Fuego at Stephan Pyles

[bobag87]

With much trepidation, my wife and I did the 9:00pm seating at Fuego, the new 4 seat "modern gastronomy" tasting menu at Stephan Pyles this evening. We were exteremely pleased and surprised at our dinner this evening. While the dinner was not a night at El Bulli, it was far and above anything that Dallas currently has to offer and was quite a successful dinner. The menu had many very successful dishes such as:

Cucumber hibiscus cocktail -- a great refreshing start

Hot potato-cold potato -- while the lack of originality in the title bothered me, this was a different dish from that at Alinea -- it was a great potato ice cream with a warm potato foam. Caviar and chives added interest.

Seared watermelon salad -- compressed watermelon, seared in the wood burning pizza oven, with tomatoes and herbs and sherry/olive oil -- this was phenomenal.

Scallop, Mexican chocolate, Saffron rissotto -- this was a great flavor combination. The scallops were quickly seared in the Pizza oven and sprinkled with shaved dark chocolate. They were great.

The cheese course (a rarity in Dallas) was "blown up brie". Using an isi cansiter, the chese was arified and served with honey comb, cherries and other items. This was a perfect cheese course and a surprise in this city.

The deserts started with corn sorbet with no sweetener. This was absolutely fantastic -- pure corn essence and sweet, but not too sweet.

Chocolate soup with curry ice cream and tapioca was also great -- a mild curry ice cream with basically a chocolate sauce was surprisingly good and a highlight of the night.

Some items missed -- the Halibut was slightly overcooked, but had good flavors, The pork belly dish was great, but did not need the "vegetable garden", etc.

Overall, the meal was 11 courses, with 3 amuses not counted. The interaction with chef McCallister and his helper was great and down to earth -- no questions were out of bounds and their reactions were certainly no scripted. Again, while this is not El Bulli or Alinea, it is light years ahead of anything currently existing in Dallas and I will definitely be going back.

The wine pairings generally worked. The best was the chimay ale with the oxtail marmelade bao bun. Throwing some beer out as a pairing was a great touch.