Dish Of The Week

Dallas dish of the week: The seasonal vegetarian menu at Fearing's

Editor's note: Every week, we'll spotlight a culinary treat found around Dallas-Fort Worth — whether it's a new opening, a dish at a restaurant, or a grocery find.

Dish: Vegetarian menu at Fearing's
Location: Fearing's at Ritz-Carlton Dallas

Fearing's, the restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas hotel, is known for its Southwestern-meets-New-American cuisine; its slinky Rattlesnake Bar; and its charismatic chef Dean Fearing.

A lesser known thing is that Fearing's portfolio of menus — along with brunch, lunch, dinner, and a new steakhouse menu featuring Wagyu steaks that the hotel is fired up about — includes one that's entirely vegetarian.

Many restaurants offer vegetarian dishes, but to create an entirely separate menu with starters and entrees is a commitment. And to do it on the level they're doing it at Fearing's is rare.

By "the level they're doing it at Fearing's," we're talking:

Conceived under the mindset that this is a meal, and the entrees are just like regular entrees, except they lack animal as an ingredient.
The creativity and finesse you get from a top-caliber chef.

So on a recent Saturday night, we got an early table and had a couple of dishes from the menu. We split a starter of chicken-fried vegetables, which consisted of fried vegetables in a crisp-crunchy crust, set over a pool of aioli. The dish was mildly reminiscent of tempura vegetables but the coating was thinner; it could have used a little more crust. But the veggie selection was a plus, with distinctive items like broccolini and okra pods.

The kitchen split the dish before serving, which was thoughtful, even if we prefer to see it all together on the plate.

We ordered two entrees. Falafel being hot right now, we ordered the English pea falafel with garbanzo bean and baby heirloom carrot ragout with herb spinach puree, morel mushrooms, and tzatziki sauce.

This was such a pretty dish. Seven little "falafels" formed a ring around an entire medley of stuff: dabs of sauce, randomly-placed baby beet greens — some with the baby beets still attached, so cool, so rustic — plus shaved radish curls and a succotash made of super-fresh corn, peas, and hominy. Succotash is a chef Dean favorite.

No morels, sadly, but those were surely out of season by the second week of June. The succotash made up for it: The peas were hardly cooked — maybe just warmed, so that they still had from-the-garden firmness. And it was clever the way the fresh peas matched the theme of the pea falafel.

The falafel's texture was mushier than the firm, crunchy texture you expect from the traditional chickpea version of falafel, and the outer crust was softer than is ideal. But you can almost never go wrong with hot, deep-fried little orbs of just about anything.

The second entree, the Mexican Sampler, was another plate jubilantly crowded with all sorts of things: spinach enchilada with jalapeño ranchero sauce; butternut squash taquito with cilantro crema; avocado fries; a slaw; and chile lime corn gratin — like a souped-up version of esquites, the Mexican corn dish.

Having this multitude of things on a plate was stimulating, with so many flavors and textures to weigh and compare.

The victor was the spinach enchilada, because it came with a lot of spinach, just-blanched, with many leaves stacked on top of each other, so that the spinach became a solid presence, something you could really bite down on, such a satisfying experience, and with a fresh, mineral-earthy flavor.

The taquito was stuffed with soft mashed butternut squash. Stuffing it generously was smart: It made you feel like you were getting a lot of bang for your buck (actually, your 30 bucks).

Like the restaurant's other menus, the vegetarian is seasonal; it changes four times a year. But the Mexican sampler stays on the menu year round. Fearing says that his vegetarian customers have made it clear it's a dish he should not remove.

The wine-by-the-glass list was dull, and service was challenging, especially the effort to sell coffee and dessert after we asked for the check. Total: $150 for three dishes, 2 glasses of wine, and 16 percent tip.

English Pea Falafel with Garbanzo Bean & Baby Heirloom Carrot Ragout with Herb Spinach Puree, Morel Mushrooms and Tzatziki Sauce

Photo by Marc Lee

English Pea Falafel with Garbanzo Bean & Baby Heirloom Carrot Ragout with Herb Spinach Puree, Morel Mushrooms and Tzatziki Sauce

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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