The Mansion's New Chef Bruno Davaillon Is Breaking Into The Job Slowly, But It Seems Just A Matter Of Time Before His Celebrity Shines.

Comments (0) By Dave Faries Thursday, Jan 21 2010

Right now, one of the most popular soups on his first menu is a butternut squash pureed and ladled over rounds of sweet king crab, a simple combination blending the rustic essence of fall with the richness and wealth of fine shellfish. If anything, it's an example of the sort of thing this chef prefers: fresh ingredients, unadorned, working in concert so one—the earthy butternut, say—provides ballast for the other.

If there's a fault in Davaillon's current menu, it's not one of execution, but thought. Every item I've sampled so far is precise and as near to perfect as humanly possible. Yet the Colorado rack of lamb entrée is merely a plate of four distinct items—meat, grits, greens and a filled crepe, each standing alone. There's no sense that he planned the whole to work together, that he wanted guests to taste one element and shrug, pick at the next and nod, then bite into the third and experience an eye-opening "wow—now it all makes sense," as with the shrimp cocktail.

Sara Kerens

New King of The Mansion Bruno Davaillon is biding his time for now, though he fully expects to make us forget the past.

Location Info

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Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek

2821 Turtle Creek
Dallas, TX 75219

Category: Restaurant > New American

Region: Uptown & Oak Lawn

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King crab and butternut squash soup $18 Shrimp cocktail $18 Chorizo crusted Atlantic halibut $40 Colorado rack of lamb $42

More photos of The Mansion and its food here in our slideshow.

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Clearly he's capable of that level of creativity.

So what's going on? Well, as he said, there's no need to move drastically just yet. Give the place a few months, maybe by March or April, and that technical brilliance will flower into one of the more interesting local and seasonal menus around. After all, spring is the season of resurrection.

The Mansion on Turtle Creek 2821 Turtle Creek Blvd., 214-443-4747. Open 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., 6 p.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. $$$$