Recently in My Face: The Brooklyn

Happy Hour Oysters

 

Tuna Tacos

 

A crab cake so good I had to order a second one.

Seattle 2014 Day 2

Day two in Seattle centered around going to a Sounders game.  Along with Portland, the PacNW is pretty nuts about the MLS.  I guess it’s good that someone is.
Afterwards it was on to oysters happy hour followed by pie.

Eating Dallas: Spoon Bar & Kitchen

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+

Eating Dallas: Dallas Fish Market

 

Synopsis	Dallas Fish Market is a seafood oriented (what clued you in??) fine dinning restaurant in the heart of the Dallas’ moribund downtown.  Admittedly, we went on a Sunday.  But the area was deader than a Johnson & Johnson heiress.  What?  Too soon??
Dishes	Apps – Raw Blue Point Oysters, Maine Lobster Corn Chowder.   I’m not a huge fan of raw oysters.  I’ve only had them once.  But it was Lidia’s birthday and she wanted them.  So, I had a couple and I can say they were the best raw oysters I’ve ever had.  But I’m still not a fan.  The corn chowder was just about perfect. Mains – Parrot Fish, Black Truffle Wrapped Chilean Sea Bass.  As noted elsewhere on this blog, you can’t really fuck up a sea bass.  It was moist, flaky, perfectly cooked and delicious.  The Parrot Fish (please don’t ask, cause I don’t know) was spectacular.  Lightly pan fried with some kind of rosemary encrustacean (huh?) I could easily eat this all the time right now always. I might have to reassess my Top 10 dishes of the Oughts list. Desserts – Brûlée Figs and Espresso Cheesecake.  The Espresso Cheesecake was good but nothing spectacular.  But the figs were amazing --  a wonderfully unique dessert in which the figs are soaking in a rich caramel sauce.  That description doesn’t do them justice, but it’s the best I can do.
Likes	Everything.  The food and service were superb. The staff, knowing that we are sharers, thoughtfully served the lobster corn chowder in separate bowls.
Dislikes	Their espresso machine was broken.  That’s totally unacceptable.  How am I supposed to enjoy my dessert without a nice espresso.  What are we, savages????
Conclusion	Dallas Fish Market is an excellent seafood restaurant that will more than satisfy any fish based yearnings. And if you go on a Sunday you’ll pretty much have the run of the place. Regrettably, I visited DFM in 2009 and can’t use it towards my resolution goal.

A

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Eating Dallas: Fish City Grill

Fish City Grill.

Let’s look at that name.

Fish. One would expect an abundance of fish on a menu from a restaurant with fish in the name, yes? Not so much here. Most of the items on the menu were shrimp, oysters, crawfish or crabs – none of which is a fish. If I may go back to my pre-med days, fish are chordates (I use chordates rather than vertebrates to include sharks – look it up). So there is little fish at Fish City Grill

City. One would expect a huge bustling environment, like, oh, I don’t know, maybe new york CITY. Not so much here. When we walked in there were only two tables occupied.

Grill. On would expect that most of the items on the menu were grilled. I’ll even allow for griddling as opposed to open fire grilling. Hey, I’m a generous kind of guy. Nope, not here. Most of the items on the menu were fried.

So the place should be called Invertebrate Shellfish Village Fryer.

Now to be fair, there were a half dozen or so actual fish items on their menu chalkboard. One of the more “interesting” offerings was a Lighly Blackened silver bass in a beurre blanc sauce. Huh!??!?! You take a piece of fish and subject it to the intense spicy flavors of a blackening and then top it with a light subtle sauce like a beurre blanc. That's like dipping buffalo wings in cream gravy. Oh, actually that sounds good. Everything is good dipped in cream gravy.

So how was the food? Well, this place’s menu was so uniquely devoid of anything worth trying I came very close to just paying for my beer and walking out. But, really, the only places worth reviewing on this blog are the truly great and abjectly putrid. Thus I stayed and ordered two appetizers – the always dependable crab cake and chipotle fried shrimp. In addition, a sample of the signature dish, oyster nachos was offered and accepted.

Admittedly, this review has been overly harsh. Therefore I will say the oyster nacho was very good. The pico de gallo that topped it was fresh and vibrant (how’s that for flowery review language???). But, to be honest, the dish could have been oyster nacho with doo doo as the oyster and it would have tasted much the same. A fried oyster drowned in a yummy chipotle mayonnaise tastes little different if it had been a turd.

The chipotle fried shrimp were ok. The shrimp themselves were a bit rubbery and fishy. But the always deliciousness of all things chipotle balanced out this dish to score of adequate.

But it was the crab cake that was the biggest disappointment. It looked like a giant potato pancake and tasted about the same. To their credit, it was filled almost exclusively with actual crab. And when the crab has very little flavor and you add nothing to add flavor, all you taste is the pan and the oil used to cook the crab cake.

So ignore this Dallas Observer Best of recommendation and ignore Fish City Grill.


Oh, and by the way Fish City Grill folks, there's a swordfish right on your logo. How's about you have some swordfish on the menu. AND DON'T FUCKING FRY IT!!!

D

2323 N. Henderson Ave., Ste. 109 Dallas, TX