Foodie News
Despite some growing pains, bigger Tony Mandola's drawing big crowds
Photo via Tony Mandola's/Facebook
Photo via Tony Mandola's/Facebook
Photo via Tony Mandola's/Facebook
Tony and Phyllis Mandola
The early predictions that the social set would not follow Tony Mandola past the boundaries of River Oaks to Waugh and West Dallas have been heartily disproved. The new Tony Mandola's is filled to the brim with the same clientele that has supported him for decades, making for some excellent people-watching.
In addition to the parade of sexagenarian chic, the open floor plan allows you to look one direction and see Dick DeGuerin and another to see NFL players.
The restaurant itself looks kinda like they took the original and stretched it out. Overall everything, including the kitchen, looks to be about twice as big. There's still a long dining room with a large bar running down the side, though both feel much more spacious.
It's been three weeks at the new restaurant, and I'd bet that Mandola and his kitchen will work out the kinks soon. Until then, it certainly doesn't look like the crowd is concerned.
The high ceilings, porte-cochère, bright fixtures, and secondary dining room at the rear are all nice additions, though nothing beats the wonderful New Orleans-style patio, which sits along Waugh and yet feels self-contained by a wrought-iron fence and some greenery.
While the size could be great for business, the menu seems to be going through some growing pains. The meal started out on a positive note with shrimp-stuffed jalepeños, which were sweet as well as spicy, with just enough muenster cheese inside.
Unfortunately our requests for water seemed to get lost in the mail and the jalepeños were left to feed a slow burn down my throat. (Either I was really hungry or they were really tasty, because that didn't stop me from continuing to eat them.)
I was looking forward to see what Mandola would come up with from his new coal-fired pizza oven, so I tried the Mama's gumbo pizza, a combination of dark roux, crabmeat and cheese on a thin crust. The effort was underwhelming. It felt like a culinary trompe l'oileil — it tastes like gumbo, but it isn't — and, without much in the way of crabmeat, it just came off as flat and slightly slimy. The pizza dough was sweet and floury, but it lacked the crisp or the char that I associate with a formidable oven.
Even when I ordered a classic Tony Mandola's dish, the Snapper Martha, things seemed not to be firing on all cylinders. The fish was overcooked and dry, with the wine butter sauce confined to the corners of the plate. Maybe it's just the newly diagnosed Jumbo Lump Crab Syndrome, but all the extras tossed on the fish — shrimp, crawfish tails, crabmeat — felt overwhelming. The softshell crab special was quite good but couldn't rescue a meal that was disappointingly marred.
Tony Mandola's isn't reinventing the wheel when it comes to Gulf seafood or Italian food or even a combination of the two, and that's fine. There's clearly a market for his version of the classics. But with premium prices, consistency, quality and service are paramount.
It's been three weeks at the new restaurant, and I'd bet that Mandola and his kitchen will work out the kinks soon. Until then, it certainly doesn't look like the crowd is concerned.
