Two weeks ago I went to Dallas for the weekend to visit friends. I don't normally get to do that during football season, but since I don't travel with the team to away games anymore, I now get a few free weekends in the fall. Usually I stay home and relax, but I hadn't been to Dallas since the summer so I took the opportunity.
I've talked on this blog before about how when I spend the weekend with Joni and Tony, we pretty much sleep, eat, relax, and do it all over again. Friday at lunch we were already discussing possible dinner options. Yes, we are those people. Joni & Tony tend to be creatures of habit when it comes to eating out in Flower Mound. It's significantly larger than Stillwater and has a lot more options, but I still feel like we eat at a lot of the same places when I visit. We had branched out for lunch both Thursday and Friday, and when Joni said they had tried a new restaurant for dinner recently and it was really good, I was all for it.
I liked Twelve Stones as soon as we walked in. They offer valet parking, but we found a space almost immediately. The restaurant is very warm and inviting. The walls are a combination of wood and brick, some of the short walls are metal, and they have a really cool bar with industrial shelving and 3 large TV's. It may sound like an odd combination of materials, but it really works well. The bar area takes up about 1/3 of the restaurant, and the main dining room comprises the rest. They can divide the dining room into semi-private areas with tall curtains.
Since it was Friday night, the restaurant was packed. I think we could have gotten a table in the dining room almost immediately, but Joni wanted to sit in the bar area, because you can then choose from the bar menu or the full dinner menu. They had a 2-piece band playing when we arrived. It was quite loud because they were set up pretty close to us at the end of the bar. But they played good dinner music, and were very good musicians.
I have to admit, I'm not usually a big fan of sitting in the bar area, and particularly at the bar, in any restaurant unless I don't have a choice. I find that the service tends to be not as prompt and less attentive, especially when the restaurant is really busy. This ended up being the case on our visit. Our first server was a young lady. She was really nice and showed up to our table pretty quickly, but was kind of flighty. When we ordered the appetizer the first thing she said was "I don't think that's on the menu anymore". Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense since the menu changes all the time and it's still listed on there. She said she would check...and then never came back. I saw her at the bar making drinks, which wasn't that odd. But 10 minutes later she was still there, and had clearly forgotten about us. After a while a male bartender came over to take our order. He got us our appetizer, but when Tony ordered coffee it took another 10 minutes for it to arrive.
The restaurant is open for both lunch and dinner, and the menus change regularly, based on seasonal availability. I love restaurants that do that. We decided to start with the fried pickled okra.
These were delicious. They were served scorching hot, and the batter was light and airy. The jalapeno dipping sauce was very good and had just enough of a bite.
Joni and Tony split the flatiron steak. Tony ordered it medium rare; Joni argued, as she likes her meat medium well. Tony won the fight.
Joni gave me a small piece. Wow, this was amazing. The meat was incredibly tender, and had so much flavor. I prefer my steak medium, but had no complaints about this one. If you don't like cilantro this wouldn't be the dish for you, but I would have eaten every bit of that garnish.
I went back and forth on a couple of items, and finally settled on fish & chips, because Tony had them last time and said they were really good. They use the freshest fish they have available, and this night it was black striped bass.
The fish was good, but I think it might have been sitting for a while because it was very limp. And it was a little under-seasoned for my taste. However, the tarter sauce and vinegar made up for that, as they were both very flavorful. The fries were good. They were kind of the bottom of the batch, but they were hot and crispy on the outside, so I went with it.
Tony and Joni both had raved about the mac and cheese, so we ordered a side of it with our meal. This was unfortunately another miss by the server, as he completely forgot to put in the order. But as soon as he realized the error, he corrected it quickly.
I am a big mac & cheese snob. I grew up eating my mom's baked mac & cheese, and am extremely critical when it comes to others. This one was good, and I loved the rich, creamy smoked white cheese. But I felt like it was missing something. It could have jumped up a few notches with bread crumbs on top, or a fun pasta shape, or something like that.
As I mentioned earlier, Tony got coffee
I had never been to a restaurant that serves pressed coffee. So of course I had to get my own to try. It takes quite a bit longer to brew, which honestly could have been part of the wait when Tony first ordered it. But that longer brew results in a very deep, rich coffee. And it was delicious.
We didn't really need dessert, but after looking at the menu Joni and I decided to split the salted caramel pot de creme
This was SWEET. But it was also delicious. It was super rich and thick, and had such a wonderful deep caramel flavor. I loved the toffee chip garnish, almost like you're eating a Heath bar. But homemade and much better. We only had a few bites each. I was tempted to eat my portion and Joni's, but I thought better of it.
Will I go back? Despite the few misses, most certainly I will. I really like the atmosphere, and overall the food was really good. I want to try out some of their other dishes
I liked Twelve Stones as soon as we walked in. They offer valet parking, but we found a space almost immediately. The restaurant is very warm and inviting. The walls are a combination of wood and brick, some of the short walls are metal, and they have a really cool bar with industrial shelving and 3 large TV's. It may sound like an odd combination of materials, but it really works well. The bar area takes up about 1/3 of the restaurant, and the main dining room comprises the rest. They can divide the dining room into semi-private areas with tall curtains.
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| Photo Courtesy of I Am Jay Marks |
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| Photo Courtesy of Kim's Healthy Eats |
I have to admit, I'm not usually a big fan of sitting in the bar area, and particularly at the bar, in any restaurant unless I don't have a choice. I find that the service tends to be not as prompt and less attentive, especially when the restaurant is really busy. This ended up being the case on our visit. Our first server was a young lady. She was really nice and showed up to our table pretty quickly, but was kind of flighty. When we ordered the appetizer the first thing she said was "I don't think that's on the menu anymore". Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense since the menu changes all the time and it's still listed on there. She said she would check...and then never came back. I saw her at the bar making drinks, which wasn't that odd. But 10 minutes later she was still there, and had clearly forgotten about us. After a while a male bartender came over to take our order. He got us our appetizer, but when Tony ordered coffee it took another 10 minutes for it to arrive.
The restaurant is open for both lunch and dinner, and the menus change regularly, based on seasonal availability. I love restaurants that do that. We decided to start with the fried pickled okra.
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| House-cured pickled okra, tempura batter, jalapeno cream |
Joni and Tony split the flatiron steak. Tony ordered it medium rare; Joni argued, as she likes her meat medium well. Tony won the fight.
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| Grilled flatiron steak, bravas potata, ramp puree, pickled fresno pepper, cilantro lime garnish |
I went back and forth on a couple of items, and finally settled on fish & chips, because Tony had them last time and said they were really good. They use the freshest fish they have available, and this night it was black striped bass.
The fish was good, but I think it might have been sitting for a while because it was very limp. And it was a little under-seasoned for my taste. However, the tarter sauce and vinegar made up for that, as they were both very flavorful. The fries were good. They were kind of the bottom of the batch, but they were hot and crispy on the outside, so I went with it.
Tony and Joni both had raved about the mac and cheese, so we ordered a side of it with our meal. This was unfortunately another miss by the server, as he completely forgot to put in the order. But as soon as he realized the error, he corrected it quickly.
I am a big mac & cheese snob. I grew up eating my mom's baked mac & cheese, and am extremely critical when it comes to others. This one was good, and I loved the rich, creamy smoked white cheese. But I felt like it was missing something. It could have jumped up a few notches with bread crumbs on top, or a fun pasta shape, or something like that.
As I mentioned earlier, Tony got coffee
I had never been to a restaurant that serves pressed coffee. So of course I had to get my own to try. It takes quite a bit longer to brew, which honestly could have been part of the wait when Tony first ordered it. But that longer brew results in a very deep, rich coffee. And it was delicious.
We didn't really need dessert, but after looking at the menu Joni and I decided to split the salted caramel pot de creme
This was SWEET. But it was also delicious. It was super rich and thick, and had such a wonderful deep caramel flavor. I loved the toffee chip garnish, almost like you're eating a Heath bar. But homemade and much better. We only had a few bites each. I was tempted to eat my portion and Joni's, but I thought better of it.
Will I go back? Despite the few misses, most certainly I will. I really like the atmosphere, and overall the food was really good. I want to try out some of their other dishes
