Deceptively Simple Dishes at Le PasSage Stretch Beyond French and Vietnamese

There’s a new restaurant on the Katy Trail: Le PasSage, from Travis Street Hospitality Group. Chef and owner Bruno Davaillon, who joined the group in 2020, has had a storied career and is considered one of the most influential chefs in Dallas. Davaillon and owner Stephan Courseau plotted what the latter describes as “an Asian restaurant where French technique is applied in some dishes.”

The team includes chef China with Hou Lam “Dicky” Fung, who comes to Dallas from Mr Chow in Las Vegas, and pastry chef Dyan Ng, who is overseeing the pastry programs at all of Travis Street’s restaurants, who comes to Texas from California.

“We are not a tasting menu restaurant but we want to be consistent with what we put on the plate,” Davaillon says. He and the other principals on the culinary team for Le PasSage sat down with Eater Dallas to talk about six dishes that diners will find on the opening menu.

Scallops crudo

“The inspiration for this crudo was Tom Ka soup. In the beginning this was an oyster dish, and it worked really well when you poured the soup hot on an oyster. That might be a version that do later. We decided this crudo could be a nice cold version for this season,” Davaillon says.

Eggplant miso dumplings

“I came up with the dumpling. I was like, We need something French style-ish,” Davaillon says. “I really like eggplants, and we put it with a traditional soy and yuzu dressing with a little kick of fried garlic in it. For the fried garlic, I used chili crisp. We add a touch of sesame seeds and Mirin, and that’s it. Basically, it’s a roasted eggplant; take the pulp out and cook it with caramelized onions and miso. You blend it to make a thick purée, and we pipe it into the spinach dumpling.

“For me, I hate when pasta dough is too thick or not cooked properly, because it’s so simple to do but hard to achieve sometimes. Originally we were trying to find the right ratio with the thickness of the dough and the filling inside. For a dumpling, this is light. When we roll it we add potato starch so that even if it’s thin it keeps everything together.”

Red curry squash

This is one of the restaurant’s vegetarian mains (there is also a braised tofu), made with chunks of roasted delicata squash, fermented red curry, and coconut milk. “The nuts in it for a crunchy texture are almonds and a pine nut,” Davaillon says. The curry is made with Mexican chiles, which give it more of a kick of spice and topped with cilantro as a compliment.

Gochung roasted half chicken

“It’s a take on roasted chicken with gochujang paste,” Davaillon says. “This is Green Circle chicken from the East Coast; it’s beautiful and organic, with braised daikon. The jus is simple — chicken juice with yuzu, very simple.

“If there is one thing that America, for me, is lacking, it is — when you go to a good grocery story in France, the average quality of chicken is 10 times better. The way they raise the chicken is different. For Americas in general its hard to pay for good chicken. Because of the mass production of chicken, people expect a low price but its not sustainable to guarantee an awesome chicken.”

Ginger scallion whole lobster

Executive chef Fung conceived this dish. It’s made for two to share, and Fung says it is simple with lobster, cleaned and served only with scallions and ginger. It is one of the most straight-forward Asian dishes we see and, like much of the menu, presented as simple in terms of its ingredients.

“This dish is authentic and 100 percent Cantonese, because I am 100 percent from Hong Kong,” Fung laughs.

Coconut tapioca and Japanese purple potato

“I came across this amazing sugar called boola malacca; its from Malaysia and its a palm sugar. I wanted to use it because I’d never tasted sugar like this before. We have a coconut tapioca with fresh, young coconut and a delicate coconut water gelee around it, and Japanese purple potato. It kind of reminds me of ube, the flavors are similar but ube is more aromatic to me. This is more subtle, so I think it pairs better with the coconut. And with our theme it fits well,” pastry chef Ng notes, referencing the lavender colors throughout the restaurant.

Le PasSage is at 4205 Buena Vista St., Suite 130, in Dallas. It is open now.