Restaurant review extravaganza 47

Here are some of this week’s most noteworthy restaurant reviews from across the country:

Broward-Palm Beach

Corner Café and Brewery

The Gnarly Barley pale ale I was sipping at Corner Café and Brewery in Tequesta was rich and full-bodied, with a yeasty finish that reminded me of the bread my mother used to bake when I was a kid. Mom didn’t bake bread often, so when she did, it was special. She’d place the dough in loaf pans on the countertop to rise, and the smell of fresh yeast would permeate the house — a smell that only grew stronger while it baked. More >>

Dallas

The Mansion on Turtle Creek

In the absence of Michelin stars, The Mansion on Turtle Creek serves as Dallas’ culinary measuring stick.

The priciest restaurants are described as “more expensive than The Mansion.” When other kitchens list tortilla soup on their menus, people ask: “Is it as good as The Mansion’s?” And when people recount the city’s top restaurants, the Turtle Creek icon always ranks somewhere near the top. More >>

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Denver

8 Rivers

The first time I cooked pot food was my freshman year in high school. Two friends and I pooled our money, bought a quarter bag of Texas dirt weed and some instant brownie mix, and headed to an adult-free house with an open kitchen. More >>

Houston

Two Saints Restaurant

The grilled cheese sandwich at Two Saints Restaurant on Memorial came on thick-sliced, toasted artisan bread. The complex yeasty texture and crunchy crust created lots of “nooks and crannies” that made for very interesting toast. More >>

Kansas City

Edokko Restaurant

I recently discovered a local restaurant that is something I never dreamed possible: a Japanese steakhouse without those big teppan-yaki grills and those chefs telling bad jokes as they spin eggs, toss shrimp, juggle pepper shakers, and create flaming volcanoes out of onion rings. More >>

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Los Angeles

Cacao Mexicatessen

Here is the topic for today’s discussion: Why isn’t duck carnitas on every Mexican menu in town? Because if you think about it, the dish is almost inevitable — duck meat simmered in fat until it nearly collapses, perfumed flesh arranged atop crisply fried sopes, a shotgun marriage of traditional and European cooking techniques of the sort that have been going on in Mexico since the conquest. If life were fair, you would be able to get duck carnitas from every respectable taco truck on the Eastside. More >>

Miami

Zucchero

João “Juca” Oliveira was 17 years old when he arrived in America from his hometown of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Right away, he began cooking at a conveyor belt of Bice restaurants — from New York to D.C. to Palm Beach. In the early ’90s, he cut his teeth at Il Tre Merli and Folia, at the time two trendy South Beach trattorias. More >>