OLD Eats DO NOT USE

I am going to echo previous queries: what is it with two stars and a Guide Pick? If L'Ancestral is just "good" rather than "very good," does it still deserve a Guide Pick designation?

I was delighted to see the mention of Steak Tartare at L'Ancestral. That inspires me to go and give the restaurant a try.

As a relative newcomer to DFW, I'd be interested to know readers' opinions about other spots that serve Steak Tartare. Any recommendations?

If you go to Adelmo's, call before and ask Adelmo if he will make it for you..classic

York Street is serving on their current menu...awesome

There's 2 for you.

Arthur's in Addison has a great steak tartare, and their sister restaurant St. Martin's on lower Greenville will make it for you if you call ahead too.

Cafe Toulouse on Knox Street has a terrific tartare.

Hey Dorothy –

The short answer to your question is yes: We believe a two-star restaurant can deserve a Guide Pick designation. When we tweaked the star rating system in March, one of our goals was to work toward elevating what the possibilities of a two-star rating signify. It can indicate a fine dining restaurant that didn’t, in our opinion, meet its lofty ambitions.

But it can also indicate a neighborhood restaurant that is, in the truest sense, good. Some dishes there are great, some miss the mark, but the neighborhood is better for it being there. So one small way to indicate more specifically what we mean with a two-star rating is to give a “Guide Pick” thumbs-up to those two-star restaurants we’re glad to have around.

And, as oft repeated, please read the review for a fuller picture as to why we gave the restaurant the rating we did.

I recently had lunch two days in a row at Craft. The dining room was almost empty on both occassions.

I don't get it. The food was great, the service knowledgeable and caring, and the setting comfortable and elegant.

Everything I had (salads, entrees, desserts, wine) worked together. Ingredients were fresh and of high quality, preperation was spot on, and the there was nothing pretentious about the place.

This was going to be my last roll of the dice on any place in Dallas with a "celebrity chef's" name attached to it. I wasn't impressed with Stephen Pyles and merely content with Fearing's. One meal at Lola was a disaster.

Other than nice experiences at Bijoux (more "formal" than Craft) and Al Biernet's (more "old fashioned", though not in a bad way), my two meals at Craft were the best I've had in Dallas in a long time.

I'm a fan of Bay Grill and think that Lawson Taitte's review is spot on. I can tell you, Lawson, that the lemon orzo is very good. Of course, it's tough to beat really good hush puppies so I haven't ordered the orzo in a while!