Nestled in the middle of a little plaza along Travis street is Ziziki’s, a fantastic little Greek restaurant. Well, their website says it’s, “Mediterranean with Greek and Italian specialties”, but honestly the entire menu looked Greek to me (ha!). Ok, sorry about that. Ahem, moving along.

I could tell from the moment I walked in that I was going to like this place. The decor is attractive as are the waitstaff. There’s plenty of seating available just out the front door, cafe style, but this was a Saturday night and it was busy. Hungry and not wanting to wait, we took a charming little table just across from the bar. Now, I haven’t had much Greek food in my life. In fact, other than maybe one or two occasions before, my entire experience of Greek food has been chomping on gyros and satisfying my sweet tooth with some baklava.

Seeing as how I was starving, an appetizer was in order. Amongst many appealing choices, two stood out as an appetizer I’d like to have from a Greek restaurant: The Artichoke Dip & Pita Bread, and the Spanakopita. Looking ahead on the menu I realized I had another opportunity to try the spanakopita, so the artichoke dip with pita bread it was. Now, don’t think this is some pedestrian artichoke dip like you’d get at Olive Garden. This is a hummus that was garlicky and creamy and perfect with the fresh pita bread. As a bonus, it even came with some whole kalamata olives! And, as my dinner companion observed, “I don’t trust a person that won’t eat olives.” Well said, my friend.

Ok, I was saying something about spanakopita earlier. One of the menu choices was The Greek Gods Platter. Not only did that look enticing on name alone, the food that actually constituted this platter looked delicious as well. A lamb souvlaki (the “Grecian hamburger”), some spanakopita, and a healthy serving of pastichio - a lasagna-like dish with a sneak ingredient that had me guessing at it about half the night. At first I thought it was cinnamon. My friend had a taste and said, “No, that’s just the cumin”. But I didn’t accept that. Eventually I figured it out with helpful verification from our waitress: nutmeg. Anyway, all three of these preparations were just amazing. The souvlaki was like a gourmet gyro. It was like the difference between getting a Taco Bell taco vs. tacos al carbon made with ribeye steak. I absolutely adored the souvlaki. My spanakopita was delicious (I love the texture of phyllo) and went fantastic with the marinated onions that rounded out my plate.

Earlier in the evening while scanning the wine menu, we knew we’d need something with a little bit of backbone. After all, greek food is full of strong flavors. Lamb. Olives. Garlic. Those sorts of things. Our lovely waitress helped us out with some taster glasses of the two we were debating over - a pinot noir and a cabernet sauvignon. After the taste test we chose the cab - a 2004 vintage from B.R. Cohn. I’m happy to report it delivered, standing up strong to the bold flavors of the evening’s cuisine.

Now, dessert. I couldn’t very well come to a greek restaurant and not have some baklava. Happily for me, they have some special baklava. How special? Well, you get two layers of it surrounded by vanilla ice cream. That’s right, baklava ice cream cake. Of course, we wanted a coffee drink of some type sort with our dessert. Espresso? Regular coffee? Oh wait, what’s this the menu is whispering to me? Greek coffee? I honestly don’t remember the entire composition of this drink, but it did include Bailey’s, Kahlua, and Chambord. Oh, and coffee. Man what tasty beverage.

Long story short? I’m in love with Ziziki’s. I can’t wait to come back.

I find that when I talk about food with my friends and new people, I invariably bring up Cafe Madrid, easily one of my favorite places to go eat in Dallas. What is also invariable is that when I do mention it, they almost always cock their heads and query, “Topless?” Personally, I don’t have anything against topless establishments. Even a topless tapas place would be dandy. But Cafe Madrid is just good ol’ Spanish tapas. Emphasis on the good.

One of the best features of Cafe Madrid is the setting. There’s indoor seating (At least, I’m pretty sure there is - I’ve never actually been in the building even after four visits) and a large patio area that’s really just out on the wide sidewalk. A true cafe feel. As the sun sets, the awnings come to life with little white lights. There’s no pop music playing. The street isn’t super busy. A very pleasant space to enjoy good food, good company, and good conversation. A nice contrast to crowded and noiser (albeit, more popular) patio scenes such as Primos.

Now, lets get down to the food. First of all, if you’ve never had tapas I’ll explain real quick how it works. Tapas are essentially a la carte dishes or appetizers. If you have ever looked at a restaurant menu and just wanted to pig out on the appetizers, then tapas is the thing for you. You can order a single tapas dish for yourself, but it’s the most fun to order several dishes for the whole table and everybody just picks at the selections at their leisure. Still hungry when those are gone? Order more! The typical price range for a tapas plate is $3-$9.

I usually start with a cheese plate. They have anywhere from eight to a dozen spanish cheeses available. My favorites are the manchego, san simon, and ibores. The cabrales is excellent too, but I’m not always in the mood for a mold-cured cheese. As for the tapas menu, I’ve found I always order the Spanish Potato Omelette, and sometimes even crave this particular little delight when I’m feeling hungry and nowhere close to Cafe Madrid - it’s just one of those foods that seems like it could always “hit the spot.” Other favorites include the Tuna Empanadas, Spinach with Pine Nuts, Oxtail Stew, and of course the Paella. But, to be honest, everything here is so good that you could throw darts at the menu and enjoy every random choice. Keep an eye out for the specials menu!

Now let’s talk wine. I’ve tried several different wines at Cafe Madrid, but two stand out. For the whites, it is the Lusco Albarino. Normally I’m not a huge white wine fan, but this one is appealing. It’s not too dry or too sweet. For the reds, I love the Montecillo Crianza, which is from the Rioja region of Spain, which I’ve praised before. I will find it hard to not order this wine on my next visit, for variety is the spice of life! Also, if you find a variety you particularly like, they are more than happy to bag up some bottles for you to take home (you do have to pay for them, ya know).

Which brings me to my final words about Cafe Madrid: the service. The wait staff are excellent. Courteous, knowledgeable, and fastidious, they perform their job with high efficiency without being annoying - which further feeds that pleasant atmosphere I enjoy so much about this poace. So, please go rally up some friends and head over to Cafe Madrid.

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.