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 get brunch food that's much superior, at half the price, at a dozen other places in the city.
no, really. the single defining moment of our brunch was 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 prixfixe brunch menu. 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 a brunch menu. 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 beinggoodbut 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 for brunch so 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?