A certain type of establishment would be expected to serve street tacos as affordable as they are fresh, chips with truly excellent salsa, and aguas frescas that are sweet without approaching saccharine.
The JW Marriott Dallas Arts District is not that establishment.
When we last checked in on the hotel’s dining options, former online dining editor Nataly Keomoungkhoun was munching on a rather tasty $38 sandwich and a $24 cheeseburger. The bloated price tags and my even more bloated jealousy sat top of mind as dining critic Brian Reinhart and I pored over the oddity of a press release that made its way into his inbox yesterday morning.
$3 tacos … at the JW Marriott … and you can get three of them, an agua fresca, and chips and salsa for $17? Huh?
Deeply incongruous stuff. Still, I am a man easily moved by tacos and cheap lunch options in the Arts District, very often in the opposite order. This merited investigating. And if that is the barometer you enter with, there is plenty to like at 800 North, named for the ground-level bar’s location on Harwood.
The pineapple agua fresca, somehow watermelon in color, refreshes without overpowering. Chips come with three different types of a salsa. The green lacks personality, but fire-roasted red hits all the right notes, while the creamy, smoky orange is the star of the show.
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Feel free to slather any of them on the tacos: they need it. The chicken chipotle throws spice, citrus, and cheese at the wall; none quite stick. The carne asada features healthy chunks of grilled steak and sliced avocado, and the pineapple grilled pico de gallo is a nice touch. But the punch promised by the achiote marinade is nowhere to be found. Monday’s taco of the day, which retailed for a dollar extra, was a chopped brisket marinated in a stew of spices. This, blissfully, packed plenty of flavor, just the sort that somehow—I’m guessing unintentionally—encroached on Texas chili far more than what you’re expecting at a restaurant aiming for a down-the-middle taco joint.
Granted, I dropped in during the second week, restaurants’ version of the preseason. It’s fair to expect improvement in the coming weeks.
The whole operation is, in a word, serviceable. The irony is obvious. 800 North is a dining option that is the opposite of the hotel’s overall aesthetic: minimal glitz, even less glam, but functional and affordable. And that’s more than OK. The Arts District has plenty of the former; it needs plenty more of the latter. 800 North doesn’t yet rival Pizza Leila, which has emerged as one of the best slices in Dallas, as neighborhood’s best casual lunch option. But $11 can buy you two perfectly solid tacos and some damn good chips and salsa, and you can expect them out fast. If you work in the area, that’s worth adding to the rotation.
800 North, 800 N. Harwood St., ground floor
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