It seems like forever since I drove by the Crudo sign at the corner of Northwest Highway and Preston and wondered what was going on with the restaurant. The sign was up, but it never seemed like the restaurant was open. Fast forward to this past February, where I was invited by General Manager Juan Carlos to experience Crudo Italian with several of my fellow #dallaswineaux. In the spirit of full disclosure, we were guests of the restaurant.
It seemed that Crudo was taken over several years ago by a restauranteur who began renovating the space. He put up the signage, but never opened the restaurant. The new partners tweaked the name to Crudo Italian and from my experience, a star was born.
Crudo offers Northern Italian cuisine with a Mediterranean twist with Chef Javier Perez at the helm. My dad is Italian and it takes him days to make pastas from scratch. I’m tough on my Italian restaurant assessments and especially on pasta. These pastas were delicious. Here are some photos here of our food and wine. I was trying to eat a little lighter as I was still trying to balance from the holidays, but I can tell you the samples of the pastas and lamb that I tried were just amazing.
The night we dined, Crudo also had live music and I saw people hit the dance floor including Chef Javier (who can dance by the way). The restaurant was packed, the vibe was cool and the wine list is varied with some interesting wines by the glass (especially the Italian choices).
Personal experience speaks for itself and I returned less than 24 hours later with my husband who based on the photos that I sent, immediately requested a follow up visit for the two of us. Of course, I complied.
Actually we returned today at the request of my family and found that Crudo had a dog friendly patio. Moose enjoyed hanging out with us as we enjoyed our pastas (and salad for me).
