Elm & Good — Restaurant in Dallas

I am very surprised that this restaurant has 4 stars on Google. Last night, a Friday, my husband and I chose this place based on reviews. It is a huge place, but was empty on Friday at dinnertime, and I assumed the emptiness was a fluke rather than a red flag. I should have believed my eyes rather than the reviews; nobody wanted to be there. We were the only ones at a table, though the bar patrons looked happy. The waitress was very nice, and for that I had to give her stars.

We ordered the Caesar salad. Don't do it! If my husband ever brings that kind of cheap, slimy dressing back from the grocery store, we would have words. From the taste profile, it's an ultra-processed product with cornstarch, vinegar, corn syrup and maybe some powdered eggs in a base of cheap oil with a dash of salt. But I'm just guessing. Wendy's has a better one by far. Actually, I've never had a worse Caesar in any restaurant. Not much eaten!

Then we ordered our meal. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries, and my husband ordered the Reuben at the urging of our waitress, who said, "If you haven't had a Reuben for a while, this is a really good one!" After a minute, I called the waitress back, just because the salad had been SO OFF-TRACK from how they advertise themselves that I suspected the Gouda on my fancy gourmet burger might not actually be Gouda. I'm lactose-intolerant (ie. no fake cheese as they contain whey and nonfat milk solids). I was right! The waitress informed me that all of the cheeses at Elm and Good are Pasteurized Processed Cheese Product, so there were no options for a real cheeseburger. I ordered the Fried chicken plate instead.

The food came and-- why did the waitress tell my husband that if he hadn't had a Reuben in a while, this one would satisfy his Reuben itch? It wasn't a Reuben at all; no pastrami. Those details are on the menu, but we had ordered it from her recommendation and were told this would bring back memories of other Reubens, which this one couldn't possibly do without the main ingredient. I'm guessing the nice waitress has never eaten a Reuben before and just likes this sandwich (In her defense, it was the only menu item we didn't throw away). In essence- it's a pretty good brisket sandwich, but they call it a Cowboy Reuben. Order this one if you have to go there to eat.

My chicken plate was not as expected. It's called Deep Ellum Fried Chicken, with the description that it comes with pickles and maple Bourbon Dijon, served with fries. First of all, I have never seen breaded deep fried boneless dark meat chicken on a menu, and I eat out almost weekly. Typically you deep fry only the breast, unless the dark meat is bone-in, as in buffalo style or a KFC bucket. But this item is a single piece of deep-fried, boneless dark meat on a bun. The breading was flavorless, and the meat was that kind of gamey meat that you get every once in awhile with a cheap chicken. The fries were beyond flavorless, even with ketchup and tabasco. Literally fries are one of my favorite snack foods and I couldn't enjoy them, and neither did my husband.

Also, there was no indication on the menu that Deep Ellum Fried Chicken was a sandwich. It was listed with 2 other items under the title "Hand-Off's", which I have googled and it's a football term, but this restaurant is not a Sports Bar. As someone who worked 10+ years in the restaurant industry, I know a handoff is when the cook puts up the completed order, or the waitress brings your food. This is not a familiar menu term that anyone would assume might mean something else. Even if they had misspelled it and meant to write "Hands-off" that wouldn't make sense for hands-on food items. We didn't complain, we just told them to take away most of the food and went somewhere else.

Oh- they had a nice draught beer that my husband liked, and I drank a cab wine that was $14 per glass; the other cab option was $21 per glass. So, this place has airport lounge prices but with...

I was invited to a birthday dinner last night at this place and had never even heard of it/it’s so new.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! Nearly everything we ate was delicious.

The Lion’s Mane mushroom cake appetizer was one of the standouts of the evening. Similar to a crab cake- it was AMAZING. Red fish ceviche was okay. I’m also a huge fan of bone marrow- so I was surprised when it came out that it was initially over-cooked and I literally only got 3 tiny scrapes out of two long bones.

I pointed this out to our server, and he graciously took it back to the kitchen and had another sent out- which was DIVINE. Cooked perfectly. I’m still thinking about it!!

Our table got mostly gnocchi & pot roast entrees- both of which were fantastic!! Someone got the blackened red fish- the sauce was great, but they weren’t kidding about the “blackened” part- so just be aware! I was also surprised and delighted when I asked the waiter if the bartenders could come up with a mocktail (there are none on the menu)…they KILLED it. Some kind of blackberry lavender lemonade and it was to DIE for. My alcohol-drinking friends at the table were jealous!

My only other comments on food: the “French fries” are in fact, potato wedges. :-/ The side of mushrooms was a little off/needed some kind of butter or salt (which was wild, since that mushroom cake was so stellar).

The other dish I can’t get out of my head is their carrot cake dessert. YALL!!! I’ve never been a huge fan of carrot cake- it’s fine, but not my fave/go-to. This carrot cake was the most MOIST carrot cake I’ve ever ever had- AND it’s topped with huckleberry compote and WOW. This is a must-order!

They additionally had some equally fantastic desserts: a chocolate cookie with ice cream, and homemade chewy CHURROS! Another out of this world item was the cajete sauce served with the churros: it’s Carmel mixed with goats milk and it’s fantastic! So smooth and not too sweet/doesn’t hurt your teeth! Really surprised and delighted and would absolutely recommend/plan...

OK so we stayed at the hotel and so we decided to eat here, we were able to get free breakfast for two as well as we ate dinner which was not free. Dinner was absolutely amazing, we really loved the host her name was Emily ! We also loved our waitress she is from New Orleans so we connected when I let her know that I love New Orlens as well. The bartender was super cool, I didn’t get to drink but we did record a reel for Instagram together which is super cool. I absolutely loved dinner we ordered a pan seared chicken, a brussels sprout salad and a triple fried french fries, my husband didn’t eat his salad but when we said we wanted to share the chicken they brought it out in two plates which I really loved. He said he loved the brussels sprout but he was just too full. I ate most of the triple fry french fries but I don’t know that I would order it again. Now breakfast was a different story because I was about to give it five stars we came in in the morning people looked at us I asked do we seat ourselves and he answered yes and then basically didn’t really talk to us and when I ask is there any kind of meat that’s not pork he said no and I said wow that means I can’t eat any meat and he just looked at me so I was super awkward. I literally removed one star just because he was so odd and it was not friendly at all. I’m glad I had a great experience for dinner but if I had come during breakfast I would definitely have given it a one star. Oh and I forgot I was on FaceTime with my mom and it’s so funny because we were literally there before they close and so nobody was there it was literally two other tables and ours and I guess the manager came to let me know I was disrupting the peace lol which is so stupid because if my husband and I were talking we could be talking the same way it was just very odd ! So I...