Restaurant Review: Gui Restaurant and Bar

by The Law Reviewers of of The Law Reviewers

DALLAS — 2008. If you add the numbers up it makes 10. And we all know what 10 is, don’t we? It’s one more than 9. Scary stuff. Don’t blame us, Nostradamus predicted it over 10s of lots of years ago when he wrote a book about how to mess with the minds of people living around the turn of the second millennium. So, we hope everyone out there in Metroplexia has made their New Year’s resolutions for this most crucially not-that-important year.

Our resolutions are to make our deadlines (oh well), find someone to pay us for this gig (yeah, right) and finally break the dreaded curse that hangs over just about every place we review. You mean you haven’t heard of the Law Reviewers’ curse? Nostradamus predicted that too when he wrote: "From out of the discipline of law will come two figures whose pronouncements on food and snark will doom all they touch."

Sadly, the list of places that have met their predicted fate following one of our reviews is growing: Standard. Streetside Café. Tradicion. Temptations. Philly’s Best. Café Nostra. Tahitian Noni Café. Ok, so Noni is still finding converts to their amazing combination of icky Noni juice and bland “Polyneisan food.” Unfortunately, many places we gave good reviews to are no longer with us. Café Nostra burned down. Even Nostradamus didn't see that one coming. But this year, that’s all going to change.

That’s why we won’t tell you that Gui Restaurant and Bar, the new Japanese and Korean restaurant that has taken over the spot that formerly housed Watel’s, Tutto, and (gulp!) Temptations, has real potential and needs your support to make it. They have a steep mountain to climb since they have to overcome our curse and the curse of their location. So, you didn’t hear it from us that the interior has been updated with a funky-meets-mod inviting design. Shh, don’t tell anyone about the friendly wait staff, the cleverly-named menu listings, or the fresh ingredients (when in stock, see below). Shoot, there’s even a small parking lot in the back – off street parking on McKinney Avenue, who knew?

Gui, which is probably the only restaurant ever to be named for the outfit worn by Eric Roberts in Best Of The Best, opened in November, and looks to fill a Korean food void in Uptown where the closest Korean food option is the "Spicy Korean" dish at Pei Wei (it has Korean hot pepper sauce!). However, it seemed to be suffering from a lack of certain ingredients when we first visited. The kitchen was out of Korean short ribs, which are ironically named "Game Over" on the menu. Likewise, the only lunch menu option for be-bim-bop (a beef, vegetable and rice medley, $14) was disappointingly vegetarian-only.

Still, we were able to order a bento box with bul-go-gi (Korean barbeque – typically tender, marinated shreds of beef, $15). The bul-go-gi was indeed tender and heartily marinated and mixed well with cellophane noodles, although it was placed on top of enough onions to make a grown lawyer cry. The "Game Over" short ribs, which we bento boxed on another visit, were chewier and less lean, but you can amaze your friends and frighten your enemies as you try to pick up the bone-in slices of beef with your chopsticks. If you like the typical Korean restaurant experience of grilling your own food at the table or munching on complimentary kimchi, the sweet, sour and spicy pickled cabbage and other delicacies that usually accompany a Korean meal, then head for the places on Harry Hines; Gui does not offer in-table cooking and you have to shell out for your kimchi separately.

We had some quibbles with the Korean side of the menu, but both the sushi side of the food and the charm of Gui won us over. We appreciate some snarkiness in our menu and items like "Jessica Alba-core Tuna" had us tittering like a titmouse. Also, the waitresses and owner get bonus points for being very friendly and deftly handling a group of hyper-caffeinated lawyers on their lunch break.

More importantly, sushi and Japanese dishes reign supreme at Gui. The bento boxes come with four pieces of sushi, a cabbage salad and vegetable tempura. The spicy tuna roll was fresh with a hint of spice that did not overwhelm. The salad was crisp and freshly chopped in a simple ginger dressing, and the vegetable tempura came out warm and perfectly battered. An a la carte yellowtail roll ($9) was likewise fresh and among the best in Uptown that we’ve tried. When asked for a fish recommendation, our cheeky waitress suggested that our table of three manly men try the eel plate ($17). Eel, she explained, is good for a man's….uh…. virility. That's right, when the mood is right, forget Ci@lis or V1agra… try some eel.

Anyhoo, the eel was seared just right and covered in a ginger soy sauce. Even a sushi appetizer called Poki cake, pricey at $14, blended together fresh salmon, tuna and spices into a fresh and zesty dish. Of course, it helped that our nice waitress mixed up the dish for us (obviously, we hadn't eaten our eel yet!). Still, your best bet for a value lunch is to stick to the bento boxes.

Green tea and mango ice cream were offered for dessert, but only green tea was available. It was also available mochi style, inside a rice-dough and sliced for sharing. The mochi was tangy with a rubbery consistency that was tastier that that description, but that is typical for the experience at Gui – it may not be what you expect, but it all comes together pretty well anyway.

So, for those of us poor souls living and/or working and/or playing Downtown/Uptown, Gui is a decent option to satisfy a Korean lunch fix and get some surprisingly good sushi to boot. On our bad-martial-arts-flick-actor five gavel scale, where one gavel is James Earl Jones as the Tae Kwan Do coach in Best of the Best and five gavels is Billy "Put 'em in a body bag" Zabka from The Karate Kid, we give Gui three and a quarter gavels, or the guy who played Chong Li in Bloodsport. It's a new year, people, let's get out there and show 'em what you can eat!

• Staff
• Verified User
• Anonymous