My husband and I recently had a much-needed all day date thanks to my mother-in-law watching the kids for us. We spent the day in Waco and then headed back for a date night in Dallas. It was a special occasion (our tenth anniversary), but we were dressed pretty casually from our day checking out Magnolia Market, so we wanted something nice but not fancy. We both were craving seafood so I looked up reviews and came across Rex’s Seafood at The Market. The reviews were great, the prices were decent. “This place looks good and it’s near the Farmer’s Market, so if we get there before we’re hungry, we can walk around there first before we go to dinner,” I told my husband as we drove back into Dallas.
We made good time, so we headed straight to the Dallas Farmer’s Market first to walk around. It was a Thursday, which meant the the produce Sheds were closed (they are open Friday-Sunday), but everything was open at The Market Shops. It was quiet and we almost had the whole place to ourselves to wander and look at knick knacks. After spending the morning at busy Magnolia Market, the quiet was nice and the Farmer’s Market prices were even nicer. I contemplated buying a few signs similar to ones I’d seen at the home decor shops in Waco and a new Texas hat, but decided to save our funds for dinner and drinks.
As we made our way around The Market Shops, I saw Rex’s Seafood. “Oh, babe, I’m sorry! I didn’t realize this restaurant was a walk-up-and-order spot and that it was actually at the Farmer’s Market. I guess that’s why it’s name is Rex’s Seafood AT the Market. (Face palm.) I’ll find something else,” I apologized, pulling up a chair to look up restaurants on my phone. This was not what we had planned for our special night out. My husband, a pretty laid back guy, rolled with the punches after looking at the menu. “This actually looks great. We’re here and I’m getting kind of hungry now. Let’s just try it.”
We headed to the counter and ordered a couple of $1 oysters for happy hour and a beer. I ordered the crab pasta for my meal and my husband got blackened salmon tacos. We had never tried oysters before and were feeling pretty nervous and a little clueless as to how you go about eating them. The waitress was awesome and brought us a caddy full of crackers and sauces and talked us through the various ways of oyster eating. We went with a squeeze of lemon and few dashes of Cholula and an on-the-cracker delivery method. We decided they were…drumroll please…not too bad, actually pretty good. Then the meal came. The linguine and gulf crab tossed in a brown sage butter sauce with asiago and shallots was one of the best meals I’ve had. Simple, fresh, flavorful. A bite of pasta on the garlic toast it’s served with: carb-on-carb action at it’s finest. Jared’s blackened salmon tacos were really good too. And at $8 for two salmon tacos and a side, that price is hard to beat.
After dinner, we walked around some more; I grabbed us two macarons at Chelles, and Jared sampled popcorn at Doc Popcorn and ice cream at CoolHaus. We made mental notes of the other restaurants we wanted to go back and try, like the pizza at BellaTrinos. We saw them pull one from their wood-fired oven and it looked amazing. Taqueria La Ventana looked like a fun place to meet friends for $4 margaritas and $2 tacos. Needless to say, we will be back again!
If you’re trying to plan a fun and different date night, definitely consider The Dallas Farmer’s Market. We had such a great time trying new foods, walking around hand-in-hand, and pacing the date at our own speed. It was like a culinary adventure date.
