Ok, I think it’s clear from the title here that I wasn’t wowed by Hector’s on Henderson. I could be unfairly judging the place based on bizarre coincidence of factors, or maybe I just had a poor evening. At any rate, I was let down. Perhaps I just had the place too built up in my head. Over-hyped, you might say.

The first thing that may not have been working in Hector’s favor was, unfortunately, Restaurant Week. First, the trimmed down menu was small. And, contrary to Abacus which is normally a more expensive place to dine than Hector’s, they somewhat ignored the prix fixe spirit of Restaurant Week by adding upcharges on about a 3rd of the selections. Boo.

The second thing was timing. I didn’t experience Hector’s at its best. I wasn’t there for live music. Chef Todd Erickson who was part of the initial popularity of the restaurant, moved on almost two years ago. And, we made our reservations late, which meant we sat on the patio. The patio wasn’t bad, but I would liked to have experienced their main dining room.

The third thing was, well, the food. I have no complaints about the fried green tomatoes I ordered as an appetizer. They were appropriately fresh and flavorful. But that is where my love affair with the food at Hector’s ended. I thoroughly enjoyed my redfish with avocado puree and crab pico de gallo. But the filet was small. Lilliputian even. So little, in fact, that it was nearly dwarfed by the scoop of guacamole (ahem, excuse me, “avocado puree”) resting next to it. Which is a shame, since it did taste quite good. Now, I know Americans are over-accustomed to large portions and you’re probably thinking, “Oh simmer down, I’m sure you’re comparing it to the mega-combo fish basket at Long John Silver’s” but I’m not. To further drive home the point, I’m quite sure I ate more seafood flesh from the mound of crab pico than I did from the filet.

Then came dessert. The cobbler du jour was peach, which sounded fantastic. I’ve had cobbler many dozens of times in my life and I was excited to see what a more upscale restaurant would do with this humble dessert. As an example, when I ate at Standard last year, I ordered strawberry shortcake. Only instead of shortcake they used lemon scones and instead of whipped cream they used crème fraîche and it was delightful. But the cobbler I got at Hector’s could not have possibly been more boring. In fact, I’d go far enough to say it was medicore and that I’ve had better from my grocer’s freezer. It wasn’t crispy, it was poorly seasoned, and had about half as much fruit as I’d like to have seen.

And perhaps the Hector’s experience is just one I’m not keen to. Their party piece is the re-imagining of traditional “comfort food” cuisine. I mean, their signature dish is meatloaf! I could be unfairly expecting more than Hector’s ever intended to deliver.

Lastly, was the valet experience. Normally, I couldn’t care less about valet parking my car. I don’t have a fancy ride nor do I feel particularly catered-to when someone parks it for me. But Hector’s uses a valet service that is also used by next couple of buildings. I think. I can’t imagine another sensible reason to wait 20 minutes for my car. Maybe they were super busy because of Restaurant Week. Maybe it’s always like that at Hector’s because they park half the cars across the street. At any rate, it didn’t improve my impression of the evening on the whole.

Will I go back? Yes. But it won’t be for quite some time - there are many more places to try.

After making Abacus the first restaurant I visited for KRLD’s Restaurant Week, I’m happy to report that great food is the answer - at least - the answer I’m concerned with today.

The decor of Abacus is breathtaking. Of all the places I’ve been to in Dallas so far, I would say this is the nicest. A well-established style is ever-present throughout the building, and dark woods rule the show.

I started at the bar. I’m not a huge cocktail drinker, or I don’t yet know what I like, so I stick with Vodka tonics to keep it simple. The bartender was friendly and gave us a little snack plate with some very tasty wasabe peas. In retrospect, I wished I had asked the bartender if they had a “house special” cocktail. Maybe next time.

Ok, enough blabbing about that, on to dinner! Since this is restaurant week, our menu choices were limited, and that may have been a good thing. Choosing dishes from even this smaller menu was challenging, as they all looked superb. But, in the end, I ordered with confidence and here’s what I got.

The Appetizer
I felt like trying some of their Asian cuisine that night, so I opted for the Buffalo - Shitake Mushroom “Potstickers” with Spicy Apricot Glaze. I don’t know if buffalo meat is a big Asian flavor, but man oh man were these delicious. I’ve had about ten different preparations of potstickers in my life, and these by far were the best. In fact, myself and my company at the table figured they were the best appetizer of the night. From the plates of my friends, I got to sample a wonderful diver scallop and a lobster-scallion shooter. Looking at their “small plates” menu, I must say I look forward to return trips to try the kobe carpaccio and the duck confit ravioli.

The Entree
Sticking with my evening’s preference for Asian cuisine, I ordered the Soy Seared Beef and Spicy Jumbo Prawns on Thai Flat Noodle Stir Fry and Pineapple - Sake Sauce. I admit, I have a relatively inexperienced palette for complex Asian cuisine, so while I can whole-heartedly say I loved this preparation, I’m having difficultly explaining why. Would this be my favorite item to order at Abacus? No. From trying morsels of the entrees my dinner companions ordered, I’m certain Abacus has many dishes I could love even more than I did my own. And as much as I enjoyed my choice, I don’t feel a strong urge to rave about it.

The Dessert
The dessert menu had one clear choice for me. I was so grasped by it’s allure I developed tunnel vision and I honestly don’t remember what else they even offered that evening. A chocoloate souffle. And boy did this sweet treat deliver. A perfect example of the paradox that is the souffle: extremely rich and delightfully airy. Yes, I doubt that a chocoloate souffle would appear on the dessert menu of an authentic asian restaurant, but I didn’t care. It was fantastic.

The Wine
For the evening I shared a bottle of Montecillo Crianza, a red from the Rioja region of Spain. This is not the first Rioja wine I’ve had the pleasure of imbibing in recent weeks, and I hope it’s not the last. They are spicy and fully bodied with a fantastic nose - I almost feel obligated to inhale their aroma before every swallow.

As myself and my buds dragged our reluctant trigenarian friend around Uptown for his birthday dinner, I really didn’t know where we’d end up. You can walk for 10 mintues and see twice as many appealing places to dine. Eventually, we ended up at Arcodoro & Pomodoro, a sardinian-italian restaurant which, five minutes prior, I had never heard of. And might I note: moderately difficult to say out loud without deliberate enunciation. Or maybe it’s just difficult to hear. I haven’t once yet mentioned the name to someone who didn’t ask me to repeat myself. Moving on.

After reading on their website a bit, I get the impression that Arcodoro and Pomodoro used to be two separate restaurants that, in a very corporation-like-manner, merged to bring their collective culinary capacity to the dining public of Dallas. Fantastico!

The interior is very elegant. There’s a centrally located bar and multiple dining rooms, including a quaint little two-person table at the top of the stairwell, which has a bird’s-eye view of half the restaurant. Sort of like a little balconette. Also visible from behind glass doors was a large portion (or the entirety?) of their wine collection. A very pleasant place to be.

Starting at the bar, the first thing that was clear was that the bartender was very concerned with service. Not only was he very attentive, but when we ordered appetizers to hold us over during our 30-or-so minute wait, we received place-settings, folded napkins - the whole treatment. Our selections included some wonderful calamari, mushrooms with buffalo mozzarella, and some absolutely fantastic foccacia served with the traditional olive oil and balsamic dipping combo.

After being seated by the lovely hostess, who not only pulled out our chairs but also lap-placed our napkins, our waiter popped by to take drink orders and announce the specials. In addition to what I recall was four specials for the day, their menu was chock full of spectacular-looking dishes. I was quite hungry that night and ended up ordering the stinco (that’s leg of lamb to you), which was served with a surprisingly delicious risotto “cake.” The portion was huge - I don’t know for sure but it had to have been a good 16-20oz of baby sheep, which was oh-so-tasty. Oh, and I must mention, my friend who was celebrating his birthday with much chagrin, went all A-list on us and ordered off the menu - a wonderful trio of buffalo skewers, which looked almost as fabulous as they tasted. What a prima donna.

I skipped dessert that night, instead opting for a nice cappuccino which was delicious, and a perfect cap to such a satisfying meal. I don’t honestly recall what my friends ordered for dessert, but I do know that nobody went home with doggy bags, and all the plates on the table were clean when we left. This is definitely a place I look forward to trying again.