinosaur of a concept? Surprise, surprise: Everything about this retooled Trader Vic's transcends the tackiness that crept into this company's reputation. Mickie Crockett, a veteran of Dallas restaurants and the first female executive chef in the company's 74-year history, elevates Trader Vic's anachronistic fare with respectful attention to ingredients, smart twists and consistent execution. (Hint: Focus on entrees prepared in the Chinese display ovens.) Even the deepest skeptics should pay a visit to the bar to gaze upon the lovingly restored details salvaged from the restaurant's first go-around in the same location. And, hello, those rum-stoked cocktails sure have retained their potent friskiness.
Yao Fuzi Cuisine
Chinese food lovers: Yao Fuzi is your new mecca. But you have to be shrewd about ordering. The standard English menu offers a few glimpses into the kitchen's prowess with dishes like slow-braised pork and xiao long bao (soup dumplings). Another card lists some of the specialties from the Chinese menu translated into English: Entrees like shrimp with tea leaves and stir-fried rice cakes with pork reveal the Shanghainese leanings behind the cooking. Press further, and you might get traditional tastes like cold preserved meat appetizers and, for dessert, red rice bound with fruity red sesame paste. Food this wonderful could be served in a bare-bones atmosphere and still attract foodies, but the restaurant's space happens to be serene and elegant.
As a new food critic in town, I took the opportunity this year to visit some of Dallas' established chef-driven restaurants for update reviews. Our restless American sensibilities may encourage us to fall in love with a restaurant but then forget about it the next week. But for a splurge, the following 10 upscale places, all favorite personal experiences in 2007, richly deserve the dining community's continued support. The restaurants appear alphabetically.
Abacus
Top Chef contestant Tre Wilcox may be leaving his post as chef de cuisine to mine his newfound celebrity, but I've no doubt that chef-owner Kent Rathbun will seamlessly continue Abacus' philosophy of accessible, soulful, global-minded fine dining. If you see risotto or pork tenderloin confit on the menu, order it.
Aurora
Aurora may be Dallas' most expensive restaurant: You should probably double-check your Visa's credit limit before dining here. But when chef Avner Samuel and his dapper troupe of servers present you with sensual, lavish paradigms of European-minded dishes that can't be found anywhere else in the city, you might consider starting a separate savings account just for the occasional, memorable meal.
Craft
It's the sophisticated paradoxes that make Craft, an outpost of celebrity chef Tom Colicchio's New York-based restaurant empire, so accomplished: The glam setting screams city, but the wholesomeness of the carefully sourced ingredients brings to mind farm stands. No enigmas around pastry chef Shannon Swindle's impeccably seasonal desserts: They're flat-out great.
The French Room
Jason Weaver is the unsung hero of fine dining in this town: The man keeps his head down at the French Room, producing accessible yet adventurous meals that keep this restaurant relevant. Think the gilded-arched, cherub-painted dining room is dated and cheesy? Call me a sap: I think it's romantic.
Local
Deep Ellum's dining scene has felt hard blows in recent years, but Tracy Miller's individualistic New American cooking remains the most compelling reason to eat in the neighborhood. Her steak and eggs appetizer (two quail eggs fried sunny side up with steak tartare, a wedge of brioche toast and a slick of horseradish jam) has playfully danced in my memory all year.
Lola the Restaurant
Owner Van Roberts and executive chef David Uygur are quite the culinary team: Mr. Roberts' voluminous and stunningly affordable wine list (particularly wonderful for white burgundy fans) ideally heightens Mr. Uygur's quietly daring prix fixe menus. For folks fed up with the city's oversaturation of earsplitting restaurants, Lola's cottage setting is the antidote.
Nana
Nana's staid beige room and the view of downtown may denote a kind of old-school attitude. But then you taste executive chef Anthony Bombaci's food, and his flirtations with molecular gastronomy (pheasant breast banana split, anyone?) propel you right to this moment in restaurant cooking. General manager Mark LaRocca has renewed the restaurant's elegant sense of service.
Pappas Bros. Steakhouse
What elevates Pappas Bros. above the myriad other steakhouses at which I overate this year? Extraordinary wine service. Drew Hendricks was the wine director on my official review visits, but Barbara Werley, one of two master sommeliers working in Texas, ably took the helm after Mr. Hendricks' departure. Love those in-house dry-aged rib eyes and New York strips, too.
Teppo
A confession: I'm really, really picky about sushi. But I've come to implicitly rely on Teppo for my fish fix. The daily specials board lists a pristine and ever-changing breadth of often uncommon seafood varieties. Of course, I want to eat the cooked specials, too, such as the chawanmushi (sea urchin custard) and grilled Alaskan king crab. Carrot crème brûlée for dessert is mandatory.
York Street
When friends ask for restaurant recommendations for out-of-town guests, the name of Sharon Hage's intimate Lakewood bastion is invariably the first two words out of my mouth. If you want to understand all the national fuss these days around the farm-to-table movement in fine dining, have a seat at one of Ms. Hage's tables. From her light hand with salads to the clean-cut hominess of her desserts, the direct simplicity of her cooking is enlightening.
Keep an eye out for imminent reviews of these late-2007 entries into the restaurant scene:
• BLT Steak, the North Dallas outpost of the national restaurant concept helmed by chef Laurent Tourondel. (This has been stated often but warrants repeating: BLT stands for Bistro Laurent Tourondel, not the ubiquitous sandwich.)
• Charlie Palmer at the Joule, another high-ticket spinoff from a New York chef. Famed restaurant designer Adam Tihany designed the dining room in which the Palmer team will serve "elevated American cuisine" with a mix-and-match philosophy similar to Craft. Wine wizard Drew Hendricks, most recently at Pappas Bros., will be on hand to finesse the wine experience in the restaurant and at the adjacent shop, Next Vintage.
• The Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, which completed its multimillion-dollar makeover and rolled out a bevy of new menus from executive chef John Tesar.
• Ounce Prime Steakhouse in Addison, featuring a thoroughly modern dining room and serving some endearing carnivore favorites like chateaubriand for two, steak Diane and beef Wellington.
• Nonna, a spirited Italian restaurant in Highland Park that serves a succinct menu of Neapolitan pizzas and regional, seasonal dishes. Mucho buzz on this place.
• Bistro Nous, a North Dallas American spot that's been popular with foodies for its "Ask James" feature (as in, diners ask chef-owner James Rowland to create an off-the-cuff tasting menu for them).
• Scene Restaurant and Lounge, a downtown venture with an adventurous-looking New American menu from chef Blaine Staniford of Fuse.
• Medina Oven & Bar, a midpriced Moroccan-Mediterranean addition to the Victory Park dining scene.
• Grimaldi's, the first Texas location of a small national brick-oven pizza chain with family ties to the original Grimaldi's in Brooklyn, N.Y.
• La Cubanita, the next hot spot from Dallas restaurant impresario Alberto Lombardi. (At press time, the restaurant was officially scheduled to open Dec. 29.)
Many avidly anticipated restaurants are slated to open in 2008:
• Villa O, the "organic pastaria" in Travis Walk from Robert Colombo (Trece, the Club) where customers choose their own combinations of carbs and sauces.
• Bolla, a tony venture opening in Uptown's Stoneleigh Hotel as part of the property's extensive renovation. Chef David Bull (who brought acclaim to the Driskill Hotel restaurant in Austin) is working on a "modern Italian" menu for the restaurant.
• A quartet of restaurants at the freshly minted One Arts Plaza: Tei An Soba, from Teppo and Tei Tei Robata Bar founder Teiichi Sakurai; Dali, a wine bar from sommelier and debonair maitre d' Paul Pinnell; Screen Door, a modern take on Southern cuisine; and Jorge's, the second location of an Austin-based Tex-Mex joint.
• Lambert's Downtown Barbecue, another Austin import, will be opening a second location in Fort Worth midyear 2008.
• Two more concepts at Victory Park, both from restaurateurs Jesse Herman and Donald Chick: La Condesa will be a cantina and tequila bar inspired by contemporary Mexico City, and Pacific and Central will offer American bistro fare (including a raw bar) in a Prohibition-era speakeasy atmosphere.
• Rise n°1 (pronounced "rise number one"), a Gallic-minded boîte and wine bar in Inwood Village specializing in soufflés.
• Mistra, the restaurant in Rockwall's forthcoming Hilton Bella Harbor on Lake Ray Hubbard.
• Ciudad, Monica Greene's beloved Oak Lawn restaurant
• Luqa, after less than a year in its downtown location
• Both locations of Urban Bistro, Avner Samuel's casual, Mediterranean-tinged eatery
• Smith and Wollensky, the Dallas branch of the iconic New York steakhouse
• Tradicion, a short-lived venture by Ricardo Avila of Avila's Mexican Restaurant (the latter, happily, is still thriving)
• Iris, Susie Priore's neighborhood charmer
• Spike , the skewer-happy spot on Mockingbird
• The revival of Deep Ellum Cafe
• Rouge on Lovers Lane
• Samba Room in Travis Walk
• The Cape in Uptown
• Maguire's Uptown Grille
