Garland doesn’t always get the attention it deserves when people talk about DFW dining. That may be about to change.
Chef Burak Ozcan — the Turkish-born culinary force behind the Ferah family of restaurants — has opened his latest concept, Herb & Ember, inside Firewheel Town Center at 365 Coneflower Drive in Garland. If you know Ozcan’s work at Ferah Tex-Med Kitchen or Ferah Smokehouse & Cantina, you already have a sense of what he’s capable of. Herb & Ember feels like his most polished swing yet.
The concept is upscale American with global influences and a serious cocktail program — two things Garland has had precious little of until now. The room is divided into distinct spaces, including something called The Ember Room and The Leopard Lounge, which tells you something about the personality they’re going for. This isn’t a casual neighborhood spot. It has ambition.
The menu covers a lot of ground in the best way. You can start with jumbo lump crab croquettes with sriracha aioli, ahi tuna poke nachos on wonton chips, or a cast-iron skillet of root vegetables with smoked applewood bacon and hot honey aioli. The lobster bisque comes by the cup or bowl. The deviled eggs rotate daily, which is a small thing that says a lot about how much thought is going into this kitchen.
Main courses range from a blackened Creole pasta with shrimp, Hatch chili sausage, and tasso cream sauce to a pan-seared coconut curry salmon, a cast-iron chicken Marsala, and a braised bison short rib with demi-glace. The almond-crusted Chilean seabass with lemon beurre blanc and potato au gratin at $45 is the kind of dish that makes you forget you’re in a shopping center. There’s also a 12-ounce prime ribeye for $42, and a braised beef ragu over gnocchi with shaved parmesan for $32 that sounds like comfort food but eats like a restaurant trying to impress you.
The cocktail list is where Herb & Ember really sets itself apart from the suburban pack. The bar program draws on fresh herbs — rosemary, thyme, hibiscus, bay leaf — in ways that feel intentional rather than decorative. The Rosemary Bay Leaf Old Fashioned uses Buffalo Trace with smoked aromatics. The Hibiscus Herb Margarita gets a smoke show finish. There’s a Herb & Limoncello with Villa Masa and rosemary thyme, and a White Linen with Bombay Gin, St. Germain elderflower, and cucumber that tastes exactly like spring. Happy hour runs daily from 3 to 6 p.m. with cocktails at $7 and bites starting at $6.
Ozcan started his career in five-star resorts along the Mediterranean coast before coming to Dallas in 2009, where he worked with Stephan Pyles opening high-end restaurant concepts. He eventually launched Ferah Tex-Med Kitchen in Garland in 2019, followed by a Southlake location and then Ferah Smokehouse & Cantina in Wylie. He was also featured on Food Network’s Supermarket Stakeout. Herb & Ember is his most ambitious project to date, and it reads like someone who has been waiting a long time to build exactly this.
Weekend brunch runs Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with steak and eggs, Nashville hot chicken and waffles, smoked salmon avocado toast, and a brunch flatbread with mozzarella, applewood bacon, and fried egg.
Herb & Ember is open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight. You can reach them at (972) 256-8991 or by email at info@theherbandember.com. They’re at 365 Coneflower Drive inside Firewheel Town Center in Garland.
