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We went to this Asian Night Market Festival event at the beginning of October. It was in some office building in downtown Dallas. If you know which event I'm talking about, you'd probably agree it was pretty much an epic fail. I didn't have high expectations for it, but it was so bad that we only stuck around for 20 minutes, despite paying for the admission. Booo... :( Luckily, we had a back up plan for dinner if this were to happen. My friends and I left, and contacted other friends that were on their way to the event to go elsewhere. Don't waste your money! haha. We all went to Uncle Uber's in Deep Ellum instead. We KNOW we'll get some good food there.
Uncle Uber's Sammich Shop
2713 Commerce St.
Dallas, TX 75226
(214) 653-8237
www.uncleubers.com
Price: $-$$
It took awhile for us to find parking... there was some concert going on that night so it seemed more packed than usual. Finally we were in line at Uncle Uber's. As my friends were trickling in... the power goes out. Not just the restaurant, but basically the whole neighborhood. Geez. Is this the universe telling us we're doomed for food today?!? The rest of my friends JUST parked (and paid parking too) so we decided to stick around the area for awhile to see if the power comes back. We decided to walk around Deep Ellum to see if other areas weren't affected and other food options. We walked around for 15 minutes or so... seemed way longer, but the power came back!! We bee-lined to Uncle Uber's and found the line was shorter. Woohoo!
I got the Blackened Fish (spicy filet, homemade slaw, pickles, on a toasted bun) $6.99~
I wanted to try something new this time. The burger sounded amazing, but I wanted something a little lighter. "A little". haha. The sandwich was pretty hefty with 2 giant pieces of blackened fish. Loaded with slaw, and I asked them to add some lettuce. The fish was cooked perfectly. It had so much flavor. It was a pretty messy sandwich though. Juices all over the place. hehe. Loved it!!
My fiance got The Cuban (slow roasted pork, Boar's Head ham, swiss cheese, pickles, Uber sauce; in a hot pressed baguette) $7.99~ He's been craving this forever! We both think Uncle Uber's has one of the best Cubans in Dallas. Granted... I haven't had many in Dallas, haha, but this is legit.
Hand-Cut Fries $1.99~ Some other friends got fries. I loooooove their fries. You can tell it's freshly cut. And fried to perfection. I think I ate at least half of my friend's fries. Ahahaha... well if she's not gonna finish it, why not?! :P
Totally love this place. I'm so glad we stuck around for the power to come back. After a disappointing day like this, the food totally made up for it. Oh yea, the lady that brought the food out to the tables was hilarious!! The whole dining room was having a good time with her. :) We'll be back for sure!!
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
2 weeks ago we had a work outing to check out the new grilled cheese restaurant in the new Richardson CityLine. I've been keeping up to date with the opening of this place with a few of my co-workers. We finally planned for a day to go. Hopefully by now the initial rush has died down a little. We had a fairly large group of 9 people.
Tom + Chee
1251 State St.
Richardson, TX 75082
(972) 677-7482
www.tomandchee.com
Price: $
Tom + Chee was originally from Cincinnati and after being picked up on Shark Tank (an ABC show), they expanded rapidly across the nation. They use fresh ingredients, roast their own meats, and makes all the sauces from scratch. They have gluten-free and vegetarian options.
We were all super excited. None of us had been there before. We arrived around 11:45AM on a Tuesday. There was a line, but it wasn't super long and moved fairly fast. The dining area was pretty full but we got lucky and secured a table. I guess most of the people in line were waiting for to-go orders. Worked out for us! Everyone went up to the counter and ordered. They give you a number and bring the food to your table.
Almost everyone got something different so lots of pictures to see! :)
The Tom + Chee (diced tomato, garlic seasoning, mozzarella, cheddar, hardy white) $4.95~ Plus Diced Bacon +$2~ Already sounds great on its own, but bacon makes everything better! She absolutely loved it.
Pesto Turkey (roasted turkey, pesto, mozzarella, hardy white) $5.95~ She subbed ham for the roasted turkey. I tried a bite of this. I think this was my favorite savory sandwich of the day, and I'm usually not a fan of ham. The pesto was awesome. I'd totally get this next time! (But with turkey... hehe.)
Grilled Mac + Chee (mac & cheese, cheddar, hardy white) $5.95~ Plus Potato Chip Crunch +$0.50~
They have a "crunch" section on the menu that has different flavored chips in every sandwich, but you can also make any sandwich a "crunch" by adding chips. I felt the chips were necessary in the Grilled Mac + Chee because it adds texture. The mac n cheese itself was very good but I would recommend adding chips and maybe bacon! :P
Ham + Chee (ham, pickle, american, hardy white) $5.95~ Simple, to the point. Tasty.
BBQ + Bacon Crunchy Grilled Cheese (bbq potato chips, bacon, american, hardy white) $6.45~ This thing was LOADED with bacon. I didn't get to try but my boss loved it.
Italian Crunchy Grilled Cheese (salt & vinegar chips, pepperoni, ham, mozzarella, hardy white) $6.45~ Plus Soup Dipper (a small soup to dip your grilled cheese in) +$1~
He chose the Classic Tomato soup. This was good, I liked the salt & vinegar chips addition. But I felt the pepperoni and ham combo was a tad too salty for my preference. I did not get to experience the sandwich dipped in soup combo, but my co-worker said the soup was good.
Crunchy Garlic Chicken (roasted chicken, grilled onion, diced tomato, sweet hot mustard, garlic seasoning, parmesan garlic chips, pepper jack, wheat berry) $6.45~ This was my other choice, but I ended up not getting it. It's pretty loaded. Looked awesome. I may try this one too next time. hehe.
Smoked Brisket (hardy white, cheddar, bbq sauce, pickles, red onion) $6.95~
This was mine. It was the special for the day. Since it's not always on the menu, I knew I had to try it. The brisket wasn't what I expected... it made me think more of sliced roast beef? But was still moist. A little too much bbq sauce, but then again, I never like much sauce. But overall was really yummy. The bread was nice and crisp but still soft. Mmmmm!! I would order it again and just get a little less sauce. And it wasn't that heavy, surprisingly. I ate half of mine, and then a bite or two of 4 other ones. AND a little bit of dessert. And I wasn't overstuffed!
OF COURSE we had to try their donut grilled cheeses! I think we were there more for the dessert than the other food. haha.
The Fat Elvis Grilled Cheese Donut (fresh banana, peanut butter mascarpone, mozzarella, marshmallow, bacon, donut) $4.95~
This was also the special of the day. It's like The King, but with marshmallow and bacon. We shared this among 4 people. It was so goooood! The peanut butter mascarpone was rich and creamy but wasn't super thick like just pb. The bacon added a smokiness, it was awesome. We all loved it.
S'more Grilled Cheese Donut (chocolate pieces, graham cracker, marshmallow mascarpone, donut) $4.95~ Another co-worker got this. I got to try a teeny bite. This donut was grilled to perfection.. you can see the color on it. It was yummy too, but the Fat Elvis won it for me.
We had a great lunch. Everyone raved about the food. The service was great too. You'd think with a "fast-food" type set up there wouldn't be much service. But they were constantly cleaning off tables, came around a few times to make sure we were enjoying everything. Just very friendly and hospitable. I can't wait to go back again. I have so many more things to try!
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
The day after V-Day we went downtown to meet up with one of my fiance's friends from Austin. He was in Ft. Worth visiting his gf. We initially went to Smoke, but there was an hour wait...and the line never seemed to get shorter. So we made our way over to Savor. It was a nice day, so we could also walk around Klyde Warren Park!
Savor Gastropub
2000 Woodall Rodgers Freeway
Dallas, TX 75201
(214) 306-5597
http://savor-relish.com/savor/
Price (for brunch): $$
Having been here for brunch once before, I knew I wanted to get the French Toast because it's awesome! We were seated immediately. Our waiter was very nice but from the time we sat down to when we got our food, we had a series of not-so-good situations, all with cleanliness and maintenance of their stuff. When he brought us our waters, he noticed 2 of the glasses were cracked. He said that they just got new glasses and they seem to crack very easily. I ordered a hot water, and when he brought it, I noticed lipstick stains around the rim. Ick. He was very apologetic and immediately brought me a new one. When we were waiting for our food, we noticed that my fiance's fork was dirty. Still had crusty food bits on it. Yuck! Again, we showed it to our waiter and he was so embarrassed and immediately replaced it. I noticed some parts of our table wasn't very clean either but I decided not to make the waiter feel worse. But they really need to step it up with their quality control!! No one wants to eat at a dirty restaurant no matter how good the food is! (well... there ARE exceptions. hahaha) Anyways, there's my rant. Everything else was great.
My fiance got the Moscow Mule (Sobieski vodka, citrus, ginger beer) $12~ I always like it when they serve it in the copper cups. It was pretty good.
For our entrees both girls ordered the Lemon Ricotta Stuffed French Toast (brioche, blueberry jam, spiced pecan brittle) $14~
My fiance and I were fighting about who got to order this. haha. I won, of course. :P It was everything I remembered it to be. So freaking light and fluffy. You don't feel heavy after eating it. Pretty damn amazing. The other girl was a vegetarian so her choices were limited, but she also loved this.
Both guys ended up getting The "Croque" (open faced, shaved ham, stout soaked Gruyere, fried egg, mornay sauce, croissant; service with choice of fries, salad, or soup) $14~
It looked amazing! And tasted great. The combination of the ham, egg, croissant, and mornay sauce was soooo good. I totally recommend this. The soup was pretty good, I've had better tomato basil before though. But the soup and sandwich combo was great.
Again, fantastic food here. I think their French Toast is in my top 3. But again... they need to clean more!! Hopefully no more dirty forks or stained cups next time we go.
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After brunch we walked around the park. There were lots of food trucks there including Coolhaus! So I had to get something.
We got a scoop of the Thai Iced Tea (top) and a scoop of the Pistachio Black Truffle $7~
Pretty pricy for 2 small scoops but I know they make these funky interesting combos so it's a novelty. Their cups are so tiny, it made it a little hard to eat... I kept thinking the top scoop was going to fall off! I wasn't a fan of the Thai Tea... Old Town Creamery in Plano makes a wayyyy better one. But loved the pistachio truffle. You can actually taste both flavors! And it had black truffle mushroom shavings in it. That was a nice little addition. :)
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
Saturday was our afternoon tea at TASCHEN in the Joule Hotel downtown. I've been excited about this for weeks! I love afternoon tea, whether European style or Asian style. The concept, the food, the way everything is presented. It's so classy yet quaint and delicious! :)
I first heard of Tea at TASCHEN several months ago. It just started this year. I saw many pictures on Instagram accounts I follow and it absolutely looked amazing. I looked up the info and they only offer it once a week... Fridays at 2:30PM. And they only have 16 seats, so you definitely have to reserve ahead of time. Early afternoon on a Friday may be a problem for most people since we have to work. But I was psyched when they opened up a Saturday tea time for the holidays (November and December). Also at 2:30PM. I immediately called and got a reservation for 2 on 12/20. I dragged my fiance along with me. haha. He wasn't too keen on the price and had never done afternoon tea so he didn't understand my excitement.
Tea at TASCHEN - The Joule Hotel
1530 Main St.
Dallas, TX 75201
(214) 748-1300 (x4363)
www.thejouledallas.com/tea-at-taschen.htm
Price: $$$$+
Just some brief info on the tea service...
Tea at TASCHEN is $59 per person, inclusive of taxes, gratuity and valet. During the tea, guests receive 10% off purchases in TASCHEN Library. The library is very intimate. A small room surrounded by interesting books and mosaics. Brightly lit, modern yet cozy. As we walked in, we were given glasses of champagne, the tables were beautifully displayed with colorful china, 24 ct. gold flatware, and a mini tower of delectable treats. The menu is seasonal, so it'll change in a few weeks.
There was a large communal table that was still empty when we arrived. So that gave me time to take like a million pictures. hehe. I loved the cup and saucer for the tea. And there was a shortbread cookie placed on top of it. We waited around for something to happen. My fiance wanted to dig into the food, but no one else had started yet. Plus there was no tea... so we tried to be patient. We were both hungry! haha.
Finally the large group arrived. And the manager came in to welcome everyone and explain how the tea service is going to work. He talked about the TASCHEN library, the rescued mosaics on the walls, the different food items on the display tower and the teas we will be trying. The champagne was all you can drink. Kinda wasted on me since I don't drink champagne, but I actually managed to down a full glass! The champagne they served was Gruet Sauvage.
The 3 teas featured were...
Nile Delta Chamomile (Egypt)
Coconut Assam (India)
Both of these were from Kai Organic Tea.
2001 Vintage Oak Barrel Aged Pu-Erh (China)
Now this part was different than other afternoon teas I've done before. Usually you just select the type of tea you want, and they bring you a personal pot of it to refill at your leisure. But here, they had a waitress serve the tea, and you try all 3 flavors. I would've preferred my own pot so I can refill my cup on my own. And neither of us were fans of the Chamomile so I had to wait awhile before they started serving the Assam. The Chamomile was quite bitter, not mild like I'm usually used to. And I don't really like it in general, but he did, and he didn't like this one. He added some honey to it and it seemed to help a little.
The Coconut Assam was interesting. Quite mild, not really sweet, but had a little nuttiness. The manager said this was his personal favorite, and the crowd pleaser, when he made his introductions. I thought it paired extremely well with the shortbread cookie.
The Pu-Erh was the one we both wanted to try the most. My parents and I actually drink a lot of it at home. It's a very dark tea. It has a very unique smell and taste. I want to say it's a little like licking a tree bark, but in a good way. haha. I guess it's just a bit more herbal/woody tasting. And the flavor of this particular one was actually milder than what I drink at home. The dark color just gives the impression that the flavor is going to be pretty strong. We both liked this the best.
Also, during the transition of different teas, a guy comes around with a jar and pours any remaining tea from our cups into it. I wondered why they don't give us new cups... It didn't bother either of us, but I would think hardcore tea connoisseurs would say the previous flavor is contaminating the next? Eh... we're not experts. haha. It was just something I noticed.
On to the food! Everything looked so quaint and delicate. I love miniature/finger foods. Always so tasty looking.
SAVORY
Goat Cheese Brioche (pumpkin butter, sage, salted pepita brittle). Y'all know I'm not a fan of goat cheese but I had to try a little anyways. It was quite goat-y... but I liked everything else. The pumpkin butter was a pretty orange and slightly sweet with the savory goat cheese. I loved the pepita brittle with that extra crunch. I just scraped most of the goat cheese off and gave to my fiance.
Lobster Mousse Napoleon (celery, spiced tapioca, soy caviar). This was interesting. There was a piece of lobster on the top and it was cooked perfectly. The soy caviar was done with molecular gastronomy. They did explain that they wanted to take classic afternoon tea foods and put a twist on it. The white puff on top was actually dehydrated tapioca balls and then fried! Cool!
Ham Mousse Eclair (parmesan tuille, mustard caviar, bonfire salt). Totally cute and yummy. It was like a ham and cheese sandwich but fancier! The bottom was an eclair half, then ham mousse, topped with parmesan tuille, mustard caviar, and 2 little donut balls. It had a lot of flavor in that little bite. The mustard was a great addition to the other flavors.
Deviled Egg Sandwich (tomato chutney, tomato meringue). This was our favorite. It was fantastic! Pretty AND delicious. I love a good deviled egg and I loved the presentation of it. How did they manage to cut out little perfect squares of egg white is beyond me. And the neat little piping of egg yolk on top. YUMM-O!
I had a friend that went a few weeks before me and she said that they were able to get more of the items they liked best. So we went in thinking that we can get refills on whatever we wanted...which cause my fiance to eat everything faster. haha. But half way thru, we were starting to think that wasn't the case. We asked the waitress that served the tea, if the food was one per person or if we can get more, and she said it was whatever is displayed for us. :( Uh-oh. haha. We were both a little disappointed. But later, when the manager came over, I asked him again. He explained that if the kitchen made extras or if they had some cancellations, then usually they are able to bring out more by request but it isn't always the case. He then asked us which ones we liked the best, we said the deviled eggs and ham mousse, and he winked and said they might have some more in the back. Yay! He later came out with 2 more deviled eggs and a ham mousse. He was fantastic btw, not just because he gave us more food. :P Very friendly, warm, and introduced the food/experience well.
SWEET
Huckleberry Buckle. This was already on the tower when we arrived. It was one of my favorite items. Kind of like a scone, moister than a biscuit but drier than a muffin. The frosting on top was a perfect ratio to the pastry. It paired SO WELL with all the teas.
The last 3 desserts came out at the end. (From left to right)
Manjori Ancho Tart. It's a dark chocolate tart. I think he said 65% dark or something? It's very dense and rich, and had a spicy kick. It was too dark for my fiance so I got to eat half of his! :)
Vanilla Yogurt Sandwich (with lavender). I think they said this was made with their house-made croissant dough. The cream is infused with lavender. I'm allergic to the smell of lavender so I was hesitant to eat this. I tried a teeny bit of the cream and didn't taste anything other than yogurt. He told me not to eat it... and it wasn't worth eating. He wasn't a fan.
Passion Berry. This was so good!! A heavy contender to the Huckleberry Buckle. I love passion fruit and it pairs so well to the marshmallow and cocoa nibs. The passion fruit was sweet, refreshing, and a little tangy. It was nice to end the meal with that bite.
Before we were finished, they gave every person 2 macarons to go. We got a chocolate and I'm not sure what the other flavor is. The chocolate wasn't that great... kinda chewy, but the other one is airy and nice, as it should be.
It was a great time. The whole event lasted about 2 hours. It was nice to just sit back, relax and enjoy the moment. And my fiance enjoyed himself. Some things were different than I expected but overall I really liked it. The service was great, presentation was classy, the setting was intimate and the food was yummy. The price included tax and tip and valet already so I thought it was very reasonable. Generally afternoon teas are not cheap. I recommend this for a girl's day out, or if you just enjoy afternoon tea. They only have one service each day so you don't feel rushed at all, and you get your fill. We were both quite full after it all. And there's no dress code, but I noticed that most people were at least in nice casual attire.
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
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