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Leading up to September's Best of Dallas® 2016 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.
The Second Floor, the bistro and bar on the second floor of the Westin Galleria Dallas, has a pretty straight-forward menu: steak and fries, roast chicken, a grilled double-rib pork chop. When you're feeding Galleria shoppers along with a hotel full of out-of-towners — including plenty of families — straight-forward isn't necessarily a bad thing. On a recent visit, the dining room was filled mostly with a ladies-who-lunch crowd, a young family who clearly didn't live in North Texas and a tweenage girl having a bittersweet, awkward meal with her elderly grandfather.
But there is a little jar of unexpected magic on the appetizer menu: the mason jar foie gras mousseline. An almost unbelievably decadent jar of foie gras mousse is served along with grilled levain bread, a swipe of whole grain mustard and a little rectangle of sweet cranberry goodness. That perfectly charred bread topped with cranberry, a hit of mustard and the velvety mousse combine to create the ultimate bite — a play on sweet, tart, crunch and warm, savory flavors. Can we get a dozen jars to go?
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