Mother's Day Meals

The best restaurants in Dallas to treat Mom on Mother's Day 2014

Mother's Day is just around the corner, and although your finally being out of the house is probably the best present you have ever given your mom, she still needs to eat. So get those reservations in order and prove to the leading lady in your life that you have graduated past breakfast in bed with your siblings and moved on to toasting her fabulousness with a mimosa.

Canary by Gorji
The highlights: Celebrate Mother’s Day with dinner from 5-9 pm. The meal includes choice of salad (Caesar or spinach), entrée (pork chop with gnocchi or Arctic char and shrimp) and dessert (berry sorbet or chocolate liqueur cake).
Cost per person: $39
Reservations: 214-503-7080

Cook Hall
The highlights: Start the Mother’s Day celebration with a blood orange mimosa, sparkling hibiscus Bellini or Bloody Mary. Then move on to buttermilk pancakes, soft scrambled eggs with crab and tomato toast, or grilled salmon salad. Dessert selections include a rhubarb crisp or house-made cookie plate. Cook Hall is doing brunch Saturday and Sunday, from 11 am-3 pm.
Cost per person: $35
Reservations: 214-397-4111

Cool River Cafe
The highlights: Cool River is doing a three-course dinner with soup or salad; choice of roast beef tenderloin, grilled chicken portobello or hickory-smoked salmon; and banana rum cake with Nutella frosting or créme brûlée cheesecake for dessert.
Cost per person: $29.95
Reservations: 972-871-8881

Dallas Arboretum
The highlights: If scenery is what Mom loves most, the Dallas Arboretum is serving a Mother's Day brunch from 10:30 am-12:30 pm, with a cold buffet, hot carving station and assorted desserts. There are seatings available at Rosine Hall and on the loggia at the DeGolyer Estate.
Cost per person: $67 for adults, $25 for children ages 5-10, and free for children ages 4 and under
Reservations: 214-515-6511

Dallas Fish Market
The highlights: Make your selections from an à la carte menu featuring items such as shrimp cocktail, beet salad, pea soup, lobster Benedict, striped bass, ahi tuna BLT and lobster roll. Dessert options include mascarpone figs, chocolate bread pudding or profiteroles. This is going down from 11 am-3 pm.
Cost per person: A la carte
Reservations: 214-744-3474

Driftwood
The highlights: New executive chef Kyle McClelland is offering a Mother’s Day brunch from 11 am-3 pm. Dishes include house-made jelly doughnuts, eggs Benedict with crab or pork belly, and bacon or fennel sausage.
Cost per person: A la carte
Reservations: 214-942-2530

Fearing's
The highlights: Fearing's is serving a special three-course brunch from 11 am-3 pm. Main course selections include lobster omelet and filet mignon with west Texas mop sauce, lamb chops with spring vegetable sauté, and halibut with andouille sausage. Dessert includes almond blueberry tart, coconut cupcake, and dark chocolate cake and milk chocolate ice cream cake with mallow fluff.
Cost per person: $95 for adults and $30 for children 12 and under
Reservations: 214-922-4848

Five Sixty
The highlights: Five Sixty offers an array of Asian-inspired breakfast and lunch dishes served with a spectacular view of the Dallas skyline. The assortment includes pork belly pot stickers, Thai shrimp cocktail, sushi and nigiri, lapsong fried rice, lo mein, Shanghai fried noodles, lemon pepper pork stir fry, rendang short ribs, made-to-order eggs, and assorted mini desserts.
Cost per person: $55 for adults and $30 for children
Reservations: 214-741-5560

The Grape
The highlights: The Grape celebrates Mom with a brunch from 10:30 am-2 pm. There are a few specials in addition the regular à la carte menu, as well as items for kids.
Cost per person: A la carte
Reservations: 214-828-1981

Highland Park Cafeteria
The highlights: From 10:45 am-8 pm, Highland Park Cafeteria offers special menu items such as raspberry roast pork tenderloin, salmon, coconut cake, rhubarb pie and lemon meringue pie. Shirley Robinson, who specializes in show tunes, will be on the piano along with Jerry Stephens, who can play anything and especially loves requests.
Cost per person: $11.99
Reservations: 214-324-5000

Hibashi Teppan Grill & Sushi Bar
The highlights: Hibashi is serving a special fixed-price menu with three courses. Dishes include Hibashi's famous garden salad with ginger dressing; house miso or onion soup; rolls such as Mom's Roll with tuna, super white tuna and yellowtail; sashimi medley with salmon, tuna, superwhite tuna and yellowtail; and a yakitori feast with beef tenderloin, Scottish salmon, scallops, tempura sweet potato, jalapeno and shrimp.
Cost per person: $50
Reservations: 972-620-3474

Hotel St. Germain
The highlights: Celebrate Mother’s Day from 11 am-2 pm with a New Orleans-style brunch. Dine while overlooking the garden courtyard.
Cost per person: $55
Reservations: 214-871-2516

InterContinental Dallas
The highlights: Enjoy a full buffet from 10:30 am-2 pm, with breakfast, seafood and hot carving stations; made-to-order pastas, crepes and omelets; and desserts.
Cost per person: $72 for adults, $27 for children ages 6-12, and free for kids 5 and under
Reservations: 972-386-6000

Lavendou Bistro
The highlights: From 11 am-3 pm, Lavendou Bistro serves a three-course, fixed-price French brunch with dishes such as vichyssoise, tomato-and-mozzarella salad, frisee salad, fruit de mer, poached eggs on brioche with smoked salmon and spinach topped with hollandaise, fillet of sole with crab and champagne cream sauce, steak bordelaise with gratin Dauphinois and French green beans, and chicken breast with linguini. For dessert, indulge in tiramisu, chocolate mousse cake, white chocolate cheesecake or raspberry tart.
Cost per person: $38.95
Reservations: 972-248-1911

Lazaranda
The highlights: Saturday and Sunday brunch (11 am-3 pm) features four entrée specials as well as Mexican vanilla crème brûlée over mangos for dessert. Selections include shrimp Tulum with cream cheese wrapped in bacon with mashed potatoes, rib-eye with shrimp and avocado sauce over poblano rice, filet wrapped in bacon over pasilla pepper mashed potatoes, or octopus with pinto and black beans.
Cost per person: $24.95
Reservations: 972-866-8900

Max’s Wine Dive
The highlights: Max’s Wine Dive Dallas serves its traditional brunch menu from 10 am-3 pm, plus retail wine specials throughout Mother’s Day weekend. Guests who dine with Mom at the restaurant have the option to purchase a bottle while dining; in return they get 50 percent off the same bottle to go.
Cost per person: A la carte
Reservations: 214-559-3483

Nasher Sculpture Center
The highlights: Enjoy a gourmet buffet Wolfgang Puck-style from 10 am-1 pm. Dishes include local farm egg Benedict with first-of-season asparagus on house brioche, soft scrambled farm eggs with local goat cheese, house-smoked and pecan-cured bacon, hand-cranked apple chicken sausage, Virginia honey ham with spiced heirloom carrots and confit of new potato, vanilla bean and polenta pancakes with citrus butter, individual strawberry and rhubarb cobblers.
Cost per person: $50 for members, $60 for non-members, children under 12 half price, and children 3 and under free
Reservations: 214-242-5144

Olenjack’s Grille
The highlights: Olenjack's Grille is having a brunch buffet from 10 am-3 pm, with more than 30 options. Think tequila and lime glazed shrimp with green onion rice, cucumber and onion salad, cinnamon raisin bread pudding with white chocolate, mini raspberry tiramisus, and mimosas and Bloody Marys.
Cost per person: $28 for adults and $14 for children
Reservations: 817-226-2600

Ocean Prime
The highlights: Chef Eugenio Reyes whips up a special brunch menu from 11 am-3 pm. Options include blood orange mimosa, spinach quiche, arugula salad, blueberry French toast, short rib with poached eggs, crab and eggs with toasted English muffin, crab cakes, and blackened salmon salad. The dinner menu is available all day.
Cost per person: A la carte
Reservations: 214-965-0440

Peak & Elm
The highlights: Executive chef Jesse Moreno Sr. offers a three-course brunch menu with complimentary mimosas. Begin with a mixed green salad with Texas peaches, mixed nuts and queso fresco in a blackberry balsamic vinaigrette. Then choose an entree: quiche with house-made Mexican chorizo or quiché primavera with Mexican calabacitas and mushrooms. For dessert there are peach empanadas with local honey. Three seating times: 10 am, noon and 2 pm, with limited availability.
Cost per person: $15
Reservations: 214-826-7617

Second Floor Bistro
The highlights: From 11 am-2 pm, treat Mom to a buffet with pork belly eggs Benedict, prime rib carving station, duck confit hash, omelets and more.
Cost per person: $58 for adults, $26 for children ages 6-12, and free for children 5 and under
Reservations: 972-450-2978

Silver Fox Steakhouse
The highlights: Three-course meal from 11 am-5 pm includes a choice of house salad, wedge salad or asparagus soup; choice of tenderloin, salmon or chicken paillard; and choice of pecan cake, Mandarin orange cake or chocolate lovers dessert.
Cost per person: $46.95 for adults and $16.95 for children under 12
Reservations: 972-423-8121

III Forks
The highlights: III Forks is doing a special four-course Mother’s Day meal from 11 am-8 pm. Dishes include asparagus soup; III Forks salad with green apple, blue cheese, toasted pecans and field greens; beef tenderloin; red snapper on almond basil pearl couscous; and red pepper chicken with fingerling potatoes. For dessert, there is mandarin orange cake, strawberry shortcake, flourless chocolate cake or berry parfait.
Cost per person: $46.95 for adults and $16.95 for children under 12
Reservations: 972- 267-1776

Mom deserves mimosas on Mother's Day.

Courtesy photo

Mom deserves mimosas on Mother's Day.

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Spring Arrival

West Dallas gets new Spanish-Peruvian restaurant with big-name chef

Photo courtesy of Ulloa's

Paella will be on the menu.

A new restaurant with a high-profile culinary director will bring Spanish and Peruvian flavors to West Dallas: Called Ulloa’s, it is coming to 727 Fort Worth Ave., with a projected opening in March 2027.

The concept is from philanthropists Susan and Woodrow Gandy, who were previously investors in the historic Belmont Hotel just around the corner. They've teamed up with Dallas celebrity chef Kent Rathbun as culinary director, along with Christopher Tunnell as general manager to lead the front of the house.

Rathbun is a name Dallas diners know well, with a resume that includes The Mansion on Turtle Creek, the Landmark Restaurant at the historic Melrose Hotel, Seventeen Seventeen at the Dallas Museum of Art, Abacus, Jasper's, Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen, and more. He's won numerous awards and made multiple appearances on Food Network. He was most recently behind the launch of On The Rocks, an Italian bistro in Burleson.

Chef Kent Rathbun will be the culinary director of Ulloa's. Photo courtesy of Kent Rathbun

Tunnell’s background spans both culinary direction and front-of-house operations. He worked at Los Angeles hot spots Ketchup, Geisha House, and Les Deux, as well as the Mandalay Bay and The Mirage in Las Vegas, before moving to Dallas to open The Mexican, the upscale restaurant in the Design District.

“I am truly excited to partner with Chef Kent Rathbun, whose reputation is amazing — not only in the DFW Metroplex, but in the culinary world,” Tunnell says. “He has been with this project since the beginning, helping develop it; this will be a very chef-driven, culinary-forward restaurant.”

The team's vision for Ulloa’s is both culinary and urban, with hopes of anchoring the corridor and attracting other businesses to Fort Worth Avenue — a stretch connecting downtown Dallas with Oak Cliff that remains somewhat underdeveloped despite its panoramic skyline views.

The restaurant is named for Spanish explorer, astronomer, and scientist Antonio de Ulloa, who spent extensive time in the Mexican peninsula before becoming Louisiana’s first governor. During his travels, Ulloa documented a fogbow — a circular rainbow formed when sunlight meets mist that causes silhouettes standing between the sun and fog to appear ringed in light, a phenomenon known today as “Ulloa’s Rings.”

That vibrant phenomenon inspired both the restaurant's identity and logo. The concept promises "bold, worldly flavors in a welcoming neighborhood setting inspired by exploration and discovery,” the owners say.

Ulloa's Rendering of Ulloa's.Rendering courtesy of Ulloa's

While the menu remains in development, Tunnell describes the culinary direction as “Spanish soul with a Peruvian heart.” The kitchen will merge the coastal flavors of both traditions — ranging from paellas and ceviches to crafted cocktails and signature adaptations by Rathbun.

The 200-seat, two-story space will feature a downstairs dining room, a large bar, and an outdoor patio. Upstairs, plans call for a secondary bar, a private dining room, a patio, and an expansive balcony patio, offering views of the city's skyline and of the Margaret Hunt Hill and Margaret McDermott bridges.

While the upstairs space will be available for private events, the owners intend for it to operate primarily as an organic extension of the main restaurant. The buildout will include a guest elevator along with ample parking, including both self-parking and valet options.

The team says the restaurant will have have an aesthetic that's “warm, theatrical, generous, elegant but alive, with the energy of a great Spanish tapas bar and the soul of Peruvian hospitality.”

Ulloa’s plans to launch with dinner service first, followed by lunch and weekend brunch.

restaurants bars peruvian flavors west dallas oak cliff kent rathbun