Loro Asian Smokehouse & Bar — Restaurant in Dallas

I believe this Restaurant has an identity crisis. They are not sure whether they want to be. Bbq place or an upscale Asian restaurant. When you walk in to the front door, you’re not greeted by anybody there is no host or hostess, so you just stand there looking confused not knowing what you’re supposed to do. The only thing you see are two signs at the bar that say “order”. That being said, there’s no clear indication that a line should be forming there or if you should just grab a seat. Then the person you think is your server comes up and explains in the detail the menu items and what you should order. When you are ready to order they instruct you to walk up to the bar and order!

How does such a successful great chef like Aaron Franklin put his name behind a concept that leaves their customers confused and abandoned?

We saw another table being served by a server. ( inside information)Apparently, if you order drinks ahead of time from the Bar, and request a disc for your table, then you can order food from a server…. But getting a disc is only from the discretion of the bar tender on duty.

The experience is not fun or relaxing. The portions of food are super small, and the sides were over-seasoned. ( very salty ) “The smoked and then sous vide sake can 1/2 chicken” ( as was described to me ) was ok. The dark pieces were fine the breast piece (which was half of a breast) was dry. How do you claim to give half a chicken, when you only give half of the chicken breast with the “1/2 chicken”?

So if I bring an 8 top in, We all have to seat ourselves figure out what we want on the menus and then go to the bar and order our food? How inconvenient!! To add insult to injury when you get rung by the cocky bartenders you are prompted to give a tip. Why would I leave 20% for no service?

I am a Private Chef and often recommend restaurants to my employer and their friends. The food that was not over-seasoned or under portioned had good flavor profiles. That is not enough for me to come back or recommend to others. The over all experience was super lack luster. Also side note apparently corporate management was standing by the front door.

They should switch the name to Bar & Asian Smokehouse. They obvious want you to go to the bar. Actually, I’m not sure what they want. It’s very confusing. What is the deal with ribs only 2 days a week a ramen 2 days a week? Why would a “BBQ” place only have ribs twice a week. These are really inconsistent messages.

Bottom line, if you wanna be a barbecue joint, then corral your people into a line that is obvious, and weigh your food. Or, be what you wanna be, an upscale Asian BBq theme and have table side service. The fusion theme needs to be reimagined because the experience and service...

Returning to Loro a few years later…hmmm, some interesting menu changes.

We were only 3 people but ordered enough for 7! 🤭 For starters, we tried the Smoked Shishito Queso w/ Brisket, it came with tostadas; also got their Chicken Karaage. Have to say the queso did not disappoint, was not spicy, flavors went great with pretty much everything we dipped into it. Chicken Karaage (which we order at every Japanese or fusion resto that has it) was surprisingly crispy, not oily, did not need the sauce it came with since we also dipped it in the queso. 😆 These came in the middle of the meal though. They started bringing the Sesame Rice noodles and Seaweed salad first. Noodles had a nice flavor, can’t say the same for the seaweed…to reminiscent of tropical summers when the tide was low and seaweed by the shore was roasting in the sun. Not the best aroma. The salads arrived, and we shared a Chilled Ginger Noodle Salad, I expected rice noodles so that was a bit disappointing, but still flavorful and topped with curry shrimp. Then the Char Siew Pork Belly in Lettuce wraps came, was ok, tasted better when I added the radish from another dish and topped it with queso (I’m telling you it’s great on anything). We also tried the Oak Smoked Grilled Steak rice bowl, which had the thin sliced radishes that went on the Lettuce wraps. What can I say, we like to complicate our food ☺️ Some of the sides we tried were the Coconut rice and Charred Broccoli. The coconut rice was m’kay, but was already full from all the veg, but the broccoli was nicely done, also great with queso.

In a nutshell, the food had definite winners, and some flavors are an acquired taste. The service was also good, we also came at a less busy time, so we got our orders pretty quickly.

Thank you also for the Piña Horchata and Mango Rodeo samples. They were gone pretty quickly. ❤️

FYI, they gave us a 20% discount as Healthcare workers. Yes! Better than the $15 Target gift card we got every...

Okay, I’m actually pretty disappointed with the food here :/

The ambiance is fantastic and the staff is friendly and attentive. The food presentation is nice however many of the dishes we tried just were okay. Also fair warning that there are a few dishes that are only served after certain times or days, so we unfortunately did not get to try them.

Smoked Prime Bavette Rice Bowl was just boring and bland. Really pretty looking but lacked any depth of flavor. I will say the flank steak was cooked very nicely and had a good texture, just little flavor. The vegetables were also bland. They weren’t seasoned or pickled.

Crunchy Sweet Corn Fritters were freshly fried really nicely and the batter used created a great puffy texture. However, this dish also was weak in the flavor department. There was just a bit of salt sprinkled on them post fry. The Spicy Mayo that came with it was okay. It kind of just made the fritters taste more heavy and oily. Would’ve been nice to have some sort of acid to balance out the grease.

Char Siew Pork Belly was also very welled cooked, and the House Hoisin sauce on it was good. No reasonable complaints on this one but it wasn’t super memorable.

Curried Brisket Rice was pretty good. Hearty dish that you could probably just eat by itself and be happy with. Came inside of a little to go box.

Chocolate Chip Cookie was good. Soft chewy flat cookie with a lot of butter in it. Definitely satisfied my sweet tooth!

Peach-Yuzu Cobbler was pretty good. Really solid bake on it with the crust being crusty and the filling sweet and thick. Inside wasn’t watery at all! I just kind of wish the Yuzu and 5 spice came through a bit more. Probably wouldn’t order again personally.

Overall experience was okay. Place is great, staff is great, vibes are nice, but food leaves me wanting. I would still def recommend this place for a night out...