Best Thai 2012 | Bambu Asian Cuisine | Best of Dallas® 2020 | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Dallas | Dallas Observer
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Best Thai

Bambu Asian Cuisine

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Thai food in America is mostly relegated to a take-out affair, stuffed into white Styrofoam containers to steam away into limp incarnations that hardly evoke their original counterparts. When Bambu opened in Richardson, though, the ubiquitous ethnic chow became more than worthy of a sit-down meal. It may be the enthusiastic staff as much as the plates themselves that make for compelling eating in this stylish but predictable dining room. A velvety tom kha gai soup sings with heat and kaffir lime leaves, and a spicy duck curry is heady and addictive. The staff is more than happy to help you pick out a dish that suits your taste, but be sure to let them know you're an adventurous diner. The specials here are worth your attention, and the owners, who previously owned a sushi restaurant, have a special talent for working with seafood.

Best Dessert

Carbone's Semifreddo

Texas convention says everything should be ridiculously big. Dallas convention is that all dessert should be sweet. The two combine to result in portions the size of a The Rock's forearm, chocolate that's cloying and fruit that's so saccharine it tastes like a plastic-wrapped freeze pop. It doesn't have to be this way. In Highland Park, a young Italian chef is breaking this convention one dessert plate at a time. Try the semifreddo to see what we mean. The respectably sized quenelles of light, airy, kinda-frozen sweetness still let the lemon flavor shine. Think of that cold glass of lemonade you bought for 10 cents on a hot summer day back when you were a kid. Remember the melting ice cubes. Remember the tartness. Now turn the volume up to 10 and add some blueberries to the memory.

Best BYOB

Bangkok Inn

Taryn Walker

It's not much to look at. The small house turned Thai restaurant wears more than 30 years of service on its siding. The dining room is plainly decorated and dim, and the carpet and printed menus have done their share of duty as well. That's all part of the charm, though. While most people view Bangkok Inn as a place to call in an order for pick up, the restaurant is also a BYOB treasure that's mostly undiscovered. People know about the spring rolls, corn patties and excellent curry, but they don't seem to realize that Thai food is the perfect pair for hoppy India Pale Ales. While most Thai restaurants saddle you with a bland Asian lager and call it a day, Bangkok's warm welcome to outside brews allows customers to enjoy perfect beer pairings that are otherwise impossible unless you take the food home.

Best Appetizer

Ten Bells Tavern's Pickled Eggs

Because you're tired of deviled eggs, that's why. Sure, you loved them when your mom made them at home to bring to picnics and tailgates. You loved them when they appeared on a bar menu all retro-like, too, but now that seven versions are sold at every Southern-fetishizing soul food and gastro-whatever in Texas, the snack is in danger of jumping the shark forever. Pickled eggs possess everything deviled eggs lack, with a vinegary brightness and old-school appeal that's right at home on Ten Bells Tavern's shelves next to the liquor bottles. This is the quintessential bar snack hiked up by a chef who takes his pub grub seriously. Try the onion and vinegar version if you want to be a traditionalist, but curry jalapeño eggs tinged with turmeric are twice as good. Don't pass on the medallion of weathered green chiles floating in the jar next to your prize. They were fresh when they were added, and now they're the best pickled jalapeños you'll ever consume.

Best Place to Spice Up Your Ketchup

Vickery Park

A Sunday brunch at Vickery Park is a rite of passage for some, but it's the little things that count. Like their ketchup, which is accented with Sriracha and makes french fries disappear with relative ease. We support any restaurant that skillfully uses a condiment to enhance a condiment.

Best Sunday Hangover Cure

The Chicken Biscuit at The Grape

Beth Rankin

Forget the so-called dark night of the soul. The real hour of spiritual blackness hits about 11 a.m. on a Sunday after a long night of drinking. That's when the big existential questions hit: Why? How long must suffering be endured? And holy shit, did I really drink/ingest/screw that? Take your broken essence and throbbing head to The Grape, where life affirmation comes in the form of a fried chicken patty covered in cheddar cheese, served on a jalapeño-cheese biscuit that is neither too dry, nor too soft. The Grape may be known best for its burgers, but on a Sunday morning, it's busy doing God's work.

Best Ice Cream

Carnival Barker's

Carnival Barker's ice creams are handmade in Deep Ellum one and a half gallons at a time, in wooden buckets with all natural ingredients, no fillers, no preservatives and way less air than the big names. It's all done in a super-strict commercial kitchen by a guy who went to Ice Cream U. in Pennsylvania to learn how. The flavors, from Fat Elvis to Vodka Nutella, are absolute knock-outs. The best place to find it to take home is Bolsa Mercado in Oak Cliff, and it's served at Bryan Street Tavern or City Tavern in Dallas.

Best Store-Bought Dessert

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Tracy Wilkinson-Claros moved to Austin from England in 2004 and immediately set about introducing her neighbors to authentic artisanal British hot puddings. Her "Sticky Toffee Pudding" is a confection you heat up for maybe 10 seconds in the microwave, just long enough to barely melt the topping, and serve on its own or in a bowl with whipping cream. It's made with fresh dates, whole eggs, espresso, butter, brown sugar and so on. It's got some fat in it and some cholesterol and some sugar, sure. It's not health food. Nobody said you had to sit down and eat the whole box with a spoon watching old movies at four in the morning. But if you just have to be that way, invite us over.

Best Chinese

Royal China

Nick Rallo

When you think handcrafted pasta in Dallas, the well-adorned creations of Nonna and Lucia are likely the first dishes to pop into your head. The intense, rich, seasonally inspired recipes change often, bringing a seemingly endless array of flavors. At Royal China, Zhang Xue Liang takes a different approach to his pasta making, and it's no less impressive. The Chinese noodle chef employs repetition, working hours on end to produce a small array of noodles that are simple and consistent. Liang starts with a small ball of rice flour dough he pulls into a disk before his arms turn to rubber and the disk lengthens into undulating waves. With a quick tear, and a flash of scissors those waves become wide-flat noodles that are dressed in an oily sauce of Sichuan peppercorns. Before you know it he's working with another piece of dough, this time a rope, that he draws open like curtains over and over again till the strands are as fine as the hair on a horse's tail. The thin, wispy noodles are even more impressive for their delicacy.

Best Rooftop Patio

Stackhouse Burgers

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As summer yields to cooler fall temperatures, Dallasites take to outdoor eating and drinking with warranted enthusiasm. While Dallas has assembled an impressive array of spaces to imbibe outdoors Stackhouse's rooftop deck may be the city's most impressive. Don't expect an expansive modern plateau with sprawling urban scenery. The roof on this house-turned-restaurant is appealing for its humble simplicity. Trees obscure most of the view, but just to the south, skyscrapers rise through the leaves like crooked teeth, while exhaust fans belch smoke and burger grease from the kitchen below. It doesn't hurt that the beer is cheap and those burgers are some of the best in the city. Put them together during sunset just as the skyline ignites. Grab some house fried potato chips with some amazing French onion dip while you're at it. This meal will stick in your memory for quite some time.

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