Kosher Food and Drink

One advantage to my current professional situation is that it gives me a lot of opportunity to travel. Often, these trips are to places that don’t have much in the way of kosher food. But, sometimes, I get lucky. This trip was to Dallas, and there is a thriving kosher restaurant scene there.

My (non-Jewish) co-workers and I wanted to do a little pre-gaming for the meetings the next day, so we were happy to head out to the first restaurant on my list for dinner: Meat Point.

Meat Point (7114 Campbell Rd #102, Dallas, TX 75248; (972) 380-1010; meatpointdallas.com; under Dallas Kosher supervision) describes itself as a gourmet kosher steakhouse, with a wide selection of wine and various dishes from other cultures.

When we arrived, we were quickly seated at a table. I had made a reservation, and I was happy to see that it was kept. The ambience was really quite good; a carefully executed rustic atmosphere with a well-stocked, attractive bar. I also loved the meat aging refrigerator! We were in a booth, and one thing I’ll ding them on was that the bench I was on had a tear in it. There were only three of us, so I didn’t need to sit on it, but I’d encourage them to keep their facilities in good repair.

Service was good, but not great. While the initial seating and ordering process was well executed, I felt like it was a little more chaotic later on. Not a lot of water refills, and it took a surprisingly long time to get our check. Admittedly, it was a hopping night, so maybe they were a bit overwhelmed and just saw a table they didn’t need to deal with as closely, but it does represent a potential area of improvement for them. In any event, it didn’t really impact the dining experience too badly. I would also encourage them to maybe dial back the upselling. Tell me the specials and your recommendations, and we’re good.

The menu is about average for a steakhouse, which is to say there’s a good selection of food for everyone. I was disappointed that there was no smoked brisket, but there’s a good selection of steak and burgers, and the alcohol selection was deep. The Israeli fusion parts were a little disconcerting, but I suppose that’s just how kosher restaurants are these days.

We ordered drinks, appetizers, and entrees. As expected, the drinks came first. One of co-workers had a whiskey, while I turned in my man card and had a pineapple mocktail of some sort.

The whiskey selection was pretty extensive; my co-workers are native Texans, so they take this sort of thing fairly seriously. Surprisingly, the website doesn’t mention it at all.

Our appetizers came out next. We ordered the Mexican corn, Wagyu beef carpaccio, and the arayes.

All of these were a hit. The corn came heavily recommended, and to their credit, it delivered. Slightly spicy, a little sweet, and toasted to perfection. The sauce was also good for adding a bit of tang. The wagyu carpaccio tasted delightful, and had really good plating.

But the arayes… surprise hit. Typically, arayes are in a pita, so seeing a Tex-Mex fusion version in a tortilla was unexpected. But it was very well-executed, plated nicely, and was spiced like you’d expect for arayes. High marks for this appetizer.

Finally, we had the entrees.

We ordered the beef kebab, the Prime Burger, and the “Heart Attack” burger. While I don’t think they quite nailed the desired medium-rare on the burgers (it was hard to tell in the lighting of the restaurant), at least they weren’t well-done.

Everyone was pretty satisfied with their entree choices. My Heart Attack burger was a colossal combination of lamb, eggs, burger, and other accoutrements. I snuck a piece of lamb out of it, and thought it was salty and tasty, like you’d expect from lamb rib meat. The burger itself was almost flavorful and had a good amount of fat content. I was not necessarily blown away by the onion rings, which I thought were a touch on the bland side without the sauce.

When the check came, I was pleasantly surprised that it was only ~$75 a person. For quality drinks, appetizers, and entrees at a good steakhouse, that’s not unreasonable, and you’ll leave pretty full.

I really enjoyed my meal at Meat Point, and I’d be happy to go back. It’s not a high-end steakhouse like you’d find in New York or Miami, but for a Jewish community as small as Dallas to be able to support something like this is quite impressive. I could tell by the number of people in the restaurant that I was not alone in my positive assessment of the quality of the dining experience. I strongly recommend giving Meat Point a try if you’re in Dallas, because I think you’ll really like it.