Knife Dallas

If you haven't noticed by now, I'm not shy in trying to hunt down all of the restaurants that sport Top Chef contestants (whether they won or not).   Since I would be down in Dallas, it was a given I would try Chef John Tesar's modern steakhouse aptly named Knife.  On the show, he was somewhat vilified as a hot-headed chef that produced some pretty good food.  Once described as the most-hated chef in Dallas by D Magazine, John Tesar didn't really come across as unreasonable on Top Chef.  Maybe he was just stuck in untenable situations?

Before we even ordered our actual food, we were presented with a plate of Crudites accompanied by a green radish dip.  Normally, I do not comment on veggies and dip, but the various carrots were sweet and super crunchy.  There was also celery, radish and endive.  However, the tastiest thing was the creamy and bright dip.  For our actual appie, we had the Yellowtail with Texas ruby grapefruit, avocado, Murray River salt, sriracha and Ligurian olive oil.  This featured beautiful and buttery yellowtail that was thickly sliced.  There was only a touch of sriracha that didn't interfere with the natural sweetness of the fish.  I would've liked to see a touch more salt to bring out the flavours a bit more, but the dish as a whole was very good.

For my son, he went for the Beef Cheek Burger with truffle mayo.  My word, this thing was a beast.  The size on the beef cheek was bigger than the actual bun.  Size is one thing, but the darn thing was beautifully prepared being tender, succulent and gelatinous.  The braising liquid was balanced and impactful.  The truffle mayo added another layer of luxuriousness.  Although my son didn't use the pickles on the side, it would've been the perfect compliment as it would've added the necessary acidity.  For my daughter, she went for the Fettuccine Bolognese that also arrived in an enormous portion.  Freshly made, the pasta was a touch soft, but still okay.  As for the bolognese, it was rich with plenty of meat and carrots being well-seasoned with an appealing amount of spiciness.

Viv decided on the King Salmon and cauliflower since she wanted to get away from red meat after our BBQ lunch at Pecan Lodge.  Although the skin was prepared crispy and was well-salted, the fish itself was a little more done than she would've preferred.  On a side note, she ate the leftovers cold the next day and it was actually moist.  As for the cauliflower, it was well-seasoned and had a nice bite.  For myself, I had the 10 oz Texas Wagyu Skirt Steak.  I asked for it to be prepared medium-rare and although the optimum is to cooked the steak a bit more to activate the fats, the steak still turned out perfect.  It was well-charred on the outside and properly seasoned.  The meat was juicy, well-rested and super tender (even for a skirt steak).

For my side, I chose the Creamed Spinach and roasted shallots which was amazingly tasty and prepared how I personally like it.  Unlike other versions, the spinach wasn't cooked to a pulp.  Rather, it was still vibrant and had texture.  The sauce was creamy, yet not overly so while the roasted shallots were aromatic and added taste to an already flavorful dish.  We were so stuffed, dessert was never really in the cards.  However, we each received a plate of petit fours that was more than we could handle (since we were still digesting lunch, let alone dinner).  Overall, we were pretty satisfied with our visit to Knife.  Most of the dishes were good and the service was really attentive.

The Good:
- My steak was perfect
- Excellent service
- Pricing was okay IMO

The Bad:
- Salmon could've been less cooked
- Pasta was a little overdone