DINING OUT NEW RESTAURANT REVIEWS Deep Sushi’s Food Leaves Diners Deeply Satisfied

DEEP SUSHI

HOW WOULD YOU RATHER experience a new Deep Ellum restaurant-with convivial friends on a reservation-only weekend, jam-packed with boisterous revelers whose noise level almost equals the music’s? Or solo, on a sleety Sunday when nasty weather has kept anyone with an ounce of sense home and you’re the only patron in the place?

I’ve tried Deep Sushi both ways and found it good. This upstart sibling of Yamaguchi’s on Inwood is custom-contoured to fit the fun-seeking psyche of its spirited neighborhood, with a drink bar as prominent as its central sushi bar, sound blasts that run the gamut from rap to something that may be Asian rock, and lighting that gives the brick-walled, glass-doored place an avant night-club ambiance, sans the practiced serenity of traditional Japanese emporta.

But. whoa-thoughtful service includes those warmed washcloths in cunning little bamboo nests that some old-style sushi houses have foregone, sushi offerings are the beautifully simple sea-fresh classics we’ve come to know and love (as well as some maverick inventions that smack of Attitude). And one can orchestrate a satisfying meal of these plus a happy sampling of promising hot appetizers, ignoring entrées, as we did on our first visit with no disappointments. Tuna and fresh salmon were kindergarten starters any novice could love, the deep-hued tuna rosy and mild, the salmon subtly delicate on its oval of vinegared rice. Sea eel and sea urchin were sweeter and less substantial-they’re not my favorites, but two Asia-traveled companions savored their textured tenderness. They also delighted in the baked green mussels that is a chef’s special here-the shellfish chopped and thickly bathed in a rnayonnaisy sauce I find too much like a runny cassarole to be interesting; I’ve had the mussels plain in their elegant shells and prefer them that way. For me, surf clam was an artistic high point-the rice oblong topped with a cut of geoduck, shading from satin white to a chewy scarlet tip. belted with seaweed. Salmon egg was flawless. too, the clear orange jewels bursting into sumptuous flavor with each bite.

Perhaps the showiest selection we tried was a trifle called the Dragon Lady Roll. As opposed to rice-cushioned sushi, a roll is a long combination of goodies wrapped in seaweed and sliced; this one involved tuna, avocado and rice flashed with incendiary wasabi, red pepper sauce and Japanese yellow mustard. My companions, both pain seekers, fell on the invention with mumbles of joy ; I, the sissy-tongued sensitive palate, managed to handle one slice.

Gyoza. the comfort-food dumplings of Japanese cuisine, were plump and perfect with their sake-soy dipping sauce. Soft-shelled crabs were airy baby crunches, deep-fried and sauced with spicy vinegar and soy. Shrimp tempura, available as an appetizer or an entrée, were Sapporo beer-battered and fried to lace-crusted tenderness and came with tempura vegetables. Beef tataki was lean scallop-ines of beef, paper-thin for dipping in ponzu sauce.

And my second visit’s duckling was poetry, boneless breast meat sliced for chopstick convenience into crisp-skinned, succulent bites sauced with fruity brandy and soy, sided with barely grilled vegetables. One shared dessert was pleasant petals of banana, tempura-fried and honey-drizzled, ringing a mound of barely sweet green tea ice cream. The second dessert I tried, a plum wine sorbet-more a creamy sherbet, really-was outstanding, its mauve smoothness laced with tart little bits of the fruit. It was mine alone, as was the meal’s warm sake and caring service, which sent me homeward insulated against the freezing night. Barring more similar accidents of the elements, I doubt anyone will ever see Deep Sushi that empty again.

-Betty Cook

Deep Sushi. 2624 Elm St., 214-651-1177. Lunch: 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Monday-Friday; dinner; 6-11 p.m., Monday-Wednesday; 6p.m.-midnight, Thursday; <6p.rn.-l> a.m., Friday & Saturday. Moderate to expensive.



ISOLA GOZO

RESTAURANT CRITICS AREN’T INTO GOSSIPing in print, so we’ll honor the wish of this new restaurant’s owners not to be named. Let’s just say they’re power people whose deep concern that NorthPark Center be graced by pleasant amenities is wholly understandable, and who must have realized that the summer closing of Piccola Cucina was a distinct loss to shoppers.

So comes now a replacement: Isola Gozo, named for an island off the coast of Italy and intended to clone the cuisine as well as the unchanged decor of its predecessor. To that end. New York chef Gianni Scappin, who designed the initial Piccola Cucina menu, was brought here for six weeks to design this one and flick the new operation into shape.

The food and service on our dinner visit weren’t quite there yet, but they were coming, along with a wine license-an inconvenience easily, if expensively, remedied by a bottle-fetching jaunt to Neiman Marcus next door.

A first course of grilled portobello mushrooms established a theme of too tentative seasoning that was to thread through the entire meal; the meaty mushroom strips were beautiful, and so were the baby greens on which they nested, but their faint drizzle of vinaigrette failed to reach an underlying bed of white beans that were undercooked and totally tasteless. Similarly, the orange zest that was supposed to flavor a salad’s baby beets was undetectable, although an accompanying tangle of endive and greens with crumbled goat cheese and walnuts was quite nice. Schiacciata Gozo, a small double-crusted pizza billed as “a specialty from our wood-burning oven,” was the meal’s only crushing failure: The skimpy spread of Camborola cheese and arugula ostensibly drizzled with truffle oil between two cracker-thin crusts might have been fine if the arugula hadn’t been a heat victim, the delicate leaves cruelly pressed into inedible strings. An entree filet of salmon-herb-scented, fresh and lovely although dangerously close to being over-grilled-came with too many braised lentils and too little sour cream-dill dressing.

Service throughout, while willing and intelligent, seemed oddly catch-as-catch-can; when I asked one of the several waiters who attended us which was ours, he said, “All of us-we don’t do work stations.” I could believe it.

Ah, but lunch sang a different song. The menu was more varied, service was professionally paced and while our shared Caesar salad “Classica” wasn’t as “Classica” as all that-where was the anchovy kiss I love? and who got the delicate inner Romaine leaves, leaving us those coarse, raggedy things?-everything else was truly fine.

My panino held a lush layering of zucchini, roasted pepper, tomato and arugula with a mozzarella melt on its perfectly grilled chicken slices; there was even the occasional anchovy nugget between the slices of house-baked bread. My companion’s fettucine, also house-made, was toothsome in its mélange of fresh tomato and basil vibrantly seasoned with olive oil, garlic and exactly the right amount of crushed red pepper to bring a subtle glow to the palate.

Four desserts are offered. An individual warm chocolate cake, soft-centered and dolloped with whipped cream on fresh raspberry coulis, was sensational; made to order, it must be requested during an earlier course. Tiramisu and an eggless custard with a firmness suggesting gelatin were both too chilled to be interesting. A single “extra-thick” wedge of apple pie-a towering stack of thin-sliced fruit and cinnamon fully 4 inches high between two overwhelmed crusts-was arresting, but the apple-to-crust ratio was all wrong; its accompanying vanilla ice cream, however, was a low-key triumph.

Isola Gozo should be, too, by the time you read this. Certainly the grace notes are ill in the score, from herbed olive oil poured ’or bread dipping to the wood-burning oven hat draws the eye to the open kitchen. Practice is all that’s needed. And if the tables are set eavesdropping-close together a la NYC-well, the cell phone-carrying crowd is pure upscale Dallas. Witness the moody young thing who raised her eyes to heaven as she told her partner, “I wouldn’t go to Paris again if you paid me.” She was two feet away, and I might as well have been invisible. -B.C.

Isola Gozo. In Barney s New York, NorthPark Center, North Central Expressway and Northwest Highway. 214-691-0488. II a.m.-10p.m., Monday-Saturday; noon-5 p.m., Sunday. Moderate.



CITY CAFE TO GO

WANT FAST FOOD TO GO? BURGERS AND fries, deep-fried chicken nuggets, quickie quesadillas? Forget all that and order dinner from City Cafe To Go with its array of gourmet goodies ready for pick-up.

Soup (typically not a fast-food item) scores high marks, from the famous sprightly tomato soup to the buttery, bacony clam chowder,

Sandwiches also score major points for creativity, with many inspired combinations-Iamb, goat cheese and sun-dried tomato; chicken, raspberry mustard, brie and cucumber on walnut bread. Breads are perfect; they’re from Empire Bakery.

We forked our way through several salads and liked two the best: one with big. tender shrimp and fat asparagus spears; another with couscous and artichokes. All of the salads, however, were impeccably fresh, with nicely trimmed greens and dressings on the side.

Other dazzling salads include a Chinese version laced with sesame seeds and one with a peppery chicken in a cream sauce. The wild rice salad, the vegetarian, the pasta/shrimp salad-all good stuff.

Desserts are even better, from a thoroughly decadent Blum cake, with its cascades of sugary crisps (how do they make that?) to a simple dish of berries. City Cafe’s never let me, an avowed dessert lover, down.

One question; Where’s the bread? Besides bread, two visits-including one involving a hefty $ 125 tab-left us with no cutter, utensils, napkins, plates or even a stray toothpick in our take-home pack.

-Suzanne Hough

City Cafe To Go. 5757N. Lovers Ln, 214-351-3366. 10 a.m.-8p.m., Monday-Saturday; noon-6 p.m., Sunday, Moderate.