Shinsei - KRLD Restaurant Week

For KRLD Restaurant Week, Haley and I thought long and hard about what new and adventurous foodie experience we wanted to have. Clearly, the ones that fill up in 24 hours (such as Abacus) were off the table, but we had always wanted to try Shinsei, especially after hearing so many local chef-lebrities speak so highly of it. We secured a reservation and immediately started stalking the internet for the RW menu. We always like to coordinate our courses and love checking out menus ahead of time.

We arrived and were greeted by our funny and quirky waitress. We perused the normal menu just to see what else we might be missing and I will say some of those sushi rolls looked awesome! For our first course, I had the Elvis’ Tuna Tartare (they have a sushi chef that is totally the Japanese version of Elvis!!) and Haley ordered the Coconut Chicken Jalapeño Poppers with Yellow Curry dipping sauce. My Tuna Tartare was awesome! It came on a bed of rice, on top of crispy wontons. I ate it like nachos. Something about it felt so rich and buttery – I loved it a lot.

Haley’s Coconut Chicken Jalapeño Poppers with Yellow Curry dipping sauce was very good as well. The poppers were wrapped in a Wonton wrapper instead of normal fry batter and the curry sauce was amazing. Haley said she would just drink the dipping sauce and used it as salad dressing on her accompanying mini salad.

For our main courses, I ordered the Seared Snapper with Asian Risotto and Soy-Brown Butter. It was literally the BEST fish dish I have ever had. The sauce was seriously mind blowing. The only disappointment was that this dish is not on the regular menu. What am I going to do?! Ugh, I am still thinking about that meal…

Haley ordered the Dean's Oooey Gooey Chicken with Creamy Scallion Whipped Potatoes. This dish is on the actual menu. Haley said the chicken was good – nothing too thrilling, but the sauce and mashed potatoes were amazing. There was some kind of flavor in the sauce that we couldn’t quite put our finger on but she loved it.

In addition to our RW main courses, we had to take the opportunity to try the fried rice we’ve been hearing so much about. We ordered it as an additional side (as if we didn’t have enough food) and couldn’t wait to see what all the buzz was about. At the time, we totally enjoyed the fried rice but weren’t exactly sure why it was so special. I mean it was great and tasted like it had really fresh, quality ingredients, but it was still fried rice. The next day, however we both confessed that we just couldn’t get that fried rice out of our minds. We think it might be one of those dishes that creeps up on you and becomes something you’ll crave periodically. We get it now!

Lastly, we tried to coordinate our desserts and order two different things, even though we both had our eye on the same one. I ordered the Gingersnap Banana Parfait. I heard our waitress telling someone else that it was the best dessert on the menu so I was preemptively excited. Once I dug in, it was one of the best desserts I’ve ever had. Since I try to avoid gluten, I planned to only have a little of the dessert and avoid the cookies as much as possible. Yeah, right! I basically licked the dish clean. Sometimes, you just have to give in and it was TOTALLY worth it. It has Bruleed bananas, banana pudding, crumbled gingersnaps and more soft bananas at the bottom.

Haley ordered the Lynae's Famous Oatmeal Cookies because who doesn’t love a good oatmeal cookie! She got two and commented that they were lighter and fluffier than the normal dense oatmeal cookies we are used to. Definitely good, just not the best cookies ever. Haley enjoyed them and took one cookie and the leftover fried rice to go for later snacking.

Overall, we both loved Shinsei and want to go back. It’s pretty pricey though, so we may have to wait for a special occasion or a sudden surplus of disposable income. I think Shinsei just made it into my top 3 fine dining Dallas digs. Taste Buds <3 Restaurant Week.

http://shinseirestaurant.com/index.shtml

Food that makes you feel wildly American: Wild About Harry's

For our latest adventure, we decided to check out a Dallas staple, Wild About Harry’s on Knox. Wild About Harry’s offers hot dogs and frozen custard, that has become a classic to many people in Dallas over the years. We ventured out on a very hot Sunday afternoon to see what has made this hot dog and custard shop stand the test of time.

You are immediately greeted by a giant hot dog statue when you arrive, and it makes you feel like a kid again, hungry for a hot dog and ice cream. Sure, it is a simple meal, but sometimes it is all you really want. We went inside and saw the menus on the wall, offering a variety of different hot dog types and custard flavors. We started out with hot dog combos for just under $8.

Sara had the Texas dog with mustard, chili, cheese and onions with coleslaw. I opted for the Chicago dog with mustard, pickles, relish, sport peppers, tomatoes, and celery salt. For my side I had the onion rings. The food came out fast and we dug in. The dogs are served in a very fluffy and soft poppy seed bun. The dogs were both very enjoyable and we finished every bite. Sara said there was nothing not to like about her dog, and I agreed. Sara said the coleslaw was pretty average, and I thought the onion rings were stellar. There wasn’t too much batter and it was light enough to taste the onion. We decided that while WAH’s is not doing anything different or unique with their dogs, they are doing everything right.

Of course a trip to Wild About Harry’s wouldn’t be complete without trying the custard. Sara is gluten free so she ordered the gluten free vanilla with coconut as her topping. I chose the coconut custard with chocolate chips. The coconut custard was amazing, and went perfectly with the chocolate bits. I ate every bite and would definitely go back just for this.  Sara wasn’t as excited about hers since it was a plainer flavor, but still enjoyed it. Sara also let me know that you can buy WAH’s custard at Central Market, so I was more than excited to get to enjoy it again.

Wild About Harry’s is the perfect easy, quick, cheap place to grab a hot dog and custard. It is exactly what you expect for and hope for in both offerings. Sara said it best when during her meal she exclaimed, “I feel so American right now!”

http://wildaboutharrys.com/

Stratos - One Serious Adventure!

We were introduced to Stratos by Haley’s boyfriend who works in the area and swears by this Greek hidden treasure. Haley went a few times and decided that we had to go for an official Foodie Adventure ASAP! Upon arrival, one might be thrown a little though. Rumor has it that this restaurant is a renovated strip club and I believe it. The look of the place was enough to make me get out my phone and snap a picture immediately after getting out of my car in the parking lot. With that in mind, when asked if we wanted a table or a booth there was no question in our minds – TABLE!!!

All of the staff was really nice and the place was pretty crowded for a Monday night. It may be because of the half-price food on Mondays and Tuesdays. Gotta love a great deal! We started off with hummus which comes with toasty, buttery pita bread, carrot sticks and celery sticks. The hummus was pretty good – more nutty than garlicky. It wasn’t our favorite hummus ever, but it was above average for sure. The pita bread was really great. It was just so buttery and toasty. Not the afterthought it can so often be at lesser restaurants.

For our entrees, Haley and I tried to cover our bases to make for an all-encompassing blog experience. She went with the lamb souvlaki and I went with the meat lover’s gyro plate. Haley’s boyfriend, Michael, ordered one of his favorites, the Pastitsio - greek lasagna. Haley’s lamb came with pita bread, rice, sautéed vegetables and she asked for Tzatziki instead of the lemon butter sauce. It was all really good. The lamb was flavorful and tender. The rice and veggies were good and the pita bread was awesome.

My meat lover’s gyro plate came with double gyro meat on a toasty open-faced pita, tomatoes, red onions, homemade Tzatziki, a cube of feta and kalamata olives. We all agree that this gyro meat is the best we’ve ever had. It was so much juicier than all the others, not to mention the awesome flavor. The Tzatziki was great – not too overpowering – and the feta and olives were the perfect accompaniment to this enormous plate.

Michael’s greek lasagna was really good, too. It had this awesome golden brown almost crust on top and the rest of it had just great flavor. The lasagna came with rice, garden vegetables, toasted pita bread and one dolma. He let me try some of the dolma because I haven’t liked any that I’ve had, and I seriously loved this one! I guess I’d only had sub-par dolmas until now.

After our meals, we decided that we need dessert since our bills would be just way too cheap with the half-priced cuisine (however we can rationalize it, right?). Our waitress recommended the Aphrodite’s Chocolate Passion which is described as “a sex bomb of a dessert”. It consisted of a brownie crust filled with chocolate mousse cake, chunks of cheesecake and caramel, topped with chocolate and almonds, and served with sides of whipped cream and vanilla ice cream. Holy dessert, Batman! We got it. We ate it. We loved it. It was indeed a sex bomb.

The meal was great and the service was good. Stratos is a definite Taste Buds favorite. BUT I cannot finish this review without the most interesting part of the night. While we were waiting for our food, the power went out! The power went out in a restaurant. That can’t be good right? This has happened to Haley on another occasion and the power stayed off for 40 minutes that time. This time the power was only out for a few minutes, but it was still bewildering/comical to say the least. Luckily we were good sports about it and just kept carrying on our conversations like nothing had happened. Opa!

http://clubstratos.com/