Tillman's Roadhouse: Till Death Do Us Part

Thank goodness for Restaurant Week, the one time of the year that we otherwise frugal foodies can enjoy more pricey restaurants. Trying to keep along with our mission, we chose a place that was not one of the obvious go-to restaurant week picks. We chose Tillman’s Roadhouse located in Oak Cliff in the Bishop Arts District. There is also a location in Fort Worth. Both Sara and I have recently become great fans of the area that was unbeknownst to us a few months ago. It is a truly unique part of Dallas and has a great amount of character, as well as a plethora of fine dining options. We looked up several in the area and decided on Tillman’s Roadhouse, which takes classic comfort food and kicks it up a notch using unexpected ingredients.

We arrived at Tillman’s at 7pm for our Sunday reservation. We arrived and observed the décor that mixed rustic roadhouse with fancy chandeliers. The space is very inviting, there are pillows placed on the bench seats and lots of fun decorations. The atmosphere really goes perfectly with the cuisine that they serve at Tillman’s, upscale-comfort without ever getting close to pretentious.

The meal starts with some complimentary truffle oil and black pepper dusted popcorn served in a rustic ladle. The popcorn is a great starter and much less messy than the peanut route most roadhouses opt for. For the first course, I had the Texas Farms Baby Lettuce Salad with goat cheese, mandarin oranges, roasted beets, candied pecans, and orange-basil vinaigrette.  Sara had the Southwest Caesar Salad with romaine, cherry tomatoes, roasted corn, black beans, poblanos, cotija, cilantro and crispy huarache.  Both salads were tasty, however we preferred mine. The orange-basil vinaigrette and the candied pecans were a great balance with the goat cheese.

We ordered our main entrées as well as a side of goat cheese tater tots that we had heard great things about. I ordered the Post Oak Smoked Pork Ribs with house barbeque sauce and bacon-cheddar mac and cheese. Sara ordered the Chicken Fried Steak with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, poblano cream gravy, bacon lardons, haricot vert and cherry tomatoes. The goat cheese tater tots were surprisingly delectable (and addicting). Even though I had my entrée in front of me, I could not help but keep going back for more tots. I actually joked to Sara that I wanted to take the last few with me and pull a “Napoleon Dynamite.”

The ribs were good, they were very sweet on their own and the sauce helped to add a little tang. They were very tender and the meat came easily off the bone. The bacon cheddar mac and cheese was also really tasty.  However, Sara easily won the entrée round. The chicken fried steak came out as two very round steaks that were lightly crusted and drizzled with gravy. The meat actually tasted like real steak, and we were curious as to what type of meat they use. The chicken fried steak is hands down the best either of us have ever tasted. Usually there is too much batter, or the meat isn’t that great. There is neither problem with Tillman’s dish. It is absolutely mouth watering. The mashed potatoes are superb and so were the bacon lardon green beans.  We split the dishes down the middle so we got to enjoy the best of both worlds.

Then we got dessert, yes more food! Sara had the S’more with a maple homemade marshmallow with chocolate bark and a cinnamon graham. I ordered the Banana Bread Pudding with malt crème anglaise and peanut tuille. Sara won again! The S’more was delicious and was a perfect little bite to finish the meal. The marshmallow was toasted perfectly and the graham cracker was exceptional. The bread pudding was too dense and I could not really eat much of it. I love banana bread typically, but this did not translate well for me. We also couldn’t help but notice the other tables around us getting the S’more dessert as featured on the main menu, which is served tableside for the whole group. It looked incredible.

After our meal, even though I could hardly move, I proclaimed Tillman’s to be my new favorite Dallas restaurant. It is just my style, the good ol’ home cooked food but with an interesting twist. I absolutely love comfort food, but I also like trying new ingredients and flavors that I am not used to. Tillman’s combines both of these flawlessly. The regular priced menu is a little out of my usual budget, the Chicken Fried Steak usually runs $25, but honestly, it is so worth it. They also have a menu of handcrafted drinks that sounded awesome. I will absolutely return, and cannot wait to try the tableside S’mores and stuff my face with those glorious goat cheese tater tots.

Tillman's