14 May 25 - 31, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents t FIRST LOOK NOT-SO MAGIC DRAGON KOMODO IS ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED RESTAURANT OPENINGS IN DALLAS THIS YEAR. WE MADE RESERVATIONS WEEKS OUT ONLY TO LEAVE FEELING A BIT HAD. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS W ell, you can likely tell where this is going. Komodo, a Miami import from Groot Hospitality, serves a Southeast Asian-inspired menu with lots of panache. This restaurant sits at the bottom of The Epic Dallas, a high-gloss, 8-acre, mixed-use office and residential space and hotel with several club/restaurants on the ground level, including La Neta (from Las Vegas) and Harper’s, a local restaurant from Milkshake Concepts. All the restaurants here are peacocks with a talon in the club end of the pool. This is all on the west end of Deep Ellum, near where The Gypsy Tea Room once thrived, when grunge and live music were the draws of the area. Alas, things have changed. The come-as-you-are vibe has been razed. I nabbed reservations for two at Komodo several weeks out, at 8 p.m. on a Tuesday, which was pushing curfew but it turns out you age yourself with 6 p.m. dinner reservations. Exiting the car at valet, the only nearby parking option, you learn the valet fee is $10 (although a lot of reviews mention $15, not sure if that was because it was a Tuesday). Other high-end steakhouses in Dallas, Nick and Sam’s and Town Hearth, offer free valet, but a tip is expected, obviously. So, despite this massive development with its very own multilevel parking garage that you could throw your keys at and hit, you’ll need to pay someone else to park your car on top of the tip. This was the first point in the evening where the line between being a guest and a sucker was smudged. But if you’re worried about the $10 to park, buckle up. The restaurant is quite impressive, even from the outside. A doorman opens the large wooden doors and three hostesses with iPads at their fingertips greet you. Adjacent to the hostess stand is a Peking duck frying station with naked and fried red fowl hanging from hooks. It’s real in here. Passing the bar into the main dining space feels a bit like walking across the dance floor at the club before the vodka and Red Bulls kick in. Many of the tables are big half-moons, great for dates or fun work dinners. It’s loud and dim, with streaks of lipstick red lights and lots of laughing. We follow our hostess farther and farther to a back corner of the restaurant to the point our smiles morph into curious looks of surely-we’re-not-being-taken-to-a-back- corner. At the end of the journey, our hostess waived her long arm to the middle of three small tables, next to a couple who was already working on their entrées. I shimmied between the tables to the banquet-side seat. After we sat down an awkward hush fell over our corner. I gave a shrug and “sorry” glance to the young couple next to us. It felt like being put at a corner table in the junior- high cafeteria when we got too loud. City of Ate from p13 blend makes everything sing. Each bite is sweet, salty, spicy and tart in perfect four- part harmony. Teriyaki 4 U’s crab Rangoon ($6) will forever ruin your enjoyment of any lesser takeout versions you’ve ever had. Instead of being loaded with cream cheese and the briefest hint of crab, Bonee flips the script. These are chock full of shredded crab, with just enough cream cheese to bind the meat together, and it’s all fried to a golden hue. Instead of a syrupy sweet and sour sauce, these come with a Vietnamese-style pink peppercorn fish sauce that’s perfect for dipping. Four come to an order, making them ideal for sharing. There’s no Kahlua pork available, but as we dug into the spicy teriyaki chicken ($13), the flashbacks to Hawaii kicked into high gear. The strips of chicken are perfectly grilled, and the spicy teriyaki sauce comes in a cup on the side so you can add as little or as much as you like. The sauce wasn’t burn- your-mouth spicy, but it did provide a subtle hint of zing. Before any spicy heat gets out of hand, forkfuls of the crunchy slaw or the creamy macaroni salad step in to cool things down. Macaroni salad is what drives the Hawaiian point home, and Teriyaki 4 U’s version is spot-on. In addition to chicken or salmon, Teriyaki 4 U offers a teriyaki tofu and a Japanese curry. There’s also another Hawaiian staple, Loco Moco, on the menu that we’ll definitely come back to try. Loco Moco is two chargrilled burger patties topped with mushroom gravy and fried egg, with more rice and mac salad. There’s also an assortment of boba teas and iced coffees, and Bonee says that some boozy adult bobas are in the works once the restaurant gets its beverage permit. Most people visit Hawaii for the epic beaches and natural beauty, but the cuisine is no slouch either. Fresh food abounds, and the blending of Japanese, Korean and Chinese into the Pacific Island cuisine is a culinary delight. At Teriyaki 4 U, the food brings those same memories crashing back in Pacific-sized waves, tucked in a strip mall spot that’s much closer to home. Teriyaki 4 U, 1111 W. Frankford Road, Carrollton. Monday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. Grilled Pineapple at Teriyaki 4 U Chris Wolfgang 10250 Shady Trail • 214.358.5511 • babydolls.com Come watch all the basketball action with us! check out our new kitchen daily buffet Mon-fri 11aM-2PM stadiuM buffet Monday-friday 4PM-10PM Sat 11aM-10pM • Sun 12pM-10pM
