Dallas Food - Upscale Vegetarian: Lola

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Upscale Vegetarian: Lola
Posted on Tuesday, January 08 @ 20:21:59 PST
Topic: Vegetarian

Unlike some chefs in Dallas who spend more time in the front of the house than in the kitchen, Chef David Uygur has made Lola a foodie favorite through behind-the-scenes dedication and passion for his craft. From his debut in the Tasting Room, Uygur has consistently demonstrated a deftness with vegetables, setting high expectations for my vegetarian meals at Lola. On to the food...

Service was consistently good in my visits to Lola. In no visit did a waiter recommend or the kitchen serve anything non-vegetarian. (There was one near miss, when a waiter intercepted an amuse bouche topped with house-cured salmon that was heading for my table.) Waitstaff were very knowledgeable about menu items.

During most visits, there were four or five vegetarian options between the first and second course selections on the prix fixe menu. Only once did the menu include a vegetarian entrée, though every menu stated, "vegetarian entrees available upon request."

The photos from my first vegetarian meal at Lola didn't turn out, due to poor lighting. I intended to omit that meal from the report altogether, but I had to at least mention this entrée. A ragout of wood ear and pioppino mushrooms was served over Anson Mills polenta integrale, then crowned with a slab of gorgonzola piccante. If I could distance myself from the recollection of how this dish tasted, I would say it doesn't look like much. Yet it was one of the most satisfying entrees I had all year. Creamy polenta, rich ragout, great mushrooms, and the sharp, peppery bite of gorgonzola cutting through it all. Simply delicious.

My next meal began with an amuse bouche of citrus salad. Grapefruit, blood orange, and clementine were garnished with Kalamata olive puree, blending intense sweet, sour, and salty flavors.

A root vegetable salad arrived as the first course. Endive, turnips, beets, and baby carrots were dressed in a light vinaigrette and garnished with flat leaf parsley and pickled haricot vert. Great seasonal vegetables, simply presented.

Next came mushrooms en papillote with lemon butter, white wine, and chives. After scooping up the excellent mushrooms with the toasted bread provided, I had to raid the bread dish for foccacia to sop up the remaining rich, sweet, slightly acid sauce.

This entrée was the most elaborate of those I had at Lola. The dish was anchored by pan-fried pansotti, filled with a sautee of onions, Swiss chard, and golden raisins. The pansotti were sauced with roasted butternut squash puree and smoked house-made ricotta, then garnished with chives and pine nuts. Sweetness dominated, with bitterness underneath. Though enjoyable enough (and one of the most fully realized vegetarian entrees I've had in Dallas), it felt a little overwrought--lacking the focus and restraint evident in most dishes at Lola.

Dessert was a Meyer lemon tart, with grapefruit granita, orange sorbet, and candied lemon rind. Echoing the sweet and sour citrus blend of the amuse bouche, this was a nice end to the meal. Though the tart's crust was a little too thick, the flavor and texture of the curd were outstanding.

The next meal began with a crostini topped with English pea puree and a shaving of parmesan. Basic, but tasty. (This meal was without a reservation and, therefore, with no advance notice to the kitchen that vegetarian options would be needed.)

The first course was a salad of mixed greens, endive, grilled onions, and croutons, topped with a fried egg. The greens were tossed with some olive oil, and the runny yolk, when broken, completed the dressing.

Next came stinging nettle gnocchi, with lemon butter and parmesan. One of the best gnocchi courses I've had this year. The texture was excellent, and there was a perfect balance of bitterness from the greens and acidity from the lemon against the butter's richness. Delicious.

The entrée consisted of fennel, artichoke hearts, and piquillo strips, over olive oil mashed potatoes, garnished with salsa verte, olives, and pears. It's hard to describe the overall effect, but it was something like a slightly aromatic collage of a sweet pickle. The key tastes were sweet, salty, and sour/acidic, but never all from the same ingredient. A peculiar composition, but it worked quite well.

Dessert was warm chocolate fondant with chocolate sauce, pistachio cream, and pistachios. Basic, but well-executed and enjoyable enough.

When I was offered coffee or tea, I asked if they could do hot chocolate. The waitress left and returned in a few minutes with a beautiful cup of thick hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and chiffonade of mint. When I took a sip, I was immediately impressed by the intensity of the chocolate flavor (Valrhona) and the richness, probably from cream or half-and-half. Then I noted a slight warmth that gradually expanded into a pleasant chile burn. Brilliant initiative.

The next meal began with a bite of asparagus and cucumber in caper aioli. Cool, tangy, and garlicky. Nice.

The first course was panzanella. I can't recall ever having a better version of the dish. The bread was crisp on the outside and yielding inside. Teardrop tomatoes had a berry-like sweetness. Rich buffalo mozzarella. Olive in the background. With a slightly larger portion, I would've been happy with this as an entrée.

Seared gnocchi and asparagus were served in brown butter with a touch of lemon and some parmesan. Though a little less interesting than the stinging nettle gnocchi in a prior meal, this was still quite tasty.

The entrée (pictured at the top of this item) consisted of liquid yolk-filled raviolo over a gratin of Swiss chard and chanterelles. Perfect. Cutting through the thin pasta released the yolk, saucing both the pasta and the gratin below. Sweetness, saltiness, and bitterness, all in balance. Rich and satiating.

Dessert was cannoli with house-made ricotta, toasted hazelnuts, dark chocolate sauce, Bing cherries, and candied orange zest. Perhaps a little heavy on the garnishes, but the cannoli were pretty darned brilliant.

When I arrived on one weeknight, the waiter asked if I'd like to choose from vegetarian items on the menu or just let Chef Uygur send out whatever he wanted. Knowing I was in good hands, I took the latter option.

The amuse was simplicity itself. A small leaf of Belgian endive held a dollop of crème fraîche, topped with chives. With three ingredients and a relaxed, direct presentation, this was one of the most memorable opening bites I've had in this series.

Ah, and then one of my favorite courses of the entire series. The plate was tiled with thin slices of Peña Azul, topped with shaved roasted red and golden beets, walnuts, fried shallots, and fresh chervil. I can't imagine how this could possibly have been any better. The cheese was creamy, spicy (a little shy of Cabrales), and a little salty. Sweetness from the beets, textural variation, nuttiness, and bitter, tannic notes from the walnuts, followed by herbal and aromatic touches from the shallots and chervil.

Next came a salad of fennel, frisee, and celery leaf, with a garlic vinaigrette, and buttery, toasted brioche stuffed with melted buffalo mozzarella. The salad was slightly overdressed, but very good, and the mozzarella-filled brioche was outstanding.

Spaghettini with roasted eggplant, salsa verde, and chile oil. Flawless pasta and a punch of sweet, mustardy, almost pickled flavor from the eggplant and salsa verde. Great.

This was one of the more unusual entrees of the series. The backbone of the dish was a combination of smoked lobster mushrooms and pickled chanterelles, served with a garlic and potato puree, parsley puree, and garnish of mirepoix. Meaty, herbaceous, and aromatic, with acid from the chanterelles cutting through it all. Though some of the lobster mushrooms were a little oversmoked, this was an ambitious, intriguing, and successful improvisation.

As a pre-dessert, the kitchen sent out a float of Concord grape soda with sour cream ice cream. The tanginess of the ice cream was an excellent foil for the intensely flavored grape soda. Clever intermezzo.

Dessert consisted of Calvados ice cream with poached quince and candied walnuts. This was typical of Lola's ice cream presentations, in both concept and excellence. Great ice cream with a complementary fruit and a fitting textural element. Though this one was very enjoyable, the best ice cream I had at Lola this year came in another vegetarian meal--buttermilk ice cream with a thick swirl of black mission fig and crumbled house-made amaretti. Fantastic stuff.

Though I now realize I never took pictures of the mignardises, every meal ended with a small assortment of three or four bites, such as a tiny shortbread cookie, dark chocolate peanut butter truffle, candied citrus rind, or a seasonal pâte de fruit.

Chef Uygur is among the most masterful chefs in Dallas. He works the full geography of the tongue in vegetable courses, including bitterness and sourness--the "grown up" quarters of the palate that are too often neglected in Dallas restaurants. There was almost no gap in quality or ambition between vegetarian menu items and improvisations. Seasonality was more rigorously respected at Lola than at any other restaurant in this series of reports, rivaled only by York Street. Ingredient quality consistently impressed.

What I find most remarkable, however, is how confident and relaxed the kitchen is with vegetarian requests. While all of the "recommended" restaurants in this series have prepared acceptable vegetarian meals on a one-off basis, few have led me to believe that one could go there every night and get something different and equally good. Lola is one of those select few that, by quality and variety, could develop a set of vegetarian "regulars."

Rating for Lola: Recommended.

Pros: Scrupulously seasonal ingredients of high quality. Almost no gap between regular menu items, vegetarian menu items, and vegetarian improvisations. More numerous vegetarian menu options than most local upscale restaurants. Broad palette of tastes and textures in veg dishes. Kitchen handles vegetarian requests with ease. Service was consistently conscientious of vegetarian concerns. Despite the quality, one of the cheaper upscale veg options in Dallas.

Cons: None to speak of.