Dinner at LOLA

[lturley4]

This tiny cottage on Fairmount in Dallas was reccommended by a friend, so as Julia recieved her promotion we decided to visit armed with at least an excuse.

We were not exactly full of trepadation but in some ways wished we had at least visited before Mr. Samford left for Ceneral Market, but knew mr. Peters would be more than capable (was he the sous chef for Barclay's as well...seems I remember that).

Lola is set in an old home featuring approx. 20 tables, covered in ivy and a gorgeous garden. I believe there is a private dining room as well. Very quaint for such a powerhouse dining area as Cedar Springs and McKinney, but this house is steeped in tradition...or at least it has hosted a couple of greasy spoons in it's day.

We had both been craving a good Zinfandel for a period approaching a week so we took the reccomendation of the'99 Martinelli. Quite assuming and large, but I suppose that's why one orders a Zinfandel.

Started with steamed mussels with tomatoes and cauliflour while Julia had the warm crab napoleon. The mussels were tender and succulent (making me wish I could once live in a costal locale) forming a bit of a surprise, though, that they were not steamed in wine. The portion was huge. The crab was wonderful if not in large chunks.

Possibly the biggest disappointment of the evenig was my tortillia soup. Poor pairing, I agree, but a craving is a craving. No discernable broth as this soup was overly spiced. Nor was it hearty; I could find no fat swimming along the edge of the bowl as one expects with tortillia soup, and as a result the broth had no depth. The color was a rusty pink swimming with yellow base, cofusing me the more (not that difficult a task). More acceptable was Julia's spinach salad, boldly dressed with lots of citrus and bacon. We've never been fans of overtly sublte salads, and that this was not. If only the soup were sublte..

We then rolled into duck confit and seared breast with lentils as Julia had herb crusted lamb. The duck was fatty and the breast perfectly cooked. Lamb also well cooked, and the zinfandel-plumb reduction was amazing with the accompanying scalloped potatoes. However, the promised tapanade was nowhere to be found (at least by me).

We finished with a well construced, massive cheese plate. However, the prize of the evening was the rum-raisin ice cream with seared bannanas. Not so much seared but dipped in the caramalized as the banannas were not even warmed, but bitterly delicious. The ice cream was WELL spiked with rum and probably the most flavorful ice cream i've ever had, and still one of the the sweetest. This is the dish I will try to recreate in the days to come. We toiled with the cheese but gobbled every bit of the ice cream and bananna.

We will definitely return to Lola. Service was well paced and adequately informative. The wine list was a book; we are not very knowledgable about wine and usually roll with the suggestions, but at over 50 pages this has to be one of the most complete lists in Dallas. A couple of interesting characters none abashed about all getting the low down of their conversation kept us very entertained. The larger one's ego, the more interesting their speak, I suppose.

[NewYorkTexan]

Great write-up.

Just added Lola to my "need to visit" list. Any thoughts on their wine pricing?

[lturley4]

A bargain it must be.

Take a look here.

Looking back over the list, I think we made a poor choice

[Scott -- DFW]

THIS IS ONLY A TEST

Just trying to figure out how to incorporate images in text for future reviews. Last night's quiet dinner in the Tasting Room (the only other customer was the executive sous chef of a high profile Dallas restaurant) was good enough to merit a full write-up. But (1) I don't have the time for it now, (2) the photos were taken with my dinky Palm Pilot rather than a real camera, and (3) I don't even know if this will work. Please excuse the exercise.

First Course:

The signature oyster with horseradish and Champagne mignonette.

Fourth Course:

Crab salad with avocado and pickled baby carrots.

Last Course:

Baked Alaska (chocolate cake, coconut ice cream).

I just "previewed" the post and it looks like it's working. Awful images, though. (Bad camera, low lighting, and no flash will do that, I guess.)

Thanks, ExtraMSG, for the instructions. As you can see, they clearly were idiot-proof.

Scott

[ExtraMSG]

Yeah, don't be afraid to use your flash in a restaurant. Without good lighting, it just doesn't work. The biggest problem I've had, too, is that sometimes without adequate lighting my camera can't autofocus. I'm considering bringing a mini-mag light with me to help it focus. (Man, how embarassed I'm going to start making my wife.)

That baked Alaska looks pretty cool, though.

I've come to ask for seats next to windows, too. Makes a big difference if it's light outside.

I'm really looking forward to your first photolog of Lola's Tasting Room.

[Richard Kilgore]

Thanks for the post, Iturley4. Hope you have lots of good excuses for dining and reporting back here.

Scott -- do tell us more about this trip to the Tasting Room when you get a chance.

[Scott -- DFW]

ExtraMSG,

I know what you mean (both about lighting and spousal humiliation). One recommendation: don't use a Mini Maglite. First, because it's too bright and uneven a light. Second, because an incandescent bulb skews the color reproduction. Consider the CMG Infinity Tasklight (white). It's smaller, uses an LED (that will last forever, basically), casts a true white light (making for better color representation), distributes it more evenly (so you don't have focused hot spots), and operates for 20+ hours on a single AA battery. (You can find them in some stores or online.)

A quick rundown of the courses:

Oyster with horseradish and Champagne mignonette.

Peeky-toe crab salad w/ avocado, microcress, and pickled carrots.

Raw asparagus salad with shallots, lemon vinaigrette, and sieved egg.

Salad of bocarones, roasted red bell peppers, shallots, and flatleaf parsley.

Crispy sauteed fluke w/ cured salmon, macerated cucumber, and dilled creme fraiche.

Littleneck clam risotto w/ lemon and Italian parsley.

Seared diver scallop w/ English pea puree and sauteed morels.

Lady pea soup w/ apple-smoked bacon.

Duck w/ roasted cipollini onion and succotash.

Veal flank steak w/ broccoli puree and polenta cake.

Beef tenderloin w/ anchovy-garlic butter, haricot vert, and boiled potatoes.

Rhubarb sherbet.

(Skipped cheese course, since I was about to explode.)

Cherry and peach gratin w/ whipped mascarpone.

Baked Alaska (w/ chocolate genoise and coconut ice cream).

Mignardises: Citrus gelees, honey tuille, and chocolate-dipped candied orange zest.

Maybe next time I'll take good photos for a full review. The restaurant is recommended to visitors enough that it would be nice to be able to point to a photo essay about a meal there (like that excellent post on Trio's "tour de force" in the Chicago forum) so they can get an idea of what it's all about.

Scott

[Lyle]

I wanted to add to this last night but I needed to talk to the mods first (and something else came up after) so

***FULL DISCLOSURE*** Any post by lturley4 was me. I changed email addresses a couple of years ago an reregistered as Lyle since, well, that's my name. As I told the mods, there was no intent to decieve and I never reposted (I think) under lturley4 after registering as Lyle.

Well, there it is.

Back to Lola. I dined in the dining room about four weeks ago with two companions. I really wanted to try the Tasting Room but their menu appeared quite heavy on egg and oyster preparations and, as Julia consumes neither, it seemed counterproductive.

I forgot my notes , didn't review them last night, and won't be able to retrieve them until tomorrow, so let's not call this an all encompassing review. More scattershooting about, sadly, some of the problems. I do remember that, out of twelve dishes, six were hits.

Durn, I can't even remember all I ate, much less my companions dishes. Let's not even mention wine, although I'm much more informed in that aspect than I was when I wrote the above. I did have, as a second course, a small slice of poorly textured foie that was well seared. But the standout of this dish was the pickled strawberry garnish. The strawberries retained their sweetness and, surprising to me, their texture. When one bit into them there was a seeming concentration of their sweetness that perfectly played with their acidic brine. This process would require very sweet strawberries I would think. The strawberries we used to grow were far too acidic, although that inherent acid level made them perfect for 'plain eatin'. I'll have to simulate this dish at some point.

Our mains were the big problem. I know our companion got venison that turned out fine (the only dish I didn't sample). My wife ordered med-rare beef tenderloin with braised beef cheeks while I requested a sauteed lobster with concherels (sp? I'm in a hurry). While the cheeks were the buttery, fatty, beefy slab of soft heaven anyone could expect, the loin was sorely overcooked. To their credit, it was a very tender cut of med-well done beef which must be hard to do. The same symptom was observed with my lobster, but it suffered much more. Our companion joked about how he never thought he'd enjoy lobster flavored gum as he chewed and chewed the stringy mess. We concluded that the dishes most likely spent a good time under the heat lamp as all other dishes seemed to reveal proper technique in preparation.

Sure enough, our companion spoke with a friend who waits tables at Lola the next day who indicated that has indeed been a problem with more delicate dishes (I wouldn't call tenderloin delicate, but what do I know). The dishes simply come out too fast. His solution? Eat in the Tasting Room next time.

One final little gripe. I generally don't enjoy desert and have decided to flow with cheese. There were simply no interesting cheeses. Three very small wedges, one goat, one soft cow, and a very very mild blue. It's not a good sign when, outside the rhind, one has trouble distinguishing their blue from their goat. Very subtle indeed.

That's not to say I'm bashing Lola. Quite the contrary. But the squeaky wheel, ya' know? Those problems just stood out. On the whole the meal was delightful and by all stretches a bargain. I'm really ready to dine in the Tasting Room. But, wherever one chooses to dine, Lola is someplace to take advantage of.

Sorry about the rambling. I'm typing, working, and certainly not editing. If I find my notes I'll have some more praiseful things to say.

[ExtraMSG]

Definitely give the Tasting Room a try. Note, they don't have the same kitchen or chef, so it's really two different restaurants. Also, with so many courses, you shouldn't get too much of anything and it's not that big a deal to skip a course and still get full.

[Scott -- DFW]

Sure enough, our companion spoke with a friend who waits tables at Lola.... His solution? Eat in the Tasting Room next time.

Sound advice. Though I haven't been to the main dining room since the departure of Chris Peters, my experiences there have been inconsistent (i.e., as to food--the service has always been good). It's a reasonable value at the price point, considering the solid service, the "luxury" ingredients that appear on the menu, and some excellent dishes at times.

But the Tasting Room, as your companion's waiter-friend indicated, is another animal entirely. Since its opening early last year, I've had (as a conservative estimate) over 150 distinct dishes there. The vast majority of them have ranged from very good to sublime. I can count the dishes I've questioned on one hand; and, even there, I admit the likelihood that they were good courses that just didn't fit my palate. Despite the aggressive menu rotation (e.g., only five courses of the menu I described above are repeats or adaptations of dishes I've had there before and, of those, most are repetitions/adaptations from the menu I had there about two weeks ago), the quality and execution of dishes is consistently top-notch.

Since Lola and the Tasting Room are in the same building under the same ownership, it's easy to assume that they're in the same quality category (but with a slightly different format). They're not. Give Uygur's work a try and see what all the fuss is about.

Scott

[Raynickben]

I finally had my opportunity to dine at the Tasting Room at Lola's so I'm bringing this topic back up. This couldn't be an easier way to dine. We came in, were seated right away, handed the menu, I said we'll have all 14 courses with wine pairings and within 60 seconds we were on our way to gluttony.

Our menu was as follows:

wine: Roederer Estate, Brut Sparkling, Anderson Valley N.V.

Gay Island oyster with horseradish mignonette

Marinated branzino with lettuce and mustard

Taylor bay scallop with fennel and chili

Warm salad of squid and olives

wine:Zenato, Lugana “San Benedetto”, Veneto, Italy 2003

Friseé salad with lardons and a poached quail egg

Sauteéd monkfish with speck and cranberry beans

Rotollo of braised organic chicken and chanterelles

wine:Artesa, Syrah, Sonoma 1999

Chestnut soup with bacon

Poached duck with braised endive

Prime N.Y. strip steak with a watercress puree

Seared Sonoma foie gras with crab apple

wine: Chambers, Muscadelle, Rosewood Vineyards, Rutherglen, Australia N.V.

Grape sorbet with black currant puree

Three artisan cheeses with pears and chestnut honey

Gnocchi de susine

First of all, presentation is everything here and as course after course came out I was wowed by the creativity in plating. The branzino was tightly rolled in bright green lettuce to the size of two thimbles and drizzled with a mustard seed oil. The foie gras had tiny little grill marks on each side and it sat across from a perfect rosy crab apple with a rich brown applesauce puddle. The strip steak was placed upon a bright green watercress puree in the shape of the "dark" half of a ying-yang. Why have I never seen a quail egg so perfect? Why have I never eaten such bright white rings of squid? Where is this chef getting his ingredients? Heaven?

Overall the taste of each plate was on par with the presentation. I will never have a better oyster, I just know it. The bay scallop was sublime and the gnocchi de susine were creamy, sweet perfection. Alas, they had to come at the end when I was so full!

There were some off moments though. There were four courses in a row that featured some form of bacon: the frisee salad with lardons, the monkfish with speck, the rotollo, and the chestnut soup with BACON. By the time that soup came out I was a walking salt shaker. And bacon is a very strong flavor so it was disappointing after the first four unique and flavorful courses to have four so similar. Did it not occur to anyone working there to say "Hey chef; we get it. You like bacon!" The wine selections were generally good, except the Muscadelle. I knew it would be sweet but that stuff is liquid cotton candy. Ughh.

The service was friendly, helpful and expedient. The whole dinner took two hours, quicker than I expected but the timing worked. It is refreshing to have such consistantly outstanding variety of small tastes versus the whole side of cow one must plow through at some other upscale restaurants. It was a memorable meal and I hope Lola's continues this unique culinary experience because I want to go back. Hold the bacon.

[FoodMan]

Thanks for the review Ranickben, hopefully next time I am up there I can get a reservation. Please do educate me, what is Gnocchi de susine?

Elie

[Raynickben]

Thanks for the review Ranickben, hopefully next time I am up there I can get a reservation. Please do educate me, what is Gnocchi de susine?

Elie

←

I had to be educated on Gnocchi de susine as well! susine is plums. The gnocchi were filled with small purple plums and then rolled in cinnamon and sugar. They were about the size of a nickel so you know how tiny those plums were!

[irodguy]

Yep sounds interesting indeed. I had made a mental note to try it after meeting the tasting room's chef's wife @ the Slow Foods Event. She raved about her husband being brilliant

[Richard Kilgore]

Thanks for the fine report, Raynickben. Lola's Tasting Room is at the top of my list.

[Kevin72]

Along with several other posters here, I’ve had Lola on my “To Visit” list for a while and finally got to hit the Tasting Room Friday night. The 10 course tasting and wine pairing:

Winterpoint Oysters, lemon juice and chives

Prosciutto and Petite Bichone Salad, Fried Quail Eggs and Truffles

Bisol “Crede” Prosecco

Pumpkin Ravioli, Toasted Walnuts, Grapes and Brown Butter

Seared Skate, Buttered Leeks, Risotto and Champagne Citrus Beurre Blanc

Cauliflower Soup with Fried Shallots and Chive Cream

Iname, Soave Classico 2005

Texas Quail, Polenta and Pomegranate Glaze

Roasted Duck Breast with Cannellini Beans, Pancetta, and Fried Collard Greens

Ny Strip, Mascarpone Yukon Gold Potato and candied garlic

Domaine Ligneres, “Arie” Corbierres 2002

Grapefruit Sherbet

Chocolate Fondant and Banana Ice Cream

Marenco “Scrapona” Moscato d’ Asti

The meal started promisingly enough with the oyster, sent out moments after we’d hashed out the details meal. It was a stellar example of raw oyster-ness: deeply briny, jet cold, shot through with the lightest touch of citrus and chives. The flavors just kept going afterwards. My wife, who is pregnant, got a miniature asparagus tartelette and offered me a taste: intense, pure, essence of asparagus.

The next course presented a problem that foreshadowed a theme for the night: despite that she had just 10 minutes ago explicitly told the waiter “no goat cheese” that was indeed what the prosciutto bundled around. Lucky me; I got to eat them both and they were great, but my wife was a little irked.

The pumpkin ravioli were another perfectly autumnal dish: intensely flavored pumpkin with an added layer of richness from the brown butter (I can never get mine that spot-on and nutty tasting), but then cut by the interesting foil of fresh grapes.

The skate wing and risotto were also very well done and artfully plated, and I liked that the citrus beurre blanc helped cut the richness.

The cauliflower soup was good, I thought, but my wife didn’t like the chunky soffritto (finely diced onion and carrot, sautéed briefly) added in I guess at the last minute.

For the meat courses, the abiding problem was that they were all similarly prepared and then served with some form of rich starch: roasted quail and risotto, seared duck and beans, seared steak and mashed potatoes with cheese (not to mention the preceding skate wing and risotto). It got a little monotonous: maybe a braised item instead, or roasted vegetables instead of a creamy, rich puree. And here again, though it had been stated when we made the reservation and then again when we placed to order that night that my wife couldn’t have meat cooked less than medium, most of the meats came out with decided pinkness to them.

But I will say this: everything was perfectly portioned. Just a medallion of meat for each course and a dollop of said starch. My wife, who gets full pretty easily these days, also remarked on how she wasn’t bursting at the seems as she was worried she would be. The grapefruit sherbet (why not call it sorbet?) at the end of the meal really did its job cleansing the palate.

Nothing we had was bad or off-mark, just some stumbles. I was more dismayed by the disconnect with what was served to my wife. Also, the meal started at a pretty quick pace with stuff coming out at regular intervals, then slowed to a crawl by the end.

It should be noted that I overheard, and then later confirmed, that their original chef has left, with Gray Henry now in charge of the Tasting Room. It was empty at first but was filling up nicely when we left. Several tables around us started up a conversation about how good the food was.

So, in sum: very good, just not great, which I was rightly or wrongly hoping for. Some tweaks here and there and it'd definitely be back in form.

[Kevin72]

So despite some of the disapointments last time, I've had Lola on my mind for a while and we decided to go here for a last hurrah before our baby was born (just three days later, it turned out!). This time we went to the restaurant portion, not the tasting room, and ordered off the menu.

And as before, there were moments of utter brilliance and then some disappointments and service stutters. A long wait again between courses and after wine was ordered, but not quite as epic as the waits last time were.

If you go, I highly recommend any item that features their house-cured meats. On the menu this time was a lonza (Spanish-style pork loin that was very rich and meaty tasting), blood sausage, and a grilled, cinnamon-laced cotechino. Also, they continue to knock their pastas out of the park and had a wonderful fava-stuffed ravioli with chives and mascarpone sauce.

Among the disappointments were the oyster apps I ordered (thinking they would be the same as last time) and was disappointed that they were cooked with a pork crepinette instead. Also, it seems that all our entrees were underwhelming. Portions, too, seem a bit off: sometimes you get a plate with a few items on it, other times you get enough food for two to split. In this case, my mom ordered a chicken basquese that was half a chicken and ample helpings of chorizo braised with it. Good, but far too rich to eat with that portion size.

Still, my parents were really impressed and said that this was the best restaurant they'd been to in Dallas.

[Scargo]

My partner and I did Lola last night. We wanted to see a movie afterwards but several events at Lola made us finish too late to do that. We ate in the regular dining area, not the tasting room.

We ordered a McLaren Vale red and after about a 20 minute delay the waiter offered us a substitute which was $30 more. He said that the owner was on his honeymoon and others did not know where wines were located in their immense inventory. The wine was quite cold. I mentioned to the waiter that it was quite chilled yet he did not take the hint and warm it for us; not to mention that he should have never brought it to us at that temperature in the first place! I do not like making a scene and did not want to delay our meal even further (and we were getting a free wine upgrade) so I resorted to holding my glass over the candle. It took a while to open up and be enjoyable, but it was a nice wine.....

In hindsight, I feel like we were treated rather shabbily by the waiter, on this issue. NOTE: excuse and oops #1 and 2

I ordered the four course meal, while "A", my partner, hasn't quite the appetite that I have (and likes to watch her weight) only ordered two courses.

The oyster combo was quite enjoyable. I've never had an oyster-pork crépinette before; I thought it was excellent and juicy. A's foie gras was wonderful; done perfectly and the carmelized rhubarb was a nice accent.

Next, I had scallops. These were great with the spicy black pudding. They did not serve my scallops till A had finished her first course, even though we had a discourse and agreement with the waiter about it (how he would not hold up my second course because she wanted to linger over her first course and then have her main entree at the same time as I had mine). This did not happen and they waited to serve me the scallops, only after she finished the foie gras, which dragged out the meal even more. Oops #3

I asked for my salmon to be cooked rare. Our waiter argued with me and convinced me that as medium-rare, it would come with plenty of "red" in the center. Why do I get talked out of what I know I want? My fear was that perhaps it was not fresh enough, or he knew something I didn't, so, at his insistence I agreed to medium-rare. It came completely cooked thru! I think this was because that it sat under the heat lamps for way too long.... Oops #4, perhaps caused by Oops #3. The waiter said that overcooked fish had "never happened before". He seemed almost to be directing anger AT US but I was quickly brought a nearly rare piece of wondeful salmon and more apologies from him. By this time the wine was starting to warm up and develop nicely, but sadly, it was half gone. I should have insisted that it be warmed or ordered a glass of wine and waited for the bottle to warm. But, we were trying to eat in an hour and a half.....

We shared a lime tart dessert, which we both liked quite well. I choked on the fine, dry crumb of the crust till I got the hang of how to eat it slowly and carefully.

With tip (15.5%) we were lighter by 186 bucks and missed our show.

This was a really nice meal, we both agreed; but it had too many excuses, oops, apologies and long pauses. Perhaps the owner should have been there......

Edited April 26, 2007 by Scargo (log)

[Kevin72]

Man, that's frustrating to hear. LOLA is so close to nailing it and being a top-tier experience but there seems to be service issues that interfere with it. When they get it right, it just absolutely sings. But those errors in service and a few dish executions or oversights just become glaring.

[Scargo]

Yea. We're 60YO now and "been there/done that" at many fine restaurants including Paris, Madrid, etc. and often in NYC. I like critiquing restaurants and hope they get the feedback. I do not choose my restaurants lightly; even if it's a taco stand.

Like I said, "I wish I didn't let myself get talked into or out of things" (that aren't right). I still occasionally feel that I am being treated like a child that doesn't know any better. That really ticks me off, but usually in hindsight.... when I realize just how poorly I've been treated.

BTW, I grew up in Dallas and lived in the area for fifty years. Just five years ago I moved to Connecticut. I come back often to visit family. I've exposed my partner to "Q", good Tex-Mex and much more between Big D, Austin and the Hill Country. It's a great place for food!

[Kevin72]

Third time's a charm: Lola this time was the strongest experience we've had. We did the prixe fixe again, not the tasting room, and had 4 dishes. The only one even slightly subpar was a too-orangey cannolli. I had superb oysters, a scallop with an intense, flavorful mushroom and fennel mixture, and then a plate of pork: smoked tenderloin, braised belly, blood sausage . . . all over a bed of lentils. Excellent. No service issues this time and they explained the amuse brought to the table. Maybe they got the feedback after all?

[Vinotas]

Third time's a charm: Lola this time was the strongest experience we've had.  We did the prixe fixe again, not the tasting room, and had 4 dishes.  The only one even slightly subpar was a too-orangey cannolli. I had superb oysters, a scallop with an intense, flavorful mushroom and fennel mixture, and then a plate of pork: smoked tenderloin, braised belly, blood sausage . . . all over a bed of lentils.  Excellent.  No service issues this time and they explained the amuse brought to the table.  Maybe they got the feedback after all?

←

I've been reading this thread with interest as I'm dining at Lola on Thursday night. It sounds like this place, which has been strongly recommended to me on a wine BB, can be pretty good. Hopefully I'll hit it on an "on" night.

I am looking forward to it, despite Scargo's bad time.

Cheers!

[Kevin72]

Tasting room or regular room?

Interested to hear how it goes!

[Kevin72]

Dare I ask how it went?

[Scargo]

Me too! I want to know. I'm going to be back in Dallas next month and I'm willing to give it another try.... as long as the owner is not out of town.