Somewhere between the second mimosa and the whole grilled fish, Uptown Dallas starts to feel a long way off. Sunlight fills the glass walls of Avra’s Conservatory, plants hang overhead, and at the next table somebody is working through a tower of oysters at 12:30 on a Sunday without a trace of guilt.
Welcome to weekend brunch at Avra Estiatorio.
The New York restaurant opened its first Texas location on Sept. 19, 2025, at The Crescent, 300 Crescent Court, Suite 120, where Nobu and The Capital Grille are the neighbors. Nick Tsoulos, who grew up in Greece, and Nick Pashalis started Avra on 48th Street in Manhattan in 2000. There are now outposts in Beverly Hills, Miami, and Boston, too.
The Dallas room is enormous, about 14,000 square feet designed by the Rockwell Group, with pale stone, linen, and two patios. For brunch, ask for the Conservatory. It’s the glass-walled room full of greenery, and at midday it glows.
Brunch started in February and runs Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The simplest way in is the three-course prix fixe at $65 a person.
First courses are made for sharing. There’s spanakopita, grilled octopus with onions and red wine vinegar, tuna tartare over avocado and yogurt mousse, and a spread plate of tzatziki, tarama, fava, and htipiti with warm pita. The caviar latkes with smoked salmon and crème fraîche cost $15 extra. Pay it.
For the main course, the Avra Breakfast brings two eggs with halloumi, bacon, and tomato, and it tastes like a Sunday morning in Greece. Steak and eggs pairs a petite filet with a cheese omelet and a mushroom and onion demi-glace. Then there’s the lobster pasta, linguine in a light tomato and garlic sauce, which adds $20 to the bill. Good luck saying no. Other choices include a whole grilled fish, lamb chops, a Texas Wagyu cheeseburger with oregano fries, and a skillet hash with Rosewood Ranch sausage.
Dessert means butter cake with cinnamon cream cheese, caramel, and vanilla ice cream, or coconut cream pie with coconut sorbet. A fruit plate is available for whoever at the table is still on a diet.
Ordering off the regular brunch menu opens up more fun. The cinnamon roll comes with cream cheese frosting. The bagel tower arrives with honey butter and seasonal jams, and the French toast is brioche with chantilly cream and berries. Then there’s the caviar sandwich, royal osetra with smoked salmon and cream cheese, for anyone who wants brunch to feel like a special occasion. Whatever else you get, add the Avra chips. They’re paper-thin fried zucchini and eggplant with tzatziki, and the plate will be empty before you know it.
Fish is what Avra does best. Seafood is flown in from the Mediterranean and laid out on ice, and you can walk up and choose your own. The day’s options might include branzino, lavraki, fagri, lithrini, Dover sole, or turbot. The kitchen grills each one over charcoal, removes the bones, and finishes it with ladolemono, the simple Greek sauce of olive oil and lemon. Figure on about a pound per person. The olive oil, by the way, comes from a small family farm in the Peloponnese, and Avra buys only the first harvest of the season.
Celebrating something? The Raw Sampler Royale can be added to the prix fixe for $110 for two or $210 for four. Osetra caviar is $135 an ounce. There is also a caviar bump on the menu for $35, which may be the most Dallas brunch item ever written down.
A Bloody Mary cart makes the rounds with premium vodka, a house mix, and plenty of garnishes. Mimosa service comes with prosecco and fresh-squeezed seasonal juices. The Conservatory is comfortable enough to nap in, so go easy.
Book on Resy before you go. Leave the gym clothes at home. This is the brunch for birthdays, anniversaries, parents in from out of town, and the friend who just got promoted.
Pick a fish off the ice, split a cinnamon roll, and linger over one more mimosa. For a couple of hours on a weekend, McKinney Avenue will feel a lot like the Aegean.
