Duro has put together a string of hits over the past few years. Michelin's hotel guide recommends its quaint three-room guest house, Casa Duro, along Lower Greenvile (above Cafe Duro and Sister). The international restaurant guide also recommends Mister Charles and El Carlos Elegante.
Norman's marries Asian art and cowhide like perhaps no other restaurant in Dallas.
Samantha Marie Photography
Paper-lantern like lights over the bar, which is stocked with Japanese whiskey.
Samantha Marie Photography
Duro co-founders, Chas Martin and Benji Homsey, want the space to feel like a home Norman would build over time as a tribute to Western and Eastern cultures.
One note to a traditional Japanese restaurant is a sunken bar in the middle of the restaurant.
What does all that taste like, you ask? Well, the tight menu (a one-pager) offers small plates, hand rolls, noodles, crudo and charcoal robata skewers. Bluefin tartare handrolls come with Hokkaido uni and osetra caviar. There's also edamame hummus and Korean fried chicken.
From the noods section ($21-$25), there's udon carbonara with smoked pork belly, corn and miso ravioli and shrimp and longaniza sausage dumplings.
There's also a wood-fired section — which, by the way, wood-fired grills are having an amazing year — where you can get A5 beef ($49), a 20-ounce dry-aged cowboy ribeye with a tare glaze, papaya salad and peanuts for $99. Romano beans are also given the fire treatment over the grill and are served sprinkled with beef bacon furikake.
The drink menu has yet to be published, but the photos show that the bar is well stocked with Japanese whisky.
Yeah, we're excited to try this spot. It looks fun — perhaps the most fun Duro has had with a spot. They've earned some serious cred in the culinary world and have earned the right to take some out-of-the-ordinary liberties. We'll certainly report back soon with a first look after they open on Aug. 1.
