The salads are copious. The beef cuts are enormous. Order chicken, and you get a whole bird. Half a roasted pig’s head, served with two kinds of tortillas, two salsas and guacamole? That’s considered an appetizer.
So goes dinner at Knife, the new modern steakhouse from John Tesar at Hotel Palomar. Wondering why the tables are so huge, why the expanse between you and your dining companion across the table is so vast that you need a megaphone to be heard saying “pass the relish tray”?
Your mammoth, 28-ounce Niman Ranch rib-eye lands, and you say, “Oh, that’s why.” The platter is enormous. The steak, carved off the bone in the kitchen into glistening, gorgeously rosy slices, each crusted with a mantle of char, is meant to serve two. It looks large enough to feed a family of four. It’s a festival of meat, a carniphile’s special event, a steak-a-thon. Loosen your belt.
The restaurant has been given a smart makeover since its days as Central 214, starting with the bar, which feels more inviting, more laid-back than it used to, sleekly modern, but with Texan touches. I like to start dinner at Knife with a drink there — maybe a tangy, mescal-driven Melonball, or a boozy Long Island Iced Tea.
The dining room’s focal point is the open kitchen that runs the length of a counter, done up in lustrous jade-green tile. Its seats may be the best in the house.
But back to those steaks. Tesar prides himself both on their provenance (many come from 44 Ranch in Central Texas; others from Niman Ranch) and on the dry aging some of them get right there in the restaurant. You can see the beef through a window just before you check in at the maitre d’ stand. The colossal whole rib-eyes and sirloins, each cloaked in a mottled layer of fat pitted like the surface of the moon, emanate irresistible primal appeal.
The 28-ounce bone-in rib-eye ($80) and a 24-ounce sirloin ($60), both from Niman, are dry-aged for 45 days, as is a 32-ounce rib-eye from 44 Farms ($68). If you’re curious about Knife’s 240-day-dry-aged Niman Ranch rib-eye that’s been getting so much buzz (it sells for $80 per inch), forget about it, for a while, at least: It sold out quickly, and the next one won’t be done aging till October. (I never got to taste it.) Dry-aging gave the 45-day version notable depth of flavor, but I was surprised that it didn’t have more complexity. The kitchen has a light hand with the salt on the steaks, and I suspect underseasoning restrains their flavor.
Another cut that impressed was a 32-ounce HeartBrand Akaushi bone-in rib-eye for two that was aggressively seared, beautifully medium-rare and at once rich and tangy. (HeartBrand is a Texas-raised, hormone-free beef that’s a cross between Akaushi — a type of Wagyu — and domestic breeds.) That one goes for a princely $95, but it was large enough to serve three of us.
There is also a quintet of lesser (“new school”) 14-ounce cuts from 44 Farms, such as culotte, chuck flap and flat-iron; those go for $25 each. Just a week or so after the restaurant opened, I was wowed by one of these — a tri-tip, cooked sous-vide then grilled over red oak fire, as all the new-school cuts are. Its spectacular flavor eclipsed even the $68 dry-aged 44 Farms rib-eye.
Unfortunately, over the course of three subsequent visits, none of the $25 new-school cuts I tasted made much of an impression; the culotte, chuck flap and tri-tip all came to the table overcooked, sometimes underseasoned. That was also the case for the $60 45-day dry-aged Niman Ranch sirloin.
It’s a shame that when such care is taken with sourcing and aging, the kitchen too often drops the ball. Are the chefs overwhelmed by an unwieldy number of dishes? That wouldn’t surprise me. Like so much else here, the menu is vast. In the course of four visits, I didn’t even get around to trying a filet mignon, a double-cut long- bone pork chop, a rack of lamb for two, a slow-roasted bison rib-eye, a 2-pound butter-poached lobster served out of the shell, four of the burgers, etc., etc.
I did order a whole roast chicken with panzanella salad. The menu doesn’t mention this, but Tesar uses Judy Rodgers’ recipe from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. Her method — salting the fowl a day or two in advance, starting it on the stove and moving it immediately to a hot oven — results in a bird with superbly flavorful meat and fabulous crisp skin. At Knife, it came to the table poorly presented, carved and arrayed messily over a bread salad strewn with arugula. Its flavor was fine, but nothing special, its skin golden-brown but decidedly not crisp.
I also was barely able to scratch the surface of the myriad appetizers, missing out on bacon-crusted bone marrow with San Diego uni, yellowtail crudo with pink Texas grapefruit, oysters on the half-shell, two pork belly dishes and more.
I couldn’t pass up the $14 bacon tasting: five strips, one (Benton’s, my favorite bacon) severely overfried; altogether, it was as impressive as those new duds the emperor bought.
Otherwise, the appetizers, salads and side dishes are some of the most engaging plates at Knife, helping it fulfill its mission as a modern steakhouse. The crispy beef tongue — seared patties of voluptuously rich shredded tongue set atop slices of ripe heirloom tomatoes with a mess of watercress and halved heirloom cherry tomatoes on top of it all and a stripe of zingy salsa verde on the plate — is a standout. So is the plain-sounding garden salad, a lovely toss of young greens, cucumber, radish, herbs and slender carrots, tiny as sprouts, in a red-wine vinaigrette; it’s garnished with boiled eggs with perfect, barely set golden yolks.
There’s also a salad of pea leaves and shoots, carefully dressed in a tarragon-happy Green Goddess and draped with slices of country ham. I could have done without the pea sorbet on the plate, which quickly melts, making the whole thing too sweet, but the classic marriage of pea and ham worked great in the salad. A watercress, endive and goat cheese salad studded with toasted walnut halves was a near miss, overdressed with too much sherry vinegar and salt, and with too many stems in the watercress.
Probably the most impressive of the appetizers is the crispy pig’s head, a pull-apart feast served with corn and flour tortillas and three salsas. (It’s not original; it’s Tesar’s take on the one created by Michael Sindoni at CBD Provisions.) Have that as an appetizer, though — even shared among four — and it’s going to be tough to face a steak afterward.
As far as I’m concerned, the best strategy for enjoying dinner at Knife would be to order with restraint, a challenge, to be sure. If you’re two, share a salad to start, then share one of the dry-aged steaks for two or the Akaushi. Add a side order or two, like wonderful roasted okra with bacon lardons and cherry tomato, or a tall stack of crisp onion rings. Another dish I loved was hand-rolled penne glammed up with shaved Australian black truffles in truffle butter. Half an order of that makes a superb side, too.
Knife’s wine list, created by Scott Barber (who’s no longer involved) and presented on an iPad, holds fewer delightful surprises than one would hope; it’s fairly predictable, not particularly deep and the reds are served too warm. Sommelier Sabrina Snodderley (you may know her from Gemma or Spoon Bar and Kitchen) is on hand to make suggestions.
Desserts, care of pastry chef David Collier (who’s also in charge of the sweet side at Spoon, Tesar’s Preston Center seafood restaurant), are less interesting than they sound. A dark chocolate parfait and a caramel pretzel cake with a liquid center, served with dulce de leche panna cotta and pretzel ice cream, were most successful.
While there’s clearly something special going on here, and the restaurant has great potential, Tesar might well be a victim of his own exuberance and energy. I can’t help but feel that if the menu were half the size and more care and thought put into each dish, Knife would be twice as good a restaurant.
Knife (3 stars)
Price: $$$-$$$$ (appetizers, soups and salads $9 to $32; main courses $17 to $95 — for a steak for two; desserts $12)
Service: Professional and well-informed about the menu
Ambience: A sleek modern steakhouse with an open kitchen that runs the length of a counter with seating; booths in back, and awkwardly deep tables that make conversation difficult, including at a common table in the center of the room.
Noise level: With acoustics that are challenging, it tends to be clangorously loud, even when the dining room isn’t full. If conversing is important, it’s probably best to sit at the counter.
Location: Hotel Palomar, 5680 N. Central Expressway at East Mockingbird Lane, Dallas; 214-443-9339; knifedallas.com
Hours: Breakfast daily 6 to 11 a.m., dinner nightly 5 to 11 p.m. Lunch hours are expected to be added in the near future.
Reservations: Accepted
Credit cards: AE, D, MC, V
Wheelchair accessible: Yes
Alcohol: Full bar, with cocktails created by Michael Martensen. The midsized iPad wine list is less-than-inspired.
On Twitter: @lesbren
