Forget rare, medium rare, medium well, well or soot. The true color of steak in Dallas is jade. We're jaded by these slabs of meat, by the temples and ranches that arise in their honor. Pity the steers; envy the cardiologists; be awe-stricken by the steak-house glut; pity us. This is why it was inevitable that the best steak would not come from a steak house but from some other food-purveying species--one that is trying to get famous with macaroni and cheese. Hibiscus has steak. Big steak. Even the name hits with a dizzying thud: Prime strip "brick." It's an 18-ounce bone-in sirloin hemorrhaging roasted garlic butter. Hibiscus chef Nick Badovinus says steak is easy because cows do all of the work. But chefs have choices: They can cull from shiftless, idle cows; carve off marbled Rembrandts and then ruin them with Bunsen burners and tar pits of demi-glace; or seek out and discern bovine brilliance and then enhance it with soft lighting, Barry White and a shake of salt. Badovinus has done the latter. This steak is stunning: brilliantly red with a huge flavor bandwidth wrapped in shimmering silk. Let the steak house temples quiver in their creamed spinach.
Readers' Pick
Bob's Steak and Chop House 4300 Lemmon Ave. 214-528-9446 5760 Legacy Drive, #B-1, Plano 972-608-2627