Tag: crushcraft

Travels: Food of Dallas!

Drew bought me tickets to The Killers concert for my bday. This doesn’t sound like THAT big of a deal, but seeing them was, by far, my #1 bucket list item. And we got front row. It was the best night of my life. Really, the best show I’ve ever seen. If you ever get a chance to see The Killers, do it.

Anyway, we decided to make a long weekend out of it to enjoy Dallas, so  here’s the summary of all the food we had while we were there.

(Click on the titles to read the specific reviews of the following places we ate at.)

Empa Mundo

We started here with a late Friday dinner. It was one of the best meals we had all weekend.

Nammi and the Dallas Farmer’s Market

Saturday we started the day by heading to the Dallas Farmer’s market and eating an amazing Banh Mi!

Crushcraft Thai Street Food

For a late lunch, we then hit up this fantastic Thai place!

For Sunday’s breakfast, we strolled down downtown Grapevine and stopped in The Main Street Bakery.

I got a chocolate almond croissant for less than $2.50. It was delicious!
The inside was full of almond paste, which is perfectly sweet, and one of my favorite flavors. Though, the chocolate was neither overridden by the almond nor did it override it. The flavors worked really well together and made a melty, gooey, middle with a perfectly flaky, buttery crust. YUM.

    

In-N-Out

For Sunday’s lunch, we finally tried In-N-Out and I directly compared it to the East Coast’s Shake Shack in this review.

On our drive home, we stopped by the popular Fuzzy’s Taco shop. It is a chain, but one we don’t have in central Arkansas, and I felt like some tacos.

The chips and salsa, $2, was very good! The chips were seasoned and fresh, and the salsa was full of roasted, pepper-y goodness. Definitely a must-get here.

However, the tacos was pretty awful. I asked for no cheese, and they also kept any sauces off…not cool. I wanted that garlic aioli on my tacos! So, I tried a pork taco, a stead taco, and a fish one. The grilled fish was inedible. One bite and it tasted as if it had gone bad. So, we didn’t even try that one again.
The other two were good enough to eat, but pretty dry.
I would NOT recommend going to the Fuzzy Taco Shop, unless you’re getting chips and salsa to go.

Food Review: Crushcraft Thai in Dallas- Spoiler Alert, it is AWESOME.

My “second lunch” after the delicious Banh Mi at Nammi (hey, there were a couple hours in-between) was a carefully chosen, very healthy option: Crushcraft Thai Thai Street Eats. It has hundreds of great reviews online and another blogger I follow, Daniel Eating Dallas, suggested it a while back. So, here’s the breakdown:

ENVIRONMENT

Crushcraft Thai is a really nice area of Uptown Dallas and is in a very modern shopping center.  When you first walk in, the menu is plastered to a wall on brown paper. You then have to memorize what you want to and walk over to the counter to place your order.  This is the only thing that bothered me. There were no paper menus for me to read off of while ordering, so I had to keep jumping over 2-3 feet to read the wall to order the three items I wanted. Awkward.
Suggestion: pull up their menu on your phone and take it with you to the counter. Much easier.
Also, with the only menu on the wall in a small area, this area gets pretty crowded.

Behind the counter you at which you order and pick up your food, there are some bar stools to sit at.

Though most patrons, myself included, chose to move further into the restaurant in the much more fun and colorful seating area. This room is spacious, colorful, and bright.

MENU

You can find their menu here (as it is hard to read my picture) on their website: http://www.crushcraftthai.com/menu/

In short, there are many delicious options, making a decision on what to order a tough one. There are many rice or noodle dishes (ex: drunken noodles), a few coconut milk curries (ex: panang over rice) , some “craft greens” options that sound very healthy (ex: chicken lettuce wraps), and many unique sides and “shareables” (ex: tofu fries). Plus, everything is pretty cheap!

FOOD

First thing to mention, at the serve-yourself drink station, there are 7 different types of sauces to take to your table. I love me a sauce bar! Most are very spicy, fyi.

Tom Kha Soup + 3 Fresh Rolls, $7.99 (pictured on the left)
Description: Chicken or tofu, rice wrap, basil, cucumber, crushed peanuts, toasted rice, chili lime dip, with a cup of thom kha soup.

This was the least flavorful dish we ordered. (Meaning it only gets better!) The spring rolls were fresh and pretty flavorful, but not nearly the most flavorful I have had. The chili lime dip was delicious and really helped.
The Tom Kha, which is probably my favorite soup overall, was pretty bland. It definitely had a tomato tinge to it, which was weird. It was worth eating, but definitely nothing I’d get again.

Green Papya Salad Cup, $1.95 (pictured in center)
Description: none given

Even though there was no description, this VERY flavorful and spicy salad had green papaya “noodles”, slices cherry tomatoes, green beans, and crushed peanuts with a vinaigrette full of chiles and lime juice. It was the BEST papaya salad I have ever tried, though it was so spicy it was hard to eat all of my half (split with Drew)…even with breaks in-between for non-spicy fresh rolls.  I would definitely get this again. Plus, it was really large for less than $2!!!!

Mahaw Lettuce Bites $1.85 (featured on the right)
Description: Wok-seared pork, pickled radish pineapple chutney, crushed peanuts, seasonal microgreens.

Wow, this was so unique and delicious! Even though these are called “bites”, each one was easily 3 bites each. The salty pork with the vinegar-y veggies and the sweetness from the pineapple hit all flavor components. The only downside was it was a little dry. Adding a little sauce to the top of it definitely would help the dryness. But it was still fantastic! I would  get this one again for sure.

OVERALL

While there are some hits and misses here with the environment and some of the food, I don’t think you can go wrong coming for a to-go meal or a quick, healthy meal. The sides and shareables are probably the best deal. Though, I definitely want to try some panang curry next time!