What’s the Deal with All the Super-Expensive New Dallas Restaurants?

DALLAS, TX – You can sense the excitement in the Dallas restaurant industry: Patio weather is here, thousands of people are getting vaccinated every day and dining rooms are beginning to welcome back customers who’ve previously stuck to takeout.

The excitement isn’t limited to current restaurants. In 2021, we’re poised to see a boom of new openings, and many of them are going to be very expensive.

Tasting menus are in again. At Monarch, in downtown’s National Building, diners can choose to sign up for a $290 tasting of “the best our menu has to offer.” On Greenville Avenue, two new tasting spots will debut this summer: Shoyo from longtime Nobu sushi chef Jimmy Park and Carte Blanche by married chefs Amy and Casey La Rue. Casey has worked for Michelin-starred legends Daniel Boulud, Joel Robuchon and Thomas Keller.

If you want to order a la carte, there will still be plenty of lavish options. Monarch has five steaks clocking in at $100 or more. Meridian, set to open soon in the Village development, will be a showcase for the life story of Brazilian-American chef Junior Borges, who’s worked locally at high-end landmarks FT33 and Uchi. Carbone, a swanky Italian-American spot from New York City, is opening a Dallas location just months after another New York import, Eataly, which serves both groceries and $12 cups of gelato made from scratch after you’ve ordered them.

Just one floor up the National Building from Monarch, new sushi restaurant Kessaku serves a $21 spicy tuna roll and a $175 cocktail with ultra-rare Japanese whiskey. A few blocks away, The Exchange has begun serving two menus in a communal space, one an upscale (but not exorbitant) bistro, the other a Japanese spot with a $10 cup of miso soup.

A new restaurant in Deep Ellum, Harper’s, recruited the former chef from Wolfgang Puck’s revolving Reunion Tower restaurant to create a menu that, The Dallas Morning News reports, will embody “approachable opulence.” Oh, and there’s also a guy who throws salt at a $1,000 steak.