Tasting Menu News

Dallas' top ranked restaurant Carte Blanche busts out new casual sideline

Fried squash blossom filled with goat cheese at Carte Blanche.

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A Dallas restaurant famous for its multi-course chef tasting menus is now giving a smaller taste: Carte Blanche, the fine dining restaurant on Greenville Avenue that has earned national acclaim for its exacting standards, will now offer a selection of a la carte options, in addition to its signature tasting menu.

Co-owner and chef Casey LaRue says that the new option will give people the flexibility to dine at Carte Blanche for an everyday meal without having to commit to a full tasting experience.

"We've heard from guests who've said, 'We wish we could stop by to have a course or a glass of wine,'" LaRue says. "We understand that not every dining experience calls for a multi-course extravaganza. The new à la carte menu provides the perfect solution for diners who wish to indulge in a single, exquisite dish or share a few small bites with friends and family."

The new menu features a selection of small and large plates that will change frequently, in response to season and supply. Notable à la carte offerings include the restaurant's famed foie gras and croissant course, as well as a selection of appetizers, entrées, and desserts.

Some of the dishes going out of the gate include

embered kohlrabi
crispy squash blossom with crab salad
Texas red snapper crudo
English pea risotto with nopales, jicama & puffed quinoa
halibut with razor clams and artichoke barigoule
quail ballotine with mole negro and hoja santa smoked quail legs
dukkah cauliflower with maitake mushrooms
antelope loin with “beets many ways”

Opening desserts include mandarin sorbet with sake sabayon, ricotta zeppole with rhubarb jam & white chocolate Chantilly; and lemon chiffon cake with mascarpone mousse.

Beyond the benefit to customers who don't want to dedicate a night to a multi-course tasting, it also helps the restaurant showcase seasonal ingredients they aren't able to spotlight sufficiently on their chef's tasting menu.

"This comes as we do a major menu shift as we enter spring and have many new items from our private gardens and local farmers," LaRue says. "Changing the tasting menu is an intricate thing because we don't like to repeat ingredients in any of the courses. Right now, we have some wonderful strawberries, but we wouldn't use them in more than one course on the tasting menu. It gives us more possibilities for creativity in the kitchen."

They're even creating a special enclave at the restaurant where the new menu can be ordered.

"We are changing our seating arrangement on the bar side with new banquettes," he says. "I think it'll make it more accessible and welcoming."

They're also simultaneously expanding their bar menu with the addition of spirits and cocktails; until now, they've been beer and wine only.

Carte Blanche has amassed an unprecedented stack of awards in the two years since it's been open, including being the only restaurant in Texas to earn 5 stars from the prestigious Forbes Travel Guide, two years in a row.

They're also the only restaurant in Texas to earn the coveted AAA Five Diamond designation, putting them in the same field as nationally renowned restaurants such as Le Bernardin, Jean-Georges Restaurant, Per Se, The French Laundry, Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas, and Restaurant Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace. Only 50 restaurants in the U.S. currently have Five Diamond rankings.

They made Texas Monthly's Best New Restaurant list in 2022, and have been nominated for numerous CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, including Best New Restaurant, Best Chef, and Pastry Chef of the Year.

While the à la carte offering will reach a wider audience, there vill be no compromise on the standards, La Rue says.

"The à la carte menu will maintain the same commitment to quality and seasonal ingredients that has long been our hallmark," he says.

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Tex-Mex News

Get Tex-Mex and bargain margs at Alexander's Cantina in North Dallas

A Mexican restaurant with a killer happy hour has debuted in North Dallas: Alexander's Cantina & Cocina, a family-owned restaurant and bar, has opened at 4805 Frankford Rd. #105, a space most recently occupied by Casa Don Luis Tex-Mex and before that, a Corner Bakery.

Alexander's is a bigger-and-better spinoff of Alexander's Mex Cuisine, a restaurant opened in Plano in 2023 by Bernardo Garduño and his family, featuring Tex-Mex and street food from his hometown Mexico City.

Garduño worked for many years in the service industry before coming to Dallas in 2015. He crafted Alexander's menu by drawing on his restaurant experience, along with recipes from his mom.

Signature dishes include:

Pambazo — Mexican bread dipped in chili sauce, filled with potatoes, chorizo, and queso, then fried
Alambre — steak, ham, and bacon with onion, peppers, and cheese
Bistek a la Mexicana — steak tips, onion, and bell pepper simmered in a spicy tomato sauce until it turns into a stew

Other crowd-pleasers include chicken mole, brisket tacos, birria, fajitas, enchiladas, and more. They have a big selection of seafood including tacos with salmon and coconut shrimp, plus vegetarian options such as veggie fajitas and spinach enchiladas. One favorite extra: Their chips come not only with salsa but also black bean dip.

The new location has given them room to grow in a way they were unable to do in Plano, Garduño says.

"Plano is doing very well but that location is small, and there was no room to expand," he says. "We did extensive renovations at the Dallas location that included the addition of a bar, as well as room for parties and entertainment, like salsa on Fridays and Saturdays."

The menu at the two locations is basically the same but Dallas has a few new dishes such as mojarra frita, a whole tilapia fried and served with rice, plus carnitas, and a few more tacos, he says.

One item they recently dropped: soft-serve margaritas. Garduño was quick to jump on that early 2026 trend, and Alexander's made many a "soft-serve margarita" list, but the trend turned out to be short-lived.

"It did well for a month, but people went right back to regular margaritas," he says. "Those drinks are fun but they're very sweet. The mix has to be highly sugared in order to get the texture correct. The ingredients and equipment to make it were expensive, which meant we had to charge more for it — $16 as opposed to $10 for our regular margaritas."

Garduño has kept an eye on the trend. "We're not the only place no longer doing it," he says.

Besides, it was not a good fit with Alexander's generous happy hour, featuring $5.50 house margaritas, $6 flavored margaritas, and $4 beer, available from 11 am-6 pm every day at the Plano location, and Sunday-Thursday at Dallas.

"Our happy hour has become one of our trademarks," he says.

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