100 Favorite Dishes, No. 55: Pork Belly Tacos at Komali

Leading up to September's Best of Dallas® 2017 issue, we're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year. We’ve been enjoying the new direction at Komali for a year or so as new owners and chef...

By Brian Reinhart

July 19, 2017

Pork belly tacos at Komali Kathy Tran

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Leading up to September's Best of Dallas® 2017 issue, we're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year.

We’ve been enjoying the new direction at Komali for a year or so as new owners and chef Geovanny Arredondo, a Mexico City native, explore regional flavors of Mexico with refinement and elegant plating. There’s no better introduction than the restaurant’s pork belly taco appetizer, which seems to rethink each ingredient. Take the corn tortillas: Mole spices are incorporated directly into the mix, which gives them their deep chocolate color. There’s wonderful balance between the fat of the pork belly and the bite of pickled red onion, and balance too between the creamy-yet-hot salsa and belly’s crisp sear.

Unfortunately, it appears Komali has phased out another great taco appetizer: tacos de canasta, the messy, steamed tacos which made Uptown socialites’ fingers run red with guajillo chili oil. But the pork belly tacos still have our seal of approval, especially paired with margaritas that rank among the city’s best.

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Brian Reinhart has been the Dallas Observer's food critic since spring 2016. In addition, he writes baseball analysis for the Hardball Times and covers classical music for the Observer and MusicWeb International.

Contact: Brian Reinhart

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