Posted on November 30, 2008 at 2:45 p.m.

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 3/5  Service: 4/5  Value: 5/5  Overall: 4/5

In the meantime, we’re still craving Tibetan butter tea. Following our minor success using the pegger iphone search during our return from DFW international, we spotted this place. We decided we could make a combination trip to TNL foods and satisfy our need for momo by making a trip out beyond the safety borders. We donned our Spacehog style glasses for heading west and attached notes to ourselves that if we’re in any major traffic trauma that we should be left to exsanguinate rather than end up in some dodgy mid-cities hospital.

Looking at the map, it appears that this place is at about the 10 oclock west starside position. We set up the nav and headed out for BLR. We manage to retrace our steps just outside of a gas station. There appear to be some Nepali looking punks outside smoking. This is it.

The restaurant is a straightforward square, accented with Tibetan prayer flags and a big screen TV. It reminds me a great deal of home. Our server is kind of confused, but whomever her partner is seems extremely sweet, so we rename him Candy Man.

They direct us to the momo plates, but we’re hungry and by jeebus we came to eat! So, we take the plates marked “eat as much as you can.” One fish – one mutton. Awesome. Mango lassi, too. No butter tea, though, long sigh.

Some people say that space is the place, but personally I think that sitting beneath a massive young mountain outside of cel phone range is right up there. As the aromas from the kitchen waft by, I imagine being back up somewhere above the tree line when I can say that I’m never coming down PART 1.

The plates are thali style with a side serving of lentil soup. The meats are also served in a small goblet next to a flat metal plate of rice, potatoes, pickled vegetables and spinach.

The rice is pretty straightforward, but makes a good base for the sauces. The potatoes have a mild cumin and curry flavour and are accented with some chopped beans. I could have stood for a little more heat in the potatoes and I let them know. After all, sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

The fish is seasoned nicely, although I couldn’t necessarily tell you what it was other than my suspicion was that it was tilapia. The sauce is not overbearing nor amazingly spicy.

The mutton is chopped in to small bone in pieces and covered in a delicious sauce with hints of cardamom and cinnamon. It retains some of the gamey flavor I was hoping for. If I were ever ship wrecked on an artic expedition, I would want to eat this every day.

When we are down to only a few pieces left on our place, Candy Man comes back and refills us with soup, rice and potatoes. The meat apparently is extra with the “eat as much as you can.”

The pickled vegetables are all right. I think they are better than she does, but she kind of likes them too taste more like the gasoline flavoured ones from Komart than I do. Since no one is the last dictator of vegetables, we take a second portion anyway.

Candy Man brings us a small plate of chicken momos, too! Sometimes you can just imagine being back in the mountains saying this is the time that you’re never coming down part 2! The wrap is not necessarily as thick as might be expected for most momos and the inclusion of chicken lends me to think more India than Nepal, but I guess it’s hard to find decent yak meat around here. They are still a step up from the frozen dumplings we’ve got in the freezer, so they score better than a round of zeros.

Dinner conversation turns to a recent unilateral contract action taken by one of our associates and the next logical question was to be a millionaire…was it likely?

We’re too full for dessert. We will go back, you knew I’d like this sort of thing. Overall delicious. Will need to try more menu items. Suggest skipping on the washrooms as they seem to lead directly in to the alley. This is definitely the last mixed tense concept piece for this month.

On Himalayan Aroma

Posted on November 23, 2008 at 9:28 p.m.

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 2/5  Service: 3/5  Value: 4/5  Overall: 4/5

This is the first live, totally rude review direct from the iphone using the auto correct. The mobile search at the airport actilaay worked!

Damn! That was fast!

Broth Is excellent.

She ways vermicelli is perfect.h

Nice fish tank

Bathroom reasonably clean

Would come back

On Pho Republic Noodle and Rice Restaurant

Posted on October 27, 2008 at 11:16 p.m.

Food: 5/5  Vibe: 4/5  Service: 5/5  Value: 4/5  Overall: 5/5

We are in the midst of a west coast tour. However, we have a little time back here in Dallas. So what to do what to do?

Well, after trying to hit as many live shows as we could this weekend, we also added a trip to Tei An. That's Tei like Tay and An like yawn not Anne of Green Gables I think. We tried to arrange a trip here a while ago while I think I was on a speakerphone driving as fast as possible from Salinas Kansas to DFW on the "24 Hours to Canada." It didn't work out then, so it was about time.

After deciding where to park we wander around the lifeless husk of One Arts Plaza. There are some people in the restaurants which is nice because the actual building appears to house the undead.

Tei An, however, is aesthetically pleasing. There is a strange white girl acting as hostess who seems pleasant but uncomfortable. It's ok. On the left there is a tiny bar of maybe 5 seats and a long table for a group. The right has the main dining room which is informally divided into a walled area, some 4s in the middle and a sushi bar style area surrounding a large rock. The palette is soft yet contrasted with perpendicular lines.

The menu is rolled into a bamboo style mat. It's simple and I instantly like it. We order some sake, tempura and settle in.

The servers have a muted peasant motif going on. They are also almost unreasonably polite.

Sake selections are excellent and the glasses are served in an ice packed masu same as Teppo and our memories of Moosh. Hey, Yosuke!

Yeah, the tempura absolutely rules. It's hot, crunchy and awesome.

We also have a bowl of udon which comes steaming hot with the requisite seasonings and a perfectly sliced portion of duck. The noodles are firm without being tough.

We also have a soba sampler. It's a stupendous platter of fresh soba and a variety of four sauces. Essentially you dip the soba in to the sauce and eat. Slurping adds extra flavo(u)r. You have to watch that the servers don't start dunking for you, but they're so damn sweet you can't be mad at them. In the end, it's like you also have a variety of soups to enjoy.

Oh, what to say? You knew I would love this sort of thing. The ingredients were excellent, the service was awesome and the setting inside the restaurant was perfect. The details like the welcoming cards if you reserve a table show a degree of interest not typical for D.

Still, on a Saturday night the place was maybe half full. I wouldn't say it was cheap. If you're used to Sonic sized meals, don't come hungry and broke. Still, if I think of our duck udon that was cheaper by a dollar and about a power of ten better than the duck curry we had at Mint I have to strongly recommend you get through the brain suckers at OAP and go to this place now.

THE END OF THIS.

On Tei An

Posted on September 13, 2008 at 3:48 p.m.

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 2/5  Service: 3/5  Value: 2/5  Overall: 3/5

Headline: Asian Mint Misses My Mark

We have been out of town again for about the last week or so. This means that Saturday is a lunch / grocery run day. Typically this would involve some sort of cheap Vietnamese and the Tom Thumb / CM run. However, after spending the last week eating at Portugese social houses and Tibetan restaurants in Montreal, we thought we should try something new. Well, perhaps new-ish. If I can, I try to start the day Asian and move more European as time passes, so why not Asian Mint?

Exactly, why not?

We park ourselves in the strip mall on Oak Lawn that looks fawningly over Highland Park. I'm reminded that the current space occupied by Asian Mint used to be some other sort of Asian / Indian place we went to a couple of times.

When you step inside, there's a four seater bar with the ubiquitously Dallasized big screen TV right in front of you. Could we please have some place pass on this?

The dining area is a mixture of long benches and plastic chairs. However, the overall vibe is whitebluemodern. There's some emo version of "Come As You Are" on the stereo.

We are seated at a 2 by one of the staff who sports the T-shirt and cargo pants uniform. I presume this is standard for the future.

The menu is a single double sided sheet that is kind of hard to read. They also make special note of items that can be ordered gluten free. It's a little strange, I would have thought 'spicy' instead of coeliac when I see these sorts of notes in an Asianesque place.

The offerings are very heavily weighted to the Thai, with little significant offerings nodding to the Vietnamese or Japanese cuisines.

We go for simple stuff, a Pad Kee Mau style clear noodle dish, duck curry, soda and an iced tea.

While we're waiting, we wonder if it is time or region dependent, but of the families that are in the place, the children seem to all share a similar style. To be precise, these early adolescents seem to all be slack jawed idiots with greasy ass hair. There also seems to be a lot of complaining. I see someone is wearing a 'W 2004' shirt and I don't think they're being ironic.

They also really need to axe the food network on the big screen and put on some Gurren Lagann if they want to keep with the fake-o future Asian from the 90s theme.

My curry was pleasant if not spectacular. I asked for spicy hot but got middling luke warm. Personally, I think you should sweat a little eating curry and this was more walk in the mall than getting tear gassed when the Blue Jays won the world series. The vegetables are decent and the duck breast is nicely prepared. It's a little hard combining the rice and curry given the flatware, but not a big deal.

The noodle dish she gets is fairly sizable. It has some nice pieces of fresh basil and chicken breast. The peanut sauce is slightly greasy but not drowning the noodles overall. It might be a little short on the spice in general, but it's decent.

They get kudos for reusable chopsticks.

That's it....except for the big surprise!!

So if you weren't really paying attention to the hard to read menu you would have missed the price differential at this place compared to any other decent Asian place. Soft shell crab here goes for about $11 vs say the $6-7 we paid at Sushiyama last night. My curry...CURRY...was 18 dollars! Holy crap! I think that I could have walked 30 meters in the other direction and had a three course lunch at Aurora for the same amount. In the future, that would be my choice. Alternatively, I'd pass A M over and just stop at Oishii instead.

Oh well, would I go back? I guess it was ok if kind of pricey for what you get. I suppose they have booze as well, but I could get wasted on four stools in front of my own TV, too.

Is it absolutely stupid Momofuku take Eric Nakamura there when he's in town awesome? No. I'll keep looking.

On The Mint

Posted on September 7, 2008 at 10:48 a.m.

Food: 5/5  Vibe: 5/5  Service: 5/5  Value: 5/5  Overall: 5/5

Setting: lunch review Overall: awesome

First straight ticket 5s. Damn.

Sure, all diners know you can get in on the best at a bargain by doing a lunch. Still, this was exceptional.

We met just before 12 on a Friday and chose 2 3 course lunches including soups made from local produce, Hake, chicken and a sorbet finish. They also started with a toro amuse bouche. The three course lunch apparently rotates weekly.

Everything was spectacular. The service was attentive without being stupid. Each dish was a presentation in fresh, well prepared ingredients that left us full without drowsy.

What did this adventure in gastronomie set us back? Three courses per person about $19.

So the question is: where the hell is everyone? Even between 12 and 1 there were some Park Cities Biddies in there, but the place was no where full. Does Dallas even have WAGs? Is it more important to be seen at West Village than at an actual fine dining restaurant?

On Aurora

Posted on September 5, 2008 at 12:47 a.m.

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 4/5  Service: 3/5  Value: 5/5  Overall: 4/5

Solid. We go here late.

There's plenty of parking at the Holiday Inn. There are some edgy paintings outside.

This is a small restaurant, but that's ok. Admittedly, it's kind of cold. Seriously, they could cut the A/C down a little here at night.

However, the food is great. The chicken soup has a fantastic scent. It's flowing with a variety of vegetables and great slices of breast.

The Mr. C crepes are excellent; we're to believe the chorizo is house made and let's face facts, the whole thing is great. Everything on the table is impressive.

The servers are maybe a little comfortable in the place, but it's ok.

We'll go back. Yes, it's agreed.

On Buzzbrews Kitchen (Dallas - Fitzhugh & 75)

Posted on September 5, 2008 at 12:39 a.m.

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 4/5  Service: 4/5  Value: 3/5  Overall: 4/5

Hmmm

Is this a little generous? Hard to say. This is another one of those event...things, I suppose. Since she and I have decided that the formerly hostile looking end of Hendersonis someplace we're going to visit on even days while we're in Dallas for a couple of weeks, we're back again down the strip from Natsumi. This is not the upper east side. Dallas does not have an upper east side. This is Lower Henderson.

There's both complimentary valet (until 8PM - $5 after) and self parking. Oh yeah, that's more like it. The clutch on the Audi can't take too many more visits with Lone Star Valet.

Sushi Axiom: well, I like axiomatize as a verb. I also tend to eat sushi. However, this name strikes me as having been invented by someone with a marketing degree. It is neither aesthetically pleasing nor welcoming.

Inside, it's actually pretty nice. There is a variety of four and six tops in the middle, some booths on the side and a private room to the left. The bar is tucked away on the walkway out to the patio. As usual for Dallas, the patio overlooks some income tax de espanol place, but it's fanned and misted.

So, we get the complimentary food. Overall, for mass produced crud, it's ok. I mean, you can't really blow edamame and deep fried rolls. They both taste straight out of Komart. The rolls are not bad, but they're not house made.

The plate also comes with some spicy 'crab' nachos, which are basically a Tosito 'scoop' filled with some spicy 'krab.' They're ok.

We're sitting at the bar and she and I have a telepathic conversation:

"I know you're checking out the bartender."

"It's true, but let's face it, she could be your sister."

"ok, fair enough"

They talk highlights and move on. Unexpectedly, basically all the front staff are Asian.

The beer selections are a little strange: mostly light and lagers; not a lot of range, but the standards are here. Since we recently watched The Great Yokai War, some Kirin seems like a good choice.

The menu is nothing inspirational. There's standard Dallas Japanesque fare: gyoza, rolls, things with jalapeno. There's also a bit of an insulting chef's choice of something like a few gyoza, a couple slices of sashimi and some nigori for four people for something like $140. I mean, for wild omakase, that would be pretty cheap, but gyoza?? Seriously, chef's choice?

The rolls run from standard to something. We try the snow white, sashimi, some salmon sashimi and a crab hand roll.

The crab is fine: there's a crab in there, some rice, a little sauce. Sure. It's all right.

The rolls are fun! One comes wrapped in cucumber and is cut with a little boat and sails made from cucumber skins - whee! It tastes of reasonably fresh sea creatures.

The other Is a long roll with some spicy mayo based sauce drizzled around. Interestingly, the menu actually pointedly states they're serving "white fish" - have they been stung by the girls with bar code DNA kits? Just a heads up Dallas sushi joints, we now have the technology and I'm tempted to start doing a little testing myself.

The salmon sashimi is acceptable in that it's reasonably fresh appearing. It's more wide and thin rather than thick which would be more my preference, but I don't think it's really anything to complain about.

Well, what to think? It vaguely reminds me as a less annoying version of RA. I understand there is some kind of version in Fort Worth, of which I have no opinion whatsoever.

Go back? Sure, why not? It wasn't ridiculous expensive, but it wasn't amazingly stupendous, either.

Competitors?

SushiYa? Similar, but this place has more of an edgynightclububergeterotic feel. Not better or worse, just different.

Oishii? The food is probably not as good overall, but it's probably a little nicer at SA. If I had to pick, I'd probably lean to Oishii.

Zen? uhhh, I really keep trying to give this place all possible chances. Compared to SA, Zen's food is about the same so far and it's closer to my house. If I was going out for the night, I'd say SA's a little nicer.

Oh, well, in the end, it's ok sushi at a not ridiculous price in a place I'm willing to drink in a mix with bunch of others kind of like it and this review is O-V-A

On Sushi Axiom (Dallas)

Posted on July 24, 2008 at 11:23 p.m.

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 4/5  Service: 3/5  Value: 3/5  Overall: 3/5

OMAKASE - YEAH KONICHIWA BITCHES! Too bad it was more like sundome.

We figure for the couple of weeks that we're suffering through the Dallas summer, we'll finally drop the hammer on Zen omakase to see what they've got. Only thing is, you can't just show up ready to drop a pile of cash on the place and get whatever the chef dreams up. You need to call ahead by a day or so and make arrangements for such a thing. Long sigh.

Whatever, we're here, so we stay.

Not much has changed inside. The hostess / server has a Hello Kitty tattoo on the back of her neck and seems less surly than the last one we had.

Menu changes? Well, the Momokawa's gone, which nobody misses. They do however have a dry Ozeki which is listed at 180 ml but comes serves at about 375. I guess the metric system isn't for everyone. Other than that nothing much is different.

We start in to a tempura plate which is greatly improved. There's actually some crunch to the items. If anything, they probably could have cut it a couple pieces short since it was a fair bit for two.

The tuna sashimi was sort of smurf sized, but at least it was well cut.

We also went for the "nouvelle" tuna. It's a finely sliced plate of yellow tail with a sliver of jalapeno and Sriracha. It's fine, but really it's nothing particularly creative.

The volcano roll sustains the Dallas standard for ok if not great. Scallops don't deserve to be tortured like that!

The restaurant is actually pretty busy for a weekday night and the music is ok. Fittingly, they're playing some Lebanese Blonde as we're leaving. As a track, it well sums up where I see this place: probably great if it was '99, but now it's a serviceable standby. Thievery evolved, so should Zen.

On Zen Sushi

Posted on June 23, 2008 at 12:28 a.m.

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 4/5  Service: 4/5  Value: 4/5  Overall: 4/5

We had each been on slightly different itineraries, so when she got back in to Dallas, it was time to re-organize. She was flying in later on a Thursday night, so I thought that I would pick up some snacks. My initial thought was to call Oishii, but excessive wait, you know. Instead I thought what about Sushi Ya? Yeah, that’s the ticket. I mean, if you do Sushi -space- Ya, it says sushi store right in the title. What we found was that all you middle priced sushi joints, yeah, that’s you Zen, hell even Oishii, have now been put on notice.

Back to Thursday night, though. I pulled on to Elm and snagged the single meter right outside the door. I presume you can park in the City Park Tower that is immediately next to the restaurant, but I felt wary about that somehow. I really can’t say why, but whatever, here I was parking my own car. No stupid valet. Hmm…this was looking up.

The restaurant is shaped like a backwards L, with the sushi bar on the short end and a long drinking bar on the right. The back wall has a gold tinted covering textured with kanji that I really cannot make out, but it looks pretty cool. I toss myself on to a seat at the bar. Strange. Either it’s a short seat, a tall counter or I shrank. There’s also a big screen TV across the bar. I wish at least one place in Dallas could do without the retarded mandatory TV, but it is on Euro 2008, so I can deal with it.

Looking around, I see the wait staff are just how I like them: Asian girls with irregular teeth and interesting tattoos. Things are looking promising.

The menu is a stain proof laminated deal. I’d call the selection acceptable if not necessarily mind blowing. The sake list is reasonable – maybe even a little thoughtful. Sure, there’s an 18 liter box of hot sake at the bar, but no sense putting Junmai Daiginjo into your sake bombs.

I order up a few items to go: spider roll, scallop hand roll, salmon and one cliché the TUNA TOWER! While the chef gets to work, I have a friendly chat with an Asian man who presumably is the owner/manager/who knows what. He offers me some rice crackers and an Asahi black while I wait.

Orders up and time to go. Back home, in the fridge and out to DFW. She and I made our exact pick up, but I wasn’t watching on the way out and went to one of the ‘non Toll Tag’ booths. Never done this before – I guess I just thought there’s a reader at all of them, sort of like on the actual tollway. Nope, $17 for an 85 second trip through the airport. There’s some number to call, but not like they’re answering.

Despite about 40 minutes fridge time, the food’s decent. I mean, the spider roll has the requisite crab, but comes with a mild oyster style sauce. The crab itself is lightly fried and still retains some meatiness.

The chop-chop also was really well done. The scallop came across despite the slightly spicy sauce. I think that they managed not to kill the thing with mayo which really helped.

Even the usually stupid tuna tower is really tasty. I appreciated that despite the take out, there were 4 kinds of roe in the package. I think it was simply a lack of imagination that I ordered this in the first place, but like high grade toilet paper, it was a pleasant surprise.

It was looking like we’d need to make an excursion.

The next night we threw together a crew for a downtown event. Six of us packed clown style in to a Saab and left the car by the federal court house. Proposed activity: ride bus thing to City Arts Festival, see what happens.

It’s hot. Really. Considering we’d recently been in cities like Minneapolis and Chicago, the sting of the heat bouncing off the cement felt like having your skin peeled off tangerine style. Perhaps it would be more concise to call Dallasites “Human Donairs”.

Oh well, we sweat and drink some Farhenugenoggin Froot Loops flavored beer while checking out some twenty dollar spoon rests. Pretty awesome. We saw some Reverend HH, but I don’t think I heard “Bales of Cocaine.”

We jumped back on the short bus for the trip back down Field, when it was time for SUSHI YA. It’s much better when you yell it: ”SUSHI YA!” It certainly seemed so at the time anyway.

We took a table across from the sushi bar and started perusing the offerings. The sushi chef basically leaned over and yelled out at us something like “HEY WAT YOU WANT?!” I was loving this place now. We start throwing back orders to him and he gets to work. Our waitress actually had a total of zero eye rolls during this process. We had several sushi pieces and a combination plate and each piece came across as fresh: hints of the sea without a back story involving the dead fish tank of a gulf coast shrimper. Nicely done. The sushi chef has some reasonable knife skills, too, as I see the flakes of each fish carefully displayed and managed for both aesthetics and easy eating.

Details work out, too. The sushi rice was excellent. It’s slightly sticky without being chunky and it well compliments each slice of sea creature. I didn’t get the feeling it was in the rice cooker on ‘reheat’ for the last couple of days.

The volcano roll wasn’t really up to par with the rest of the meal, I’ll say. The crab wasn’t really there for us and the sauce needed some work. Back for a re-write on that one.

Hell, I even go for a tempura udon. A few of you may all ready know this, so I might as well say it outright: I’m working on my Kyushu style ramen skills on a serious level and I hope later this year to study more extensively in the mountains again.

So, I’m a little hypercritical about noodles overall. However, this bowl at SUSHIYA!!! was actually pretty decent. The tempura wasn’t corn dog style like some other places I won’t mention here, but it was actually crispy outside of the soup. The broth was a mild to moderate soy style, that although not my personal favorite type, was nicely done. If you’re downtown and have been doing some moderate imbibing, this soup would be a good choice. Sure, you’d probably enjoy it sober, too.

We conclude the evening over more local politicking and general bawdy behavior and settle our tabs. Damages? About $30 a person including drinks. You could probably have a decent snack here for $20 and go home happy.

I like the place. The staff is friendly, the food’s good and the overall vibe’s pretty relaxed. I’d suggest they turn off the stupid top 40 and maybe throw on some Armin van Buuren or DJ Krush to top it off.

So, the gauntlet’s down for another season of Dallas sushi wars. I don’t put SUSHIYA at Teppo level mostly for the expansive sake and robata that SUSHIYA just isn’t at, but let’s say ZEN – you’re a prime target. She and I have been threatening to do the definitive ZEN dinner, so it looks like it’s going to have to happen before we’re back at DFW departures.

On Sushi Ya

Posted on June 3, 2008 at 2:27 p.m.

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 4/5  Service: 3/5  Value: 3/5  Overall: 4/5

Sat outside for drinks / dessert. One server refused to access the peanut butter ice creme thing, but another one betrayed her. Tarts ok. Drinks all right.

Best part is watching the Main street gong show. About midnight some girl driving a white SLK tries to U-turn to the valet stand on the south side of the street. Turn radius too big, so POW - front end right in to the sidewalk. She and her matching pneumatically D cupped friend don't bother to rectify the situation, just get out and hand the keys off. The real icing was the personalized license plate "BabyGirl." I guess daddy's not too attached to his cars.

On Charlie Palmer at the Joule