Ida Claire

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My husband came home several months ago totally jazzed about a restaurant he had discovered during a work lunch that he couldn't wait to take me to. We went together shortly before I launched this blog and I vowed to go back soon to review it.

Ida Claire is gourmet southern cooking at its finest. The ambiance and decor are upcycled hipster paradise, with the most notable feature being the open trailer seating option on the patio.

Ida Claire offers a deluxe variety of craft beers and beverages to pair with its rich, comforting fare.

For an appetizer, we ordered the biscuits and bacon gravy:

The biscuits were fresh, crumbly and layered, and came not only with a meaty bacon gravy, but also an in-house-made huckleberry & something else jam, and a black pepper & sorghum butter spread. The butter changed my life. I have worked maybe once with sorghum before, but showcased as the star in a simple butter spread, I was entranced with the floral, citrus-zest flavor that's derived from a grass!

The first time I ate at Ida Claire, my husband urged me to try the Chicken and Waffles dish. Upon returning, it took all my willpower to order something else so that I could do a varied review, but I was able to get a photo of our friend's order of the chicken and waffles. When I tried it, I was there with my family, and my mom also ordered it at my husband's recommendation. We were both hesitant to trust that the eggs in the dish would be properly cooked, because so often sunny side up eggs come out with more than the yolks raw. Still, we decided to trust the chef and didn't change the eggs to over-medium. As AMAZING as this dish was, both of our eggs were too raw, with clear, gooey whites surrounding the yolks beneath the top layer of cooked white. All in all, however, don't let this deter you from trying this exceptional dish- I just recommend you ask for your eggs to be cooked to medium.

The waffle is actually made from a batter into which bacon bits have been folded, then it is drizzled with a coffee syrup, the runny eggs, perfectly fried pieces of white meat chicken, and finished off with a generous serving of the signature Ida Claire gravy.

All in all, Ida Claire's chef did an amazing job of mingling and blending the textural and flavoring elements of this dish, giving you that hit of crunch, bread, soft eggs, fatty yolks, rich gravy, sweet syrup, and chewy bacon bits.

My husband ordered the Braised Beef Short Rib, which I stole a few bites of. The sauce in this dish was so well developed and complex, it married the bitter broccolini, acidic tomatoes, the sweet carrots, and the savory, tender meat perfectly together to make this heavy red meat & gravy dish easy to polish off.

I went out on a limb (for you my readers) and ordered the Fish n' Chips Biscuit with a side of the cheesy grits, even though my heart was still calling out for the chicken & waffles. Had I been feeling more flush that evening, I would have loved to have tried the shrimp and grits dish; I have many strong opinions too wordy to include in this blog about the price of a decent plate of shrimp & grits in this town, but I may have to make some sometime and post a recipe blog if anyone is interested.

Anyway, the biscuit arrived in a glorious tower of shredded, raw Brussels sprouts, rich house-made tartar sauce, 2 large, thick pieces of perfectly breaded and fried fish, and I suspect some kind of peppered butter on the biscuit itself. My memory fails me at the moment, but I believe there was also some of the same black pepper gravy on the dish that is on the chicken and waffles. The meal was enormous and excellent, though it did require some deconstruction. The "sandwich" was probably over 6 inches tall fully assembled. The creamy, tangy tartar sauce and hot fish were a perfect marriage with the cold, bitter Brussels sprouts, but the entire dish begged for some kind of acid to provide relief from the weight and richness of fried/tartar sauce/biscuit/maybe-gravy intensity. I'm aware I didn't help myself in ordering the richest, heaviest side dish Ida Claire offers, but it still would have benefited immensely from some fresh lemon juice.

The grits were PERFECT. They balanced the cheese and a bit of garlic well, not losing the flavor or texture of the grits themselves, and I actually didn't even mind the chives, even though I often find them to be an obnoxious, overused garnish that people seem to add too often without considering the intense flavor they add to a dish.

My conclusions about Ida Claire are as follows: They're charming, and a very special place to go for brunch. Expect a wait, however, as their excellence is no secret. Try the Chicken and Waffles, it's still my favorite dish, but if you're picky about your eggs, don't be afraid to change the way they're cooked- it's not one of those times when you're dramatically changing the intention of the dish by making a change like that. The braised meat dishes are also outtasite, and overall it's a great place for a hearty brunch. Just make sure you go good and hungry. I'll also point out that this place has a reasonable price point that's about double most of the places I review, so consider this a bit of a nicer option.

Fast Furious

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My husband's boss turned us on to a new place in Addison called Fast Furious that became an immediate favorite. 

The menu at this Japanese fusion restaurant is unique and fresh, covering the gamut of Asian food cravings from sushi to bidimbap bowls with concise and exciting offerings. 

The menu itself is a little gimmicky and confusing. The attempt to incorporate car related terminology to keep with the theme of the restaurant is lost unless you have identical brainwaves to whoever came up with it. Although, come to think of it, I'm not an auto mechanic- it may make perfect sense to someone who speaks car. Either way, at first the menu looks like it's outlining chronological steps to ordering like some places offer, but by the 3rd or 4th visit I realized that the random titles are just separating sections of the menu into type. For easiest ordering, at least the first time, just look at the display of labeled photos on the wall.

In addition to the dinner menu, there is a hot bar with certain classic a la cart options available. The potstickers are good, perhaps not amazingly unique, but how many ways are there to doll up a potsticker? I only look for it to resemble a potsticker and be hot.

Now let's get down to the food. My husband usually gets the Wow Bowl (featured above) which includes lightly battered crispy chicken, fried rice with bits of egg, strips of seaweed, raw cucumber, raw, diced bell pepper, and is drizzled with two sauces, one a sweet hoisin based sauce, and the other a flavored mayonnaise based number. If you are looking to be filled and satiated, this is the bowl for you. you may opt to get the mayo sauce on the side, however, as it does seem to kind of take over and weigh you down by the time you finish sometimes.

I usually get the Spicy Bomb, which lives up to its name like you wouldn't believe. It starts with a base of white rice, chopped Iceburg lettuce, and cucumbers, which you'll be grateful for to cool your mouth and face as you delve into this devilish dish. The chicken is marinated overnight in a jalapeno marinade, giving it a ton of flavor and heat on its own, and then is smothered in jalapenos and a Sriracha based sauce that just barely straddles that line between too spicy to notice the flavor and really yummy, vinegary flavor. This dish is not for the faint palates out there- but if you love a hearty burn in your belly, this is for you. I personally squeeze a couple of lemon slices over my dish to balance the heat a little bit, and I find that amplifies the actual flavor of the dish, keeping it from being overpowered entirely by the spice.

A friend of mine tried Fast Furious for the first time with us the other day and she ordered the beef and shrimp with noodles. She gave high praise for the flavors and mostly virtuous option, though pointed out if you are looking for a healthy option, the noodles aren't the best starch for that.

Now for the bad news. I'm frustrated to have to write this because the Addison location has been nothing but amazing every time we've been. But when we found out there was another location opening on Greenville Ave in Dallas, we were excited because it's not as far from our neighborhood. So excited, in fact, we went twice to see if it had opened yet while they were still getting ready for opening. Therefore I hope it can be chalked up to a green staff that I have to criticize at all, but what kind of food critic would I be if I didn't report the truth?

If you've read my review of Wendy's, you're probably already aware of how important food safety is to me. When we went to the new location to eat and take photos for this review, my husband ordered the potstickers, as we often do. What I didn't see, but he noted, was that they just reached into the hot bar with their bare hand and grabbed the potstickers. Now this is a no-no on two levels for me. first of all, your hot bar should be keeping cooked meats at a temperature of 165+ degrees. That should really be too hot to touch with a bare hand. Sure enough, they weren't even warm when we got to the table. Secondly, and most importantly, EW! PUT SOME GLOVES ON OR USE TONGS! That's super gross. I didn't make a stink about it at the time, because my husband had already watched it happen and hadn't said anything. He noted that the employee had been deliberately trying to itch his/her nose without touching hands to face, so he did think s/he was trying to be careful about germs, but that's not how it works. The other thing is that it was about 7:00 when we were there and it was totally empty when we got there:

This makes sense for a new location on a Tuesday at a somewhat late hour, and a few patrons straggled in as we ate, but I guess the cook got bored, because he repeatedly went into jarringly loud, lengthy drum solos with his tools on the metal flat top, making conversation difficult until he finished.

Here's the thing. I LOVE the Fast Furious food. I LOVE their menu, and I have never in about a dozen visits had a single complaint about the Addison location. I have introduced several friends and family to the restaurant, all of whom have called it an instant favorite. Fast Furious was actually one of the restaurants that inspired me to start this blog. I have additionally had a couple of good experiences at the new location. So I hate to have to put anything negative in this review. But I also know that sometimes there are a few innocent kinks to be worked out in training employees at a brand new location. 

I acknowledge that the Greenville location is brand spanking new, with new employees and possibly new management, and their food still tastes excellent. So I'm going to issue a challenge. I will go back to the new Greenville location of Fast Furious in about a month, and if my experience has improved I will write a full retraction. I want restaurants to succeed, be discovered- that's why I write this blog. I want people to find new favorite foods and places to eat, I don't want to injure reputations. But I also insist on a quality experience and safe food handling practices. So for now, I think you should ALL check out the Fast Furious in Addison on Belt Line and Marsh, or the one on Royal and tell me how it is- I haven't been yet- and hopefully in a few weeks I'll be sending you to the new location as well.