Dallas: Tei An Open?
Anyone know whether Tei An, the soba noodle house/sushi bar that will be located in One Arts Plaza, has opened yet? Guidelive says it was scheduled to open in March, but I haven't heard anything and they don't list a phone number.
I loved going to Wagamama's in London once upon a time, so I'm definitely looking forward to having a Japanese-style noodle house downtown. The only noodle place I know of is Noodle Nexus, but it's not Japanese-style (plus it gets packed at lunchtime). Also, I believe this place will be run by the same people behind Tei Tei and Teppo (one of my fave sushi/yakatori places) so I'm very interested to check it out.
michaela0416
Apr 10, 2008 10:02AM
Tei-An's business card (obtained from Seabose Grocery in Carrollton) lists an address of 1722 Routh Street, Suite 110, Dallas TX 75201 and a phone number of 214-220-2828. The owner of Seabose said that Tei-An was supposed to open on April 5, 2008, but the phone is inactive.
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Tei An's opening has been delayed to late April / early May.
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Thanks for the info you posted here and on Eats Blog re: Tei An, Shannon. Since it's now getting into late May and Screen Door just had its soft opening, any update on when Tei An is supposed to open? I tried the phone number Diego listed above and it went to an unnamed voicemail.
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I heard from a very reliable source it will be first of July
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Thanks Lewisville! I'll check back then.
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Earlier this week, I was told "later this month." But when I tried to confirm that today, I was told they'd have to get back to me. I doubt I'll hear anything till Tuesday because of the holiday weekend. I'll let you know when I know!
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Newest official word: "End of June"
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Last night I was told three weeks minimum - I'm betting it's more like four.
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I guess that would be 1st of July, no?
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Oaky, here's another update. I just called the phone number listed above by Diego Milagro (214-220-2828), and the lady I spoke to said that they will be open in another 3-4 weeks. I gave her my name and number, and she said she'll call me when she knows the exact open date. I'm sure anyone else who's interested can call and leave your name and number as well.
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Hi, I just called the number you provided, and the lady who works there said another 2-3 weeks until it opens. I wonder what is the reason for delay? I work in Downtown, so I'm very looking forward to eating there!
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Dallas building inspectors are notorious. It's unfortunate but true, we have the same issue in Plano, which is why so much business moved to Frisco to start with. City's somehow have a hard time equating inspection hassles to tax base. This might not be it, but I would not doubt it.
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Bill Addison has reported in the EATS Blog that Tei An will be opening today.
http://eatsblog.guidelive.com/archive...
Unfortunately, it turns out that they're not doing lunches just yet (they said it will be another month or so)... but I was told at the door that they will be open for dinner tonight.
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Thanks, gavlist, I was on vacation and haven't checked this thread in a while. I'm excited to finally be able to check this place out! Hopefully, it won't be long before they open for lunch since that will be my best bet to give them a try.
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I went for dinner a week (or so) ago, and thought it was really great. To me (a gaijin) the food seemed very authentic - I'm not sure how it will do in Dallas, although I'll definitely be back (in fact, tonight if all goes well).
The soba were fresh and home-made. We got three orders (all cold, with different dipping sauces):
1) poached egg, shiru, wasabi, daikon
2) yamaimo (japanese mountain yam), shiru, wasabi, daikon
3) a walnut-based sauce, with a consistency slightly thinner than tahini, but less intense and lightly sweet.
all were good. If you don't already know what yamaimo is, I'd recommend that you approach it with caution (that is, have other options on the table in case you don't like it). The issue is consistency, rather than flavor. I've had it before, so I knew what I was getting into.
our fourth order was an udon-containing soup with tempura on the side... but the noodles weren't thick like udon. If I had to guess, I'd have said they were saimin. Later, while walking around the restaurant (which is beautiful, by the way), I noticed another diner with some normal-looking udon on a plate... so I'm not sure what the deal is there.
The tempura was great too - crisp, thin, not completely uniform, and not at all greasy. In addition to more "standard" tempura items, there were also some that were new to me - in fact, slices of the japanese yam which are much more accessible in this format. I have rarely seen tempura of this quality outside of Japan.
We also had some appetizers: pressed sushi with brown rice and anago, squid stuffed with buckwheat, and some slices of duck breast that you grill on a hot rock. All interesting, some delicious.
After dinner, we got some tea (buckwheat), tsukemono (fresh, house-made takuan, cucumber and some other daikon-based pickle), buckwheat ice cream, and black sesame mousse. The pickles were great - if, like me, you've only had mass-produced, pre-packaged japanese pickles before, these were incredible - fresh, crisp, tangy and delicious. Desserts were very good too... but I'm not usually all that into dessert.
Prices were not bad... the basic zaru soba was ~$8. The more exciting sauces raised the prices to ~$12 or so. For me (relatively light eater) one order of soba would have been enough food... no appetizer or dessert necessary. Of course, that didn't stop me from trying and eating everything :)
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Gavlist, excellent review! I went last weekend, just to tack on a couple of additional observations:
As far as the Japanese mountain yam is concerned, it was my first time and I really enjoyed it (I like the texture of runny eggs...) but I was the only one at the table of 5 who liked it. So yeah, proceed with caution.
The duck slices on hida rock appetizer was so tender and juicy and rich. Something about the quick searing on stone process really captures the essence of all that we love about fatty, rich duck but presents it in a contained way (not over the top rich like confit sometimes can be). I usually pass on gimmicky cook-it-yourself items at restaurants, but this one is not that, the process produces a great product.
Out of the three cold sobas we tried (plain zaru, mountain yam, and plum), my favorite was the plum. The mountain yam had an interesting texture, but the lightly sweet plum sauce seemed especially suitable for summer.. it came across as more "refreshing" than the other sauces.
Also their seiro rice boxes are quite the treat. We tried the snow crab one. It's steamed rice topped with snow crab and egg. There's something luxurious about all those soft yet distinct textures together on your tongue, add to to it the fact that you're eating snow crab without any of the shelling work. Some adjacent diners tried the chicken version and said that it was bland. My guess is chicken doesn't quite have the delicate flavors of snow crab in order to be a real player in a dish that focuses so much on natural flavors and textures, and probably got added to the menu for the gringo diner factor.
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I loved the green tea flan best and I'm not even a sweet eater.
The food is authentic and so is the wait staff and service (and I'm a native ;-) It makes you feel like you walked into a trendy restaurant in an expensive area of Tokyo (like Roppongi).
It's far from the best soba I've ever had in my life, but it's very interesting that this concept of handmade (teuchi) soba with authentic Japanese service is being tried in Dallas.
I LOVE tororo (grated yamaimo or nagaimo) and it never occurred to me it would not be easily accepted by non-natives. Is it because it's slimy???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_opposita
What is used at Teian is probably nagaimo instead of yamaimo, which I don't think is readily available in the US and quite expensive. Nagaimo (Chinese yam) is available at any local Chinese grocery stores. Donna, nagaimo also goes into Okonomiyaki dough to make it fluffy. Without nagaimo, the texture of Okonomiyaki is very dense.
Also, when you see "yamakake" on the manu, it has totoro on top of tuna or something. I'm pretty sure Sushi Yama has some kind of yamakake. I can't think of any Izakaya not serving yamakake.
http://www.fotosearch.com/UNE270/u163...
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OK, someone help this inexperienced eater (of this type of food). I absolutely love asian noodle dishes but now that I read most of the posts here, I'm a little intimidated cause I don't know about most of the items you speak of. Is this the type of restaurant where either I can decipher the menu well enough to find soemthing I would like, or the wait staff will help me understand what I am ordering?
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You'll definitely need help from the wait staff. They didn't even bother to translate "seiro" (which is a wooden steamer) on the menu. http://www.ezoya.co.jp/goods/waseiro.html
I was with people who are experienced with Japanese food, but they asked a lot of questions (and I was ordering from the Japanese menu and had to ask a lot of questions!)
Forgot to mention early, chicken seiro rice is an authentic dish in Japan (not a creation for "gringo" diners ;-) I think seiro rice in general is on the bland side. I thought the crab seiro rice at Teian was bland as well.
I think Teian's emphasis is "healthy" food with minimal added seasoning. We ordered Amuse (4 or 5 seafood items) and those things normally have very strong flavors, but Amuse didn't. One of the items was "katuso (bonito) no shiokara)", which is normally too salty for me to eat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiokara
Their pickles (tsukemono) were also lightly seasoned/pickled (called "asazuke".)
http://otterrecipes.blogspot.com/2008...
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I found the wait staff to be quite helpful and friendly, so it's not a problem to ask questions. However, the menu is pretty authentic, so you might not understand the answers - if they told you that a dish has mountain yam you might (mistakenly) be expecting something like a sweet potato. But there's plenty of stuff that you will be familiar with, so I don't think you'll have too much trouble, as long as you're not a super picky eater.
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Not a picky eater but definitely want to know what I'm eating. Thanks for the info!
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Just to update, I was at One Arts Plaza last week and a sign on the door at Tei An said it will open for lunch beginning Sept. 26.
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I went last ngiht. They had a special dinner for the Japan America Society. It was delicious!! I loved the Kirin Ichiban on tap. For an appetizer, we a couple of orders of onigiri, one with smoked salmon and the other with the seaweed, and the mixed tempura. I currently have an onigiri addiction that Sushiyama has been seeing to, but I'm switching. These were delicious. And the tempura was great. I went with a picky picky friend who usually finds tempura too oily and he had no complaints.
We shared the curry udon and were almost slurping up the remnants of the bowl. We meant to order curry soba, but forgot to specify, but I'm not complaining.
And then we had dessert. I don't usually do dessert, but I'm glad we did. We shared the chocolate and the black seseme mousse. I had very low expectations for both of these, but we were pleasantly surprised.
All in all, after a couple of drinks and all that, we got away with paying $30 each. Not bad.
Spoke with the manager and he said they are still fixing up the roof, but Tei An will have roof entrace and are planning to have some sort of lounge/bar up there.
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