On the main square of historic downtown McKinney is a little unexpected hidden gem, a narrow, intimate space that brings a breath of urban air to the otherwise sleepy suburb. That treasure is Café Malaga with its simple warm orange walls, dim lighting, cozy European café feel, and the best wine list in McKinney.

Café Malaga’s menu is comprised mostly of tapas in single or double servings. Despite its suburban location, there is little on the menu that screams “safe” or “toned down.” Simple items fare the best: roasted red pepper and onion mojete is a juicy dish of mild sweetness grounded by fresh basil served with baguette slices to mop up the sauce,

portabello mushrooms are sautéed in a sherry cream sauce to create an addictive savory sweet sensation (ask for some baguette slices to soak up this sauce, too!),

bacon wrapped dates play on the classic salty-sweet combination with the crispy bacon adding textural depth to the pulpous dates, and fresh Texas goat cheese stuffed, thin-skinned piquillo peppers get extra zing from lime zest and seem to be the highlight of any Café Malaga visit.

More elaborate dishes are still good, but not as memorable. The subtle differences between the cheeses are lost in the messy, gooey five-cheese spinach and artichoke fondue. Served with deep fried pita triangles reminiscent of county fair funnel cake, this fondue dish is simply rich upon rich without a break.

Wood grilled hanger steak and the oven fried potatoes that accompany it seem perpetually overcooked, steak is slightly tough and potato skins have an unpleasant burnt smokiness to them. However, the strong paprika-blue cheese vinaigrette poured over the bite-sized steak pieces and potatoes help cover some of the dish’s shortcomings.

Service is sufficient but indifferent, a bit lacking for a true romantic ambiance but feels authentically European at the same time. So if you are craving a night away from the kids and Hamburger Helper, then call the babysitter and book a grownup evening at Café Malaga. Hint: there is live music every second Saturday of the month.

Rating: 4 / 5

Cafe Malaga
111 W. Virginia St.
McKinney, TX 75069

When River Spice first opened its doors in 2003, it breathed fresh air into the too-Americanized Thai food scene in Dallas. The interior space of the restaurant was elegant in a time when the phrases “upscale” and “ethnic” simply did not mix. Local food media were wowed by River Spice’s creative plating and unabashedly authentic dishes like whole fried fish.

Fast forward some five years and River Spice is not faring as well. The Dallas Thai food craze has come and gone, leaving River Spice with half a dozen other stylishly decorated, artistically plated Thai restaurants within a few miles of its bland strip mall location. Moreover, the city’s “it” food vocabulary has moved on from pad thai to everything unagi, wasabi, and edamame.

To cope with the increased competition and calmed customer interest, River Spice is adapting. Thick, black marker lines streak across the menus, hiding the evidence of River Spice’s glory days. A few specialty dishes, along with complimentary Wi-Fi, are no longer available. Long time favorites like drunken noodles and pla yang, whole grilled red snapper wrapped in banana leaves, are still offered. The change does bring one piece of good news to diners: a wine lover’s favorite phrase, “BYOB,” is hand scribbled on the menu’s front page.

These days, River Spice sees more coworkers munching down on value combo plates during the workday lunch hour than friends lingering over conversations at dinner. The discount lunch combo plate with complimentary salad/soup and egg roll is a tactic that most Thai restaurants in the area have adopted for survival. Speedily grinding out plate after plate of pad thai during the lunch rush, one of River Spice’s former star plates is now a pile of saucy orange mess that is almost as sugar-laden as the Pei Wei version. Glass noodle chicken soup, the usual complimentary starter to the lunch combo plates, presents a few lonely noodles floating in a broth that tastes eerily similar to ramen base. Cheaper cuts of meat are used to accommodate plateauing menu prices and rising ingredient costs. The portions remain large, but the slices of over-tenderized, chewy, mushy beef simply don’t belong. Am I eating at a jewel of a Thai restaurant or a low cost Chinese buffet? It’s starting to feel more like the latter.

Rating: 2 / 5

River Spice
18111 Dallas Pkwy
Dallas, TX 75287

Just when I was ready to settle on mediocrity for Restaurant Week, a dinner at Bijoux raised the bar again.

A simple, sweet, and savory bite of watermelon and goat cheese amuse bouche set the tone for the lovely evening.

First course options were white corn and coconut soup, salad of mixed greens, crispy pork belly, or melon carpaccio. 

My choice for first course was the beautifully colored melon carpaccio plate topped with tender lump crab meat and microgreens in a tangy dressing.  A nicely balanced plate of subtle, light flavors.

Next to me, my pig-loving dining companion indulged in the seared pork belly with Asian aus jus and carrots and baby bok choy.  I had a good sized sample of the pork belly and I have to say I prefer the seared cooking method on thinner slices of pork belly, when the crispiness of the seared fat is the dominant texture.  Substantial chunks of pork belly like these do better when braised.  Only the outermost layer of the fat layer was crunchy (the interior fat being mushy and well, too fatty) and the bottom “lean” layer suffered from being dry and chewey (like the texture of overfried chicharrones).  Still, it’s hard to argue with the appeal of fatty pork, and the slightly bitter bok choy did a nice job of cutting down on the richness of the pork belly.

One diner across the table chose the corn and coconut soup to start. 

“Tastes just like corn chowder,” she declared. 

“Any hint of coconut?” I inquired.

“Just a little.”

I didn’t taste this dish, so I’ll leave it to your judgement whether more or less coconut is desirable in a creamy corn soup.

The Central Market complimentary course was next.

Smoked prawn atop heirloom tomato slices with a tangy chorizo vinaigrette.  This plate represented the most interesting flavor profile of all the dishes I sampled that evening.  I often think of add touches of citrus and tanginess to seafood, but not to chorizo.  But the smokey and savory yet tangy dressing played an integral role in bringing out the “smoke” factor in the prawns.  The delicate flavor of the heirloom tomatoes was hard to detect when placed against a bold vinaigrette like this one, but the texture was lovely when paired with the prawns.

Entree choices were truffled risotto, Scottish salmon, or New York strip steak.  I guess we were all feeling like carnivores this evening, no one tried the risotto.

I am not the type who usually orders steak when I eat out.  But a bottle of Chateau D’Arcins Bordeaux on the table and description of Tellicherry sauce by the waiter sold me on this plate.  Steak was ordered to medium-rare doneness but presented itself leaning more towards medium doneness.  But obviously the kitchen knew me better than myself on this one, the fatty trim needed those extra seconds of searing to achieve that crispy fatty exterior that I love so much (and was wishing for on the pork belly).  Steak had beautiful texture and mouthfeel, a little zing from the Tellicherry sauce helped me practically lick my plate clean.  The whipped mashed potatoes were airy and clump-free (what else can you say about mashed taters?)  A nice surprise was the chunks of daikon radish in the vegetable mix that looked very similar to the pearl onions also in the mix.  Nothing like a hint of bitterness to ground a rich dish of steak and potatoes.

Two diners at the table tried the salmon atop polenta, asparagus, and mushrooms.  Incidentally, one of the diners who ordered this salmon joined us for dinner earlier this year at Jasper’s where she had almost an identical plate.  I have to give the version at Jasper’s the slight advantage on this one.  The Bijoux version on this evening was a tad on the dry side, and may be a little too salty for some people’s tastes.

A spoonful of tart and refreshing Granny Smith Apple sorbet served as a palate cleanser.  Not tart enough to shock your tastebuds, just a little acid to prepare you for the next course.

The fourth course choices were the Maytag bleu cheese plate, almona panna cotta, or Valrhona chocolate mousse.

It’s hard for me to pass up anything with Valrhona in the ingredient list but my entree was so rich that I didn’t think I could handle such a bold dessert.  Light in both texture and flavor, almond panna cotta with a peach topping, berry sauce, and toasted almond ice cream served as the perfect ending to my almost perfect Restaurant Week meal at Bijoux. 

And lucky for me, my kind dinner companions let me sample the dense, ultra rich Valrhona chocolate mousse.  Passionfruit sauce added brightness to the opulently silky dessert.

I love it when my chocolate is more black than brown. 

My pork-loving better half somehow managed to sneak in another form of bacon into his meal when he chose the Maytag blue cheese with pancetta crisp, celery confit, and carrot mousse for his last course.

Not missing a step, the meal ended with a lovely mignardise plate of mini tiramisu sandwich, blueberry muffin, truffle, something gelee and another item I can’t quite recall. 

In contrast to our meal at Abacus this year (not last year, when it was also great), where the dessert sampler were just slightly larger portions of this mignardise plate, Restaurant Week at Bijoux was near perfection.  Service was impeccable.  The waiter took the time to go over the complete menu (and I don’t mean just read the words on the menu out loud, I mean actually explaining the words written on the menu).  Bread service came around at least four times during the meal with choice of olive, rosemary, or raisin bread.  The servers may have been overworked but didn’t show any sign of irritation or stress.  Other than the restaurant being louder than usual due to the large number of patrons, nothing about this meal needed the “oh it’s Restaurant Week” excuse. 

All six of us were first time visitors to Bijoux on this evening.  With the regular prixe fixe three course meal priced at $57 (just a tad more of a reach than the Restaurant Week price), all of us were impressed enough to want to come back to Bijoux for a special occasion meal during non Restaurant Week.  No matter if attracting new customers is truly the goal of Bijoux’s participation in Restaurant Week, they’ve just served six diners who will be talking about this impressive meal for a good while.

Bijoux
5450 W Lovers Ln #225 (in the back of the same shopping center as Inwood Theater)
Dallas, TX 75209

I typically use Restaurant Week as an inexpensive way to check out a fine dining establishment I haven’t had a chance to try, a way to test the waters with just a little toe dip instead of a full-body dive.  However, even though I tried Abacus for the first time at Restaurant Week last year, a return visit was in order after the Iron Chef Battle Elk episode and the restaurant’s complete interior remodel following Chef Rathbun’s Iron Chef victory (bye bye 1980’s southwestern booth seating). 

The fabric covering on the seats may have traded in passe busy patterns for neutral and airy, but the Restaurant Week menu still presented many of the same selections from the previous year.  This year’s menu included more choices for the first and second courses, but the dessert course was a no-choice sampler.  Similar to previous years (and a tradition that will likely continue), Abacus places an hour and half time limit on Restaurant Week reservations in order to maximize the number of patrons served during this charitable time.  That’s no problem with me, I’m not coming to Restaurant Week for a nice dinner complete with thoughtful conversation.  My dining companion is one whose sentence I can finish before he even starts, as much as he seems to dislike that little habit.  Wine pairings for the three course meal are available for $30/person, but recalling how buzzed I was after downing three glasses of wine in the course of a little over an hour last year, I dared not to take on that challenge again.  I opted for a peartini (not too sweet and not too tart) and my companion had the taste highlight of the evening, el diablo, a tequila drink mixed with lime juice and ginger.  The beverage starts out smooth but tingles at the back of your tongue with a concentrated punch of ginger.

Did I give too much away by calling a specialty cocktail the highlight of the evening?  Well, the rest of the evening wasn’t terrible, but the theme for the night seemed to be “sloppy.”

We started the evening with the Central Market bonus course.  You guessed it, lobster shooters.  Like last year, I found the boldly flavorful broth to be overwhelming for the fried lobster balls.  I would much prefer something more delicate that doesn’t hide the taste of the lobster.  Additionally, on this evening, the broth was just lukewarm and the chewy fried lobster balls tasted like they sat out a little too long before being served.  The details didn’t come together for this dish on this evening, but I still like the concept (and longed for the version I had last year).

Onto the appetizers:

My starter was the seared diver scallop with Meyer lemon risotto and white asparagus in shellfish butter sauce.  For the sake that it was Restaurant Week, I won’t dwell on the fact that this was one of the smallest scallops I’ve seen in a fine dining restaurant in… well, ever.  Portion size issues aside, the scallop was almost burnt to a crisp on top.  Once you start working that addictively rich shellfish butter sauce with the food, though, you could almost forget the unfortunate texture of the scallop.  Risotto was perfectly creamy with the occasional crunch of the white asparagus.  Again, love the concept of the dish, but execution was sloppy this evening.

Across the table, buffalo-shiitake potstickers.  This was probably the only savory dish whose concept didn’t make sense to me.  The description sounded creative and appealing on the menu, but when the potstickers came out, the delicate skins on half of the potstickers were broken (on the bottom).  Additionally, the skin was limp and slimy, and thus had a greasy-like mouthfeel.  A generous streak of too-sweet plum sauce topped the potstickers and overwhelmed the flavor of the filling.  When you scrape off the plum sauce topping, the flavor of the buffalo and shiitake combination comes through as smokey but balanced.  Loving the flavor concept of the filling but not the way the dish was carried out, I asked myself what I would do differently.  First, I would attempt a more substantial skin on the potstickers, more like the chewy dry fry (versus steam first, then fry) skin of sheng jian bao (by the way, post about Yang’s Fry Dumplings in Shanghai coming in future China trip posts, I promise!!!).  Then, I would go for a hoisin-based sauce rather than plum-based sauce, served on the side rather than slathered on top, giving the diner the option of using more or less sauce, and saving the potsticker skin from growing limp under the moisture of the sauce.  I think that style of potsticker/dumpling would make more sense in the tradition of Asian cooking, but perhaps the fusion cuisine loving masses aren’t ready to veer from generic, sugar-heavy pan-Asian style?

Intermezzo was a tall shot of watermelon slushy, similar to the raspberry limeade spritzer idea from last year.

Entrees fared better.

Pan seared cod with parsnip puree and artichoke in a tomato butter sauce, and no, I didn’t take a bite out of the fish before taking the picture.  The barely-holding-it-together cod fillet is yet another example of kitchen sloppiness.  Nonetheless, the flavor combinations in this dish were just amazing: crispy, moist, flakey fish on top of thick parsnip puree with crunchy artichoke chunks, all topped with an unforgettable tomato butter sauce.  It’s not complicated food, just great tasting food.

Braise beef short rib was a small, but deliciously tender and moist, serving.  Port wine sauce that topped the short rib and mushrooms was a little light on port flavor but unified the dish nicely.  The awkward half under-cooked, half over-cooked layered potato au gratin square was the only misstep in the dish.  It was just hard to eat and the Parmesan flavor was too subtle to detect.

The dessert sampler presented to every Restaurant Week diner was the least impressive course of the evening.

I realize doing a sampler like this, where each item can be prepared ahead of time, is time and labor efficient for Restaurant Week.  But these pastries are more suited for a country club banquet than a fine dining restaurant.  From left to right: pecan blondie, cheesecake with raspberry sauce, Vahlrona cream sandwich, mini red velvet cupcake, and Scharffenberger Kit-Kat.  It’s not that anything was particularly bad, just nothing really stood out.  The richly nutty pecan blondie was probably the best of the bunch with the Kit-Kat being the most disappointing, it just tasted like dense, too-dry chocolate cake.  I would’ve much preferred a quality single dessert rather than five mediocre pastries.

I did notice Chef Rathbun making the rounds in the dining room as we were leaving, a nice touch.

Overall thoughts?  I can attribute the sloppy kitchen errors and the bare-bones service to Restaurant Week exhaustion and overload, but choice of certain ingredients (smaller scallops) and no-choice, unimpressive dessert sampler (which probably oohs and ahhs the inexperienced diner with “variety”) seem to indicate that Abacus is tailoring its Restaurant Week menu to patrons that they don’t anticipate will return during regular times.  It may be a smart tactic, since the non-returning patron seems to be in the majority during Restaurant Week anyway.  As Abacus’ Restaurant Week menu grows more and more a faint shadow of the restaurant’s actual capabilities, I think I will no longer be visiting during these hectic times.  I know I love the ideas and flavor combinations in these dishes as all impressed except the potstickers.  Thus, in a round-about and almost unintentional way, Restaurant Week at Abacus has made me want to return during non-Restaurant Week.  

Link to last year’s Restaurant Week visit to Abacus: http://donnacooks.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/restaurant-week-at-abacus/

Imagine the convenience of a Chipotle-style, build-your-own counter service model combined with semi-exotic flavors like Bangkok curry and Chiang Mai chili all based on a the Korean classic bibimbap, and B. B. Bop Rice Bowls is born.

Traditional Korean bibimbap involves layering sautéed or steamed vegetables, lean grilled meat, and an egg on top of a hot stone bowl filled with steamed rice. The popular dish is highly nutritious since it contains all the necessary components of a complete, nourishing meal. B. B. Bop uses the basic of idea of bibimbap and works the concept around the “build your own” frenzy of consumer America. Add to the formula the turnaround time of a fast food restaurant, and B. B. Bop is a win-win choice for a healthy, nutritious, fast lunch.

To build a rice bowl at B. B. Bop, choose your rice (jasmine, brown, or house, jasmine rice with a hint of ginger and sesame oil), protein (grilled beef, chicken, tofu, or two additional vegetables), and four lightly steamed vegetables (cabbage, corn, peas, spinach, zucchini, mushrooms, lettuce, carrots, broccoli, chickpeas, bell peppers, and bean sprouts). The fresh goodies are layered in a recyclable, microwave and dishwasher-safe, plastic bowl for you to add one or more of seven sauces, ranging from traditional Asian (soy and teriyaki) to something not normally associated with bibimbap (tomatillo cucumber salsa and coconut curry sauce). Close the lid, and shake until your sauce of choice spreads its tastiness throughout the chosen ingredients. Voila! A healthy, fast lunch! For those watching the carb-intake, B. B. Bop also offers a rice-free version of the bowl.

In addition to the “build your own” rice bowls, B. B. Bop also offers Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches for under $4. The banh mi’s are toned down for American taste (no pate or head cheese involved), but the essence of the Vietnamese classic stays intact through the mild sweetness of the crunchy, pickled carrots, familiar fragrance of the fresh cilantro, and pungent kick of the jalapeno slices. Add B. B. Bop’s well seasoned grilled meat (beef or chicken) and freshly baked baguette into the mix, and it’s a sandwich you’ll be coming back for.

Entrees: $4-$7

Rating: 4 / 5

B. B. Bop Rice Bowls
2460 Lacy Lane
Carrollton, TX 75006

This review is to appear in edited form in the upcoming book, the Fearless Critic Dallas Restaurant Guide. The book will be released in 2009 at bookstores and on Amazon.com. For more information about the book, please contact Fearless Critic Media.

Excluding the Denny’s and IHOPs of the world, how many dining establishments are open after 2:00am? How many of them actually serve decent food?

Welcome to Exposition Park Café, where the only thing crazier than its “so late that it’s early again” hours is the Wednesday night karaoke. The café, housed in a casual corner spot directly across Parry Avenue from Fair Park, serves up a mishmash menu of pub food (nachos and shepherd’s pie), southern food (fried chicken and grits), soul food (oxtail and mac ‘n cheese), Mediterranean food (roasted pepper hummus), and ladies-who-lunch food (petite quiche lorraine) to mention a few. With its insane late hours and eccentric diverse menu, convention would expect a kitchen full of mediocre offerings. Thankfully, such is not the case at Exposition Park Café.

Refreshing pineapple salsa is initially deceptively sweet, then works its way into a slow burn on the back of the tongue.

White chicken pizza is topped with fragrant fresh basil and juicy tomatoes. Desserts range from the familiar brownie with homemade ice cream to the slightly more haute pumpkin bread pudding, both made with care reminiscent of grandma’s Thanksgiving spread.

Sunday’s soul food brunch buffet introduces yet another angle of Exposition Park Café’s culinary range. The brunch spread includes perennial staples like bacon, eggs, and waffles, then adds the soul food spin with moist fluffy cornbread, oozy macaroni and cheese, addictively flavorful stewed okra with tomatoes, thick and cheesy grits, and slightly dry chicken wings.

(Soul food brunch buffet selections: bacon, corn bread, waffles, cabbage, macaroni and cheese, grits, pork stew with green chiles, and okra with tomatoes)

If you prefer to pass on the temptation to overeat at the buffet, opt for menu offerings like chicken and waffles, strawberry pancakes (with the strawberries in the batter as it should be, not simply as a topping), and the truly original hangover cure known as the kielbasanova, a strange yet tasty plate of Polish sausage scrambled with cheesy eggs served with oven fried potatoes and tortillas.
So whether it’s a late night bite or a breezy brunch you’re craving, Exposition Park Café’s got you covered. With a location so convenient to The Music Hall at Fair Park, it’s not a bad choice for a pre-show dinner either.

Entrees: $8-$14

Rating: 4 / 5

Exposition Park Cafe
841 Exposition Ave
Dallas, TX 75226

The décor at Little Sichuan Cuisine is as bland as it gets. Beige tile, neutral walls, and fluorescent lighting. The food, however, is anything but boring.

If you come to Little Sichuan for an order of your neighborhood Eggrolls R Us or Wok ‘N Roll’s General Tsao’s chicken, you’re in for a surprise. This no frills, clean and simple, establishment fits better as a neighborhood eatery in suburban Chengdu than suburban Dallas. It’s a spicy food lover’s heaven with authentic regional dishes liberally covered in Sichuan peppercorns and chilies. At Little Sichuan, like at so many successful mom and pop restaurants all over China, the focus is on food. Forget the décor, your taste buds will be so busy processing the bold flavors of the hot-out-of-the-wok dishes that you won’t care if the walls are ecru, khaki, or nonexistent.

For those new to Sichuan cuisine, a good place to start is the mapo tofu dish that embraces many of the typical traits of Sichuan food.

A dish of silken tofu and minced beef stewed in a fiery red, oily sauce, mapo tofu evinces two key characteristics of any Sichuan dish, “ma,” or numbing, and “la,” or spicy. The numbing characteristic comes from use of the Sichuan peppercorn, banned from importation into the US until 2005. These little numbing peppercorns amplify the burning sensation caused by the chilies, driving the diner into a state of fiery euphoria (or pain, depending on your tolerance). Frightened? Don’t worry, at Little Sichuan, dishes can be specified to be milder or spicier pending your preference.

Other solid Sichuan specialties at Little Sichuan include the water boiled sliced beef (don’t be fooled by the name, the final step in the dish’s preparation involves pouring boiling chili oil over the beef), twice cooked pork (a dish with a unique boil first, then shallow fry preparation process whose end product can be best described as spicy Chinese bacon),

dry sautéed beef (stir fried with chilies for an extended period of time to achieve a crispy on the outside, chewey on the inside, distinctive texture),

and dan dan noodles (soft noodles covered in a sauce of Sichuan preserved vegetables, ground pork, and of course, chilies and peppercorns).

For some relief from all the heat, Little Sichuan also serves up great non-spicy dishes like bright emerald green garlic water spinach

and beautifully glazed sweet and sour eggplant.

Hungry yet?

Entrees: $7-$12

Rating: 5 / 5

Little Sichuan Cuisine
240 Legacy Dr.
Plano, TX 75023

This review is to appear in edited form in the upcoming book, the Fearless Critic Dallas Restaurant Guide. The book will be released in 2009 at bookstores and on Amazon.com. For more information about the book, please contact Fearless Critic Media.

I go to this place so much, I really do owe it a complete review…

It’s easy to fall in love with the casual neighborhood ambiance at Kelly’s Eastside in downtown Plano, even if you don’t live in the neighborhood. At the front door, cheerful wait staff greet you with a welcoming smile. Out on the small patio, groups of coworkers enjoy after work drinks while clapping along with the live music act. Inside the main dining room, sports fans with intent eyes on one of the many TV screens sip on frosted mugs of brew while families with children of all ages chat lively over their homestyle dinners. The main dining room only seats about 30, so the atmosphere is always somewhere between relaxed and festive, never too loud or too rowdy. And even though Kelly’s Eastside is housed in a cozy intimate space, no one ever feels like an outsider, everyone belongs.
This quintessential neighborhood bar and grill serves up some solid renditions of classic Texan food. Hand breaded chicken fried steak has crunchy golden batter holding loosely onto well seasoned cube steak which is tender but maintains a structured feel. For a new spin on standard chicken fried steak (perhaps with an even more Texan feel), substitute the mildly spicy queso in place of cream gravy for an extra $2.

For a place that’s not solely dedicated to the art of barbecue, Kelly’s does smoked meats justice, starting them early on the smoker out back and finishing them on a wood-burning grill. Tender sliced brisket and moist but not too fatty pulled pork sandwiches come with Kelly’s homemade sweet and tangy barbecue sauce.

Juicy half pound patties come on all versions of burgers, from the Plan-o with nothing added, to the Hickory Jalapeno with barbecue sauce and bacon, to the Chili Cheese with Kelly’s homemade jailhouse chili, to the Southwestern with poblano peppers, guacamole, and pico de gallo. In short, Kelly’s Eastside has your Texan diet covered in every form.

As if you needed one more reason to visit Kelly’s Eastside, the weekday happy hour features discount beers and margaritas and a complimentary appetizer buffet of chips and salsa, quesadillas, and chicken wings.

Entrees: $8-$17

Rating: 4 / 5

Kelly’s Eastside
1422 Avenue K
Plano, TX 75074

This review is to appear in edited form in the upcoming book, the Fearless Critic Dallas Restaurant Guide. The book will be released in 2009 at bookstores and on Amazon.com. For more information about the book, please contact Fearless Critic Media.

In your typical foodie world, adventurous eating is the equivalent of building your foodie resume.  For carnivorous American foodies, this often means exploring tasty animals/animal parts that are exotic and, well, not white meat chicken.  Growing your dining “experience” means embracing an “I’ll try anything once” attitude and watching your dining companions cringe as you consume something right out of the pages of Fergus Henderson’s The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating or an episode of Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods (guilty confession: I am personally not a huge fan of offal or Andrew Zimmern).  But as mainland USA foodies continue to embrace sweetbreads and thousand year eggs, one protein that remains unloved is the infamous, “eat only in case of natural disasters and extreme food shortages,” mystery meat Spam.  The canned, processed wonder is the butt of countless foodie jokes.  Residents of Austin, Texas have gone as far as hosting an annual April Fool’s spoof festival with a Spam cookoff challenge, “who can make Spam edible!?!?”  In fact, I’m pretty sure simultaneously having Velveeta and Spam present in your pantry permanently disqualifies you as a foodie in mainland USA (I am almost 100% sure that my pantry has never had both of these items present at the same time… uh huh).

As mainland foodies eat Velveeta mac and fried Spam and egg sandwiches in the privacy of their own homes in fear of judgement, residents of Hawaii continue their public love affair with Spam that started during World War II.  Spam is so popular in Hawaii that it’s served at McDonald’s, and since 2007, also at Burger King.  In 1999, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue (open in Hawaii since 1976) brought the love of Spam in forms of musubi, saimin, grilled and topped with egg, along with other Hawaiian BBQ specialties to the mainland via California.  In mid-March this year, Texas gained its very first L&L location in Lewisville.

L&L offers counter service with affordable plate lunch options, all under $10 and with choice of mains like BBQ (chicken, beef, and short rib), fried seafood (mahi mahi and shrimp), pork (lau lau and kalua), chicken katsu, and loco moco.  A la carte items like Spam musubi and shrimp tacos are also available.  In addition to the slew of Hawaiian specialties, this Texas location also features more familiar “Texan” items like pulled pork and BBQ chicken sandwiches, cole slaw, baked beans, mashed potatoes, etc.  In short, there’s something on the menu for everyone in the family.

On our first visit, we started off with the famous Spam musubi ($1.75):

A slice of grilled Spam smeared in a teriyaki-like sauce atop a chunk of white rice, all wrapped in nori.  The whole thing was too big to eat easily (a little too much rice?).  Grilled Spam has a completely different taste than uncooked, cold Spam and is actually tasty with the sweet-ish sauce.

BBQ Combo Plate ($7.95)

Like a typical plate lunch, the BBQ mix combo came with two scoops of steamed white rice and one scoop of passable macaroni salad.  It’s a heaping pile of grilled meats that could easily feed two.  Teriyaki grilled beef and chicken didn’t bring anything new to mainland tastebuds.  The only standout in this combo was the short ribs, thinly sliced so that upon grilling, the fatty trim gained a crunchy outer exterior that exploded with richness when bitten into. 

Pork Lau Lau and Kalua Pork ($8.25):

The kalua pork with cabbage was a little salty on its own, but mixed in nicely with the steamed white rice.  The dark ball of mystery in the upper left hand corner of the photo is pork lau lau, pork roast wrapped in taro leaf.  Pork lau lau opened:

The taro leaves added an element of exoticness for mainland tastebuds and gave the pork a subtle smokiness.  The texture was that of a southern BBQ pulled pork shoulder but more moist.  The wilted taro leaves tasted like cooked spinach but were much denser and mushier.  The taro leaves, when eaten by themselves, almost had the consistency of dense mashed potatoes.  This little bundle of mystery turned out to be my favorite item of the day.

A few weeks later, I returned for a quick bite in the form of two mahi mahi tacos ($2.75 each):

The mahi mahi was nicely seasoned with a perfect golden batter.  However, the cabbage slaw inside the taco was too dry and the tortillas tasted like they’ve been sitting out of the package for too long. 

With its fast counter service and slightly exotic cuisine, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue is a great addition to the suburban Lewisville dining scene.  With affordable prices and an expansive menu, the restaurant is perfect for families looking for a quick bite but don’t want to resort to fast food.  And if you’re ever craving hamburger patties topped with brown gravy and fried eggs or just a simple slab of grilled Spam, L&L might be the only place in the area that can satisfy that fix.  Spam-lovers, here’s your chance to show some public affection.

Rating: 3 / 5

L&L Hawaiian Barbecue
360 E Round Grove Rd
Lewisville, TX 75067

You’re hooting and hollering along with the live country music at Love & War in Texas, drinking a cold Shiner, chowing down on a Texas-sized chicken fried heart attack, and showing your Yankee visitors a good time.  They’re embracing that ”don’t mess with Texas” attitude and loving it.  You’re feeling like an accomplished host, but also feeling… a little guilty inside?  That’s because deep down somewhere, you know you’re not being honest. 

Let’s face it, that carefree cowboy culture is not the essence of Dallas.  The per capita Wrangler denim ownership rate in these parts is a lot lower than other regions of the state.  We have left those around us (namely a westerly neighbor) to embrace true western heritage while we’ve moved onto… what exactly?

About 20 footsteps north of the gimmicky but captivating fun at Love and War in Texas lies a potential answer.

Simon Chuang of Simon’s Sushi is the creator of this plate of mismash, Tex-fusion, pseudo-Japanese cuisine called the Better Than Sex roll, known simply as BTS when the kiddos are around (and they are often at this family friendly establishment).  Putting a label on the brand of cuisine to which this dish belongs is just as difficult as summing up Dallas culture in one succint catchphrase.  The tempura batter flakes and crab meat rolled up inside sushi rice and seaweed wrap, topped with salmon and pico de gallo, bathing in a pool of sesame oil-infused tangy sauce satisfies a Dallasite’s craving for food trendiness (Asian fusion, sushi), ingrained love for Tex Mex (pico de gallo), and genetic predisposition to worship all things deep fried (tempura batter flakes) all in one dish.  You want a plate that represents Dallas, how about this addictively delicious one?

But warn your visitors that Simon’s is not a glamorous joint by any stretch.  Whereas an outing to most popular sushi places in Dallas involves an overpriced fruity sake-tini concoction and lots of designer logo flashing, Simon’s Sushi is BYOB and situated in a rather unglamorous suburban strip mall next to a Planned Parenthood.  It’s your neighborhood sushi place with no pretense (I’ve seen both 30 year olds and 8 year olds celebrate their birthdays here), and Simon himself is almost always there to greet you and make your dinner.

Simon’s sushi menu isn’t crazy in the traditional sense, that is, diners wanting exotic sea creatures for dinner might be disappointed.  But he does create beautiful plates that breathes new life into boring old salmon and tuna and whatnot.  Take for example, the cucumber salmon roll:

Sitting at the sushi bar watching Simon rotate his knife to carve that cucumber into a thin sheet with such ease and speed creates great anticipation for this dish.  And the contrast between the crunchy cucumber and silken salmon in your mouth is worth all the anticipation.

I also enjoy the spin Simon puts on his volcano roll:

The topping to the volcano roll is scallops and mushrooms with a mayonnaise based sauce covered in masago smelt.  I usually avoid volcano rolls because they’re just too rich, and though I still find the amount of mayonnaise a little excessive, the addition of mushrooms in Simon’s volcano roll grounds the dish with a touch of earthiness.

More traditional items at Simon’s are also superb.  The batter on the softshell crab inside the spider roll held on well, no sign of limpy crab syndrome.  Spicy tuna roll is high on heat factor, with visible studs of chilis among the tuna’s deep pink flesh. Eel is cooked to perfection with a slightly crunchy exterior and just a touch of sauce, nothing excessive that drowns out the flavor of the eel.

Spider Roll:

Spicy Tuna Roll:

Eel:

Service at Simon’s is always friendly and attentive.  Great attention is paid to beverage service (ice buckets are brought out for beverages requiring chilling as soon as you sit down, appropriate drinkware is provided for sake) even though the BYOB establishment charges no corkage fee.  For the quality of food and service at Simon’s, the value is hard to beat.  Add that engimatic, addictive BTS roll into the equation, and this little neighborhood eatery becomes worthy of showing off to out-of-town guests.

Rating: 4 / 5

Simon’s Sushi
810 N. Central Expy
Plano, TX 75074