Sisu Uptown

This is the pool area. Apparently you can reserve the cabanas, which is cool but a bit strange for a non-hotel. (photo credit: blogs.dallasobserver.com)

This week kicked of the month of MoFF birthdays! We have three March birthday people, so the vote is suspended for a few weeks, as the birthday person gets to choose the restaurant. So this week, we celebrated Jon's birthday at Sisu Uptown, a restaurant with a pool. You read that right, they have a pool. It reminded me of a place that you would find in Miami -  very trendy.

I decided to be fancy since we were eating at a fancy place. I tried the Prickly Pear Margarita, which was as tasty as it was pretty. It was a good way to start the meal.

Not good for the blood sugar, but you have to splurge every once in a while, right?

Since it's still lent, I went with another vegetarian dinner of tomato soup and macaroni and cheese. Both were excellent - the soup came with a cup of cheese, basil and croutons. The waiter poured my soup over the crouton bowl, so I have to give points for presentation.

Seriously, so good!

I enjoyed my dinner - the food and drinks were really good and the service was fast and attentive. But I have a few bones to pick with Sisu. For one, this type of restaurant isn't really my scene. It's the kind of place that gives Dallas a reputation for pretension. That doesn't make a bad place by any means, it's just not somewhere that I would want to go very often. The real turnoff happened when the bill came. I knew the dishes were a little pricy, so I was prepared for that. The issue was that the server added a 20% gratuity to our bill and it wasn't labeled on the receipt. Now, I don't take issue with restaurants adding gratuity to large parties (especially when they add 15-18%), and I think you should tip your server 20%. That is my typical practice. In this case we only had six people and the restaurant wasn't busy. It wasn't like we were taking space away from other customers. The real kicker was that the tip wasn't labeled on the ticket. It felt like they were trying to trick us into tipping more, which just didn't sit well with me.

If you're looking for a trendy restaurant, this place would be worth a visit - just pay attention to your ticket at the end of your meal!