Spoon Bar and Kitchen

To determine whether or not John Tesar's a Top Chef, you could accept the judgments of a panel of experts and a hot chick who really knows a surprising amount about food, or you could visit his seafood-crazy Spoon in Preston Center.

The constantly changing catch is available in cush, Caribbean-blue booths, at a designated section of the u-shaped drinks station (which is also equipped with a raw bar), or -- if you like your meals garnished with colorful profanity -- at a kitchen-overlooking counter surrounded by wall art including fish sculptures made from Trinity River-sourced junk. Relatively simple lunches stretch from lobster clubs to big eye tuna doused in a tea-smoked bonito broth. Dinner gets adventurous, unless you consider smoked eel headcheese w/ pickled squid & Thai basil salsa verde typical; you'll also find numbers like Singapore-style lobster chili, monkfish osso buco, and a pork belly/Mayan prawn dish some predict will go bad after December 21st

If you're a tasting menu guy, you'll be presented with morsels such as jumbo lump crab & black truffle pot au feu. To make you say things that are in poor taste, there's a wine rack climate-controlled by a two-ton AC -- with your vino at the perfect temperature, all the chicks will become hot.