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*The Dallas Morning News has selected this location as one of the Top 100 Restaurants in D-FW.*
Local culinary legend Stephan Pyles' Samar (formerly called Tanta) serves small plates from India, Turkey, Spain and other far-flung locales across the globe. Vijay Sadhu, formerly of Clay Pit in Addison and Bukhara Grill in Richardson, is the chef. Dallas Morning News critic Leslie Brenner said, " When word of the concept – featuring dishes inspired by those three cultures – was unleashed a few months before Samar opened in October, it sounded too crazy to work. How many cuisines can one kitchen tackle successfully? Could all those flavors possibly work together?
But Pyles, with the help of chef Vijay Sadhu, has brought it all together, beautifully and seamlessly."
Read her entire review below.
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Chef Pyles created most of the desserts at Samar, and they stay true to the small-plates restaurant’s spice-route theme. Kissed with rose petals, cardamom, saffron or ginger, they all have romantically exotic allure. If you like Turkish coffee, you’ll love Samar’s velvety Turkish coffee pot de crème, served in a demitasse and topped with whipped cream. Tender croquetas filled with candied ginger that float in natilla, Spanish custard, are terrific, too. And I love the delicately flavored saffron-coconut rice pudding. (Full review)
If you want to know where gastronomy is going in Dallas, look to Ross Avenue: That's where you'll find the ideas that dazzle. Stephan Pyles has turned his namesake flagship restaurant into something of a workshop, with his ceviche bar taking raw fish to exciting new heights and the kitchen dancing a merengue with lamb and quail and beef. Lately Pyles introduced the Fuego, a four-seat section devoted to experimentation and improvisation. There, several nights a week, he and chef Matt McAllister apply the bipolar magic of molecular gastronomy and fire from the wood- burning oven to the best ingredients they can find. Just up the block at his year-old Samar, Pyles leads food lovers on a journey along the spice road, with creatively charged stops in Spain, Lebanon, Turkey and India along the way. How original. How fabulously forward-looking. (Full review)
When he opened Samar in early October, Stephan Pyles brought a measure of exotic allure to the Arts District at exactly the right moment: just as the AT&T Performing Arts Center was opening. The restaurant feels so exactly right for this moment: Stylish but never pretentious, it offers seductive small plates to share at modest prices, and gracious service at a level you'd expect in a much pricier dining room. (Full review)
The flavors of Spain, the Eastern Mediterranean and India are brought together beautifully and seamlessly at Stephan Pyles' new Arts District restaurant, Samar. (Full review)