Adrie Reinders

W Dallas,

Over the past few days, I stayed at the W Hotel in Dallas, 2440 Victory Park Lane, Dallas.
I do like the W in general. They are modern, comfortable and different. In this case though I do have mixed feelings. On the one hand, they certainly have wonderful people that go out of their way to help you – like Kent Clark Jones or the concierges that we dealt with. Great people that care about making your stay a great one. On the other hand, the hotel makes a rather disorganised impression – it lacks the hand of a conductor. Things don’t gel – like the public restrooms where someone forgot to refill the toilet paper or the washtowels – making it look like no-one cares.
Also – in their effort to put as many different elements as possible in the hotel – there is a nightclub “The Ghost Bar” in the hotel. The queue of people waiting to get in, all mill around in the lobby and elevator areas and you almost have to push past the bouncers to get to the elevator…not a good thing and not very peaceful. Another disadvantage of the character of this hotel, all about being trendy and cool, is the audience that it attracts – a group of loud people coming back from the party (or the Ghost Bar perhaps) outside your door at 3am is not exactly what you are looking for in a hotel.
As I said – mixed feelings.

Comfort: 7
Service: 8
Price/Quality: 7.5

Kenichi – Dallas, Texas

Last night, I had dinner at Kenichi in Dallas. Kenichi is a contemporary Asian restaurant, part of a small chain of restaurants bearing the same name located in Austin, Aspen and Hawaii. It definitely is a great place to go if you like Asian food. The restaurant has been very tastefully designed, modern asian, comfortable in colours that are easy on the eyes and don’t distract.

The house offered us a little taster of their Kobe beef – served with a little applewood bacon. A surprising, yet very good combination.
For the remainder of the meal, I chose the Shrimp Tempura as an appetizer and had sushi as my main course – to be specific, I had the California roll, spicy tuna roll, a few pieces of tamago (egg) and the namesake of the restaurant – the Kenichi roll. All of it was very tasty, with the delicate flavours not overpowering each other. Particularly with raw fish or seafood – you soon taste it if it is not 100% fresh – in this case, it was delicious.

I couldn’t have asked for a better host that evening then Aron Arsen – who offered a taster of a fabulous Sake, very soft and smooth.

Kenichi can be found at 2400 Victory Park, Dallas, TX – www.kenichirestaurants.com

Comfort: 8
Food: 8.5
Service: 8.5
Price/Quality: 8

Craft – W Hotel, Dallas.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of having lunch at Craft in Dallas. Craft is located at 2440 Victory Park Lane, Dallas – see www.craftrestaurant.com
Although located in the W Hotel, Craft is part of a small chain of high end restaurants, led by the well-known Chef, Tom Colicchio.

The restaurant is beautifully decorated – earthy colors, natural materials like woods and leathers in a great looking mix. It is very comfortable and well spaced out. The service was excellent which is no surprise when you watch the skill of the manager Joshua Smith. His eye doesn’t miss any detail, he makes the perfect host.

As an appetizer I had oysters followed by main course “Short Ribs”. The food was excellent, fresh, nothing too fancy but simply good ingredients and quality – my favourite style.

Comfort: 8
Service: 9
Food: 7
Price/Quality: 7.5

This time my trip brought me to Dallas, where i stayed in the Rosewood Crescent Hotel in Down Town Dallas, if have been here before because it is convenient.Service excellent, althought i had to overcome some problems with my wireless, but they solved that nicely.The prize level is euro 200 +, linda.wan@rosewoodhotels.com

www.rosewoodhotels.com

Service, 8

Comfort 8

Health club 7.5

Food 8