![]() ![]() A tlacoyo is a bigger-format masa shape, a wide paddle of duck confit and mushrooms, lightened by a dab of lemony crème fraiche. Still, the salsa roja is spicy and acidic, the chorizo itself is not greasy or heavy, and the molotes are topped with fried, dehydrated nopales. I’d say the same for the chorizo molotes, but they were quite salty on one of my visits. The combination of heat and fresh herbs, rich cheese and cutting spice, creamy sauce and griddled tetela, is perfectly balanced cooking.Įl Carlos is a party spot. The mushroom tetela might sound like the least sexy masa vehicle on this menu, but it’s my favorite: a perfectly crisp triangle of corn batter, mushrooms, and ricotta surrounded by a spicy moat of sauce made with huitlacoche, maitake mushrooms, garlic, shallots, and cream. These aren’t just vehicles to carry meat and salsa they’re stars on their own. Your fingers smell like corn after you’ve held them. Nixtamalized tortillas made from heirloom corn, like these, have a vibrant freshness. If El Carlos can educate Dallas diners on the joys of masa, it will forever have a place in my heart. “What’s masa?” we overheard a customer ask one night. Masa is the specialty at El Carlos, and the restaurant nixtamalizes its own corn in-house, forming the result into tortillas, tostadas, tamales, molotes, tlacoyos, and tetelas. No such complaints about a tightly composed bite of grilled eggplant puréed with ajo blanco (an almond-based sauce) and spooned into a petite phyllo tart.īy the way, if you’re gluten-free, that eggplant tart was the only time that I tasted any flour other than corn. I loved the avocado cream and pickled salmon roe on top but could have done without the gooseberry. Tuna belly-more richly marbled with fat than the toro at many sushi restaurants-drapes over a tiny tostada like cheese hanging off the edge of a burger. The beef is chilled to pair with a dollop of caviar that holds the onion in place. Beef tartare is folded into tiny, crispy tacos, just big enough to hold a green onion garnish on top. Perfectly round crab croquettes hum with flavors of corn, ricotta, and Oaxaca cheese. The first menu section, “one-hitters,” is a collection of tiny nibbles meant to be eaten in one or two bites. The gawking continues when the food arrives. You’ll encounter a small shrine by the host stand, floral-patterned tiles on the walls, copper tabletops, and enormous paintings of clothes and mustaches without people attached. That pleasant surprise is replicated at El Carlos, where the drab Riverfront façade conceals a lavish interior, even a patio room with a retractable roof. The Ultimate Spread: Clockwise from the top: the machete (a long, skinny form of quesadilla), Tijuana Caesar salad, a collection of one-bit starter snacks, a mix of okra and shishitos with pistachio salsa macha, the osso buco "carnitas," and a basket of fresh tortillas. So designers Corbin and Ross See took their cues not from Los Lupes but from the idea of a country hacienda successively redecorated by multiple generations of one family. Unfortunately, a real estate flipper got his hands on the property in the interim, gutting the interior and turning a historic space into a blank canvas. El Carlos Elegante has the same self-consciously clever food and over-the-top hospitality as its siblings, but its take on traditional Mexican lifts the brand to new heights.Įl Carlos’ Riverfront Boulevard location once housed another Mexican restaurant, Los Lupes, which closed in late 2019 after 47 years. But Duro Hospitality’s fourth restaurant-after The Charles, Sister, and Cafe Duro-is also its best. You’d be forgiven for worrying that a company that names its new business by simply translating the old business name into Spanish would lack imagination. The founders of Italian spot The Charles have opened a new Mexican restaurant, and they call it El Carlos Elegante. ![]()
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