Mirador is on the top floor of the new 4-story building housing the  ‘Forty Five Ten’ store in downtown Dallas.  They have been serving lunch since January and are starting offering dinner on Friday and Saturday the weekend before we tried it.  Josh Sutcliff is Executive Chef and Junior Borges collaborates with him as Executive Chef of the Joule Hotel(which operates the dining room).  It is a large room with two side of windows looking out over downtown.  There is a balcony on the other side of the windows if you choose to dine with a closer look at the buildings and downtown activity.  The indoor seating is with tables using banquette and chair seating options.  

I found the banquette seating to be soft but you sit very low (they did have sturdy back cushions to help).  The colors and fabrics are lovely and striking with a couple large food photos adorning the walls.  The water glasses are pretty and the flatware is Christofle, and the background music is unintrusive – an elegant atmosphere.  For those deterred by parking downtown, there is a great pull off in front of the building where the complimentary valet will take your car till you’re ready to drive away. They offer a varied a la carte menu and a 7-course tasting menu, which offers things not on the regular menu.  We opted for the tasting menu and added an order of their house-made tater tots to go with our French 75 cocktail, a version made with cognac.

 

The tots are served with an aioli which was tasty but they seemed more like a hashbrown than a tot to me.  They were nicely crisp filled with well cooked grated potatoes but were large enough you needed a fork to eat them.  Don’t get me wrong, they were tasty but not what I expected.

 

The Day Boat Scallops were served with hearts of palm, charred cucumber and green grapes all in a cucumber broth and dotted with dill oil.  The cucumbers almost seemed pickled and were great.  Dill was a dominant flavor but it was a nice melding of tastes and textures with good color.  Very nice.

 

The Black Truffle and Foie Gras Tart was served with pickled cherry and local greens on the side.  The tart was excellent, a yum x2.  There were wonderful tastes of truffle and foie gras and mixed with the cherry jam it was a winner.  The crust could have been shorter and crispier, but overall it was a great dish brimming with flavor.

 

The Tuna Crudo was mixed with ginger, marinated gooseberries, lime, cilantro, hazelnuts and persimmon and sprinkled with chili fish sauce.  This was really good, packed with flavor.  It was a wonderful mix of tastes and textures, unfortunately I forgot to get a photo.  The Sunchoke Tortellini was with white mushrooms, sheep’s milk, herb oil, Kaffir lime and shrimp broth.  The insides were smooth and yummy. Another winner!

 

The Spanish Mackerel was served with kabocha squash, onion agrodolce and puffed sorghum.   The sorghum was like puffed rice and fun as was the squash but the mackerel was way overcooked and dry.  Even with the nice parts, this one was not a success and most of it went back to the kitchen uneaten.

 

The Roasted Pork was with black trumpet mushrooms and radicchio with an onion soubise.  Once again the meat was dry.  It got closer than the mackerel but this one didn’t make it either.

 

A palate cleanser of bay leaf ice was next and not on the menu.  The ice cream was served on broken pieces of pie crust, that still was so-so in flavor and the ice cream had a strong but interesting aftertaste.

 

Dessert was Dark Chocolate with mandarin orange, pistachio and olive oil. The chocolate was like a pots-de-creme or mousse and topped with a orange sherbert.  It was a mild chocolate flavor but very creamy, sweet and good. It was a nice mix of textural contrasts.