This is the Texas Pastrami sandwich at Parker & Barrows in Bishop Arts. I’m not sure if it really is pastrami. But it’s damn good fatty smoked brisket. And the sandwiches are huge. This was from my second visit. The first time I had their take on a Reuben, which was also quite good.
King Wally says check it out.
Contrary to popular opinion, I’m not always just looking for a fine dining experience. Sometimes I just want to get some local flavor or check off a famous landmark or maybe there just aren’t that many options available beyond Applebee’s.
The Big Texan fulfills the latter two criteria.
Stuck in Canyon, where the culinary spectrum ranges from Applebee’s to Quizno’s, I headed up to Amarillo to soak in some panhandle touristy kitsch. I was not disappointed except for everything I put in my mouth.
As some will recognize, this is the restaurant featured on many shows on Food or Travel channels where, if you can eat their 72oz steak dinner, you can get it for free. Well, I wasn’t going to do that. I had hiking to do the next day and the last thing I need was a meat coma.
The food was exactly as expected. A steak that you could make at home for half the price. Even more disappointing was their own brew-pub beer. The pale ale I had possessed only the tiniest hint of flavor one normally associates with the mega-brewers.
When I was a kid growing up in Fort Worth, when mastodons roamed North Texas, my favorite restaurant was Heidelberger Hof on Jacksboro Highway. I would pretty much get the same thing every time, kartofel suppe and schnitzel cordon bleu. So it has been literally a million years since I last had schnitzel cordon bleu.
That has now changed thanks to Opa’s Schnitzel Haus, a surprisingly good German restaurant in Witchita Falls.
I apologize to every single one of my Witchita Falls readers* for being so surprised. But when I walked in, the interior was a very kitschy old school German motif that appeared to have not been changed much since the mid 80s.
But the food is what’s important and the food was good. Kitzbüheler Stuben has nothing to worry about, but the schnitzel at Opa’s was solid. As was there sausage which appeared to be house made. And to wash it down, a fairly impressive list of German beers all of which can be consumed via the liter stein. I like to get those because it make me feel like I’m getting in workout while getting schnockered.
* Do they even have the internet up there?
Dallas continues to turn itself into the city I want to live in. Not satisfied by opening a Top Pot (a must put in my face event for every trip to Seattle) three blocks from house, Dallas has now brought me my favorite Texas restaurant – Uchi.
Previous fawnings can be found here, here, and here.
And no, it did not disappoint.
On to the porn:
Oysters
Toro Salmon
Breen
Hamachi Cure
Escolar – the best non liver based dish of the night.
Wagyu short ribs
Scallop Sushi – freebie randomly given to us.
Hamachi
King crab
Bacon Steakie
Foie Gras Nigiri
Peanut butter semifreddo.
Bone in rib eye for two, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, hollandaise and bordelaise sauces with Barolo.
Deconstructed banana pudding (bottom)** Caramel pretzel (top) with Sauternes.
Post dessert of cookies.
Don’t get me wrong, this was a very good meal. But compared to the meal we had last year at John Tesar’s other, now closed restaurant, Spoon, this was fairly meh. There are literally a trillion other fine steakhouses in Dallas and, unless I am willing to buy an once or two of their 240 day dry aged beef*, there was little here to compel a return visit.
*I was not.
**Bottom
JT was in town and he dragged me not once but twice to his friend Uno’s restaurant, Chino Chinatown. It’s a good thing it’s one of the best restaurants in Dallas or I’d be pissed.
Elotes. The most delicious corn in the world.
Tostones
Ahi tuna nachos.
Chicken Lollipops.
Duck-fat Fries.
Drunken Noodles. I could eat this three times a day every day forever.
Regrettably not pictured, the duck fried rice with duck breast and a duck egg. It’s a chock full of duck.
And while I a had my camera over there, I took another nice picture of the bridge.
Like any food nerd I take pictures of stunning dishes whenever I can. But sometimes I forget to post them. This was eaten about a month ago. Mot Hai Ba is quickly shooting up to near the top of my favorite Dallas restaurants.
I have to confess, while the online menu looked amazing, I was a little apprehensive about going to a restaurant of one of a “celebrity” chef – John Tesar.
I have no idea what I was thinking. This was, perhaps, one of the most elegant meals of my life.
After a half dozen delicious oysters, we had a trio of crudo consisting from upper left, geoduck, cuttlefish and uni. Each was completely different from the rest but each was delicious. The uni was amazingly fresh and almost perfect. I say “almost” only because of my belief that nothing is perfect.
The main courses consisted of skate with a duck confit dumpling – easlily one of the best dishes of 2013
and a perfectly cooked filet of sturgeon.
Dessert consisted of these two beauties. Above is some chestnut concoction with a Makers Mark ice cream to the right, which was awesome.
And this tropical fruity dish with tapioca beads and deliciousness.
The awesomeness of this place is that there were not one but three free courses – an amuse bouche, a pre-dessert and a post dessert.
Crazy!
If you’re not eating here you’re fucking crazy and must not like good food. And for that I feel deeply sorry for you.
A+
For 2013, I’m going to handle restaurant reviews a bit differently. Instead of a letter grade, I’ll be giving restaurants a “Description of Future Interest” such as: Won’t Go Back, No Need to Go Back, Must Go Back, This Restaurant has Entered my Sex Dreams. Also, because writing is not my strong suit*, the reviews will be shorter, but hopefully more frequent.
Max’s Wine Dive calls itself a dive, but can a “dive” serve duck confit? I don’t like bars calling themselves a dive. If you think you’re a dive, you’re not a dive. And you can’t be a dive if your bar is in in sterile strip mall. You’re only a dive if you appeal to white trash alcoholics or hipsters who need a place to ironically sip Pearl. The wine list was ok at best**. And there was no sign of Max. So I have no idea how this place got its name.
The food was good, with the tuna and duck (not on the same dish) as highlights, but the atmosphere was atrocious. The place was way too well lit for either a dive or a wine bar. And some jackhole dumped enough quarters into the juke box to treat us to a seemingly endless stream of Elton John and Billy Joel. Neither of which should ever be played in a dive.
No Need to Go Back
I feel bad about this, because this is a place I was wanting to like – a fast food restaurant specializing in healthier choices such as grass fed burgers and pastured eggs, but Start did nothing for me. The grass fed burger I had was good but could have used a sear or some more seasoning. It was just kinda bland. And the tater tots were terrible. Even though they are baked, they tasted of rancid seed oil with virtually no crispiness.
“But Steve”, you ask “Isn’t Start very good compared to regular fast food?”
Maybe. If you’re comparing to McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Jack…, yes. Unfortunately, Start doesn’t price itself at ordinary fast food prices. For what I paid at Start I could have had an even better grass fed burger and excellent sweet potato waffle fries at Goodfriend. And for that reason, Start, you’ve been Chopped.
No Need to Go Back
If it’s a cold winter evening and maybe you’re not feeling so good about yourself and the only way to lift your spirits is comfort food, a bottomless glass of free sangria and a restaurant staff drunk off their collective gourds, then Jack’s Southern Comfort Food is for you. Although I would suggest you invite someone along to share in the hijinks.
First of all, the food is very good. There’s nothing fancy here. Just good comfort food. The Pigs in a Pashmina are decadent mash up of smoked sausage, cheese and puff pastry that will make you forget just about anything shitty that happened that day. Their upside-down pot pies (with the filling poured over a home-made biscuit instead of crust) will also bring a rib-sticking smile. And if you have room for dessert, the buttermilk pie is a must.
And if you’re interested in a dinner and a show, Jack’s is a great choice. Out waitress informed us up front of her four-shot/four beer afternoon break. And while no such proclamation was made by the chef, it was clear something was up when we came to inform us the pork belly would be delayed a few minutes as the restaurant filled with the smoke of burnt pork belly.
Oh, and until they get their liquor license, they give away free sangria, which is nice.
Will Definitely Go Back
* Probably not good for a blog writer.
** Yes, that means a dearth of Willamette Valley Pinots.
I have updated my food/booze map to reflect the better places to eat during Walkabout 2012.
Key:
2012 yellow
2011 green
2010-09 blue
2008-2007 red.
I’m not going to review many of the places I eat at during Walkabout, unless they are worth reviewing. Chow is the first contender. A simple breakfast and lunch place in Bend Oregon that only does everything the right way.
Bacon Lime French Toast
The Caesar -- Egg, Corn Cake, Avocado, Roasted Green Chili Sauce, Hollandaise Sauce, Queso
Fresco
Both of these items tasted better than they look and they’re both gorgeous.
A+
So guess where this is going.
I had not been to a Mi Cocina since early in my return to the Dallas area, some 70 years ago. I was not impress and did not return. The food was meh and their “award winning” margaritas tasted of Sweet Tarts. But they recently remodeled the space that Matt’s used to be and are now a fixture of my beloved Lakewood. So let’s give them a try, I thought.
The evening started off well. I ordered my now usual Mexican meal of “paleo fajitas” – no rice, beans, tortillas but lots of guac and my dinner companion, who in order to maintain her anonymity will be referred from here on as “Mayor LaCheese”, ordered the shrimp tacos.
So far so good. Everything was fine; nothing spectacular. And then Mayor LaCheese looked into her third and final taco.
“What the fuck is this!!!”, she yelled.**
So I examined her taco*** and replied that I thought they had sent her a brisket taco with a couple of shrimps.
We called over the waiter and he was most apologetic and would have that taco replaced immediately.
OK. I know you’re wondering. This really isn’t much of a story so far. It’s just cheap excuse to make an even cheaper vagina***** joke. But we are getting to the punch line of this story. I really wish you would be more patient and wait until the end to gripe about my presentation.
The manager came over and asked, “Was there a problem with your meal?”
After the Mayor retold the tale of the taco, the manager replied,”Well the chef assured me that that was a shrimp taco.”
Oh, well that settles it then. The chef assured you. Well I guess we’re making this up. You’ve figured us out. We are an international gang of shrimp taco grifters. We go into unsuspecting Mexican restaurants across the country, order shrimp tacos, pour slow roasted brisket on the third taco, ask for a replacement taco, sit back and watch the millions of dollars roll into our Swiss bank accounts.
We’re lucky he didn’t call Interpol on us.
She did get her replacement taco (CHA-CHING!!!!) but there’s no telling how much loogie and semen was vigorously placed in said taco******.
Well that would have been the end of this story except when we got the bill and saw this line item.
Sng Taco $3.25
“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!!! Do you know who the fuck I am?? I’m fucking King Wally, noted food blogger of The Summer of Steve. Please don’t worry so much about that confusing name situation. But I am a noted food blogger and all I have to do is say the word and virtually no one from Dusseldorf will ever eat here!!”, would have been fun to yell in the restaurant. But we just called the waiter over and had him take the charge off.
He told us that, inexplicably*******, the manager added the charge Man, the manager really was on to us. I guess we’ll have to take our shrimp taco long con out of Lakewood now.
* That reminds me. I need to get the reviews of Chicken Scratch and Acme F&B out soon.
** Mayor LaCheese doesn’t really have that much of a potty-mouth, but it’s a better story this way.
*** I did not write this story to use that line****
**** As far as you know.
***** Editors Note: There’s no such thing as cheap vagina.
****** A joke I so wanted to make at the dinner table, but, hey, I’m a gentleman.
******* Of course he didn't really say "inexplicably" since he's a waiter in a Mexican restaurant. And that's not racist since the waiter was a white kid.
I have yet to make my way to the Dallas Farmer’s Market and tried Pecan Lodge (maybe next week, Trent?) I can conditionally say that Meshack’s is the best BBQ in Dallas County.
As you can see, the place is literally a shack.
Not being a very good food blogger, I didn’t take enough pictures of the goods. But I did get a picture of the best item on the menu, the sausage. Flavorful and juicy with an abundance of fat, this may be the best bbq sausage I’ve had. The brisket was also beautifully smoked and moist (sorry, I know people hate that word. buy me a thesaurus and I’ll stop using it).
The ribs were good but the didn’t grab me like the sausage and brisket did. I will give them another chance to wow on my next trip.
Be warned, they don’t take credit cards. So bring cash.
A+ on sausage
A on brisket
B on ribs.
Overall A
240 E. Ave. B Garland, TX 75040
View Larger Map
| Synopsis | Wow! This place is in Dallas? |
| Starters |
|
| Entrees |
|
| Dessert | Cheese plate -- Gorgonzola Dolce, Pecorino Toscano & Robiola with almonds and quince mostarda. |
| What I Liked | What’s not to like. The food is awesome and the staff is professional and inviting. Seriously, is this place really in Dallas? |
| What I Didn’t Like | They don’t have a full bar. A pre-meal cocktail would have made the evening perfect. But this is merely nit-picking. |
| Conclusion | A |
Better late than never, here are the pictures of another fabulous meal at Uchi.
Oysters, the variety of which are no longer on their daily menu. So I can’t tell you what they are.
sakana carpaccio sliced daily selection of raw fish with citrus and olive oil
fresh salmon sashimi – soo buttery, soo perfect.
machi cure maplewood-smoked baby yellowtail with yucca chips, asian pear, marcona almonds and garlic brittl
avo bake creamy baked tiger shrimp and krab, served in an avocad
brie ringo tempura fried brie with apple chutney and crisp
foie nigiri foie gras٠quino
wagyu short ribs - I forgot to take the picture until we were almost done with it. Yes, those are yolks.
shima aji crudo white trevally٠black sesame٠flowering leek٠ginger
bacon steakie niman ranch pork belly with watermelon radish, seasonal citrus and thai basil
| Synopsis | A confusingly named lower Greenville eatery is visited by the King and quickly shutters and moves to the old York Street location. |
| What I Liked | Ummm. Well, the foie gras was ok. |
| What I Didn’t Like | Ummm. Well, there wasn’t much to dislike either. |
| Conclusion | One thing that I’ve learned from watching way too much of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares is that a restaurant should find what it’s good at and focus on that. The concept of World Piece Café is an array of foods from around the world, but not in the 900 page Cheesecake Factory menu fashion. But how can a restaurant do a Moroccan tangine and Flemmish beef stew and do them both really well? I submit that they can’t and shouldn’t. Leave the cavalcade of world flavors to the overly flaired Happy McFunster’s. And hopefully that is was they will be doing. As we were leaving, we were told that they were moving into the recentlly vacated York St. location and changing the name to Bistro Watel’s. I’ll probably give the new location a try since it is walking distance to my house. |
| C | |
Note: The map is to the new location.
Still South Dakota. Found a cute campground that most of the year is a hopping family holiday retreat. But it’s cold and snowy and latish Oc...
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