The Top Tier

The two most interesting restaurants to open in Dallas in the last six months pose an interesting question. To what extent can the owner of a restaurant ensure that it is a great one? The proprietor of Cafe Mar-gaux, Tom Agnew, and the proprietor of the West End Oasis, Richard Chase, have both run excellent restaurants here before. These new ventures seem to represent new visions. Cafe Margaux is simple and offhand in decor and treats Louisiana cooking seriously (for which we should all be grateful amid so many ersatz New Orleans ripoffs), whereas Agnew’s previous restaurants have been plush and expensive, with combinations of Continental and American nouvelle cuisines. Chase had huge ambitions for the West End Oasis from the beginning. When he was delayed in opening the magnificent-looking, elegantly detailed Oasis, he started the raffish Dick’s Last Resort. There’s a big difference in mood and in every other way between Dick at the Resort and Richard at the Oasis.

It’s fascinating to see what each of these restaurateurs has come up with- Cafe Margaux beats most New Orleans restaurants at their own dishes, and the quality seems remarkably consistent despite a change of chefs a few months after opening. The prices are low, making this (along with Chez Gerard and Fort Worth’s St. Emilion) one of the best bargains among Metroplex dining establishments.

The West End Oasis is clearly a more ambitious place, and Chase has taken great pains with everything-the look of the restaurant, the very personalized atmosphere, the wine list, the best of raw ingredients. So far results in the kitchen seem slightly equivocal-does the chef have the inspiration and the talent to pull off a restaurant on this level? He already does wonders with imaginative, almost exotic soups; perfectly cooked swordfish and other seafood; and some of the best tarts and other desserts in town. But other dishes can seem unexciting amid all the other splendors here. Does a tiny, unsauced chicken, even perfectly roasted with herbs, justify all this apparatus? We probably won’t know until the summer, when the West End Oasis should be hitting its stride.

The one other new restaurant we are awarding a D is India Palace. The cooking is similar to the Richardson Kebab V Kurry, but the menu is much broader and the atmosphere is much more comfortable. Ethnic dining in Dallas has hit one of its real peaks here. (We suspect that in another six months, D’s listings will include another ethnic category, Thai food. The Siam, long one of Dallas’ best Asian restaurants, will be opening in a new location, and the new outpost of Thai Lanna already seems to be soaring to new heights.)

Some restaurants that came close to inclusion among our top choices are the new Renaissance, in the location where Jean Claude used to be, and Parigi. The Renaissance is very comfortable and competent, but just misses the sort of excitement required at top levels. A restaurant that seemed only strange when it first opened, Parigi, was most impressive on our last visit. We’ll be watching carefully to see whether its higher performance is sustained or even bettered.

The established D award restaurants are forever reshuffling themselves-on some visits, they may seem superior, only to tumble a bit the next time around. The biggest news among them is the new pre-eminence of the restaurant at The Mansion on Turtle Creek. The Mansion has always been one of the city’s handsomest dining rooms. Now, with chef Dean Fearing and his brilliant New Southwestern Cuisine menu safely ensconced, the Mansion has food to equal its surroundings. Cafe Royal, we are happy to report, has returned to the high level of cooking it displayed when it was new, and now it is one of the city’s top restaurants again.

The sad demise of Jean Claude and La Champagne took two names off our list. Old Warsaw should be reopening in its new location soon, and we will be reporting on its new incarnation to you. We have removed the D symbol from two of the restaurants that have had them: LAncestral and the Pyramid Room of the Fairmont Hotel. Both are still fine and recommendable restaurants, but neither seems to have quite the spark of a year ago.