Asador: Chef's Harvest Dinner Series - November Edition

Last week, my husband and friends and I went to the Asador Chef's Harvest Dinner Series: November Edition. They do these dinners seasonally and is available once a month. We decided to do the one in November thinking it'll get us in the mood for the holidays. Boy were we in for a treat!

Asador
Renaissance Dallas Hotel
2222 Stemmons Fwy.
Dallas, TX 75207
(214) 267-4815
www.asadorrestaurant.com

I had gone to a preview of the upcoming fall harvest dinners at the beginning of September. There we got to taste some of the dishes featured in the September dinner. The food was amazing! I have to say... I've always heard of Asador, but it's never been on my radar. The location is never really in an area where I frequent. But it truly is a hidden gem. I had an amazing time at the preview. (At some point I will finally write up the post for that one. hehe.) They told us that each dinner will feature 3 courses family style. Start off with a welcome drink and some snacks, then move into the actual dinner. Each dinner will have some sort of beverage accompaniment, whether wine, cocktails, or beers. And the whole dinner PLUS drinks PLUS tax PLUS gratuity is only $90! Whoa... That's a game changer. Most dinners like these typically run $80-120 and THEN you have to add on another $30-50 on the drink pairings. And they never include gratuity! This is a steal people... stay tuned for their dinners next season!

We arrived a little late due to terrible traffic. The dinner was on a Wednesday night and we were driving from Rockwall. The group had already started with charcuterie boards and a welcome beer. The dinner this night featured pairings from Real Ale Brewing. One of my friends was super excited because he's a real beer connoisseur. He had a hell of a time talking to Brad, the owner of the brewery, the entire night.

Asador has one of the best charcuterie boards I've ever had. Their smoked duck is my favorite. :) It was a little sparse by the time I got there. haha.

After some introductions and background info from Real Ale, they moved us to the long wood table for our feast. It was a communal style table since the dinner is family style. Looking through the menu, there's gonna be so much food. I'm so excited! The theme was Thanksgiving, since it was so close to the holiday.

First Harvest:
The featured beer is Lost Gold, IPA.

Carrot Cumin Soup (chive cream). The soup was poured tableside by the Chef, Brad Phillips. He's super nice and you can tell he's just so passionate about the food. Ever course he comes out to explain the dishes and ingredients. 

 

 

OMG... I normally hate carrots, y'all. But this soup was something else. One of my favorite dishes of the night. It was smooth, creamy, and luxurious. Slight sweetness from the carrots and just the most beautiful color. It had none of the flavors that I normally dislike of carrots. It was just magnificent. I'd be happy if we were only served this dish in the entire dinner!

Crispy Pork Tibia (wild boar, jalapeno orange, baby kale). 

 

I love me some pork. This was no exception. That jalapeno orange glaze was a great pairing with the boar meat. Just a hint of citrus sweetness and heat. I really tried hard not to over eat. There was just so much food!

Frisee, BBQ Apple, and Red Plum Salad (chestnut puree, black pepper honey vinaigrette). 

Loved pairing this with the Crispy Pork, the flavors all complimented each other so well. This was dressed lightly, which I liked. I did think the apples were cut a little too large but the flavor was great. It was so interesting with the BBQ rub on it. Loved it all!

Oh man... the first course blew our minds already and we've already been stuffing our faces. There's so much more coming!

Second Harvest:
The featured beer for the main course was Brewhouse, Brown Ale.

Turducken Roulade (cranberry tartar). 

 

OMG. My first ever Turducken! It was beautiful. The cranberry tartar was so vibrantly red. It was great but I think the turkey overwhelmed everything else because I couldn't discern the chicken or the duck. haha. But oh well. Yummy!

Roasted Wild Trout (mashed rutabega, artichoke). 

I think the fish stole the show for me for the entrees though. It was so freaking fresh and tender. The whole thing just melted in your mouth. And that rutabega mash... oh my. Just gimme a bucket of it. It's not often that I get to try rutabega either. Loved all the interesting ingredients we were tasting that night. Each plate of food they put on the table were just over flowing with food. The fish dish is the only one where we finished every piece of fish. We just can't let that go to waste!

Sides:
The side dishes were a show of their own!
Green Bean Casserole (crispy onions). Fresh green beans, not that mushy stuff from a can. Delish!

Crispy Squash Blossom (ricotta, goat cheese). I love squash blossoms. These were so perfectly fried and the filling was fluffy. 

Sourdough Stuffing. We had so much stuffing we didn't know what to do with ourselves! We barely made a dent in this. I hope they let the staff take the leftovers, cuz I hate to think all this food was wasted. Or they should've just given me like 10 to go boxes. hahaha. 

Carrot Souffle (pecans). My favorite side dish. Again, CARROTS! Wow... they're really making me rethink my preferences. haha. This tasted more like a sweet potato souffle. It was cinnamon-y, nutmeg-y, and fluffy. The crushed pecans on top were a great additional texture. 

Potato Puree (garlic confit, truffle). Silky and smooth. Really great mashed potatoes.(And apparently I didn't get a picture of this...)

Third Harvest:
For dessert, our pairing was Coffee Porter, Brewed with Katz Coffee. Really quite interesting, to have beer paired with coffee. I managed to take a couple sips since usually I don't drink any beer.

Vanilla Panna Cotta (persimmon chutney). 

 

Persimmons seem to be the fruit of this year. I've been seeing it everywhere! And it's not that popular of a fruit! The panna cotta was creamy, yet light. The persimmon chutney on top was the perfect flavor pairing with the vanilla panna cotta.

Dark Rum Sticky Buns (apples, caramel). 

 

 

This was a show stopper dessert. I mean, serious mike drop. They placed about 3 of these mega sticky buns on the long table. Topped with that shiny pool of caramel sauce. Ahhhhh. If only I can just stick my whole face on it! Use it as a pillow. haha. They did give us some small to go boxes for these cuz there was no way we could've finished any of that.

What a phenomenal dinner. Chef Brad and the team at Asador outdid themselves. It was literally a Thanksgiving feast! I'm so glad we were able to be a part of this dinner and I will definitely be on the lookout for their future special dinners. Asador is worthy of a visit, add it to the top of your list, you won't be disappointed! The food was fantastic, and so was the company. We sat by Brad, the owner of Real Ale Brewing, and learned a lot of things on his business and beers in general. If you are ever in Blanco, TX, they do tours of their facilities.

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Public School 214

2 weeks ago, we were attending the Fashion X Dallas event downtown. A friend of ours was showing some of her work for the runway show! :) We don't go to that area as often as I'd like, so I took the opportunity to plan an early dinner in uptown. Public School 214 has been on my radar since they opened at the end of 2014. They had one dessert that was the deciding item for us to choose this place. And you'll see it at the end of this post.

Public School 214
3700 McKinney Ave.
Dallas, TX 75304
(214) 599-6234
www.psontap.com/locations/ps214
Price: $$$

The fashion event starts at 6PM, but the runway show starts at 8. So we decided to get an early dinner so we can get to the venue around 7-7:30. The place was pretty empty still so we got a table immediately. The decor is eclectic but definitely has a school theme... globes, periodic table, and year books lined the walls. And super cute notebook paper napkins!The place was bigger than I expected. The bar was almost the same size as the dining area.

Our waiter greeted us with waters and was super friendly. He gave us a quick run down of their drink menu... they have a lot of specialty beers, and told us we can sample as many of them as we want. Uh oh... choices.. haha. While we were narrowing down options (by we, I meant him... I don't drink beer. haha) our waiter went ahead and brought us 3 samples to try. 

It's like he read my fiance's mind because 2 out of the 3 he brought were the ones he wanted to try. The samples were so cute! We ended up getting the Rubaeus by Founders Brewing Co (nitro raspberry ale with a rich depth of flavor both sweet and tart) $7~ I actually kinda liked it. I've yet to find a beer I liked... not even ciders. I can't drink a whole thing of this, but I sipped on it throughout the meal.

We ended up taking way to long deciding on the drink. haha. But finally we ordered.

He went with The Temptress Stout Short Rib (shaved horseradish yukon mashed potatoes, caramelized onion au jus) $23~ 

It was a sizable dish. I loved the actual plate the food came in. hehe. It was yummy. The short rib was off the bone and pretty tender. Not completely fork tender but still good. We both liked the horseradish in the mashed potatoes, added another layer of flavor. He finished the entire dish... it was a lot.

I got the BBQ Bison Burger (grass fed, whiskey bbq sauce, emmental, pepper bacon mushroom topping; with side of kale & brussels slaw) $17~ 

 

I was a little hesitant to order this at first, because I'm iffy about BBQ sauce in a burger. Sometimes they just put too much. The waiter assured me that they don't put too much. And actually... I wish they had put more!! The sauce was great! It was a good burger. The meat was cooked nicely pink, and it was juicy, unlike how bison can sometimes be dry. Definitely not the best burger I've had in Dallas, but was still satisfying. The slaw on the other hand... was the star. I was a little shocked by the amount of sauce on the slaw...but it didn't even matter. It was so good...the two of us fought to eat it all. haha. It paired well with the burger.

We were both pretty dang full. But no.. we came for the dessert!! So we must order the dessert! :P Nutella Cookie Sandwich (bacon brittle, chocolate chunk cookies, vanilla bean ice cream) $6~ 

Oh em gee. This thing was massive. A giant chocolate chip cookie sitting on a huge dollop of nutella, topped with a scoop of vanill ice cream, topped with ANOTHER dollop of nutella, then capped with an equally as large chocolate chip cookie. It's enough for 3-4 people to eat I think... But there was just the 2 of us. And we keeeeeeled it!! We did ask for a glass of milk. haha. And the waiter brought us a giant glass of whole milk. Oh my. Talk about extra richness. We had to dilute it with water. The ice cream sandwich was sooo rich and sooo decadent. 

The cookie wasn't as soft as I'd like, but still damn good. We also did not detect any bacon.. oh well. And our waiter did say that this usually doesn't come out this big. So we got lucky? Tell that to our overstuffed stomachs as we sit back in pain. haha. But a good pain right? I regret nothing!! I'd totally get this again, but maybe next time I'll start with the dessert and if I'm still hungry, then I'll order something else. hahaha. The dessert did not disappoint. We had to take a stroll around the area to try and digest some of the dinner. :P It was pretty epic.

This seems like a cool place to hang out with friends and grab a beer. Their brunch menu also seems pretty good. Our waiter, Moses, I believe, was great. Friendly and attentive. I'd go back in the future.

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

LUCK - Trinity Groves

After my dessert first at Cake Bar... I met a couple of my friends for dinner at LUCK. None of us had been there so it'll be fun to try a new place!

LUCK (Local Urban Craft Kitchen)
3011 Gulden Lane, Suite #112
Dallas, Texas 75212
(469) 250-0679
http://www.luckdallas.com/
Price: $$-$$$

Their concept is pretty cool. They are a craft beer inspired kitchen so they promote items that pair well with beer. They also try to use locally sourced ingredients whenever possible. Unfortunately I don't drink beer, so the pairing is a little wasted on me. But I do enjoy pub fare.

I was a little disappointed to find out that their menu had changed and all the dishes on yelp that I wanted to try were no longer available. Booohoo. :( Their menu is pretty small and I didn't really see anything I really wanted. (Which is rare... I might add...)

None of us were super hungry and we were also saving room for dessert. So we got some stuff to share.

Bierocks "Beer-Rocks" (meat and cheese filled pocket pastries served with beer cheese fondue and au jus) $10~ 

 

I liked the presentation on the wood board with the name of the restaurant carved into it. It was basically a meat bread bun. Very delicious. There was a lot of the meat filling which was good. The top of the bread was a little heavily salted, but overall the flavors were good. Totally loved the beer cheese fondue sauce. We kept that around for other stuff to dip in. hehe.

Blueberry & Raw Butternut Squash Salad (mixed greens, candied pecans, goat cheese, citrus honey vinaigrette) $10~ 

I got this because I didn't want something too heavy and I love butternut squash. It was a big salad. I opted for no goat cheese since I don't like it. The butternut squash turned out to be thin strips chopped and put on top of the salad. I think if it's in the name, it should be more of a star than a topping. It was good though. Quite filling. I always liked candied pecans in a salad...adds sweetness and crunchy texture.

Signature Pastrami ("Texas Brisket Style", house-cured for 3 days and smoked for 15 hours with stone ground mustard, caramelized onions, swiss cheese, on sourdough) $13~ 

My friends shared this. The waitress said it's one of their big sellers. The pastrami wasn't really pastrami but more brisket. It was really good. Soooo much flavor. You can definitely get the smokiness of the meat. It's a very heavy sandwich though. Their housemade chips were also really good. Especially dipped in the beer cheese fondue. :P

The food was pretty good and they've not a nice patio area. The service was ok. Our waitress was nice but I don't think she checked on us enough. I probably won't go back. The food options were not super enticing or exceptional. If you like beer though, definitely check them out since they've got a big selection of craft beers.

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~