The best restaurant in Dallas isn’t a restaurant after all.
By Brooklyn Rodgers | September 3rd, 2024 | 2:41 pm
Each year I anticipate the D Magazine 50 Best Restaurants List with bated breath. The list is compiled by Brian Reinhart, the only salaried food critic in Dallas, who spends $30,000 annually1 to try restaurants in and around Dallas and share his opinion on them.
For the past two years, the same restaurant has held the title of “Best Restaurant in Dallas”, also known as the #1 spot on their list. That restaurant is Purépecha.
I had the pleasure of visiting Purépecha in Deep Ellum on a Thursday evening this August. Purépecha bills itself as Mexican haute cuisine, “showcas[ing] dishes of Michoacan, Mexico with an expressive menu featuring both traditional and international ingredients, flair and flavors.”
Not knowing what to expect, we secured a weeknight reservation and were pleasantly surprised to be the only ones in the intimate four-table dining room for the entire evening. We entered the locked Purépecha via a buzzer on the front door, and from there, a member of the Rojas family guided us to our table and charted our course for the evening.
To set the scene: our table was adorned with lace doilies reminiscent of your grandma’s kitchen, no music played in the background for our entire three-hour dinner, there was only the distant hum of laughter and chatter from the back dining room, and we were visited only with the presence of our dual-wielding server and chef in the otherwise empty restaurant. It felt like we were having dinner at the Rojas family dining room, and had only accidentally stumbled into one of the best meals in Dallas.
We opted for the $120 per person prix fixe tasting menu; had I known the $180 prix fixe menu would have gotten us into the private tasting room in the back, we would have chosen that instead. Seated alone in the main dining room felt a little like sitting at the kids’ table.
After polishing off some handmade heirlom corn tortillas and salsa, we were greeted with our second offering: crudo adorned with gems of mandarin orange, glossy orange roe pearls, and seagrass.
The pausing between courses was luxurious, and despite the long wait, we didn’t feel bored or impatient. The pacing of this tasting menu felt appropriate for the heartiness of its food, giving us time to savor each course and not feel rushed into the next one.
Not being a fan of white fish, I enjoyed the uncommon depth of flavor that our third course offered: beets blended into the creamy pink sauce gave the dish an earthy richness without being too beet-y (beets are often guilty of this).
Our fourth course was the standout: mole pipian de lujo, half of an all-organic baked cornish hen covered in pipian mole verde, stuffed with fried leek, accompanied by traditional Mexican rice, quartered plums, fresh herbs, and more of their handmade heirloom corn tortillas.
The tasting menu was incredible, and despite the informal atmosphere, the flavors showcased by the Rojas family and the level of service truly stood up to other best-in-class restaurant experiences that Dallas has to offer.
The star moment of our meal was the finale: our server brought out the kitchen crew to thank us for dining with them, introducing us to his sister, mother, and grandmother who had carefully prepared each course. It was a priceless and heartwarming experience, and one that other modalities of fine dining in Dallas are sure to be unable to replicate.
Purépecha is genius in its unassuming nature: plateware feels like it was stripped from a family kitchen cupboard, yet still feels special enough that only a guest would be allowed to use it. The service is relaxed and casual, while not skimping out on the lengthy explanations of handcrafted dishes to showcase how much care is put into each ingredient. And its charm is in its humble heart: Purépecha will not do too much to impress you. At least, not in the ways fine dining is accustomed to.
Purépecha is not a restaurant. I’m not entirely sure what it is, except that it is an experience that perhaps belongs at the top of a 50 Best list in Dallas. In a world where Dallas is considered to be decidedly lowbrow for elevated cultural flair such as the incoming Michelin guide, it is poetic to place an unconventional experience such as Purépecha at the top of one of our most highly regarded dining guides.
This author thinks that only by taking the same risks and breaks from the Eurocentric fine dining tradition that Purépecha has taken, restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth will continue to get better and more interesting, regardless of their Michelin or 50 Best status.
1D Magazine, “The Wonder Years” by Jim Atkinson, September 2024 Print Edition
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