Dallas Food - Manny's Uptown Tex-Mex

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Manny's Uptown Tex-Mex
Posted on Sunday, June 05 @ 20:45:58 PDT
Topic: Mexican

A little over a week ago, Manny’s Uptown Tex-Mex opened for business in the Lemmon Avenue location formerly occupied by Guthrie’s (which was formerly occupied by Rooster). Manny Rios, the proprietor, brings a lot of experience and family recipes from Mia’s. How’s it playing out in these early days? On to the food...

Manny’s retains the dressier casual feel of its predecessors in the location. The décor is tasteful and restrained (i.e., no beer signs or sombreros). Tables are set with cloth napkins. Waitstaff are neatly attired and very professional (though not always as knowledgeable about the dishes as they should be). The form and location are both, as the name indicates, “uptown.”

The menu, however, is almost entirely Mia’s. There are some changes and even improvements, which we’ll get to soon enough. But, by and large, the menu will--in format, composition, and even pricing--be very familiar to Mia’s regulars. Given Mia’s continued success, emulation probably isn’t a bad strategy. (Is it the best strategy? I’m not sure.)

Since Manny was the namesake of Mia’s ground beef chimichanga (i.e., the Mannychanga), Manny’s version of the dish (which he calls “Alisa’s changa”) seemed a good place to start. The ground beef filling (accompanied by jack) had pretty good flavor and seasoning, though perhaps a bit too much saltiness. The tortilla wrapping was sufficiently crisp. And I enjoyed the ranchero sauce topping (garnished with some bell pepper strips). In all, it was a fine chimichanga. The accompanying rice and beans both had excellent flavor.

Mia’s brisket tacos have been one of the best and most popular items on their menu (though, for a long time, they were an off-menu item). Manny recognizes this and is capitalizing on it. In addition to having his own version of brisket tacos, his menu includes brisket quesadillas, brisket chimichangas, and brisket enchiladas. The latter are pictured above. These were excellent enchiladas, with tender, flavorful beef and a well-balanced ranchero sauce that (in flavor and quantity) did not overwhelm the dish. I can’t remember having a better beef enchilada in Dallas. Beans and rice were, again, very good.

“Manny’s Special” included a beef taco (pictured immediately above), one chicken enchilada, and one cheese enchilada, with rice and beans (pictured at the top of this article). The taco was a step up from the typical Tex-Mex crispy taco, having a freshly fried shell (instead of a dry preformed one) and decent ground beef. (It’s no match for a good pan-fried taco. Wish those were more common around here.) The cheese enchilada was also better than average, with a good chili con carne and real cheese (albeit a characterless cheddar, loaded with onions). The best component to the plate was the chicken enchilada, with generous chunks and shreds of meat and a pleasantly tangy-sweet sour cream sauce, garnished with some pickled jalapeno rajas. For some reason, the beans seemed to be off on this day, having an unexpected flatness of flavor.

The “sunset” beef fajitas were very enjoyable. Intensely flavored, tender strips of flank steak were topped with sautéed onions, roasted bell peppers, and slices of potato. The yellow-green “sunset” sauce--a fiery combination of jalapenos, cilantro, and “performance cheese”--was pooled underneath. (This is one of very few applications of “processed cheese product” that doesn’t strike me as a crime against dairy.) The only drawback to this dish--and it’s a significant one--was the tortillas. Both flour and yellow corn tortillas were of middling, bagged quality.

As a promotional effort, they’ve been giving a complimentary cup of fideo soup to diners. This is a light broth of chicken stock and tomatoes, with bits of cilantro, carrot, and potato and short lengths of spaghetti (instead of the more typical angel hair). The first time I had the soup, there was a subtle heat and smokiness from chipotle. However, in subsequent visits, I haven’t noticed any chile heat at all. In one recent trip, there was a detectable lime note. I don’t know if these variations result from inadvertent inconsistency or deliberate experimentation. Regardless, in every case the soup was enjoyable.

The tamale dinner was another winner. The masa, on the dense side (but not too much), remained moist and flavorful, enclosing tender shredded pork. The two large tamales lay in a pool of tasty chili con carne. Solid execution made the dish. The rice was great and they were back on their game with the beans.

There are some non-Mia’s items on the menu that I’d still like to try (e.g., fish tacos, shrimp in mojo de ajo, a chef’s special of chicken with mushrooms, etc.). The only dessert I’ve had so far was sopapillas (a little doughy from being undercooked). And I need to go by for the Wednesday-night-only chiles rellenos. But, from what I’ve had at Manny’s so far, they appear--right out of the gate--to be in the top tier of Dallas Tex-Mex. I’ll definitely go back--probably tomorrow.

Postscript.

Assuming they have a reasonably sound business plan, Manny’s should be a success. Nonetheless, here are some unsolicited suggestions of changes that I, as a customer, would like to see them make:

1) Tortillas. As I mentioned above, the mediocre manufactured tortillas are a significant flaw in some dishes. It may be a flaw that many diners won’t recognize, since they’ve never had anything but bagged tortillas. But, if Manny’s were to serve fresh, handmade tortillas, it wouldn’t take long for customers to learn and appreciate the difference. Would it affect the bottom-line to have a couple of dedicated tortilla-makers in the kitchen? Maybe, maybe not. But, if you’re providing something distinctive, you can justify higher prices. (Or, if that seems too drastic, you could give customers a choice, as some taquerias do. Give them the option of getting a dish with handmade, instead of manufactured, tortillas for a reasonable supplement to the dish price. When customers know they have the option, I suspect a lot of them will upgrade.)

2) Salsas. I kind of like the scorching table salsa at Mia’s and Manny’s, even though it does lack the depth of the salsas you’ll find in almost any taqueria in town. But I personally know a lot of people who don’t like it. Some don’t enjoy the level of heat. Some prefer a more rounded flavor profile. I’m not saying the table salsa should be thrown out. But it could perhaps be supplemented with another table salsa, milder in piquancy and subtler in flavor. A tomatillo salsa could be nice. Or an avocado and crema salsa. If, after a week or two of placing both salsas on the table, it appears that the milder salsas don’t have any fans, pull them.

3) Cheese. First of all, kudos to Manny’s for using real cheese for most purposes. The next step is deciding which cheeses to use. Why stick with the Tex-Mex standards of cheddar and jack? Why not introduce other cheeses to the menu? Try making cheese enchiladas with requeson or queso Oaxaca (or quesillo). As with the tortillas, it might raise the cost a bit. But (a) it would be something appealing and distinctive and (b) it would justify raising the price to cover the higher ingredient costs. This isn’t about “being different.” It’s about “being superior to the competition.” Good cheese makes for a better dish.

4) Meats. Manny’s is on the right track here. In addition to the usual Tex-Mex meat options (i.e., ground beef, chicken breast, and flank steak), they’ve got tilapia (on the fish tacos), shrimp (fajitas and mojo de ajo), and brisket. But I’d like to see them take it further. How about lamb fajitas? Or crispy carnitas enchiladas with salsa verde? Or tacos de tinga poblana? As with the salsa suggestion, these are ideas that could be implemented temporarily, as specials, in order to gauge interest. Let the cooks have some fun and come up with delicious, more distinctive interpretations of Tex-Mex. The menu needn’t (and shouldn’t) be chock full of unfamiliar dishes. But there should be enough (and of sufficiently high quality) to distinguish the restaurant from the pack.

At present, Manny’s is essentially a cloth-napkined Mia’s clone. There’s nothing inherently wrong with cloning a good thing (though planting the clone just up the street from the original will result in some cannibalization). But there’s something to be said for good old-fashioned evolution. With a less conservative, more mutative attitude, Manny’s could be much more than its worthy progenitor.