I’ve recently relocated from Los Angeles to downtown Dallas and I’m searching for a great downtown Happy Hour experience. I was hoping that I was going to find it at The Woolworth. I’ve read quite a few 5-star reviews, and the location is fantastic. It’s on the 2nd floor with both inside seating and a patio seating area overlooking the Eyeboretum cultural center in downtown.
Because it’s July in Dallas and 4:30pm in the heat of the day we chose to sit inside. Still, we had beautiful views all around the restaurant. We were sitting on the Elm Street side so people watching alone can be quite entertaining. Woolworth is definitely upscale but has a nice, casual atmosphere which I loved. Everything was clean and bright.
We had a couple of cocktails, the Unforgettable and That’s What She Said. The unforgettable was fantastic; it had a nice bitter note balanced with a hint of sweetness. That’s What She Said was good. I was hoping for a little more summer refreshing quality. With vodka, strawberry-mint simple syrup, citrus, prosecco and lemon mist you’d anticipate a 10 out of 10 with freshness and relief on a 97-degree day. I’d give it a 7. Ironically, it was the only item on the Happy Hour menu that we bought. There were just a couple of cocktails, a few beers and wine on the HH menu. I’d love to see some appetizers on this menu in the future.
The description on The Woolworth website is a bit misleading for happy hour. https://www.thewoolworthdallas.com/happy-hour-menu-downtown-dallas To quote the website “Join us for Happy Hour, where handcrafted cocktails and delectable bites take center stage.” Granted they serve food; they just don’t have a happy hour food menu. The regular menu is available.
We had 3 appetizers, the Crab Nachos, Nana’s Toast Short Ribs and the Sicilian Calamari. Hands down the crab nachos were my favorite item that we selected. Taro chips, delicious blue crab meat, jalapenos, heirloom pico, avocado butter and a bit of a kick from the siracha aioli. It’s perfectly balanced with every bite and easily sharable for 2 – 4 people.
The Nana’s toast short ribs were delicious. I particularly enjoyed the combination of the sweet potato puree and the horseradish cream paired with the lean and tender short rib meat.
On to the Sicilian Calamari. While the calamari was fresh and tender, it didn’t take me to Sicily. I would want to see a light batter with a drizzle of olive oil and fresh lemon and herbs or a delectable homemade red sauce. The description mentions orange ginger glaze, blistered shishito and balsamic glaze. There were no shishito peppers or orange ginger glaze. The glaze seemed to be a sweet and sour sauce and the shishito peppers were red and green bell peppers; nothing like the description. Overall, this dish left me craving for more authenticity.
Speed of service was great. The server was pleasant. This was my first visit to The Woolworth, so I would’ve appreciated some recommendations and maybe a little history of the restaurant in the downtown area. None of that happened. I’ve seen many reviews where this part of the experience meets all of those expectations in abundance. That’s encouraging; just not for me this time.
I’d give The Woolworth perhaps one more shot at dinner in the future. I’m new to the area so I have a lot of other places to see first though.