Dallas Restaurant Week: Reports from the field

by Sarah Blaskovich , Alex Bentley

DALLAS — Restaurant Week in Dallas/Fort Worth always seems to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, high-end restaurants become relatively affordable for those not earning the buco bucks. On the other, some restaurants may feel like they're forced into participating, and thus may not put forth their maximum effort toward pleasing customers. There's also the issue that restaurants are producing mass quantities of the same food all night long, something they're not necessarily used to doing, which may lead to a decline in quality.

So can you get a good idea of what a place like The French Room, Al Biernat's, Abacus, or Craft has to offer if you go during Restaurant Week? Alex and Sarah give their impressions on those spots below:

The French Room (Alex)

If you knew our dining habits and had to guess to which restaurant my wife and I would be making a repeat visit, The French Room would probably not top the list. But thanks to the generosity of family friends following our engagement, we were already well aware of the sumptuous nature of their meals.

But that was a lavish, nine-course feast -- could a three-course meal ever compare? In short, absolutely. I had the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake appetizer, which truly had jumbo lumps of crab; the Red Snapper (a fish I'd never had before) that was complemented perfectly by a spinach risotto and romesco sauce, and the Popcorn Pot de Creme for dessert -- popcorn mixed in with a salted caramel ice cream and caramel sauce, a combination I wouldn't have thought of but one which I'll attempt to recreate on my own soon.

However, it wasn't just the food that left us longing to come back -- the service was truly second to none. Not counting a slightly longer-than-desired lag between being seated and ordering, the staff left us feeling as if they were waiting on us hand and foot. The perfect example came when a waiter dropped and broke a piece of glass on the table next to us, an innocuous shard of which grazed my wife's arm. Seemingly before we could even react, the maitre d' appeared out of nowhere, asking if she was okay. She was, and his attention only enhanced the fine dinner. The only downside? Having to wear a suit coat during dinner is kind of a drag, especially when you're worried you might spill something on it.

Al Biernat's (Sarah)

This was my first time at Al Biernat's. I was prepared to enter an old money establishment, with guys puffing cigars, women dripping in pearls, and waiters with funny accents. I quickly realized I was wrong when my five friends and I arrived for our meal. The place was upbeat, streaming a-little-too-loud pop music at the bar among martini sippers. (I'm curious to see if this is the scene at Al Biernat's all the time. The older gentleman at the bar offering to buy us a bottle of Dom Perignon was my only indication that the aforementioned crowd still dines there during Restaurant Week.)

The meal started and ended with impeccable service, despite the packed house. Our waiter showed no signs of being overwrought. The meal began with a choice of Piri Piri prawns, or a summer salad with hearts of palm and raspberries, or an avocado dill gazpacho. I went with option three. It wasn't thrilling, but made for a refreshing summer appetizer.

An entree of pasta puttanesca with scallops, capers and tomatoes (hold the olives, please) was, as you can see in the photo, delicious. (Other options included wasabi crusted salmon, prime rib, pot roast, or brined and grilled pork chop.) My scallops were perfectly cooked, and the helpings generous. Good thing, since pasta puttanesca made for surprisingly excellent leftovers a few evenings later.

Dessert ended with Grand Marnier crème brulee, a personal favorite. My friends were kind enough to let me taste a little of their chocolate brioche bread pudding with toffee ice cream, which was moist, decadent, and a close rival to the faithful crème brulee.

We didn't get to try their delicious-looking summer drinks: Before the meal, a “watermelon sunshine martini” with orange vodka, Grand Marnier, and watermelon; or after, “Al's Magnificent Malt,” mixed with brandy, Grand Marnier, Cointreau, and a dark chocolate sipping straw. We were happily sipping on a moderately-priced bottle of pinot noir. That bottle of Dom sounded more tempting by the end, but our cigar-smoking friend had already moved on.

Abacus (Alex)

Despite all of our dinners lasting somewhere in the two-hour range, the place where we felt the most rushed was at Abacus. While all three restaurants my wife and I went to were full, Abacus just gave the impression of "Get 'em in, get 'em out" more than the other two combined.

Our server didn't help matters, as she rushed through explanations of food and wine, and often didn't seem to know much about what she was saying. We had a fourth course coupon from Central Market, which in this case got us Abacus' famous Lobster Shooters. Any taste of lobster was lost in the sauce and fried batter, however. The rest of the meal consisted of the Seared Diver Sea Scallop with Spicy Yuzu-Sweet Soy Thai Corn Cakes (good, but the two together didn't seem to be a match), Herb Marinated Pork Porterhouse topped with a foie gras butter (thank God for the foie gras butter, because the meat was inexcusably tough), and a shared dessert plate that included a strawberry-mint shortcake, Valrhona milk chocolate pudding-Nutella crunch, and key lime cheesecake (all were fine, but underwhelming after the disappointment of the main course).

To top it off, Chef Kent Rathbun was in the house and made his way over to our section. Curiously, out of the 12 tables in our area, ours was the only one he skipped. We mentioned it to our server, who asked him to come back over, at which time we had a pleasant conversation. But his initial overlooking of our table seemed to fit perfectly with the rest of our night -- a blase attitude toward making our meal a memorable one.

Craft

Alex: After all is said and done, perhaps the epitome of what Restaurant Week should be. While we were seated at the rear of the restaurant near the kitchen, we never felt like we were being shunted away from the higher end clientele. Our server was friendly from the get-go, but also allowed us our space when we needed it. And the ambience, which included background music that was heavy on Coldplay and Amy Winehouse, exuded a fun yet relaxed atmosphere.

The menu was heavy on the family-style offerings, with the only choice being for the main course. However, this turned out to be more than fine, as that allowed us to not wonder if we had chosen the wrong meal. First course was Mixed Baby Lettuce & Hazelnuts, Heirloom Tomato Salad, and Pork Rillettes & Mostarda. The latter option was the best, as it was like a pork pate minus the liver, something I never knew I wanted until I tried it. My wife and I chose the Diver Scallops & Mushroom Jus and Wagyu (Kobe beef) Tri Tip & Bordelaise Sauce as main courses, both of which made us want to lick the serving plates (though we did restrain ourselves). Dessert was three types of sorbet, a Lemon Buttermilk Tart, and a White Chocolate Panna Cotta & Richter Farm Berries, the latter of which also threatened to lure our tongues plate-ward.

Though we didn't take advantage of it, Craft was also the only one to offer regular menu options along with Restaurant Week. Since our meal made us want to come back soon, it was nice to be able to visualize what we might have next time (and what it will cost us).

Sarah: My food was just as excellent as Alex describes it. The dining room was homey and comfortable, and the servings were interesting: As Alex said, they are family style. But for a table of four, this means something entirely different: The plates sit in the middle of the table, but the portions are just enough for one person. This means that friends and spouses are given free reign to eat off each other's plates without asking. I adore this idea, since I was going to do it anyway.

The consensus was that the heirloom tomato salad was easily the favorite appetizer. In fact, a former "tomato hater" is now reformed because of that very dish! Our take was that the pork appetizer tasted like dry tuna salad -- which we all found to be tasty, but not the best.

The main courses at Craft were really what made this dining experience fabulous. Since there were four of us, and we were to be "sharing" each dish, I coerced everyone at my table into getting different dishes. (For research purposes, of course.) The scallops were well seasoned and the kobe beef was absolutely outstanding. But what amazed us was the Braised Rabbit & Ricotta Cavatelli, doused in a buttery sauce that made me want to claim the bowl all to myself. (Technically, it was the tomato hater's dish, so I had to share.) We had many other excellent sides, but if you can get the $25 vouchers from Central Market for an additional course, the corn risotto was a buttery treat.

When it came time to finish up our bottle of wine and wait for dessert, something happened. Our chatty, attentive waiter disappeared for more than half an hour -- I'm guessing it was the full house that kept him busy. By the time the dessert plates came by, it's all a blur. The panna cotta was gone in seconds and I vaguely recall that the mint chocolate chip sorbet was actually made with real mint leaves. It wasn't at all like Bluebell, to the disappointment of some at the table, but then again, nothing at Craft is. And that's a good thing.

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