Most of us have been there. It’s lunchtime and we’re faced with the ever-present dilemma: blow the diet and give in to that football-sized burrito, or do right by our skinny jeans and eat that good-but-boring turkey sub.
Well, Zoes Kitchen is somewhere between that burrito and sub. The food at this Snider Plaza eatery doesn’t taste as good as those refried beans and guacamole—but it’s also more satisfying than the same sandwich you’ve probably had a million times.
The menu offers a lot of typically fatty items in low-cal versions. For example, the potato salad is made with a light coating of oil and herbs, instead of two gallons of mayo. It had a fresh, light flavor and chopped green onions added a nice crispiness to it. I also tried the pasta salad: large shells in a tasty vinaigrette dressing of some sort, mixed with grilled veggies. It was a little bit on the bland side for my liking, but nothing a few dashes of seasoning couldn’t fix. (They keep a bottle of seasoning mix on every table).
I ordered the Gruben, a tweaked version of the Ruben. This take had turkey instead of corned beef, and was topped with low-cal coleslaw and bit of feta cheese on rye. The cabbage wasn’t drenched in sauce, which gave a good crunchy texture and the bread was good and hearty, as deli rye should be. There was also a nice proportion of turkey—no skimping here.
If you’re not in the mood for a sandwich, there’re are also salads and few hot entrees, like quesadillas or the chicken kabob platter.
Zoes Kitchen also does family dinners to go. There’s a chicken kabob dinner, a Greek chicken dinner, and a baked chicken dinner. The menu says each dinner will feed four people, and most go for about $30 (which is pretty reasonable when you do the math).

If you have a gift card to the now-bankrupt Bennigan’s or Steak & Ale, it’s not totally worthless. Texas Roadhouse waiters will exchange those gift cards for a free entree voucher off their menu. These vouchers don’t have any menu item limitations–but this exchange offer only runs until Saturday, Aug. 30. For more information, you can call visit the Texas Roadhouse website, or call 1-800-TEX-ROAD.

You know the economy is tight when Starbucks starts lowering its prices. The coffee chain is running a new promotion: If you go to Starbucks in the morning, hang on to your receipt. You can bring that receipt back the same day after 2 p.m. and get a $2 iced grande beverage of your choice. That’s about a 50% discount.
You must have your receipt from that morning to get the $2 deal. The promotion starts today and runs until Tuesday, Sept. 2.

Chef Thomas "T.J." Lengnick has just come on board at Shinsei. The Dallas Morning News reports that he’ll now handle all the non-sushi items at the restaurant. Lengnick was at BLT, but found himself back on the market after the steakhouse shut down after less than a year.
Lengnick replaced chef Casey Thompson. Pegasus News reports that rumor has it she’ll be resurfacing at Central 214, although there’s no official word yet.

The KRLD Restaurant Week is getting ready to kick off next week, which means you should be making your reservations this week (if you haven’t already done so).
Monday, Aug. 11, through Sunday, Aug. 17, about 120 restaurants across the city will offer 3-course $35 dinner menus. This includes an appetizer, entree, and dessert (sorry, no booze included). The promotion raises funds for the North Texas Food Bank and Lena Pope Home. It’s a great way to score a topnotch dinner at a bargain, and help the community in the process.
If you’re looking for some participating restaurants here in our neighborhood, here’s a list to get you going:
Abacus, Adelmo’s, Bijoux, The Club,Hibashi Teppan Grill, The Landmark Restaurant, Mansion on Turtle Creek, McCormick and Schmick’s, The Mercury Grill, N9NE Steakhouse, Nove Italiano, Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Parigi, Park Cities Prime, Popolos Cafe, Shinsei, Silver Fox, Steel, and Woodlands Grill.
And just as an FYI, you must have a reservation to participate in this promotion. Make sure you tell the restaurant you want the KRLD Restaurant Week reservation when you call. Bon Appetite!

Starting this Saturday, fashionistas can enjoy a little bubbly while they browse at MERGE. This chic Preston Royal boutique is launching an ongoing promotion: Drop in any Saturday from now on and you get complimentary champagne, wine, and beer. So, let me get get this straight. Free beer while I shop? Now that’s customer service.

My college roommate and I went to Suze to eat Friday night. At lunch that day, we decided we were both free of family commitments that night and spontaneously decided to go to dinner. THAT never happens. Either part: Free of family commitments at the same time AND doing something so spontaneously. To top off the kismet going, Terry (roommate) asked if I had ever eaten at Suze. I told her it had been a long time and I would love to go. This fabulous Preston Hollow restaurant is very close to our house, she was coming from where she works downtown, so I was excited to not drive very far. (I work out of our home.) I warned that I knew reservations were tough and it was a Friday. But voila! We got a 6:45 p.m. reservation. Good timing for Terry to finish up at work and meet me there and enough time after dinner to catch a movie. After I told her we were able to get a reservation, she told me she was surprised because Lisa Garza, owner of Suze, was on the cover of Quick newspaper that very same day.Wow, I really felt lucky to be going the same night she was featured on the cover. Also, the Next Food Network Star winner was going to be determined that Sunday and Garza was one of two chefs remaining in the competition. A local celebrity! Dinner did not disappoint. I had warned Terry that Suze was next door to a grocerystore, it was tiny and not inexpensive. The second you walk through their door you leave the grocery store parking lot behind. Our food was superb. Terry had the Snapper that was featured that evening. I had Porcini Papardelle Pasta that was the best pasta I have had in the city since my husband and I were in Northern Italy this past May. Our wine selection paired perfectly with both our entrees. We each had a different salad and ate every bite. One thing to know before you go to Suze is that the dining area is very small. The diners next to you might be sharing their conversation with you. Some of us like that – hearing what others are talking about during dinner. Some of us would rather not know or be heard ourselves. That feature added to our experience. The couple next to us was obvious Food Network fans. They were taking photos with their phones of their wine bottle, their salads, their entrees and each other. It was funny. They were VERY excited to be there. Chef Gilbert Garza came out of the kitchen and walked through the restaurant and that couple about popped out of their chairs with excitement to see him. He had celebrity status in their eyes. Next I will tell you about the neighborhood bar we stopped in after dinner, before the movie, where “everyone knows your name.”

And don’t be confused about the grape’s spelling. It’s carignan in France and carignane in the U.S.

Some food and wine notes:

• The monthly master wine dinners at Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, put together by esteemed sommelier Barbara Werley, are highly recommended. Werley matches a variety of interesting and not always common wines, spirits and beers with five courses. I did it a couple of weeks ago, and Werley found a Spanish white I had never heard of, a vintage Hugel riesling from Alsace, and a couple of French reds that were as surprising as they were excellent. The dinners aren’t cheap (count on about $100 a person), but if you’re looking for something fun and different -– say as a gift for the wine drinker in your life — they’re worth the money. Call the restaurant for information, schedules and reservations.

• The closing of Lakewood’s Kitchen 1924, plus Tucker near downtown, takes away two of Dallas’ best reasonably-priced wine restaurants. Kitchen 1924 always had some terrifically priced white Burgundy, while Tucker offered wines that didn’t show up on many restaurant wine lists.

The August edition of Advocate has likely arrived on your doorstep–so you probably already know about all the great Indian food spots we mapped out for you across the neighborhood.
What you probably don’t know, however, is the full scoop on chef Vijay Sadhu at Clay Pit, our feature restaurant.
Sadhu came on board a few months ago after India-based Twin Cities Hotels bought the Addison restaurant. The company hired Sadhu to revamp the existing menu—which in my opinion was a very smart move. I say that because he was the mastermind behind Bukhara Grill in Richardson. This has been one of my favorite restaurants for awhile, and in fact, I sang it’s praises several months ago on this blog.
During my interview he told me that he sold Bukhara Grill about three months ago, and was getting ready to move to San Francisco when Twin Cities Hotels approached him with the job offer. He also said that since he sold Bukhara Grill, the new owners have turned the restaurant into a Chinese-Indian buffet (I drove by and even the name has been changed to Bukhara Wok now).
I haven’t been back since this place went under new ownership, so I can’t tell you if it’s any good—but I can tell you that chef Sadu is very, very good at what he does: creating innovative Indian dishes. If you were a fan of his work at Bukhara, you’ll love what he’s doing at Clay Pit. He did his culinary training in France, so he’s now using that knowledge to infuse Indian dishes with cream sauces and unexpected cuts of meat and fish. You’ll find things like saffron-season rack of lamb with garlic mashed potatoes–or curry Chilean sea bass with mango chutney.
Contemporary dishes like this make it the perfect place for diners who are just warming up to Indian food–but the selection of traditional entrees like chicken masala also make it enjoyable for longtime Indian fare fans. Swing by any day for the $7 lunch buffet if you’d like to sample a little of everything.

The Milwaukee Joe’s at Inwood Village has closed down for good. The ice cream shop next to Inwood Theater opened back in 2003, but Pegasus News reports that an "arduous commute" played a role in the closure since the other two stores are located over in Bedford and Southlake. No word yet on what will replace in the Inwood Village store, but I’ll keep you updated on what I hear.