Dining And Lodging At Hotel ZaZa In Dallas

Dallas' Hotel ZaZa, known for its chic rooms and stellar Dragonfly Restaurant, is introducing some new, welcome surprises.

First up are their new bungalows. The private apartment-like suites are located behind the hotel and are gorgeously decorated and impressively appointed, outfitted with luxurious tubs and showers, full kitchens, and massive balconies. Guests will feel like rock stars in these new incredible digs.

The menu at Dragonfly is also getting a makeover, as it does several times throughout the year. The new fall menu, chef Dan Landsberg explains, is all about "paying attention to the flavors of the season. I want to take a different look at fall. Not just squash."

Alongside the classic wedge and the whole leaf Caesar, Landsberg is also offering two new salads: a fall mixed green salad that boasts homemade blue cheese shortbread crackers and a baby beet salad that is dressed with pork belly lardons.

Dragonfly's appetizer menu will continue to offer some of their best and tastiest dishes, like their classic Double BBC Slider with goat cheese tater tots. The brisket burger is made with bacon and Vermont Cheddar and is topped with tomato, onion, mesclun greens, mustard, and citrus aioli. Their impossible-to-stop-eating Volcano Salt Fries are also still firmly in place on the menu, as are the shrimp and chive dumplings, which are made from Elanie Yin-Fei Lo's classic recipe of chives, shrimp, hoisin sauce, garlic, ginger, and peppercorn oil all wrapped in a smooth gyoza skin.

The new offerings on the appetizer menu include tiny BBQ pork shanks and bites, as well as ponzu honey glazed pork belly lollipops. These little lollipops are perfectly outrageous. Landsberg rubs the pork belly with garlic, salt, and vinegar and then roasts and compresses them to get a consistent shape and size. A honey ponzu and Asian gastrique are then added and the pork belly is then put in a Cryovac bag for further compression and then off to the oven with more ponzu. The result is nothing short of miraculous. Seriously. The lollipops are served with a bahn mi salad that tastes just like, yes, a bahn mi. The Thai chile vinaigrette is perfectly paired with the pork belly, making the salad far more than a garnish. It's a true complement.

As for entrées, the fall menu additions include seared sea scallops with Spanish chorizo, and sage-roasted Amish chicken with foie gras-shitake and black truffle ballontine. "So glad I ran into this Amish chicken," Landsberg says with a grin. "I have it sent down twice a week for this dish." The chef is also extremely proud of his vegetarian offerings, like the brown butter and sage gnocchi that's new on the fall menu. "I always like to take a different approach to my vegetarian plate. It's not just the sides from other dishes," he says.

ZaZa is one of the hottest tickets in Dallas, and with the additions of the bungalows and the latest menu offerings, it's only getting hotter.