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.
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