I love brunch! And I got to have it at Smoke on Sunday. :) I've been wanting to go to Smoke for a few years now and finally made it!
Smoke
901 Ft. Worth Avenue
Dallas, TX 75208
(214) 393-4141
www.smokerestaurant.com
Price (for brunch): $$
We arrived around 12:30PM, I was really worried that there was gonna be a long wait. But the hostess said it was 25 minutes... not too bad! So we went outside and looked around. About 5 minutes later, we went back in to check out the bar and she told us our table was ready! Sweet! :)
It's a cute place, kinda homey, eclectic decor. It's a little loud though, but I didn't mind. It had good energy.
Our waiter greeted us and brought us water. He was really friendly and welcoming. He gave us some recommendations on drinks, then gave us some time to look over the menu. I already knew what I wanted, but my bf was a bit overwhelmed with all the delicious options. :P
My bf decided to get the Double Barrel Bloody Mary (Starlight Texas Vodka, Tim's Roasted Tomato & Chile Mix, olive juice, pickle relish).
It was a big drink!! Lots of spices in there, but it was too salty... Neither of us are really fans of Bloody Marys but for some reason he wanted to get one. And he liked it, but it was too salty to drink it all. It actually paired well with his entree.
Ok. Food time! We asked our waiter for his opinion and he helped make the final decision for us. My bf ordered the Smoked Brisket Cornbread Hash (with poached egg and green chili rajas) $14~
It looked really yummy. Lots of colors and layers and I couldn't wait for him to cut into the poached egg! He cut up the egg and mixed everything together. It was delicious!! All the different flavors were great together. The brisket was smoky and slightly crisped. I liked how they diced up the cornbread into little pieces. The green chile was really great with the mixture, I do wish there was more of it though. And the egg was poached nicely. I ate some of it with the giant jalapeno on the bloody mary. Amazing! I think they should put jalapenos in the hash in the future! :P Really really good, I'd TOTALLY get this again.
I got the Heavy Handed Blueberry Pancakes (with vanilla poached apricots and cream) $10~
It looked so awesome I just wanted to dunk my face in it. hahahaha. Each pancake was at least an inch thick. I've never seen pancakes that thick before. And... it's still so fluffy! You can see large plump blueberries throughout the pancakes. And the vanilla poached apricots? YUM! I've never had that before. They were sweet and plump and basically served as the syrup for the pancakes. Again, every element worked together wonderfully. It wasn't too sweet either. NOM!
I also got a side of the Thick Cut Pork Belly Bacon $3.50~
I read in reviews that their bacon is super thick and awesome. And they were right. The bacon was amazing! Thick cut and still had a crispy sear on it. It had a hint of sweetness too! It went really well with both the hash AND the pancakes. :)
We were both really full, but I managed to finish my pancakes and pretty much the rest of his hash. hahaha. No wonder I gained a few lbs. this weekend. XP
It was a wonderful brunch. It was everything I imagined it would be and even more delicious. I wish I had more room to try more stuff! :P The food was awesome, our waiter was super nice, and I liked the vibe of the place. The waiter noticed that my bf barely drank the bloody mary and asked if he didn't like it. My bf said he liked it but was just too salty so the waiter went ahead and took it off the bill. That was very nice of him. :)
I definitely recommend brunch at Smoke. I hope I have time to go back in the future!
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On Saturday I went to check out the new noodle place in Deep Ellum, Monkey King Noodle Company. I only found out about this place like 2 weeks ago and then realized that they had opened last week! I was excited. I love hand-pulled noodles.
It is still a soft opening. I believe they are only open for lunch at the moment (11am-2pm).
Monkey King Noodle Company
3014 Main Street
Dallas, TX 75226
(469) 206-3658
www.monkeykingnoodlecompany.com/
Price: $
I was attending a wedding downtown that night so I was gonna be in the area. I called up my sister too, who was also really excited to try this place. I was afraid that there was going to be a line but to my surprise, there was no wait at 1pm when we arrived. Woooot!
We pretty much ordered everything on the menu, which is pretty small, but that makes it easier for us to make a choice! :P
What's most exciting for us about this place is not only that we have another Chinese food place in Dallas, but that the noodles are hand pulled, and the dumplings are handmade. I grew up in Taiwan eating this stuff so we definitely want more places in Dallas that has this!! You order at the counter and everything is given to you in to-go containers. They didn't have a seating area (so we ate on the counter right outside the window). From the window you can see the owner pulling the dough for the noodles!
Beef Noodles (with chili oil) $6~
My sister really wanted to try this. Beef noodle soup is like her all time favorite. We opened the lid and there was about an inch and half of chili oil on top. She loves that stuff so she was excited. But we were quickly disappointed. Although we liked the chili oil, it was too much, made it very greasy. And there wasn't enough broth or flavor. All we could get was the oil. The beef was very tender and the noodles had good texture though. So it has promise. I think they need to tweak their broth, and have less chili oil (but make it spicier, since the chili wasn't spicy at all...) We actually got 2 of these not knowing how big their portions are. For $6 it was a good size. So my sister took the 2nd one to go. Also, another suggestion for their packaging. We hate overcooked/mushy noodles. And it's very easy for the noodles to get too soft since they put it in the broth in one container. My sister says they should package the noodles and soup in separate containers for people not eating it instantly. They do this in Asia whenever you buy noodles to go. Monkey King should look into this! *hint*hint* :P
Chicken Noodles (with clear broth) $6~
This was a very light chicken noodle soup. The chicken had a mix of white and dark meat and were cooked well. The flavor is very light. I suggested to them to have white pepper as a condiment in the future. It'll give it just the right kick. The noodles in this was slightly overcooked... See our suggestion above for packaging to prevent this!
Wontons (with chili sauce) $5~ An order comes with 10 pieces.
These came out first. Looked pretty good. The filling was not bad, but they were undercooked. Parts of the wrapper was still raw. And from the picture, you can actually see the wonton at the top still had flour on it. I mentioned it to them right then and there, so they can adjust their cooking times. The wontons needed more sauce. But the sauce that was on it was too sour.. Should reduce the vinegar and add more soy sauce. And needs more chili oil since it wasn't spicy at all. But overall, this was my favorite "dumpling" out of all the others we tried.
Soup Dumplings (pork filling) $8~ An order comes with 8 pieces.
I love me some Xiao Long Bao. These started out ok... The dough was still slighty undercooked but was alright. I liked the pork inside, could be more soupy though. The dipping sauce was too sour just like the ones on the wontons. However, the 2nd half of dumplings we ate ended up being raw. We probably all ate at least 1 or 2 raw ones before I realized this. The pork on the inside was raw and that's not good. I mentioned it to them as well and they were really apologetic. I kinda felt bad that I kept going back to them with negative comments. We sooooo wanted them to be good!
Pork Dumplings $5~ An order comes with 10 pieces.
It's boiled dumplings "jiao zi". Again, the dough was slightly undercooked but at least the filling was fully cooked through. And the dipping sauce is the same as the others... needs tweaking.
We were disappointed. I didn't go in with high hopes but I soooo wanted them to exceed my expectations. I know it's still a soft opening, but the cook times on the dumplings should've been figured out by now. They were really nice though and really wanted feedback. They even offered to refund us all our money back. But we just told them to refund us for the soup dumplings. I felt bad being so negative but I hope they'll work on it and get better. I mean, it has promise. The noodle texture is pretty good and that's the basis of it all, everything else is an easy fix. Figure out the cook time on the different dumplings. Work on the flavors for the broth and dipping sauces. I will wait a few more months and give them another chance!
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I went to an art event downtown yesterday. ArtOfficial at Zouk nightclub featured many local artists, musical artists/DJs, live performers, and food trucks. It was also a charity event with a portion of the proceeds towards local nonprofits: ALS Association, Art Hunger and Dress for Success.
A friend of mine works for the ALS Association and invited me. So I brought a few of my friends to check it out. I have to be honest though, the main draw for me was that they said there will be free food from various food trucks from 5:30-7:30PM for all paid attendees. haha.
One of my friends and I arrived super early... Trying to bypass the after work traffic. But that just means we were first in line for the food trucks. :P Most of the trucks were still setting up so we didn't really get started until about 5:40 or so.
The first truck we hit up was the Dough Boys Pizza Truck.
www.doughboypizzatruck.myshopify.com/
facebook.com/doughboyspizzatruck
twitter.com/PizzaTruckin
We decided on the Margarita (olive oil, fresh mozzarella, fresh tomato and basil).
They are 8" pizzas, freshly baked. It took longer for us to get it because they were just firing up the oven. But it's all good. Worth the wait since the pizza came out piping hot! It was a pretty good size. I would definitely get full if I ate the whole thing. I thought it was a really great pizza. I especially loved the crust. It was not too thin but the outside was super crispy and inside was still soft and slightly chewy. It was a white pizza, so no marinara, which I liked. The toppings were all really fresh too. I would get a pizza from them any day. :) Oh yea, the guys on the truck were super friendly too!
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Rockn' Ricks Truck
www.rock-n-ricks.com/
www.facebook.com/pages/Rockn-Ricks/355779484454846
twitter.com/rockn_ricks
They were only offering one thing during the free food time period. Pulled Pork Sandwich (smoked daily for 14 hours, pork pulled off the bone).
Normally it's topped with red onion, pickles and bbq sauce but for the free samples, it was plain. The service was night and day compared to the pizza truck. We didn't know if they were taking orders because it took awhile for someone to talk to us when we're standing outside the truck. But the sandwich itself was decent. The pork was tender and slightly sweet from the sauce. A slaw topping would've been nice. Not bad, but nothing spectacular either.
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OinknMoo Truck
www.oinknmoodfwbbq.com/
facebook.com/OinknMooBBQ
twitter.com/oinknmoodfwbbq
This was the other bbq truck. The free samples they were offering was the Pork & Green Chile Hominy (homemade, infused with crispy bacon and chunks of pulled pork and roasted Hatch chiles).
I wanted to try this so yay! It was very good. Hominy is a kind of corn, but it doesn't really look or taste like it... I like it though. And this was really good. The pork was really tender and the flavors and textures with the chile and hominy worked together really well. With a little squirt of hot sauce, it was even better. haha.
By about 7pm, they had apparently ran out of all their free options so my friends bought some food:
Bacon Mac n Cheese (homemade mac & cheese infused with crispy bacon) $3~
Loaded Bacon Mac n Cheese (1/2 pint of Bacon Mac w/ your choice of meat chopped on top) $6~ He got it topped with brisket. $3 extra just for a bit of brisket? We were all expecting the loaded mac to be a bigger size since it's double the price. Oh well. At least it was good. The brisket was finely chopped and added texture to the super rich mac n cheese. I didn't see much bacon inside but it was already rich enough!
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I saw Bobaddiction twice this week!
www.bobaddiction.com/
facebook.com/bobaddiction
twitter.com/bobaddiction
I got to try more samples. The passion fruit green tea is super refreshing. Especially since yesterday was uber humid. Also tried the Thai Tea again. It was yummy. The sample cups were just too dang small! :P Oh, and I still need to try the boba. I guess next time! :)
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Campisi's Catering was set up inside the venue. They were serving some sort of Pasta (penne with chicken, artichokes, tomato). I only ate a few bites. It was not good. That little scoop was half grease. XP Eeeeeks.
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It was a fun event. I hope they made lots of money for the charities. And I got to try a bunch of food. Some great, some not so much. But still a fun experience! :)
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Last Friday we had several food trucks come to my office! That was a nice surprise. Apparently they had signs up in the halls but I never saw them! :P
We could see them pull into the parking lot one by one right outside our window! I got really excited when I saw an ice cream truck, What's Da Scoop! One I haven't seen before. It had giant scoops of ice cream on top of the truck. I really liked that. hehe.
What's Da Scoop
http://www.whatsdascoop.com/
twitter.com/WhatsDaScoopTX
Price: $
I was all trying to be good that day. I had brought my lunch, I was gonna go work out, but that went out the window... XP I really wanted to try the ice cream. While waiting for them to get all set up, I started looking online for their menus. haha. What's Da Scoop was the main one for me since I've had some of the others like Ssahm and Ruthie's. And their flavors all had fun names and sounded delicious!
As soon as they were open for business I headed outside. I didn't want to wait for the lunch crowd to show up.My coworker and I were the first ones to the window. She decided to have dessert first, like me! :P
I really wanted a cone but I held back and decided on 2 Scoops $4.25~
Snap-O-Lantern (spicy pumpkin ice cream with ginger snap pieces) (bottom). It was a pretty bright orange. It had quite a bit of spice to it which I liked. But it overwhelmed the pumpkin flavor a bit. And they definitely need more ginger snap bits in there because when I finally got one, it was awesome!
Kitty Kitty Bang Bang (cheesecake ice cream, raspberry ripplet, oreo pieces) (top). Even though I love pumpkin, I liked Kitty better. You couldn't really taste the cheesecake flavor, but I enjoyed the raspberry swirl and oreo pieces combo. I mean, anything with crushed oreos is good right? :)
The ice cream consistency was pretty good. Not super creamy, but still pretty rich. I liked it. Great on a warm day. Good thing it wasn't too hot that day.
My coworker got one of the Specialty Cones $5~
Pure Satisfaction (vanilla ice cream, dulce de leche, sea salt, chocolate dip).
It was pretty epic. It was pretty much a double scoop and then dipped completely in chocolate. OMG. A bit messy to eat, but the chocolate shell was great. If you've ever had Magic Shell, you can do this at home! :P The ice cream was good. And I can definitely taste the sea salt. But we were wondering where the dulce de leche was. As she made her way into the cone, we discovered that they drizzle the sauce inside the cone. Pretty cool, haven't seen that done before. But the problem is... (well, maybe not a problem for some people) that all the sauce pools at the bottom of the cone for one super sweet bite. Not for me, but I can see a lot of people disagreeing with me here. haha.
It was wayyy too much. It's all I've had all day and I was regretting the double scoops. haha. But I did that to myself. The ice cream was good. It was a hefty size and very affordable. I find most food trucks to be overpriced, so this was a nice surprise. I'd totally get it again the next time I see it. Although I'd probably stick to 1 scoop next time. haha. :P
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Chocolate and ice cream lovers rejoice! Godiva now has soft serve!! OMG!
Godiva - Northpark Center
(1st floor outside Dillard's)
8687 N Central Expy
Dallas, TX 75225
(214) 361-2050
I wandered into Godiva at Northpark earlier this week to get my free monthly chocolate (if you don't know about this, sign up with Godiva, it's free, and every month you can get a free piece of chocolate!). I'm usually pretty good about just getting my free chocolate and leaving but this time was different.
First, I was offered a sample of one of their truffles. YUM! And then I finally picked out my free piece. But before I could turn to leave... I saw the machine.. in the corner. Soft serve?? I asked the guy that was helping me. He was super excited and said yes, they just got it. And then he said "Would you like a SAMPLE?" Uh... I don't say no to samples. Almost ever. haha. They have a vanilla bean flavor and a chocolate flavor, and of course, swirl. It was yummy.
Dilemma dilemma... I so wanted some, but oh I shouldn't. But I've gotten so many free things already and the guy was SO nice. I feel bad.. So I caved, I got a cone of the vanilla bean. They have regular waffle cone and also chocolate dipped waffle cones with no additional charge. Hells yea, the chocolate dipped one!!!!
Vanilla Bean Soft Serve (in a chocolate dipped waffle cone) $6.50~ (after tax).
It was a bit steep for soft serve but they gave me a huge serving of it. And the guy made the perfect swirl. He was so excited and proud and the other employees in the store wanted to take a picture of him with it. I thought that was awesome. Because I would totally do the same thing! :P I love that you can see the specks of vanilla bean throughout. It was rich and delicious. And paired well with the chocolate on the waffle cone. And it was a bigggg portion! It carried me through past dinner!
It's a bit pricey, but I can't say I won't cave and get one again. hahaha. They need to have some chocolate mix-ins in the future. That would rock!
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On Monday night I happen to see the new food truck, Bobaddiction, setting up shop in Plano. We were finishing up at Paciugo on Park and Preston and saw them pulling into the parking lot.
I rarely see food trucks in this part of town so my friends and I were very intrigued. We walked over to check it out! Apparently they were called to be a part of the release of Grand Theft Auto at Game Stop. They were just 10 minutes from opening so we stuck around.
Bobaddiction
(512) 763-BOBA(2622)
http://www.bobaddiction.com/
facebook.com/bobaddiction
twitter.com/bobaddiction
Price: $
I was able to chat a little with one of the owners, who was super nice, btw. And found out that they've been in operation for less than 3 months. I'd have to say, they have a pretty impressive truck with the LCD menu and the super cute panda on the side.
I love boba. I'm Taiwanese so I grew up drinking this stuff. I would've expected Dallas to have a boba trucker earlier on but oh well, at least we have one now!
Once they opened, we were first in line. And they told us we can sample whatever we wanted. I tried the Classic Milk Tea (black tea, lactose-free milk, rock sugar, longan honey) first. It was pretty good. It's hard to tell from a small sample, but I wish it was a bit stronger in both tea flavor and richness of the milk.
Then they started giving us more samples. I felt bad holding up the other people in line, but I'm not one to pass up samples! :P
Jasmine Milk Tea (green tea, jasmine flowers, lactose-free milk and rock sugar) $4~
I changed my mind to this after I sampled it. It was light, refreshing, and fragrant. The jasmine was very floral but not overwhelming. I got it without boba because I actually planned on drinking this the next day. (After dinner and gelato, I didn't have room to drink this... ) haha. So about 16 hours later, I had it at work as an afternoon treat. It was still delicious! I would definitely get this again. And next time I would try their boba since I didn't get to this time.
My friend got the Passion Fruit Green Tea (green tea, passion extract, fresh fruit puree, rock sugar, longan honey) $4~
This was my original choice because it was really light and refreshing. It wasn't super sweet either. I like that they use fresh fruit puree in all their fruity drinks. She also added rainbow jelly to hers. I think it was an additional 50 cents?
Thai Tea (thai tea, star anise, milk and rock sugar). We also got to sample this. It was pretty good. I wish the sample was bigger though so I can give a better opinion on it.
It was funny because a friend of mine had sent me a picture when he spotted Bobaddiction over the weekend. So it was fresh in my mind, and then we ran into them! Like I said, the guys are super nice and they use good ingredients in their drinks. I also really like the fact that they use lactose-free milk! I'm not lactose intolerant, but this way EVERYONE gets to enjoy milk tea. :)
I'm actually going to see them again tomorrow at the ArtOfficial event downtown! Holla! Follow them on twitter to get their locations.
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