top restaurants. best restaurants. French restaurants. Watel's Allen Street Cottage in Uptown State Thomas neighborhood, a top restaurant, in Dallas Texas, offering jazz dinners, gourmet cooking classes,specials, events, wine dinners, great French bistro food, regional French dishes, and global fusion cuisine. Private room available for parties, meetings, birthday, anniversary, rehearsal dinners, business lunch, receptions, weddings, or any event.

Study in elegance and taste

Watel's of Dallas has moved uptown to a warm, cozy cottage

By JUNE NAYLOR
SPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM

One of the more easily overlooked restaurants in Dallas offers one of the more purely enjoyable, reliable dining experiences in the city. Now with 20 years under its belt, Watel's knows better than ever how to deliver pleasure.

Initially operating on McKinney Avenue well before anyone decided to call anything in Big D "Uptown," Watel's has moved a few blocks to a Victorian-age cottage. Here's one of the rare moments, however, when great upheaval renders delightful results.

Always an understated study in elegance, the cottage dining at Watel's now oozes warmth and intimacy. Sitting at brunch recently, I felt as though I was in someone's well-loved, art-filled, cozy home, comfortably tucked into a table next to French doors overlooking a pretty garden and yard. I instantly forgot that fancy new town houses and condos crowd Allen Street and the neighborhood on all sides.

The perfect start to our meal was the house tapenade ($2.50 per person sharing), a cool, coarse paste done in the traditionally French style, with capers, black olives, anchovy and olive oil. Spread on thin toasts and enjoyed with sips of Chateau de Sancerre ($10), it was a most civilized way to celebrate the weekend.

From the lunch menu, we marveled over the sublime simplicity of the spinach salad, tossed with a modest vinaigrette and decorated with slices of fresh mushroom and red bell pepper, pieces of crisp bacon and toasts smeared with creamy goat cheese ($8.50).

A brunch specialty, the sauteed Dover sole fillets ($16), bore just the lightest crisp coating from a scant dredging in flour and were lavished with a lemon-chive butter sauce. Other brunch options include omelets and eggs Benedict.

Other lunch fare includes polenta with tomatoes and Dallas mozzarella ($8.50), sliced duck breast over couscous ($9.50) and a flaky pastry filled with lobster, spinach and mushrooms ($16.50). Renowned for its offal, Watel's has a lunch selection that includes sweetbreads with chive puree ($12.50) and grilled veal kidneys with grainy mustard sauce ($10). There's a similar but more generous menu at dinner.

On Wednesday and Thursday evenings, Watel's offers a five-course food- and wine-tasting menu ($69); reservations are required.

Savvy regulars have learned after all these years that it's best to make reservations any time Watel's is open, particularly for one of the tables on the brick floor by the French doors.

June Naylor

Observer said: "Best Jazz Dinner"
The Observer's Mark Stuertz suggests you "feed your culinary soul" at Watel's, a French restaurant that is one of Dallas' top eateries. But we suggest you experience your fine food with some aural ambience. Chef-owner Ren� Peeters (one of the nicest guys who'll ever confit your duck) offers three-course jazz dinners every month or so. With your music you get a soup of the day or salad, one of eight entr�es (such as crabmeat lasagna, spinach ravioli with chardonnay and walnuts or petit filet mignon grilled with herbed jus) and a choice of dessert. Music to our ears.

...Fabulous appetizers and entrees were enjoyed...It is a joy to have a chef who understands and celebrates real food's many tastes and textures. Watel's deserves every one of its stars.
The Victorian-era cottage is in the historic State-Thomas district. Half of the cottage's floor space is given over to a largish dining room. The other half holds a room that can be used for small dinner parties and cooking classes. The restaurant is pleasing, with shiny wood floors, fresh flowers on double-skirted tables and background music played barely above a murmur. Dress is nice casual.
....French bistro with global-fusion accents, and he offers an amazing amount of variety.
...For many of Watel's fans (including this one), the varietals trump the variety. Mr. Peeters prepares them impeccably... They were divine.

...duck breast with dried cherries and ginger ($19.25), was also excellent, ... We chose starters from the list of nightly specials � and we both chose well. ... Tiny, sweet, pleasantly chewy clams ($8) were steamed in a tomato-basil broth that was heady with garlic. Spoon it up like soup (or a nectar from the gods)... Arugula, beets, walnuts and blue cheese salad ($7.50) had great flavor

...We shared warm chocolate bread pudding, which was brownie-dark, dense, delicious.

The wine list is modest but well-chosen. Chateau St. Jean pinot noir was $7.75 a glass. If you're not cutting caffeine at night, try the shade-grown coffee from Laos, $5 for a small French press, $15 for a large one.

... I've always found the waiters to be warm, almost cosseting, without being smothering.

Excerpts from Guide review by-Waltrina Stovall,
in Dallas Morning News

... this spirited eatery treats guests with neighborly informality. Comfort dominates the cozy dining room graced with art deco accents. Service is uncommonly amiable, caring and personal without seeming the least bit intrusive. The kitchen feels confident enough to vary its mostly classic country French bill of fare with not-so-Gallic dishes as the notion dictates. Pasta and vegetarian dishes, even an occasional Asian accent, and daily specials are also offered.

D Magazine, "top bistro", one of "The 25 Best Restaurants in Dallas"

Perfect for pre-theater , a little French treasure near downtown. Chef Ren� Peeters country French fare is full of surprises with exceptional sauces and a focus on rare menu items such as irresistible sweetbreads and rich veal kidneys along with standard, but well executed choices like cassoulet. Avant influences are apparent in such dishes as the grilled shrimp with red-pepper coulis and spinach ravioli with Chardonnay and walnuts. Connoisseurs and dabblers alike agree that Watel's is reasonably priced, friendly and elegant without being stuffy.

Since 1986, Watel's has been the most reliable Dallas spot for refined but not necessarily fussy French fare. Watel's is both comfortable and elegant, as is Chef-owner Ren� Peeters' exquisite food.

June Naylor Rodriguez, Ft Worth Star Telegram

Everything about Watel's is engaging, and vigorously so. It is in the top tier of metroplex restaurants and most assuredly occupies the pinnacle of its ilk. Feed your lust for culinary spectacle at one of Dallas' celebrity chef hovels. Feed your culinary soul at Watel's

Mark Stuertz, Dallas Observer

This relaxed French bistro has a cult following among lovers of such hard-to-find organ meats as calf brains, veal kidneys and sweetbreads. But don't let that scare you off: There's much, much more to the menu. Duck breast with brandied cherries, peppered lamb loin, boneless rabbit with mustard sauce, veal, seafood, pastas and cassoulet are just some of the other entree choices. For starters, we like smoked sea scallops with citrus and black linguine (unless we were having the brains with lemon-caper sauce). Soups and salads shine, too, and dessert offerings include a cheese course. Some civilized pluses: Daily specials are printed, with prices. So are wines by the glass and the dessert list.

WALTRINA STOVALL

This amiable French bistro's gustatory delights are worth seeking out .The decor sets a smart scene for its pleasing-as-always Gallic fare. Service is caring, the ambience relaxed, informal, and made comfortable by crisp surroundings. A thoughtful extra: Watel's serves an early dinner guaranteed to get diners to nearby theater and other events on time.

Betty Cook

one of the most authentically Bistro-like, thoughtful restaurants in North Texas... a highly evolved, fully functioning bistro menu that needs no nips, tucks, or transplants.

Watel's has been consistently wowing diners with great French cuisine for over a decade.

Jim White

A "little treasure" "elegant but not stuffy", "very good" at "reasonable" , "wonderful surprise", "excellent sauces", "specialties not found other places" , "not to be missed".

Zagat survey

Thank you for your visit,

The staff and Rene'