From: jbaron@higgs.ssc.gov (Jeff Baron)
Subject: Re: Dallas Restaurants
Reply-To: jbaron@higgs.ssc.gov (Jeff Baron)
Organization: Superconducting Super Collider Lab
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 20:32:17 GMT

Hey, Tom.  Thanks for the list!  I thought I'd add my comments to
a few of the listings; the ones that I feel strongly about.

Tom Jacob writes:

- ITALIAN
- 
- Arcodoro (2520 Cedar Springs). Hip cafe-bar with casual pizza-sandwich-salad
-      menu. Inexpensive to moderate.

Quite good food, but it's noisy; almost as noisy as its sister,
Pomodoro, next door, which means you can't really have a real
conversation.  I'm convinced by the decor that they do everything
they can to make it seem crowded via the noise, even when it's not.

- The Grape (2808 Greenville). Wine bar with food that has been all over
-      the map in the last few years. Seems to be heading back in a
-      Mediterranean direction with more French-style butter and cream

For a wine bar, the wine list here is very, VERY, mediocre.

- Main Street News (2934 Main in Deep Ellum). Part deli, part bistro.
-      Generally very good food with southern French and northern Italian
-      accents. Imaginative salads. One of the happening places right now.
-      Moderate.

I really wanted to like this place, I swear, and I went there 
*FOUR* times, three times at dinner, and once for lunch.  I
*never* had good food, including one trip where both appetizers 
and one entree had to be sent back.  I once had some "faux"
cassoulet, with pork and white beans, the only problem being that
it was almost all white beans; two, count'em, two pieces of 
stew size pork.  The service is also very lackluster, IMNSHO.
IN ADDITION, the sous chef for MSN now writes the restaurant
column for the Dallas Observer.  When questioned about this,
the Observer stated that she would not be reviewing her own
places.  Sure.  Why not just have William Faulkner review an
Ernest Hemingway novel.  It's the same thing.

- Avner's (2515 McKinney). Moderate to expensive. Much of the offerings have
-      a Pacific Rim influence at the moment. Reservations advised.

I've been here twice, and enjoyed it both times, although the
tables are *very* close together.  The Pacific Rim influence
is liable to continue forever, according to published interviews
with Samuel Avner.

- Baby Routh (2708 Routh). Sibling of Routh Street Cafe offers good
-      Southwestern menu in classy casual setting. Moderate to expensive.
-      Reservations advised.

I know the chef here, so I'm not unbiased.  The food is very
good, but the wine list, while containing some very good 
choices, is among the most expensive that I've seen in any
city, including New York.  I guess people don't mind paying
$34 for a $10 bottle.

My recommendations?  I can't really say that I have any.  All
in all, I think that while there are many restaurants in 
Dallas, an *enormous* number, good, well-prepared food in a
pleasant setting at even reasonable prices, including wine,
is hard to find.

I like Good Eats foremost of all places.  Simple food, to be
sure, but it's well prepared and it tastes natural, like
food should taste.  There's no real atmosphere to any of
them, though, but the food is better than either Dixie House
or The Blackeyed Pea.

The Dream Cafe is also a once-every-other-month haunt, which is
frequent for me.  The food is good, but the portions are on
the small side, and I have to have soup, salad, entree, and 
dessert to fill up.  This, plus wine, can easily run $75 for 2.

Avners, above, is a place I'd go back to; the food is very
good, and it's only a little more expensive, all in all, than
the Dream Cafe.

As far as Mexican food goes, there's plenty of it, and it comes
in all flavors and all price ranges, from Javier's to Pappasito's
to Chuy's (my favorite) to La Suprema, the "natural" Mexican
restaurant, a contradiction if ever there was one.  Dallas
does do Mexican food well, unlike (IMO) Italian food.  You simply
have to like Mexican food.

--
Jeff Baron
jbaron@gauss.ssc.gov
Newsgroups: rec.food.restaurants