Year of the Snake

Lunar New Year leads 10 best food and drink events in Dallas this week

"Money Bag" dumplings, a Lunar New Year celebration at Malai Kitchen.

Malai Kitchen/Facebook

The Year of the Snake officially begins this week, and restaurants are ready to celebrate with Lunar New Year specials and festivities. Also make plans for a six-course vegan dinner with an intergalactic theme, an Italian wine dinner, and the return of a popular beer from one of Dallas' most beloved breweries.

Tuesday, January 28

Lunar New Year at JOA Grill
Upscale Korean barbecue restaurant will offer a four-course special to celebrate Lunar New Year. The menu includes yuzu salad, choice of rice cake soup or crispy beef pancake, a meat board of prime short rib, New York strip, chuck flap, and marinated ribeye, and chocolate cake. The dinner is $52 plus tax and gratuity, and available through February 2.

Wednesday, January 29

Lunar New Year at Malai Kitchen
All locations of Malai Kitchen will celebrate Lunar New Year with specials and giveaways. Visit for red-colored cocktails to match the New Year's theme of luck and happiness, including a spicy melon margarita and watermelon spritz. Food specials include "Money Bag" dumplings with lamb, carrot, and soybeans; and Longevity Lobster Noodles, a traditional New Year's dish. Malai will also randomly give away 50 red envelopes throughout the day with vouchers for free appetizers, desserts, and other prizes. Malai has locations in Preston Center, Uptown, Clearfork, and Southlake.

Lunar New Year at Komodo
Ring in the Year of the Snake at Komodo with lion dancers, a dragon dance performance, DJ music, and a special “Love Letters” dessert feature. The celebration will run from 5–10 pm.

Lunar New Year at Feng Shui
Upscale Asian restaurant at the McKinney & Olive building is hosting a Lunar New Year party with traditional Guzheng music, Chinese calligraphy demonstrations, and a free dessert called Thanghulu, which symbolizes health and wellbeing. Feng Shui will also hand out 100 red envelopes to customers with prizes. The party will run from 6:30–8:30 pm.

Thursday, January 30

Legacy Lineup #1: Heart O' Texas Red Ale Release at Four Corners Brewing Company
Dallas brewery is releasing throwback favorites starting the return of Heart of Texas Red Ale. There’ll be a Texas-themed market, flash tattoos, and photo booth fun. The party starts at 6 pm with rounds of Loteria (Mexican bingo) starting at 7:30 pm.

A Toast to Italy: Antinori Wine Dinner at Palato
Hall Park Hotel’s Italian kitchen and lounge will host a four-course pairing dinner featuring Antinori wines. Start with yellowtail crudo before moving to mafaldine pasta with mushrooms & black truffle, Wagyu beef cheek peposo with polenta & kale, and black forest tart cherry compote. Tickets are $98, plus tax and fee, and dinner begins at 6:30 pm.

Champagne Dinner at the Tango Room
Executive chef David Gomez and bartender Nolan Palladino have collaborated on a four-course dinner showcasing Ruinart champagnes and cocktails that includes butter-poached oysters with Ruinart Blanc de Blanc; carpaccio with black truffle with a Lo Groni; lamb saddle with spinach, fennel sausage, and polenta with Ruinart Blanc Singulier Edition 18; and cheesecake with blood orange with Ruinart Rosé. $175, reserve online. It starts at 7 pm.

Friday, January 31

Veganuary Vegetation Six-Course Vegan Tasting Menu at TLC Vegan Café
Take a six-course trip “around the universe” at this Richardson vegan restaurant dinner. Menu items include The Milky Way Tray with sweet potato chips, pistachio cheese ball, dried star fruit, and a pickle medley; and “Intergalatic” with red pepper, rice, Chik’N, and smoked carrot cream. Dinner is $100 plus tax and gratuity. Add a beer pairing for $20, a mocktail pairing for $25, or a wine pairing for $35. Seating times are 5:15 pm or 8:15 pm.

Gatherings By Sheraton: Making The Perfect Cocktail at Sheraton Stonebriar Hotel
Say goodbye to Dry January with this hands-on cocktail class in the heart of Stonebriar Commons in Frisco. Class is $35 and begins at 6:30 pm.

Monday, February 3

Littorai Wine Dinner at Pappas Bros. Steakhouse
California’s Littorai Winery will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a tour across the U.S. by winemaker Ted Lemon. He'll stop at Pappas Bros. in Dallas for a five-course pairing dinner featuring his renowned chardonnays and pinot noirs. Menu highlights include juniper-rubbed duck breast spaetzles with kohlrabi & cherry jus, red snapper en papillote, and roast tenderloin of beef with black truffles, celery root puree, & heirloom carrots. Dinner is $495 including tax and gratuity, and begins at 6:30 pm.

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Ice Cream News

Kwality Ice Cream shop to bring creamy exotic desserts to Frisco

Kwality

Kwality Ice Cream

An ice cream chain with an Indian flair is dipping into Dallas-Fort Worth: Called Kwality Ice Cream, it's a concept founded in New Jersey that specializes in traditional Indian ice cream and cold drinks, and it's opening a location in Frisco, at 13089 Main St. #500, in a new shopping center.

According to franchisee Raju Vikey, the shop will open sometime in 2025. It joins two DFW locations already open: Irving at 8600 N. Macarthur Blvd., and Euless, at 1060 N. Main St. at Harwood Crossing shopping center, which opened in April.

Kwality Ice Cream was founded by food scientist Dr. Kanti Parekh and his son Anand, in New Jersey in 2003. It has expanded with 38 locations in 14 states including Pennsylvania, Florida, and Texas, where there are three locations in Houston and one in Austin.

“The idea was to create a South Asian-specific ice cream, which is more known for fruits and nuts,” Anand says. “As a Ph.D. in food and nutrition, my father’s background and expertise were in flavor. He used that to create very unique flavors and top notes to give a really good mouth feel and experience.”

They have close to 50 ice cream flavors with classics like cookies & cream, chocolate supreme, and butter pecan; but South Asian and Indian flavors dominate the menu with exotic options like green guava, lychee, and Nuttie Tuttie Fruitee, a berry-flavored ice cream with nuts and candied fruit.

There is also kulfi, a frozen dessert that's like ice cream but with less added air so it has a stiffer, creamier texture. It's served in slices and comes in popular Indian flavors like pistachio, mango, and rose.

Other novel frozen treats include cassata, an ice cream cake with three flavors of ice cream layered over sponge cake.

As with many Asian desserts, they're often less sweet than American-style confections. Wild inventions include the mawa rabdi cup, with ice cream, rice noodles, basil seeds, and rose syrup, topped with nuts and candied fruit; and Thandai ice cream, a staple at Indian festivals, consisting of almonds, fennel seeds, poppy seeds, watermelon seeds, rose petals, pepper, cardamom, saffron, milk, and sugar.

Rabdi is like a pudding, believed to have originated during the 1600s. Kwality makes it following the traditional method of slow-cooking milk until it thickens and reduces, enhancing its sweetness and creaminess, then adding ingredients like cardamom, saffron, and pistachios.

Pints of ice cream and frozen desserts range from $8-$11, and cassata ice cream cake slices are $7.

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