Docent Steak, the newest restaurant from Harwood Hospitality Group opens today, Oct. 1 at 2801 N. Harwood St., Suite 100, in the Harwood District in Uptown.
The main dining room, pictured above, offers a more traditional steakhouse experience with white tablecloth service and access to its expansive wraparound patio.
The downstairs level, as seen below, offers a contrasting bar vibe with a dining area and a relaxed setting for drinks or watching the game.
The restaurant also features private dining spaces that can accommodate up to 80 guests.
The menu is centered on HWD Beef, Harwood’s exclusive premium beef program developed with ranchers in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. The program features Akaushi cattle and follows a zero-waste philosophy that uses the entire animal.
HWD Beef is exclusive to Harwood restaurants, giving Docent access to cuts not available elsewhere. Prime cuts include filet mignon, New York strip, ribeye, bone-in strip, Chateaubriand and porterhouse, with steaks starting at $72. HWD Texas Wagyu selections include dry-aged New York strip and ribeye, with cuts starting at $85.
Docent will also feature one of Texas’s largest certified Kobe Beef programs. As a designated member of the Kobe Beef Marketing & Distribution Promotion Association, the restaurant is authorized to serve authentic Kobe Beef. The menu will feature several A5 Wagyu selections from Japan, available by the ounce, along with a rotating Kobe flight featuring five cuts.
Beyond the steaks, the menu includes classic and globally influenced dishes such as lump crab cake, Kobe potstickers, steak tartare sliders, tempura lobster, oysters, spicy tuna tartare and a seafood tower.
Seasonal entrées include Texas bison filet, Elysian Fields rack of lamb, Kan Kan pork chop, Ora King salmon and miso Chilean sea bass.
Steakhouse sides include tallow-fried shoestring fries, whipped potatoes, mac and cheese, lobster mac and cheese, potatoes au gratin and Brussels sprouts with Japanese whiskey, soy, maple and braised bacon.
Desserts include baked Alaska, New York cheesecake, flourless chocolate cake, coconut cream pie and bread pudding.
Docent’s general manager is Dallas hospitality veteran Rhea Knight, who most recently, served as general manager of Neighborhood Services Oak Lawn and Neighborhood Services Lovers.
“Great restaurants start with great people, and we’re focused on building a team that takes pride in what they do and how they take care of guests,” Knight said in a press release about Docent’s opening. “I want Docent to become a restaurant people return to for the big milestones, but also the regular nights in between.”
Docent’s beverage program brings a mix of cocktails ranging from the traditional to original drinks such as the Strawberry Lychee Martini, Tamarind Buck and Bread & Butter, made with reposado tequila, grapefruit and bread-and-butter brine. The drink menu also includes a Wagyu-washed rye cocktail, the $25 Boujee Cola and a selection of zero-proof drinks, plus domestic and imported beers and other nonalcoholic options.
The wine selection spans celebrated regions, historic vineyards and emerging producers, with curated bottles, including aged Italian, French and American wines. The program includes a range of sake from producers such as Soto, Dewatsuru, Yuki Tora, Negaibito, Shonen, HeavenSake, Kamitaka, Tengu and Manotsuru.
Set within Harwood No. 14, Docent’s interior offers an environment shaped by the Barbier-Mueller Collection of art and cultural objects. Built over four generations and displayed throughout the Harwood District, the collection spans cultures, continents and centuries.
The two-story restaurant features more than 100 objects woven into the restaurant’s design, including large-scale sculpture, architectural elements, textiles, armor, and historic equestrian objects, with several works dating to the 16th century.
Japanese art and samurai armor are a particular strength of the collection. Just blocks away, The Ann & Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Museum’s The Samurai Collection houses one of the world’s largest and most significant collections of samurai art which is echoed in the restaurant’s interior.
Personal notes
The restaurant was a gorgeous setting with a darker, romantic ambience amid its strong design aesthetic that leaned into Japanese as well as a Western ranching motif. The art collection and decor elements transported me immediately away from the outside world. I was particularly fond of the samurai statues keeping guard over the dining room.