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Best New Restaurants of 2018


DFWTexEx

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The D list is out:  Dallas' Best New Restaurants

Restaurant of the Year:  Bullion

Macellaio

Billy Can Can

The French Room

Up on Knox

Fachini

The Charles

Zayatinya

Fine China

Petra and the Beast

I  have only been to three of these).  I can't argue with Bullion being up there.   It is really remarkable.  Billy Can Can was fun and the food was delicious.  Macellaio had some good moments but a very aggressive, upselling and over pouring waiter ruined the night and we may not go back despite big fans of the Ugyurs and Lucia.  Misty Norris at Petra is getting all sorts of press again, like she did at Small.  I am an adventurous eater, but her stuff can be pretty aggressive even for me.  She pushes the envelope.  We will try it, but with "foodie" friends.  That is not the place you go for a chicken caesar.

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3 minutes ago, Landomatic said:

Huh.  Up On Knox?  Fine China?  List seems questionable.

Petra was just named one of the best new restaurants in the country by Esquire, which is pretty huge.  Definitly looking forward to trying it.  Will not expect the chicken caesar.

Haven't heard much about Up on Knox.  Fine China got destroyed in the DMN review (consistent with what I heard from friends).  But, the chef there was awesome at Top Knot.  Maybe she righted the ship.  

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3 minutes ago, DFWTexEx said:

Haven't heard much about Up on Knox.  Fine China got destroyed in the DMN review (consistent with what I heard from friends).  But, the chef there was awesome at Top Knot.  Maybe she righted the ship.  

Full disclosure...I’ve never been to Fine China, but it gets destroyed in just about every review I’ve seen and my friends who have been agree with your friends.

We can walk to Up On Knox and we rarely do as it’s very average and overpriced without an identity.  I think they’re on like their 3rd chef or something.  

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On 12/5/2018 at 6:13 PM, Landomatic said:

Full disclosure...I’ve never been to Fine China, but it gets destroyed in just about every review I’ve seen and my friends who have been agree with your friends.

We can walk to Up On Knox and we rarely do as it’s very average and overpriced without an identity.  I think they’re on like their 3rd chef or something.  

I dont understand why anyone would ever eat there considering you have Taverna and Toulouse right there, tons of options across the street on Henderson (RIP Hibiscus) and Breadwinners just down the street (talking brunch at this point - you also have Henry's Majestic around the corner).

Seems like a superfluous restaraunt that that K/H didn't need.

Edited by ztejas
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19 hours ago, ztejas said:

I dont understand why anyone would ever eat there considering you have Taverna and Toulouse right there, tons of options across the street on Henderson (RIP Hibiscus) and Breadwinners just down the street (talking brunch at this point - you also have Henry's Majestic around the corner).

Seems like a superfluous restaraunt that that K/H didn't need.

Breadwinners would be a healthy hike from Lando's place.

Up On Knox is a weird choice. Not impressed. Is Fine China the place at The Statler?

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1 hour ago, C-Man said:

I would, though, like to see Lando and Mrs Lando tearing down the street on a Bird scooter!

Lmao...drunk Lando has tried to get much less drunk Mrs Lando to do just that on more than one occasion.  I’m all like “come on let’s do it” and she’s all like “no way are we doing that” so every time we compromise and we don’t do it.  Undefeated 

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Food and service, especially for price point and pain in the ass location factors. Bottom 3 dining experience of my life there, even brought manager over to let him know as a 'hey, you guys need a lot of work' and got a dismissive "I'll take care of y'all" which resulted in a 10% discount (really weren't looking for a discount just trying to give the place some objective feedback as they're new). Only time I've left a bad Yelp review. 

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22 minutes ago, bluto said:

Food and service, especially for price point and pain in the ass location factors. Bottom 3 dining experience of my life there, even brought manager over to let him know as a 'hey, you guys need a lot of work' and got a dismissive "I'll take care of y'all" which resulted in a 10% discount (really weren't looking for a discount just trying to give the place some objective feedback as they're new). Only time I've left a bad Yelp review. 

Huh, that’s too bad but I guess it doesn’t really surprise me.  They’re fairly new so maybe just working out the kinks.  I had high hopes.

Honestly though, what’s “pain in the ass” about that location?

Also, as an aside...yelp is a complete and total joke.  Basing any of your purchasing decisions on it or thinking any of your reviews on it make a damn bit of difference in anything, is just being naive.  I could go on and on about that but in a nutshell, it is legal extortion.  If a business is willing to pay, the bad reviews go away.  I thought everyone already knew that...but I guess not.

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1 hour ago, Landomatic said:

Huh, that’s too bad but I guess it doesn’t really surprise me.  They’re fairly new so maybe just working out the kinks.  I had high hopes.

Honestly though, what’s “pain in the ass” about that location?

Also, as an aside...yelp is a complete and total joke.  Basing any of your purchasing decisions on it or thinking any of your reviews on it make a damn bit of difference in anything, is just being naive.  I could go on and on about that but in a nutshell, it is legal extortion.  If a business is willing to pay, the bad reviews go away.  I thought everyone already knew that...but I guess not.

Yep. Google reviews are much more objective. Don't look at the 5 star ones, read the shitty ones if you want to have some good intel before trying somewhere new. 

Now, some people are morons, but often times there are valid points that come up in 1 or 2 star reviews that the 5 star, mouthbreathing "OMG BEST PIZZA I'VE EVER HAD" will never touch on. 

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1 hour ago, ztejas said:

Yep. Google reviews are much more objective. Don't look at the 5 star ones, read the shitty ones if you want to have some good intel before trying somewhere new. 

Now, some people are morons, but often times there are valid points that come up in 1 or 2 star reviews that the 5 star, mouthbreathing "OMG BEST PIZZA I'VE EVER HAD" will never touch on. 

I only trust the Surly reviews

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  • 6 months later...

I don't really know where to put this but we went to Foxyco over in the Design District on Friday night -- it's way down past Town Hearth/The Charles and Empire Room. It's the second restaurant by the guy who owns Stock & Barrel in Bishop Arts. He honed his craft working for Avner Samuel, who I hear is coming back to Dallas with a new concept. At any rate, Foxyco is really, really good and it's been basically dead the two times we went.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Tried Macellaio for the first time last night.  Kind of seemed like a hard reservation to get and it’s supposedly one of the best new restaurants in town so we were excited.  Plus we love Lucia so very high hopes.  What could possibly go wrong?

So, we were under the impression that it was a fairly hard reservation to get.  They’re on Resy and good time slots on weekend nights are generally booked.  But we were able to snag one a few weeks ago.  We showed up and the place was only about ⅔ full and the hostess said “table for two?” and was ready to seat us right away before I told her we had a reservation.  Clearly could have just walked in.  Not a big deal, but it’s a little misleading to set the tone.

Our waitress shows up and to say she sucked would be an understatement.  She was really smug and not very helpful and had no personality and overall she acted like we were just lucky to be there.  Every “suggestion” she made was accompanied by her telling us that whatever we were ordering would need to be accompanied by other things.  I get that it’s somewhat kind of a small portions tapas type place, but she presented everything like none of the choices could be consumed on their own.  It was upselling I guess, but it was more like “well, if you get that then you’ll need this to go with it” type of upselling.  I don’t even really know how to describe it, but it was weird.  And she was VERY put out by having to explain the mostly meat, half tapas, half entree, one part logical, one part very illogical menu to our dumb asses (insert eye roll).

Giving in to the fact that she wasn’t going to be of much help, we decided to go with a few of the things they were “known for” which also just happened to be some of the most expensive stuff on the menu (more upselling).  And we decided to order things one at a time as we really had no clue how to order.  We eat out a ton and have never felt like that before.

Their signature thing is their charcuterie board or salumi board or whatever it’s called.  It was $40 and was literally just 3 slices each of 5 different types of deli meats.  They were good, but nothing special.  No cheese, no bread (had to order that separate), no olives or nuts, no spreads...just a few cold cuts that I’m pretty sure I can get at the deli at Whole Foods.  I’ve had MUCH better charcuterie boards a lot of places for a lot less than $40.  It was kind of insulting, honestly.

Everything else we ordered fell into the “good not great” category.  Ended up chatting with the people at the table next to us and they very much felt the same so it wasn’t just us.

I guess the finish out was fine, but it was really casual with prices of a fancy place.  I love a great casual spot that isn’t too spendy and I love a fancy place and don’t mind spending a lot for a great meal.  This was neither so even that part felt off.

I guess I just don’t get it at all.  Thought we might have just caught them on an off night with a bad waitress, but seeing @DFWTexEx‘s post above, maybe not.  It was just a bunch of over priced meat.  I have no clue what all the fuss is about.

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  • 5 months later...
On 7/13/2019 at 10:37 AM, Landomatic said:

I guess I just don’t get it at all.  Thought we might have just caught them on an off night with a bad waitress, but seeing @DFWTexEx‘s post above, maybe not.  It was just a bunch of over priced meat.  I have no clue what all the fuss is about.

had the same experience. f that place

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