I was asked recently by a neighbor what standards I use when assessing a restaurant. This is the question that comes right after “what qualifies you to be a critic?” as the top-three most commonly asked. (No. 3 is “How often do you go out to eat?”) If I’m not…
More news from the pizza front. Not long after responding professionally to the growly-sounding phone call recommending Al’s (“best pizza in town”), I received another message on my voice mail also sounding like Harvey Keitel with a head cold. “Ya keep eatin’ pizza but you don’t come to Al’s,” the…
Szechuan Pavilion used to be the hottest Chinese restaurant in town. The original place in Preston Center was hip and snappy-looking, with colorful Chinese kites, soft lights, and none of that Chinese kitsch. The Pavilion was fast-paced and stylish and lots of fun with good food. But in the life…
I went down to Austin last weekend to waste time and eat Mexican food. That’s only a slight paraphrase of one of my favorite motivating sentences in fiction–the one that starts the whole chain of nonevents in Larry McMurtry’s book, All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers–a favorite because…
The Cotes du Coeur fine-wine auction and dinner takes place this year on February 10 at the Hyatt Regency. The event, expected to gross $500,000, was founded in 1992 by a Dallas physician, Dr. James Hillert, a true believer in the heart-health benefits of wine. Wine aristocracy from around the…
It’s a culinary Frank Capra script. Call it downright heartwarming. The lovely old house that used to be home to Routh Street Cafe has been through some changes since the famous restaurant closed, as has Russ Hodges, who worked in that stellar kitchen with the first talented team under Stephan…
It’s Wednesday evening–still almost afternoon–and it’s cold, but the line snakes out the door almost to the street anyway. It will still be there when you’ve finished eating. Inside, the place, though just remodeled, still has the bustling, noisy atmosphere, kitschy murals, and plastic plants of original Tex-Mex palaces. It’s…
How many clues do you need? I’m not saying you can always judge a book by its cover or a restaurant by its appearance: I’ve said many times that the most unassuming little places in the world can turn out world-class cuisine, and the great food writers have turned out…
Tired of turkey? I bet. Jeans getting a little snug? I bet. That post-holiday stuff-and-puff syndrome means a tired palate and a tight wardrobe. To relieve both, I suggest Natura, especially, from its winter menu, the artichoke lasagna, packed with protein (29 grams), but not with fat (15 grams), full…
Tramontana is the kind of new restaurant I love to find. The owner used to work at The Mansion, and though you have to be crazy to open a restaurant in the first place, he is wise enough (and experienced enough) to start small, with a limited menu, and to…
“The Legend Begins,” says the sign over Stone Trail. Well, it can’t begin if you can’t find it. It wasn’t just me. The guest who was supposed to meet us at Stone Trail (“at the southwest corner of Midway and Belt Line,” as I’d been instructed, with no mention of…
You’ll have to regard this as a sneak preview–a look at an unfinished artwork. The soup kitchen at the Dallas Museum of Art is completely gone, but the old Gallery restaurant is still in the awkward middle of its metamorphosis from ugly duckling to what will certainly be a swan…
Every so often a car pulls into the parking lot at the northeast corner of Park Lane and Greenville Avenue, stops, and then slowly leaves. An animator would draw those cars bewildered and dejected, with down-turned front grilles and hunched fenders. The people in those cars are bewildered and dejected…
The decor at Bombay Cricket Club seems slightly stark and cold–bare wood floors, flounces over bare windows the only softening touch (big Indian rugs would make it cozier), but the service is so helpful and the food gives such a glow that the whole place seems comfy by meal’s end…
Face it–not all your meals this holiday season will be eaten in the cloying company of seldom-seen family and office friends. Often, gladly or grudgingly, you’ll be eating on your own. Here are some suggestions for a single, serviceable meal: a gorditas plate at Cenaduria on Greenville–$1.95 for a stuffed…
Ordering from a menu can be a real art. Not the way you do it, but what you order. There are people who can compose the perfect meal from a restaurant menu, each dish progressing perfectly into the next, each dish the pinnacle of what the kitchen can produce, so…
I try to keep my spirit lively, my mind open and I truly mean to muster anticipation for every new restaurant. But my mouth has a mind of its own: “Oh God, another Mexican restaurant,” it sighs. Every one that opens promises it will be different, but after all, how…
Antoine’s offers the perfect student lunch: a pre-wrapped po’ boy sandwich (“original,” turkey, roast beef, tuna or minced ham), a big grab of chips and a Coke for under $4. Take it to-go and eat it outside since evidently winter’s never coming, or always going, this year. Or, if it…
We needed a quick bite on a Monday evening. No restaurant is crowded on Mondays, except maybe Star Canyon. So we didn’t think twice about dropping in without a reservation at Amore, a little place in Snider Plaza where I heard the food had improved. It has. And the place…
It’s a season of expectation, of secrets and the wonderful romance of a well-wrapped package. But when you tear through the tinseled wrapping and find the same old necktie, it’s always disappointing. That’s the way La Petite Maison set us up. This is a restaurant with all the right ideas…
It was scary to hear that Parigi had been sold. It’s one of the last remnants of the first wave of the Dallas dining renaissance, and it’s been a refuge–a mainstay for sophisticated, unpretentious food since it opened. I originally scheduled this revisit because, for the first time in years,…
The most graceful surrender award goes to Michele’s. Giving in to the inevitable, the coffee-themed restaurant has changed its mind and its name. A caffeine pioneer, this funky, personable little coffee bar found the niche before behemoth Starbucks and wannabe Coffee Haus came to the ‘hood. So, drop a syllable,…
