Successful Mess

Miso sea bass is exquisitely sweet and rich, sections slipping cleanly from the mother hunk.

As much as Little Katana belts homers with squeeze-bottle syringes and sea bass, it flubs simple pops with the service. Case study: the French-cut pork chop. We ordered one. Our server returned several minutes later to tell us there was none. He suggested the rib eye. We complied. Both the rib eye and pork chop showed up on our bill. Drink orders were taken and then abandoned. You could see the cluster of bottles and beer glasses languishing on the bar. "Where's my beer?" Our server captured the beer from the bar and left the others. "Where's my sake?"

Tom Jenkins

Asian fusion food often stumbles on sushi--but not at Little Katana.

Location Info

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Little Katana

4527 Travis St.
Dallas, TX 75205

Category: Restaurant > Asian Fusion

Region: Park Cities

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Details

Sushi $5-$7

Ahi tower $15

Asian bouillabaisse $6

Flank steak $18

Miso sea bass $26

Rice hot bowl $14

Rib eye $22

Mango cheesecake $6

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• Eating Out

Little Katana boasts one of the largest sake selections in Dallas, ringing in at 45—44 of them cold. Heat, as you may well know, unravels sake's nuances. Heat, as you also may know, cuts winter bone chill. Cold sake is served in a potbellied glass bottle with a blue glass pouch blown into the side. It's filled with ice, making each sip an aesthetic ritual, heightening those nuances.

Heat is essential to the Asian bouillabaisse in many ways. As previously noted, the soup is bright orange and spicy. This is on account of sriracha, the potent Thai pepper sauce. Four fried soba noodles protrude from the broth that holds onion, potato, celery, shrimp, scallops and chunks of fish. The broth ends of the noodles are flaccid; the long ends crisp and nutty. The broth is searing and vibrant, bludgeoning this Mediterranean stew from Provence with Asian twists.

Little Katana finishes with another invention: mango cheesecake. This is noteworthy because it contrasts so eloquently with the ahi tower. While the former is a clean, proportioned tower that becomes a mess, the cheesecake is a mess that becomes a tower. Chunks of mango, cheesecake rubble and mango sauce are haphazardly dumped into a sundae glass and topped with whipped cream. This tower is equally delicious. Now if they could only invent something to make towers out of those service messes. 4527 Travis St., 214-443-9600. Open 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 5 p.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. $$$