10 BEST NEW RESTAURANTS in DALLAS, The

D Magazine, Apr 01, 2002 by Nichols, Nancy, Malouf, Mary Brown

Unlike many executive chefs. Hage's place is actually in the kitchen, and from the stove she conducts a hand-to-mouth dialogue with her customers, communicating via the dinner plate. She notices what gets scraped and what gets scrapped. She's thrilled that rabbit and skatewings outsell salmon. She's excited about the cleanplate response to calf's liver. On the other hand, she recently got an ocean perch from the coast of Maine, and the kitchen staff ended up eating it because it didn't sell.

The subculture of Dallas kitchens is still dominated by guys in tall white toques, but Hage's determination has taken her off the good-old-boy grid and up to the five-star level via a path of her own choosing. This tiny enclave is now her personal turf. She's changed everything except the name and put her personal stamp on every detail, from the biographical interior touches to the soothing tea service at the end of the perfect meal. In this tiny East Dallas restaurant, Chef Sharon Hage has created her own world. 6047 Lewis St. @ Skillman Rd. 214-826-0968. $$-$$$. Full bar.

3. LA DUNI

The Same, Only Different

"A DAY WITHOUT LAUGHTER, LOVE, OR dessert is a total loss of a day." That's what Espartaco Borga's mother used to tell him. Evidently, this is a man who listened to his mama: the first thing you get when you walk into his new restaurant. La Duni, is a pie in the face. so to speak.

A lavishly laid table displaying dream desserts separates the entry from the little coffee bar and from the dining room proper. Huge cakes, nearly 2 feet in diameter, tower on elaborate, hammered silver cake plates: rollo de canela y nuez, a double-butter cinnamon brioche roll filled with caramelized Texas pecans, silky, black chocolate truffle cake, ruffled with chocolate; vanilla cake filled with mouthwatering, yolk-yellow lemon curd; and the best-selling quatro leches (four milk) cake. layers of double vanilla sponge cake laced with Cacique rum and soaked in quatro leches sauce, topped with caramelized meringue and served with arequipe leche. Clearly, you cannot count the day lost when you've eaten at La Duni.

Borga's mother is not the only feminine spirit inspiring the restaurant. "In Latin America, you always call the home by the lady of the house," he says. So La Duni is named after his wife and pastry chef Dunia Borga. (Zuzu was Espartaco's childhood nanny, which explains the name of his first successful restaurant venture in Dallas.) Duni brought to-ether the dishes and the cooks that embody the couple's dream of an authentic, family-oriented Latin restaurant. Somehow, La Duni provides the ultimate restaurant experience - the comfort of a mother with the excitement of a lover.

The menu features dishes from Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Peru, and Venezuela. The kitchen uses familiar ingredients with vivid imagination and authentic care. For instance, tostadas precede the meal, but instead of salsa, there's a trio of mojos on the table: roasted red pepper, cilantro and garlic, and chimichurri (parsley, oregano, garlic, and red pepper flakes). The cocktail menu is irresistible, and the tall drinks, handmixed and delivered to the table in the waiter's hand, recall a time when bartending was an art. A meal begins with planton campero, a combination appetizer plate with flat slices of green plantain, little fried balls of queso fresco, cheese-filled empanadas, and arepita. The torta is served in a popover filled with grilled picanha beef, fresh watercress, tomatoes, chimichurri, and cheese. The biggest seller is the pollo al aljibe, a roasted half chicken in a sauce of champagne and green oranges, served with garlic white rice, black beans, and fried sweet plantains.