Si Tapas Spanish Cuisine

Si is here in the old Watel’s space in State & Thomas neighborhood.  Just as I was about to review it, a friend of mine let me know that she and her husband had already gone and fell in love with the place.  His comments are:

I want to write an honest review of Si.  I really do.  But at the same time, I’m selfish.  Very, very selfish.  I’m the type who refuses to talk about my favorite sushi bar solely to increase my chances of getting a table on the weekend.  If Si remains a well-kept secret, then my wife and I can stroll in on a Friday night, mull over which table we want, sit down right away, bring friends, and be home before it gets too late.  I know this will screw me, but here we go…

Disclosure: We loved Hola!, and were very sad when it closed.  So when we read on the DallasNews Eats blog about the soft opening of Si, we called and asked if we could come over for dinner.  Sure, they said, but warned that the full menu was not in place, and would not be in place until the official “grand opening” next Tuesday.  For example, the paella pans were still en route from Spain, so it wasn’t available tonight.  (Us: No problem.)  And one of the soups (clam and white bean) wasn’t ready.  Us: We’ll make do.)  So, disclaimers acknowledged, we went (Sunday, May 24, 2009).  It was my wife and me, what seemed to be some family and friends of the chef and owner, and a few other tables of neighborhood-types.  (For the reasons explained below, I suspect this was the last time we’ll get in without a substantial wait.)

I’m really, really tempted to tell you that our dinner was something less than terrific.  Or that the space needs work.  Or that our wine was so-so.  Or that the food is overpriced.  Or that you can’t find good, close parking.  Or that the waitstaff was rude and inattentive.  Or anything that will avoid facilitating what is certain to be imminent, crushing crowds.  But alas, I must go against everything that my profession (the law) believes in and tell the truth (the whole truth, and nothing but) even at the expense of waiting in line 1.5-2 hours next time we go.

Dinner was awesome.  Every dish… our salad, entrees, wine, and dessert.  As advertised, a few dishes were not yet up-and-running… most notably, the paella.  No problem, because most of the same dishes from Hola!, and many more, were cooking.  We had a sampling of tapas, including:

1. Fresh green beans sauted with Serrano ham and Dijon mustard sauce (very good.  maybe our favorite dish of the night?)
2. Sauteed potatoes with chorizo (my favorite dish from Hola!, still as good as I remember it)
3. Grilled asparagus with shredded idizabal cheese and garlic (even better than the manchego-coated version we loved at Hola!)
4. Grilled chicken in beer sauce (a large portion of chicken breast; don’t let the beer sauce scare you (as it did my wife) because once the beer is cooked off, there is a rich, hoppy sauce that goes very good with the chicken.)
5. Orange, carrot, and mint salad (Who knew these flavors went together so well; salad is fun.)
6. Grilled lamb chops (good, but not quite as great as I remember from Hola!)
7. Potato gallette (better than Cafe Madrid, better than we remembered at Hola!)
8. For dessert, we had the bread pudding with vanilla ice cream.  Wow. (FYI- we did all of us a favor and begged the owner to bring back the cava-poached pear with chocolate and thyme that we loved at Hola! I think we made some headway, but you can help us seal the deal.)

We ordered a bottle of the house Tempranillo wine for about $25.  I wish I could remember what the name of it was.  It was really good for the price, and we’ll order it again.  Wine list is mostly Spanish, as you’d expect, and seems to be reasonably priced.

The tapas prices seemed on par with the dishes at Hola!, which is really reasonable, especially for the new neighborhood.

The location is great and, as previously posted, it is the former Watel’s location.  Great space, including both front and a rear patios.  There was plenty of street parking right on Allen, at least when we were there.  Could be more dicey on Friday/Saturday nights, I suppose.

The owner, Ildefonso Jimenez, stopped by our table to say hello.  He told us that, starting in two weeks, there is going to be a paella brunch offered on weekends.  A giant paella pan filled with yummy goodness to feed the masses. Count us in.

We’ll be back, but we need a favor.  I put our future dining experiences at risk by telling the truth in this review.  Now I need something in return.  Both of us work late Monday through Thursday, which makes it really hard for us to go out to eat during the week.  Friday and Saturday nights are our date nights.  So you guys can have Monday through Thursday, but we call dibs on Saturday nights from 7pm-9pm.  Deal?