Casa Komali

The Top 100 Dallas Restaurants, No. 43: Chef Hugo Galvan, formerly of Flora Street Cafe and Revolver Taco Lounge, is one of the new faces at the remodeled and renamed Casa Komali, alongside his partner in the kitchen, Adrian Alba, a veteran of Victor Tangos and Hibiscus. This longtime restaurant has recently gotten a spectacular facelift, with a beautiful new dining room that bathes in warm, welcoming light and reflects it back through woodwork and exquisite Mexican tile. In the kitchen, Alba, Galvan and their team make tortillas from scratch with flavorings like mole spices and guajillo pepper, to serve as foundations for inventive tacos. Tradition meets modernity in other dishes, too, like the chile en nogada, a Mexico City staple that’s hard to find anywhere else in north Texas.

Top pick: Pork belly tacos on mole tortillas, with dots of avocado cream, make for exquisite bites.

The downside: As inventive as some of the dishes are, one can’t help wishing that others would push the envelope, and push Dallasites’ comfort zones, a little more. With a little time, this reinvention of the restaurant could get there.

Fun fact: Casa Komali serves up one of this critic’s favorite Sunday brunches in the city.