First Look: Temakeria in Trinity Groves Let’s You Eat Inside an A-ha Music Video

Temakeria is a new Julian Rodarte venture in Trinity Groves that opened in May. Perched in the shadow of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, it promises Japanese food in a unique setting. The interior, a tour de force of design by local artist Jonathan Krown, is a monochromatic black and white space that looks like one of those adult coloring books that has yet to be filled in. It’s a little bit of an a-ha video mixed with some Jean Dubuffet sculptures and combined into an eye-catching 2D experience that even carries over to the restrooms and food prep area.

Temakeria serves Japanese cuisine, and its name reflects the temaki portion of the menu; temaki is a variety of hand-rolled sushi usually in cone form. But Temakeria serves the dish in what amounts to taco form, sitting in a 3D printed taco holder that carries over the 2D black and white theme as well. Thus, temaki + taqueria = Temakeria, QED. So ends your math lesson for the day. On to the eats.

We arrived with no reservations, but there was plenty of space in the enclosed, air-conditioned patio, so we grabbed a table there and ordered a couple of cocktails: a coconut old fashioned and a Temakeria highball. The old fashioned was fine if a tad too sweet. It lacked any really noticeable coconut flavor, though there was perhaps a coconut note. We’d have preferred a complete melody.

The Temakeria highball was mixed with Toki Japanese whisky, Jalisco orange liquor and soda. It was refreshing and ideal for restaurant patio sipping.

This is one more in a growing list of Dallas restaurants that are trying to push the shared plate concept to diners, so we went with that and ordered several starters or small plates along with a temaki.

First up was an order of spicy edamame, which was a larger-than-expected serving and a bit messy from an overabundance of sauce. You can also order it grilled or salty, and on future trips we’ll definitely go with one of those varieties instead.

Next, some lobster gyoza, little dumplings stuffed with lobster and ginger served with truffle sauce. It made for an eye-catching presentation, about five dumplings attached to their own individual crispy cracker. Not too fishy as lobster-stuffed items can often be, and the sauce was not overpowering.

Chicken karaage followed, and while perhaps not as good as Ramen Izakaya Akira’s offering, it was right up there. A generous portion came with a peanut-based aioli dipping sauce, and it had a delightfully crunchy exterior that yielded to a flavorful interior.

Our last shared plate was the seasonal veggies with tempura dipping sauce. We are not 100% sure as to the identity of all the veggies, but they definitely included asparagus, some sort of squash and perhaps eggplant. Either way, they were perfectly battered and cooked: al dente and not oily.

Finally, we chose the spicy tuna temaki, which arrived in the handmade taco holder, crispy nori serving as the ersatz taco shell holding the rice and tuna topped with tempura flakes and spicy aioli. It was almost a shame to have to pick up and eat this pretty display, but we were glad we did.

To sum it up, we enjoyed ourselves and will definitely pay another visit to Temakeria.

3011 Gulden Lane, No. 102 (Trinity Groves). Tuesday – Thursday, 4-9 p.m.; Friday, 4-10 p.m.; Saturday, noon – 10 p.m.; Sunday, noon – 9 p.m.