rosewood mansion on turtle creek

tl:dr : subpar, overpriced food, in quaint and instaworthy setting, with polite but sloppy service.

there's not much left to say about the mansion. it is routinely heralded (and frequented) by the "old moneyed class" of dfw. the old-school upscale ambience feels genuinely nice, because of the building and its nooks and crannies. definitely a place to dress up a bit for...until you realise that you'd getbrunchfood that's much superior, at half the price, at a dozen other places in the city.
no, really. the single defining moment of ourbrunchwas when we realised that the chef had arbitrarily removed their much vaunted crab cake from the starters section, and the seared scallops from the entrée section of their 3 course prixfixebrunchmenu. when i asked how come those items were there the previous week(s) and not today, i got told that it was a new menu, and they'd added, wait for it, shrimp & grits. what is this, cracker barrel luxe? blatant attempts at cost-cutting, and customer-squeezing notwithstanding, here's what we eventually got from the boring and restrictive menu:

1) mimosa - bad. no effervescence, just a splash of orange with no body or flavor, poor quality sparkling wine, in an impossibly narrow flute.
2) bloody mary - average. not made to order, kept pre-made in glasses.
3) large pastry basket - good. tasty and fresh assortment. should have ended our meal here. $17 bucks wasn't bad for the pastry basket. the remaining 200-ish dollars we spend on food was a bad decision.
4) smoked salmon - good, but a hobbit-size portion. sloppy service here meant the server dropped the accompanying bagel off the plate while setting it down on the table.
5) tomato-peach salad - good, hobbit-size portion, and a generally strange dish to be on abrunchmenu. the 2.6 pieces of peaches were hard and flavorless.
6) mushroom ravioli - good, small-portion. sharp, cheesy, creamy sauce which was tasty but not particularly elevated.
7) brisket benedict - embarrassing. for $26 i should have sent this back or called the chef out. the tiny benedicts with a sliver of brisket on a mini-biscuit were fine. the bearnaise was bland but fine. everything else on the plate- especially the fried potato side, was terrible. unfit for consumption. if management is reading this, spare me the "we will do better next time" spiel, and either offer me a redo or a refund for this dish.
8) petit filet - okay. tasty but plain. small piece of decent steak, pretty close to the medium-rare i requested. marble potatoes were soft or hard, but atleast edible. spinach and trumpet mushrooms were fine. red wine jus was fine.
9) desserts were okay, with the churros being quite good, and the creme brulee being good but plain and cloying after a few spoons.
10) coffee was average, and as expected, expensive. $6 for a cup of black coffee plonked down on the table.

something else to note - most of the wings of the dining room are closed off forbrunchso if you're expecting to get lovely garden views you're likely to be disappointed. they only seat people in the verandah, which is nice but somewhat cramped, or in the slightly dreary dining room. we sat in the covered dining room straight through the entrance to the restaurant. i dont know if i was enjoying the fireplaces and ornate pillars and dinner vibes on a bright sunday morning, but it's a pleasant, albeit small space.
bill was $200+ for 3. we ended up leaving and eating a heartier meal elsewhere after a couple of hours.
overall, i might return to see if their lunch & dinner are better because i did enjoy the setting. i'd just skip the place for brunch. far better options, food-wise, in the city. as lovely as the mansion is, you can't eat the decor and ambience, can you?

historic charm of another era. rosewood is practically a member of our family after getting married here. not being from texas, i didnt really know what i was getting into when picking a wedding venue. i saw the rosewood and thought it was one of the prettiest hotels i'd ever seen. and on the bid day, nothing about this place was below exceptional- the rooms, the food, the pool, decor, set up, hotel event coordinator, i could go on. since we basically moved in for a few days, we lived off of the restaurant food and didnt have a single dinner, lunch orbrunchthat wasnt fantastic.

the bar: one of the prettiest in dallas. it's also perhaps one of the oldest in the area (the hotel is actually a newer addition). the building has a beautiful, old wold charm. service at the bar, like the restaurant and hotel, is fantastic. but what really surprised me was the quality of the (cheap!) bar food. delicious, $5, duck crepes!

enough stuffy reviews.... it's race day and we are in need of "warrior fuel"... we decide to havebrunchat the mansion restaurant @ the rosewood mansion on turtle creek. best decision of the day! perhaps the best-known restaurant in dallas and long-hailed as the best for fine dining, the mansion restaurant has been delighting guests since 1980.brunchis served on the terrace which offers al fresco fireside dining and lounging under a canopy of majestic oak trees, it's absolutely beautiful. most people require approximately 8-16 ounces of fluids 2 hours before the race... so, we order the mimosas and bellinis. i will also need plenty of additional liquids (body wt. x 55% = ounces) to endure the rigors of the dash and i order their "mansion tortilla soup" their "signature dish" - outstanding. realizing the need to carb-load to increase my glycogen store - the grilled kobe shell steak, chimichuri, steak fries and watercress salad fits the bill perfectly. we now won't have time for the 30 minute pre-race snack so, we order the mansion candy bar brownie, peanut croquant, chocolate mousse, lime-coconut sorbet and strawberry shortcake... this should keep us from starting the race hungry! we waddle to the starting line...

cost: $$$$

food: chef bruno davaillon continually redefines his cuisine by weaving the foods and techniques of contemporary american cuisine with french influences

service: service is subtle but impeccable and the royal treatment keeps this dallas institution at the top of its' game

decor: the hilltop mansion, usually lauded as the most desirable hotel in dallas, is luxury personified with marble floors, inlaid wood ceilings and stained-glass windows

this had to be the highlight of our family holiday well worth the extra expense . but the memories will live with us forever. every course that came out to the table was a work of art and we were not let down by the taste, the way the items were combined on the plate was a taste exploration , the balance and contrast of the ingredients and the way they were put together was mind blowing we just played musical plates so all the guests in our party go to try each others choices, it's a place you really need to visit at least once in your life before you die! the staff are so attentive nothing is too much trouble any questions are met with polite response. the sundaybrunchat $49 is for the very healthy appitites champagne cocktail then 3 course meal and coffee is steal bargain and if you are heading back to uk on your return flights as we were they certainly give you the energyto get through the rest of the day, i would definatley recommend the fruit and granola with yogurt heavenly, the jalopeno sausage with farmhouse eggs and hash browns with 2 scones took some battling through, but i had to leave room for the dark choc tart dessert, i did have to remove the sprinkling of rock salt though, to fully appreciate it. 10 out of 10 , and that was the same overall impression from all the members in our party. thanks to all the staff of the hotel they were allbrilliant a real gem , and i will definatley be returning in the near future.