Knife

Between work and trips out of town, my wife and I didn't have time to celebrate our anniversary in July.  After checking our calendars and securing babysitting, we did finally have a belated anniversary dinner at John Tesar's new steakhouse, Knife.  Knife opened in May and has been receiving a lot of press lately.  You may or may not be following the feud between the very talented and sometimes controversial chef, Tesar, and food critic, Leslie Brenner.  Having sampled some of the restaurant's goods at a media event I attended, I was quite anxious to have dinner at Knife.  

Knife's Dry Aging Room

Soon after we arrived and ordered drinks, a relish tray arrived with a variety of fresh vegetables, beef jerky, and Green Goddess dressing.  Never being people to shun bacon, my wife and I started with the bacon tasting.  The bacon tasting consisted of five varieties of bacon served on a wooden board.   I enjoyed this unique experience and would have to say that the applewood smoked bacon was my favorite, but my wife preferred the Benton's bacon. We also enjoyed the cherry cured bacon and the bacon jam.

Bacon Tasting

As great as the bacon and relish tray was, I was here for the beef. There are so many cuts of beef available it was hard to choose which steak I wanted to try on my first visit to Knife.  After being somewhat indecisive,  I finally ordered the 44 Farms long bone ribeye (medium rare).  My bone-in ribeye was cooked to perfection, was extremely flavorful,  and very tender.  I shared some of this large steak with my wife and she loved it as well.  It was unquestionably one of the best steaks I have had in DFW.

44 Farms Long Bone Ribeye

My wife elected to order one of the "new school" steaks on the menu.  Not knowing a great deal about these steaks, she chose the chuck flap (medium rare).  When cooked, this steak is similar in appearance to a filet or a thick-cut sirloin.  My wife only took a couple of bites of this steak because she thought it had an awful flavor.  I took a couple of bites as well and found it almost inedible.  I am not sure if the cut of steak did not agree with our palate or if we just received a bad piece of meat.  As perfect as my ribeye was, the chuck flap was beyond disappointing.

Chuck Flap

For sides, we chose the onion rings and the avocado fries.  Both of these arrived several minutes after our steaks arrived, which was not ideal.  The tempura fried onion rings and the avocado fries both had a light batter that was very crispy and tasty.  I really liked the unique taste of the fried avocado, but I would have preferred them in smaller  slices.  A flavorful remoulade was served with the avocado fries and I thought it was a perfect complement to this dish.

Avocado Fries

Onion Rings

I will admit that I was more than stuffed after an appetizer, steak, and two sides, but I couldn't leave Knife without having dessert.  While at the media preview event, I sampled the dark chocolate dessert and fell in love with it.  Although several desserts sounded great, I felt compelled to get this dessert again.  This particular dessert is a flour-less chocolate cake with blonde, milk, and dark chocolate.  You also get to choose a flavor of ice cream to go with it and I chose the dark chocolate.  The dessert was just as amazing as I remembered and I savored every bite. 

Dark Chocolate

My first official trip to Knife was mostly a good experience.  All of the food was great, with the exception of the chuck flap.  Our waitress was very attentive and was very informative when we asked questions regarding the menu, but I wished that we would have received our sides at the same time as we received our steaks.  The dining room is very appealing to the eye, but the chair I had could have used a little higher back to make it more comfortable for men that are 6'5" like myself.  The tables at knife are large and perfect for sharing large plates with your dining partners, but their length makes it hard to carry on conversations.  Despite a few minor glitches on this visit, I think Knife is a very nice addition to the Dallas steakhouse scene and it's menu is unlike any other steakhouse in DFW.  I believe that Tesar has another winner in Knife!

Knife
http://www.knifedallas.com/
Livin the Good Life Rating=4