The Mansion Restaurant — Restaurant in Dallas

TL:DR : Subpar, overpriced food, in quaint and Instaworthy setting, with polite but sloppy service.

There's not much left to say about the Mansion. It is routinely heralded (and frequented) by the "old moneyed class" of DFW. The old-school upscale ambience feels genuinely nice, because of the building and its nooks and crannies. Definitely a place to dress up a bit for...until you realise that you'd get Brunch food that's much superior, at half the price, at a dozen other places in the city. No, really. The single defining moment of our brunch was when we realised that the chef had arbitrarily removed their much vaunted crab cake from the starters section, and the seared scallops from the entrée section of their 3 course prixfixe brunch menu. When I asked how come those items were there the previous week(s) and not today, I got told that it was a new menu, and they'd added, wait for it, Shrimp & Grits. What is this, Cracker Barrel Luxe? Blatant attempts at cost-cutting, and customer-squeezing notwithstanding, here's what we eventually got from the boring and restrictive menu:

1. Mimosa - Bad. No effervescence, just a splash of orange with no body or flavor, poor quality sparkling wine, in an impossibly narrow flute.
2. Bloody Mary - Average. Not made to order, kept pre-made in glasses.
3. Large pastry basket - Good. Tasty and fresh assortment. Should have ended our meal here. $17 bucks wasn't bad for the pastry basket. The remaining 200-ish dollars we spend on food was a bad decision.
4. Smoked salmon - Good, but a Hobbit-size portion. Sloppy service here meant the server dropped the accompanying bagel off the plate while setting it down on the table.
5. Tomato-peach salad - Good, Hobbit-size portion, and a generally strange dish to be on a brunch menu. The 2.6 pieces of peaches were hard and flavorless.
6. Mushroom ravioli - Good, small-portion. Sharp, cheesy, creamy sauce which was tasty but not particularly elevated.
7. Brisket Benedict - Embarrassing. For $26 I should have sent this back or called the chef out. The tiny benedicts with a sliver of brisket on a mini-biscuit were fine. The Bearnaise was bland but fine. Everything else on the plate- especially the fried potato side, was terrible. Unfit for consumption. If management is reading this, spare me the "we will do better next time" spiel, and either offer me a redo or a refund for this dish.
8. Petit Filet - Okay. Tasty but plain. Small piece of decent steak, pretty close to the medium-rare I requested. Marble potatoes were soft or hard, but atleast edible. Spinach and trumpet mushrooms were fine. Red wine jus was fine.
9. Desserts were okay, with the Churros being quite good, and the Creme Brulee being good but plain and cloying after a few spoons.
10. Coffee was average, and as expected, expensive. $6 for a cup of black coffee plonked down on the table.

Something else to note - most of the wings of the dining room are closed off for Brunch so if you're expecting to get lovely garden views you're likely to be disappointed. They only seat people in the verandah, which is nice but somewhat cramped, or in the slightly dreary dining room. We sat in the covered dining room straight through the entrance to the restaurant. I dont know if I was enjoying the fireplaces and ornate pillars and dinner vibes on a bright Sunday morning, but it's a pleasant, albeit small space. Bill was $200+ for 3. We ended up leaving and eating a heartier meal elsewhere after a couple of hours. Overall, I might return to see if their lunch & dinner are better because I did enjoy the setting. I'd just skip the place for Brunch. Far better options, food-wise, in the city. As lovely as the Mansion is, you can't eat the decor and...

My first time at the mansion was a magical experience in top notch service and culinary expertise. I started off with the perfect Chablis from France, Recommended by my waiter. I the. Moved on to try the foie gras that was seared to perfection. Next I had the petite beef sandwich that they serve before the meal, it was fantastic but very tiny tasting. I then moved on to the truffle bisque that was dripping in truffles I ate half then shared with my husband so I could try his beet salad that was beautiful and delicious. From there I had the tenderloin and a bit of all the sides. We had a large party of 14 so it was nice to be able to order everything and share. From there we all ordered a dessert. We took a bite and passed so again we all could experience everything on the menu. This place is definitely fine dining at its best. Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. Located in the heart of Oak Lawn. Though we frequent restaurants and establishments such as Morton's, Trulucks, we were pretty excited to have our first visit at The Mansion on Turtle Creek for Restaurant Week. This was a Saturday night with reservations at 6:45. Valet Parking was a must and worth it. Upon entry into the restaurant we are promptly greeted with smiling faces and handshakes. We Re immediately taken to our table situated by a window looking out onto the back courtyard. Very nice spot to watch the lightning show occurring in the skyline and the wind blowing the globe lights hanging in the trees. Ezekiel, our waiter greets us at the table. He hands us our Restaurant Week menus. Other than the main Restaurant Week menu he points out on the left side optional options. At this point we were expecting him to go over the actual choices and describe each item. This never happens. There was a Specialty Drink listed and it wasn't mention nor did he even offer a wine pairing. After noting our order Ezekiel disappears. We get a small sample of the Tortilla soup from our secondary (water) waiter. The tortilla soup was by far the best tasting item we...

Unfortunately, I must say that it was a quite disappointing experience. The staff was extremely friendly, but it was significantly overpriced for the quality of the food and the ambience. I expected the service to be great (which it was), and the food expensive, but fantastic. The food was not just expensive but very overpriced and it was just not very good.

My girlfriend, who adores oysters, had to send them back because she found the thick sauce on top very difficult to eat. I had the vension for a main course, asked for it "medium" and it was saw raw it was more or less tartare. The bread was great but not that unique and similar to what one would get at Brio. The octopus main course my girlfriend ordered was absolutely tiny. Later, she said she felt rather ill from the food.

I imagine the worst part of the experience was that starting at 930, the main dining room was engulfed by a loud live band playing in the nearby bar. It was so loud we had to talk louder to hear each other - something I have never experienced at what is supposed to be an intimate, 4+ star restaurant. I was extremely surprised that the restaurant management allowed the ambience to be eviscerated by the bar scene next door.

As a Dallas native, I very, very much wanted to love the restaurant and experience and hadn't been in ages, but I shall not come back. The restaurant is resting on its past reputation, has sacrificed the intimacy that marked its earlier days, and the food tried very hard to be unique and exotic but only achieved being small and less savory than many much lower-priced craft restaurants where I have dined recently. For a very special evening with someone, I would strongly recommend going somewhere else.

The bar is still...