skip to main |
skip to sidebar
About 2 weeks ago, I met up with a couple of friends for brunch. We're all huge foodies... but just too busy to meet up all the time. :( I suggested Proof + Pantry because I recently reposted an amazing picture of their French Toast on @bestfooddallas. I really wanted to try it. haha. Luckily, they haven't been either so it's going to be a new experience for all of us!
Proof + Pantry
1722 Routh St.
Dallas, TX 75201
(214) 880-9940
http://www.proofandpantry.com/
Price (for brunch): $$-$$$
It's located in One Arts Plaza. This is a cool little area by the Winspear but it doesn't seem to hold on to it's businesses. :( The last time I was here, it was the Commissary. Then it turned into a Greek restaurant or something before Proof + Pantry.
It's a cute place. Shelves full of stuff, which I guess is the "pantry" part, a full bar, and that day there was a live DJ playing music. My friends were already there when I arrived. They were lucky and found free street parking. I parked in the lot behind the plaza for $5, I didn't want to mess with parallel parking in the street. I'd be there all day! XP I was quickly greeted by our waiter and he brought me a water.
The brunch menu is fairly small, which is not a bad thing. This gives us less temptations to order more stuff. haha. We decided to do family style.
Benedict (pork belly, spinach, English muffin) $15~
This was really good. The pork belly was thick cut and seared well. The poached eggs were nice and runny. And those potatoes were so crisp, it really added a nice texture to compliment the benedict. I'd have to say this was my favorite. I ate one by myself. :P haha.
Dutch Cakes (Jarlsburg cheese, maple syrup) $14~
I saw a couple other tables with this and it was massive (see fork for size reference). The addition of the Jarlsburg cheese was quite interesting, although it seems like it was concentrated in the middle of the cakes... they should spread it out more. But the cakes were only slightly sweet, and the cheese added a savory factor. I really liked it. The maple syrup added more sweetness which worked well with everything. It was so big, we had half left over. I took it home to my fiance. He...did not like it. :( Because it was less sweet and more savory. You really need to like that combo to order this. Needless to say, I ate all the leftovers myself. OH well! :P
Stuffed French Toast (candied apples, mascarpone, maple syrup) $14~
The French toast wasn't what the menu described. The cream in the middle also had a savoriness to it and it wasn't apple. It was like strawberry cream cheese or something... I liked it, but it was my least favorite dish of the meal. I wish they had more cream in the middle or something. The savoriness was nice... but it would've been good to just have a normal sweet French toast too.
We all enjoyed the meal. I ate the most... what else is new. haha. Our waiter was super nice and quite fun too. Every time he came around to check on us, he told us a joke. Some were quite good actually! It was an interesting twist to the normal "coming by to see what you need" thing. The jokes made us laugh and made the experience better. I'd recommend this place. But only if you are ready for some interesting flavors in your sweet dishes. hehe.
Quality of Food:
Service:
Ambiance:
Value:
Overall Experience:
~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
I went with some friends to see Green Day's American Idiot at the Winspear in downtown. I took this opportunity to go check out The Commissary in One Arts Plaza. I've been wanting to go there for some time and it's just been too far to venture out.
The Commissary
1722 Routh Street
Dallas, TX 75201
(214) 643-6557
http://thecommissarydallas.com/
Price: $$
We were seated immediately and waited for the rest of our party to show up. Dallas traffic on a Friday night is horrible!!
Our waitress came by to take our drink orders and bring us water. She was nice. Chatted with us a bit and we told her we were going to the show. When the rest of my friends showed up we were ready to order. The service was a bit slow, cuz we had to wait a while for the waitress to come back to take our order. But the restaurant was pretty packed and we weren't super rushed to eat.
There were several burgers I wanted to try. My first choice, The Head to Toe Burger, ran out. Boooo... :( So I opted for The Magic Burger (aged cheddar, applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion, toasted english muffin; served with side of skinny fries) $9~
This sounded interesting mainly because of the english muffin. It looked good and tasted great. The beef patty was cooked well and really juicy. The burger also had good flavor. I liked the english muffin, it wasn't too much bread and held up well to the ingredients. The skinny fries were cooked well too.
One friend got the The Upstream Sandwich (blackened salmon filet, bacon, lettuce, tomato, wasabi mayo on a brioche bun) $15~ Substitute fries for side salad +$2~
We decided to share our orders so I got a couple bites of this. The salmon was a decent size and I loved the crispy sear on the outside. It was a little hard to eat though since the fish would fall apart or slide out from the bread. The flavors were good. I enjoyed it.
The BIG TEX Burger (ancho chili rubbed, salsa cruda, avocado relish, pickled jalapenos, chipotle mayo, lettuce, tomato on a sesame bun; served with side of sweet potato tots) $9~
I didn't try this but my friend seemed to like it. The avocado relish and pickled jalapeno sounded like it would go really well on the burger. I did try the sweet tots. It was nice and crispy on the outside which I liked but the inside was a bit mushy on the inside.
The Tandoori Burger (tandoori spice rubbed ground lamb, cucumber, arugula, tomato and tzatziki in a toasted pita; served with side of sweet potato tots) $16~
I wouldn't call this a burger since it was served in a pita. And I'm not a fan of lamb so I didn't try it. My friend loved it!
We also got the Avocado Fries $6~
It was highly recommended online. It was a bit expensive for what we got but it was good. Different... The avocado inside was really soft from the frying and it paired well with the crispy tempura shell.
Overall, I really liked everything I tried. The burgers were all cooked well and tasty. It was a bit expensive though...
Quality of Food:
Service:
Ambiance:
Value:
Overall Experience:
~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
Tei-An
1722 Routh Street
Dallas, TX 75201-2503
(214) 220-2828
www.tei-an.comPrice: $-$$
Went to Tei-An (in One Arts Plaza) with some friends the other day. I’ve heard a lot about this place and was really excited to finally get to try their food! I’ve read nothing but positive reviews about Tei-An and had a list of foods that other reviewers suggested to try. Tei-An is a Japanese restaurant that is known for its soba noodles and other traditional Japanese dishes. Supposedly it is quite authentic.
I normally don’t blog about the décor, but this place was pretty amazing. The décor was traditional Japanese with a simple, sophisticated twist. It was clean, contemporary and chic and probably one of the most well decorated restaurants I’ve seen in a while. The bathroom was the coolest part!! :P The doors to the stalls are clear glass, but as soon as you lock it, the glass frosts up! How freaking awesome is that?!? :D
Anyways, it’s time to talk about the food! For appetizers we ordered the White Seaweed Salad. $9~ 
This dish came highly recommended in many of the reviews I read online. This was very fresh and light. I’ve never had white seaweed before. It actually reminded me of the Chinese Swallow’s Nest (if you’ve had it before then you know what I’m talking about). The texture and look is very similar to that. I wasn’t too impressed though…maybe the reviews hyped it too much. I admit that the quality was really fresh but overall it was ok.
We also ordered the starter Buckwheat Risotto. $14~ 
Upon serving, they pour a little bit of truffle oil over the dish. I liked this dish a lot. It was super cheesy and creamy and filled with mushrooms. The flavor and texture of the risotto worked together really well. The slightly al dente texture of the buckwheat risotto with the cream and cheese created great contrast.
Now on to the entrees. Most of us ordered soba (buckwheat noodles, can be hot or cold) since that is their specialty. For those of you that aren’t familiar with dipping soba… what you do is mix all the ingredients in with the dipping sauce… take a little bit of the cold soba noodle, dip it in the sauce, and slurp!!
This is the Poached Egg Soba (a cold dipping soba). $9.50~ 
You have the dipping sauce along with another bowl of a poached egg. You can mix everything together or dip in the sauce and egg separately. The soba and sauce was very light. I felt like the sauce didn’t have enough flavor and the egg was almost tasteless. I did like the mix between the noodles and the egg yolk though. Other than that it was very unimpressive. I felt like the soba was a little too thick and the texture was not right. What a disappointment. What is funny is that this was my favorite entrée out the three that I tried… :/
Next is the Creamy Japanese Yam Soba (cold dipping soba). $13~ 
If you’ve ever had the Japanese yam over rice, you know the texture of the yam. I’ve never liked the yams prepared this way before…the texture is mushy and runny and I always felt kind of gross eating it. Needless to say, I didn’t like this at all. The dipping sauce was the same as the Poached Egg Soba and equally bland…
I ordered the Duck Soba (hot soup soba). $10~
This was also highly recommended on online reviews. I’m not sure what those reviewers had but there was nothing interesting about this dish whatsoever. The entire dish had 1 flavor….bland bland and more bland. There was no contrasting flavors or textures. There was all of 3 slices of duck, which were flavorless. An absolutely one dimensional dish. I had to trade it for the Poached Egg Soba because I didn’t care to eat it anymore. Sigh~ It’s always upsetting when you eat something that’s not up to par, but it’s even worse when your expectations are already really high and everything (reviews, word of mouth, décor, service…) had hyped it up even more and then it all comes crashing down. T_T
So I was still somewhat hungry after everything. We decided to get dessert. A meal is not complete without sweets plus I just really wanted to end on a good note. We ordered the Green Tea Flan $6~ (which was also highly reviewed and praised) and the Black Sesame Mousse $6~. 
I love black sesame, so I was quite excited about the desserts. The desserts did not disappoint. The black sesame mousse was pretty awesome. Good flavor, good texture, I could’ve had nothing but that for dinner. The flan was good as well. 
Although the texture of it was quite thick and dense, so I was confused as to why they called it a flan. Flans are usually really soft and light… But the flavor was great and I didn’t mind the texture. It worked well together. I felt a little better after the desserts…the restaurant had somewhat redeemed itself...just a bit.
These were the other dishes that I didn’t get to try:
Black Sesame Soba (cold dipping soba) $10~
Short Rib Soup Curry Rice (a special of the day).
This actually looked really good. I wish I could’ve tried some of it. I’m sure it was definitely more flavorful than all the soba dishes. Overall, I was incredibly disappointed. I’m not an expert in Japanese soba or anything so I don’t know if this was as authentic as everyone said, but I would hope that the real soba would have more flavor than this. The dishes were just bland and uninspiring. I did not feel happy while eating it. Other than the risotto and desserts, I would not order any of the other dishes again. I’m somewhat tempted to go back just so I can try other stuff to let the restaurant redeem itself, but another part of me just thinks that it would be a waste of money. I definitely don’t recommend the soba dishes, but if you still want to check this place out, the décor and service are top notch and maybe the other dishes aren’t quite as boring. Quality of Food:
Service: 
Cleanliness:
Value:
Overall Experience:
~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
Posts
