Samar by Stephan Pyles, a final taste of restaurant week 2012!

This was a last minute decision.  Out of the blue we finally went to a restaurant week with just the 2 of us.  A very comfortable experience, we sat outside, got serenaded by live music, had breezes of wind (yes, cool wind in Texas during August, pretty unbelieveable!), and of course FOOD.

Right in the heart of downtown, this restaurant is heavily decorated by beautiful draping and soft lighting.  There are hookah pipes laying on the floor, and you hear chatting throughout the Indian/Mediterranean restaurant inside.  On the outside, it was serene because people kept their chatter on low so the live music can flow.

This time we actually ordered only 1 restaurant week tasting menu and ordered several things off their regular dinner menu.

We chose 1 starter off the regular menu and 1 from the restaurant week menu.

To be honest both our starters were the highlights of the night.  Our favorite, the foie gras brulee and 2nd would be the lobster fritters with coconut rice.

The foie gras brulee was to die for!  Definitely FOOD PORN 101.  When the brulee hits your palate you get this really rich and intense flavor of the foie gras, then the silky texture coats your mouth and lingers forever, and finally finished with some crispness from the bacon, and fresh sweetness from the peaches.  This is a definite must try!

The lobster fritter with the coconut rice was pretty special.  This has a Thai influence mixed with an Indian touch.  The coconut rice is the Thai and the pickled mangoes was the Indian. There was just something very comforting to the rice, maybe it was the creaminess or possibly the indian spices that you got with every mouthful.  The lobster fritters were very light and crispy, kind of like a tempura batter.  The lobster was very fresh and succulent.  The coconut rice with the sweet and sour mangoes was actually a very perfect combination.  This just didn't seem like a starter course though, but it was delicious!

Then came our 2nd courses.

From the menu was the fried potatoes, chorizo and over easy egg, but what made it extra special was the tiny piece of foie gras that came on the side!  When we got our plate of food, the server instructed us to mix all the ingredients together so that the potatoes are coated with the richness of the egg yoke, savory saltiness from the chorizo, and the goodness of the foie gras.  A very simple potato and egg dish with a surprise and a kick.

We also ordered the optional course from the restaurant week menu, crispy fried poached egg with mushroom salad.  This is what I imagine a fried poached egg to be!  The egg was light and crispy on the outside...soft, running, and oozing with yoke on the inside.  This was done well!  The salad was light and earthy, very refreshing.  We would have preferred the cheese shredded on the salad, we get the presentation factor but it didn't incorporate in the dish well enough.

Our entrees...

Tiger Prawn  Bombay style with crispy okra and spiced pear chutney.  This is just how you would imagine it.  Fresh shrimp, we didn't really get the Bombay style but the shrimp was good.  We thought the crispy okra did not live up to its name.  Maybe because it wasn't crispy.  The texture was kind of like stale old chips...they need another preparation method if you ask us, maybe even a double visit to the deep fryer.  The pear chutney on the other hand was delicious and went really well with the shrimp.

Our 2nd entree came from the restaurant week menu, Greek style meatballs with pearl couscous.  This was actually better than we thought.  The meatballs were very tender, moist, and flavorful.  The couscous had kind of a pesto touch to it, it was very delicious and the portion was actually a lot bigger than we had first imagined.  We do like the pearl couscous over the small ones.  The texture is a lot better, similar to eating a tiny pasta like orzo.

Last but not least, sear bay scallops with olive oil poached potatoes and crispy artichokes.  This was very clean and had some pretty fantastic cooking techniques.  We loved the crispy artichokes, and they were crispy...we were just wondering why they know how to make this crispy but not the okra.  The olive oil poached potatoes was YUM!  The potatoes literally melted in your mouth and was coated with a sweet olive oil flavor.  They used small fingerling potatoes, purple and yellow. The scallops were small but tender and sweet.  All in all a great dish, very much like a warm salad.

Our dessert was an Indian style funnel cake with cardamom ice cream. We've had this wonderful texture from the described funnel cake before at a traditional Indian wedding.  The funnel cake is sweet and the  peaches at the bottom cut the richness of the dessert.

This meal was overall a great experience.  We had a great time, date night!  We got to try things off the regular menu also and found the prices are fairly reasonable for a nice restaurant like this one.  We also got live, relaxing entertainment, this made us forget we were in downtown Dallas.  We would rate this place 8/10 for its atmosphere, creativity, taste, and price.

Samar
2100 Ross Ave
Dallas, TX 75201