Una Bella Serata

Avanti Ristorante

2720 McKinney Ave.
Dallas, TX 75204

Phone: 214.871.4955

Website
Website 2

So today my friend, Ale, and myself went up to Dallas, Texas to see Shakira in concert. We took the whole day off so we could go up there early and do a couple of other things as well- visit the Dallas Museum of Art and eat dinner at a nice restaurant. I searched on the web for hours looking through all the restaurants around the Airline center, as I am not very familiar with Dallas yet and wanted to keep the driving simple. So I stumbled upon Avanti Ristorante, a nice Italian/European style restaurant, with the use of Google Maps. I checked out their web page and menu, I liked what I saw. But before making reservations I emailed them to see what their ‘dress code’ was…. didn’t want to show up too casual. So I got the go ahead and made reservations, I was looking forward to it.

So we leave Friday afternoon, but you first got to get through Waco traffic, specifically the Waco Dr & 29th street intersection, where we almost get killed by some moron who runs a blatant red light and nearly hits us. But enough about that and kind of getting lost in Dallas, lets get to the restaurant.

The restaurant is very easy to find, they have a small parking lot but still have valet parking for when they get busy and the front lot gets full. We got there early enough that we didn’t need that, truth be told we were the first people there since they open at 5, we got there at 5:15 and our reservation was at 5:30. So we go in and get seated. The place looks really nice, nice dim lights, yellow roses on every table, nice subtle music and friendly staff.

They brought us our menus and our water (Which they never let get half empty throughout our meal). They have a nice selection of appetizers, salads, pastas and entrée dishes. I ordered one of my favorite salads the….. Caesar salad (romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese, and garlic croutons with classic Caesar dressing) for starters and The Long Island Duck (boneless breast braised in calvados with caramelized Washington apples) for the entrée. Ale ordered their Arugula Salad (roasted pear, crumbled gorgonzola and candied pecans with hazelnut oil dressing) and their Chicken Limone (sautéed chicken breast with chardonnay lemon sauce and capers). Both of our entrees came with a side of Potato and Cheese Au Gratin and some asparagus. For dessert we both had Crème Brulee.

I didn’t get to try either of Ale’s dishes cause she is STINGY ;), I can only comment on how good their presentation was… which was excellent and that she really enjoyed the food.. ate every last bit.

I am very picky with my salads, as many places either over dress or greatly under-dress them. Put they nailed it, the greens were fresh and crisp, it was perfectly dressed, nice amount of cheese and home made croutons… so I ate all of it. Then after finishing our salads our entrees were promptly brought out. Both looked and smelled amazing. My duck was perfectly cooked, still a little rare and the right amount of sauce.. I love apples so it was pretty amazing. The skin was nice and crisp, the meat juicy, and you could taste the duck since the sauce wasn’t over powering. The gratin was very thinly sliced potatoes and a couple types of cheese. The cheese was creamy in the center, crunchy on top and the potatoes were tender. The best Au Gratin I have ever had. I don’t like asparagus, so I didn’t bother with them. I couldn’t finish all my Duck, cause as most of us know, duck is a very fatty animal and is very filling. Too bad I couldn’t get a doggy bag ;) .

After we finished eating our entrees it was time for dessert. At first we weren’t sure what we wanted. It was either the crème Brulee, the tiramisu, or peanut butter and chocolate pie. Once I discovered Ale doesn’t care for coffee flavor we axed the tiramisu. My mom makes a heck of a crème Brulee and I figured she would love that… so I convinced her, with the hosts help, to order the crème Brulee. Usually most places serve them in ramekin dishes, but these were served on plates… no ramekin. They had a raspberry and lemon sauce laid out on the plate for presentation and a little extra flavor. The rust was nicely caramelized and crunchy, while the inside was nice and creamy and sweet and had some strawberries “hidden“ inside it, which I’ve never had before and it surprised me. It was very good, and Ale loved it too.The picture shows a hole in the crème Brulee, that’s my fault, I got over eager and attacked it before taking the picture

If you are ever in Dallas, this is a great place to take a date… great food and good atmosphere. I will definitely be going back again, even Ale wants to go back.

As we left the host told us to have a nice evening and to have fun at the concert… which caught me off guard and surprised Ale, since we hadn’t mentioned that to them while we were there. BUT, I had mentioned it in my original email. So not only does the host read the emails, but he pays attention and remembers. That’s one heck of a job well done. That left a very good final impression on me.