6 Top Picks For KRLD Restaurant Week
More than 125 restaurants in the Dallas/Fort Worth will offer very special menus during Restaurant Week, August 15-21. Each will put together a fixed-price, three-course dinner for $35 per person, not including tax and tip. The drive is sponsored by KRLD and Central Market, among many supporters, and it benefits the North Texas Food Bank and the Lena Pope Home. There are lots of extras, too: Several of the restaurants will extend the menu and fundraising for a week or two; and most will offer an optional fourth course that is available for purchase or often for free when you present a special certificate that you've obtained at Central Market. The certificate is available when you make a purchase of $25 or more at any Central Market store.
All the menus are exceptional, because you really couldn't eat this way at these places for this price at any other time. But I'm picking six places that are very high on my list this Restaurant Week season. You should consider these, too:
131 East Stacy Road
Fairview, TX
972-363-2200
2901 Crockett Street
Fort Worth, TX
817-870-1100
Bailey's Prime Plus has locations in Dallas, Fairview and Fort Worth, each as fancy yet friendly as the next. While this is definitely an elegant place to dine, don't just think of it as a special-occasion place. Nobody says you can't have a great steak on Wednesday, after all. I've seen people there in golf shirts and other casual dress plenty of times, and it's just fine. From the RW menu, I've got a hankering for the lobster bisque, the black angus steak with cream cheese-infused potatoes and the pineapple upside down cake.
Dragonfly is the chic restaurant inside the super-chic Hotel ZaZa in Dallas' Uptown neighborhood. The new chef there is Dan Landsberg, who does a lovely job using locally procured ingredients. I'm having trouble deciding between RW items, such as Summer Gazpacho and Lemley Tomato Caprese salad in the first course; Grilled Cherry Cola Quail and Bay of Fundy Salmon in the second course; but I know I'm going for the crazy dessert called Who Put Their Peanut Butter in My Chocolate.
Eddie V's puts more intriguing fish on a menu than anyplace around, as everyone knows. But you don't have to love seafood to appreciate this stylish restaurant, which sets itself apart also with Allen Bros. steaks and live music nightly. The fourth course at Eddie Vs, an extra $12, is the Seared Georges Bank Sea Scallop with truffled chive whipped potatoes in a pinot noir reduction. I'm a big fan. You can also get a wine pairing option that brings your three-course dinner to $50 or four courses for $67. It's a good deal.
Lanny's Alta Cocina Mexicana offers its RW menu August 16-27, so you might as well go twice to get everything Lanny's offering. I'm wild about his Acapulco-style ceviche with roasted tomato vinaigrette, the hoja santa-wrapped halibut with baby spinach, chorizo and white beans, and his assorted desserts, including the chocolate cheesecake made with goat cheese.
At the Wild Mushroom in Weatherford, Jerrett Joslin ramps up the offerings with a wine-pairing option that costs only an extra $20. He's putting Parker County peaches into a Caesar salad, but you have to decide if that's worth skipping the cucumber salad with tomatillos topped with pan-seared Maine diver sea scallop. Entrée choices include a rib eye with Serrano and red chiles; miso-ginger sea bass; and Moroccan chicken. Look for the menu to preview August 12-14 and extend through August 28.
Weatherford is blessed with yet another restaurant participating in RW. Fire Oak Grill will serve a special menu starting with potato leek soup with asiago cheese and smoked bacon or spinach salad with strawberries, candied pecans and blue cheese; continuing with bone-in pork chop or pan-seared butterfish; and a finish of either passion fruit panna cotta or smoked-almond cheesecake. Find this place in a historic building on the charming Parker County Courthouse Square.
