Abacus

Yikes, has it really been almost 2 months since my last post?  Sincere apologies, as the month of March was a bit crazy, and then, well...I guess I just got a bit lazy about catching up.  To make up for it, here's another restaurant review.

For my birthday last month, Troy took me to Abacus for dinner.  We've always heard fabulous things about it but had yet to go there, so I was very excited to try it. 

We got there early so that we could relax and have a drink at the bar.  Troy had the "Big Daddy" martini and I had the pear martini, which was fabulous.  Sweet and tart, but not too much so.  I think I could have easily drank 2-3 or them.  But I downed that first one a little too quickly and opted against another for fear of being too drunk to enjoy my food. 

After Troy made the reservation, I had perused their sample menu online and was pretty certain that I wanted to do the 9-course tasting menu.  A bunch of friends had raved to me about the lobster shooters there, which I really wanted to try, but ultimately, we decided against it because we knew it was just going to be too much food.

Normally, I feel too self-conscious to take pictures, and I also don't like having to disrupt our meal and conversation either.  But for some reason, I decided to bring my camera this time, just in case I felt like using it.  I used my 50mm lens, because it was the smallest and also because  I refuse to use flash in those situation.   I just quickly snapped one photo of each course before digging in.  So some of these may be dark, slightly out-of-focus, etc.  Sorry.

Troy and I both really liked the ambiance there: modern without being too trendy and weird, and not so loud you couldn't have a conversation.   Each table was individually lit so you could see your food (I hate eating in the dark), but the room wasn't so bright overall as to be overwhelming.  It had a nice sense of privacy, but then, we did sit in the corner, so not sure what it would have been like sitting elsewhere.

So as I mentioned above, we opted for the nine-course tasting menu.  Many were mini versions of menu items.

No amuse bouche, which I left me a little disappointed. :(

Artisan bread basket - rosemary olive foccacia, apricot wheat(?) bread, sourdough, mini biscuits, and what I think were cayenne flatbread crisps or crackers.  Clearly made in-house.  Or if it wasn't, I want to know where they bought it all because it was fabulous.  I'm not normally a fan of olives, but they were really delicious chopped up on top of the foccacia.  The only real miss for me were the mini-biscuits, which were a bit bland and seemed like they didn't really belong there.  Pretty sure the butter was homemade as well.

1st course: Tuna tataki in ginger-scallion ponzu sauce

 

Lightly seared tuna, totally rare inside, thinly sliced and arranged in a circle.  The sauce was beautiful - perfectly salty and tangy and just the right amount of ginger - and really complimented the flavor of the tuna.  One of our favorite dishes of the evening.

2nd course: Hawaiian walu fish in chili lemongrass sauce/broth with Kobe beef mini-dumpling, baby shitake mushrooms, sugar snap peas, & red peppers

Troy and I thought this was the best dish of the evening.  The fish was cooked absolutely perfectly, the veggies were a good complement, and the sauce was amazing - tangy & slightly spicy.  I thought the Kobe dumpling was a bit of an odd addition since the richness of the beef threw off the lightness of everything else.  Troy didn't have a problem with it.

3rd course: King salmon on pepper jack grits with jicama slaw, pepita pesto and cayenne tomato butter sauce

This was also excellent.  Again, the fish was cooked perfectly.  I thought the cheesy grits would be weird with the salmon, but the flavor wasn't so overwhelming and I liked the contrast of textures.  I also liked that the slaw had strips of tortilla chips in them, which gave ti a nice crunch. 

4th course - Sangria sorbet with a golden raspberry (forgive the extreme lack of focus)

I thought this was a bit of cheat, calling a palate cleanser the fourth course.   The flavor was nice, very much like sangria, although it was a little bit sweet for my taste, especially after being dusted with powdered sugar.  Also I hate to nitpick, but the texture was a lot rougher than what I'd expect from a sorbet.  I'm not sure if the runner who served this mis-spoke or not, but I'd say it was more like granita.

5th course: Seared foie gras over duck confit blintz with madagascar vanilla sauce

This was my other favorite dish of the night.  The foie gras had a gorgeous seared crust to it which really gave it a nice texture.  I was a bit wary about the vanilla sauce since I generally feel like vanilla belongs in dessert, but it actually went nicely with the richness of the foie.  There was another flavor in the sauce that I couldn't quite make out.  I thought it was pear, but it turned out to be granny smith apple!  The duck blintz was also very good, but I thought it didn't go as well with the sauce.

6th course: Venison with butter poached potatoes, pearl onions and duck(?) confit

On this dish, my memory has failed me a bit.  This had a lovely sauce on it, but I cannot for the life of me remember the description.  I want to say it taste like some kind of wine reduction, but I could swear that the server said something about cherries.  Also, I'm fairly certain that he also told us this had duck confit, however the version on the menu said rabbit.  We weren't entirely sure, even as we were eating it. 

Again, this was beautifully cooked.  I can't say there was anything wrong with this dish, but it didn't really knock my socks off and make me want to lick my plate.  The butter-poached potatoes were probably my favorite part.  Also, they were a little inconsistent in plating as I had WAY more confit on my plate than Troy.  I think he also had cherry tomatoes on his plate, and I did not.

7th course: Antelope with Gorgonzola fingerling potatoes, demi glace sauce

I loved the gaminess of the meat, and the contrast of the sauce to cut the richness, but the potatoes were weird.  I absolutely hated the gorgonzola - it was way too overpowering.  I also found it odd that each of my three potatoes was different.  I'm not sure what I was supposed to get out of that.

8th course - cheese course

Again, apologies for my failure to write down the names of all the cheeses.  Basically, the only one I really remember is the semi-soft pictured to the left was a Chimay.  On the right was an aged cheddar, and in the center, a blue cheese.  The cheeses were served with a small tumbler of wildflower honey, quince gelee, spiced nuts, artisan bread crisps, and thin slices of apple.

I really enjoyed this course.  All of the cheeses were quite different and delicious.  I also really liked the cubes of quince gelee.  I do wish there were a few more bread crisps though.

9th course - Dessert

 

Berry galette with goat cheese crema and lemon curd ice cream over mixed berry sauce

We were told this was a bit off the usual tasting menu; apparently these was made as testers for a dessert special but were too small, so they gave them to us instead of the nutella & kitkat concotion we were supposed to get.  I was very glad for it.

I loved the galette, especially with eaten in conjunction with the goat cheese crema underneath.  In fact, I wish there had been a little bit more of that.  The ice cream also very good but was already almost totally melted when it was served. :(

 

All-in-all, this was a very good meal that fell just short of being great.  I felt like every dish had one element that just didn't belong there, like the beef dumpling, or the Gorgonzola cheese.  Troy says I'm overcritical, but my big hangup is that everything should all taste good together.  So if you put a bunch of different items together on one plate, I should be able to put a little bit of each item on my fork, take one bite and not be like, heh? Is that too much to ask?  

I was a little bit surprised that with all the sushi on the menu, there wasn't any sushi as part of the tasting menu.  However, I will say that the seafood courses were far and away the strongest part of the menu.  

They do have happy hour specials, so I'd definitely like to go back sometime to hang out at the bar and nibble on appetizers. 

Craft Dallas

With my mom in town for a visit last week, the hubby and I decided to take advantage of free babysitting and celebrate our anniversary a little early.  We usually try to go someplace nice and this year we settled on Craft.

Craft Dallas is located inside the W hotel, right across from Victory Park.  I have to confess, Troy and I are rather woefully unhip, especially after being sequestered in the 'burbs with a kid for the past 3 years, so it was a little bit of a culture shock to go to the W, which is fairly trendy hipster-y.

I was pretty shocked to find that the place was almost completely dead.  Our reservation was for 7:30 and there were only maybe 4-5 other tables seated.  I have no idea if that's normal for a weeknight or not, but I figured there'd be a few more people out and about on a Thursday.  It was pretty weird, but not totally unpleasant.  Just...odd.  The ambience was otherwise just fine.  Inside, it was pretty dark, but not so dark you couldn't see your food. 

The entire menu is pretty much a la carte, and everything is served family-style, in the center of the table.  There is an option for a "Market Menu" which is $45/person and you get to choose from a 3-4 different options for a starter, main & side dish.  We briefly considered it, but ultimately opted not to do it because A. the whole table has to do it; B. there weren't all that many options, especially for starters; and C. it didn't seem like very much food.  We figured that if we went to the trouble to get all dressed up for a night without the kid, we may as well do it up in style and really EAT!

Here is what we ended up having.  (Sorry, no pics again.  It was way too dark for my camera phone and I hate ruining the ambience at a nice restaurant with flashbulbs.)

Bread: 

While we were still mulling our options, they brought out a bread course, which consisted of thick slices of a dark, rye-ish bread, an Italian-style bread with sesame seeds, and salted butter.  Both breads were very good, but were not baked in-house.

Amuse bouche:

Butternut squash & foie gras soup, served in small white ceramic cup, almost like a shot glass. Soup was garnished with couple drops of balsamic and toasted pine nuts.  Even though you couldn't really taste the foie gras, it had a very rich taste to it, almost like a bisque.  Texture was perfectly smooth and creamy.

Starters:

Half dozen oysters, half one kind (buttery), half another (briny) - sorry, I've forgotten the names.  Served with tiny lemon wedges and mignonette sauce.  We ordered these on a whim since I had just been saying how long it's been since I've eaten oysters.  They are sold individually, which is why we decided to mix it up a bit.  I loved the buttery oysters, Troy loved the briny ones, so it worked out perfectly.  I preferred the lemon over the mignonette.

Seared foie gras & pineapple.  Troy had never had foie gras before, so we decided to try this one out.  We chose this version over the torchon because we thought he might prefer the texture of seared.  It was served with a pineapple puree and small chunks of pineapple.  I liked the contrast of the tangy pineapple and the creamy/rich foie gras.

Baby spinach & applewood bacon salad.  It also had pickled red onions and some kind of creamy/sweet vinaigrette.  I know this sounds ridiculously simple, but it was SO delicious!  One of our favorite dishes of the evening.

Main courses:

28 day dry-aged NY strip (21 oz, bone-in).  Served with some kind of red wine demi/reduction sauce, giant rosemary sprig on top; served sliced.  This was excellent.  Absolutely perfectly cooked - beautiful sear on the outside, medium-rare throughout the entire center.  In fact, the inside was so perfectly even that Troy and debated whether it had been cooked sous-vide first.  Sauce was a tiny bit over-reduced, but otherwise a perfect complement to the meat.

Diver scallops, seared and served with some kind of brown butter sauce.  Again, these were absolutely perfectly cooked.  They melted like butter in your mouth.  And I wanted to take a bath in the sauce. 

Sides:

Sauteed baby broccoli.  This was good, but not my favorite of the evening.  It was more like broccolini than broccoli, which is technically different.  It had a small squeeze of lemon over it that was nice.  And again, it was perfectly cooked.  Nothing worse than overcooked broccoli.

Gnocchi, served in creamy butter sauce.  This was absolutely TO DIE FOR.  I absolutely love gnocchi and this might have been the best I've ever had.  Perfectly soft and tender and melt-in-your-mouth perfect.  Sauce was creamy and rich with a tiny bit of cheese sprinkled in there.  Troy and I both agreed that we would easily drive down there just to eat plates of gnocchi. I think this was our top dish of the night.

Dessert:

We were pleasantly surprised to get a little dessert amuse of pear slices with lavender caramel.  I'm not normally a fan of lavender in my food (it usually feels like I'm eating potpourri), but it was subtle enough to still be enjoyable.

Sticky toffee pudding, with caramelized pecans and clotted cream.   We had a hard time deciding on dessert, but this turned out to be the perfect choice.  It was served in a cup, almost like a parfait.  Rich and gooey, with a nice bit of crunch from the pecans, and the clotted cream (mostly on the bottom) cut the sweetness nicely.

Maitre'd course: This consisted of six tiny little mini-cookies - two each of salty peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, and double chocolate.  The chocolate was almost brownie-like in texture, very rich.  And the peanut butter was very interesting in that it had almost no sugar in it.  I normally like salty-sweet combos (salted caramel is a fave), but this was only salty, which was a bit odd.  I think I would have liked it better if I hadn't eaten it first - it would have been a nice contrast to the chocolate cookie.  Oatmeal cookie was good too, with a nice brown sugar crunch to it.

Last, but not least they gave us a little take-home treat in clear cellphane bags.  I'm fairly certain our server told us it was an espresso muffin, but when I ate it the next morning it was actually a banana chocolate chip muffin.  It was good, but I'm not sure where that there was any espresso in it at all.

All-in-all, this was a very very good meal.  Nothing crazily inventive like our L2O meal, but simple, straightforward cooking, done at a high level.  Amazing how something that seems so simple as proper cooking can make such a difference.

Service was very attentive.  I don't know if this is the norm or just because it was a slow night but I think we had no less than 3 different servers or bus boys coming by to check on us, but it was never intrusive or annoying.  My one minor complaint was that they served our entrees while Troy was away from the table.  I know it's probably not a big deal to some people, and if we were at some random Tex-Mex joint, I wouldn't care.  But in my opinion, this is a faux pas at a high-end restaurant.  Luckily, he came back very shortly thereafter, while the food was still hot.

I've heard some people complain about leaving Craft still hungry.  Troy and I were a little baffled by this because we left absolutely stuffed.  But I will confess that some of the entree portions can be a bit small.  Those diver scallops?  There were only 4 of them.  If we hadn't also ordered the steak, those 4 scallops definitely would not have cut it as an entree for one person.  So you may want to put a little thought into how you mix and match your entrees.

However, it's an a la carte menu, so if you're a big eater, you'll need to order more food.  Yes, it's pricey, but if you're already dropping a pretty penny on the meal, it seems silly to cheap out on spending another $10-$20 for an additional starter or a side.  

This meal probably ranked as one of our top 10, mostly based on the fact that everything was cooked so perfectly.  I love the philosophy of not getting overly fussy with your food and letting the ingredients shine on their own.  Based on our usual dining budget, Craft is going to be best reserved for special occasions, but I think it's safe to say that we'll definitely going back.  I do have a birthday coming up soon, hmmm....