Some of the most expensive restaurants in Dallas have a back door, and it’s the bar between 4 and 6:30.
The same kitchens that charge $36 for a plate of yellowtail and keep a $7,500 bottle of Burgundy on the list will sell you a smaller version of their best food for the price of a sandwich. The smart move is to show up early, sit at the bar, and save the full dinner for a birthday.
Here are six rooms worth the effort, with times and what to order. Happy hour menus change, so check before you go.
Uchi’s happy hour runs every day from 4 to 6 p.m., and it’s still the best deal on Maple Avenue. Oysters are $3 each, and the Uchi salad is $3 too. The gyumaki temaki, a hand roll with wagyu short rib and charred negi aioli, is $9, as is the wagyu okonomiyaki. The walu walu, oak-grilled escolar with candied citrus that costs $22 at dinner, drops to $16. Cocktails are $9, including the Kenja Old Fashioned that sells for $16.50 after 6. Sapporo and hot sake are $3.
For a real night out, two people can share the nine-course happy hour omakase for $120. Meanwhile, the dinner wine list includes a 2023 La Tâche at $7,500, which tells you everything about the room.
Uchibā, 2817 Maple Ave., second floor
Walk up one flight from Uchi and the deal gets even better. Uchibā is the group’s izakaya-style bar, with yakitori, buns and a deep Japanese whisky list. Its happy hour runs every day from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Downstairs the walu walu is $22 at dinner, but here it’s $10 during happy hour. The mini burger with A5 XO aioli and pickled jalapeño is $13, and the A5 temaki, a hand roll made with Miyazaki wagyu, is $15. Wagyu and pork skewers are $8 for two.
Cocktails are $10, including the Toki highball that costs $16 after happy hour, and draft beers are $6. The happy hour omakase is $90 for two, $30 less than the one downstairs.
Nobu calls its happy hour Tanoshi Hour. It runs Sunday through Thursday starting at 5 p.m., in the bar and lounge only. The savings show best when you compare it to the dinner menu. The Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeño, one of the house signatures, is $36 at dinner and $19 here. The Crispy Rice with Spicy Tuna drops from $36 to $19, and the Rock Shrimp Tempura with Creamy Spicy goes from $36 to $15.
The Black Cod Lettuce Cups, an easy way into Nobu’s black cod, are $17. The Wagyu Short Rib Tacos are $22 for two. The Lychee & Elderflower Martini is $16 instead of $20. Bar seats go first, so get there right at 5.
Monarch, 1401 Elm St., 49th floor
Dinner at Danny Grant’s Monarch, 49 floors above downtown in The National, is a special-occasion bill. Golden Hour is the way in without it. It runs Sunday through Friday from 5 to 6:30 p.m., at the bar and in the lounge only.
The restaurant built the hour around a seafood tower, salumi e formaggio, spritzes and a short list of wines. Order those, then watch the light change over the city through the same windows the dinner crowd pays for. Monarch enforces a dress code, business casual or better, with no caps, T-shirts or sweats. That rule holds at the bar, too.
Drake’s Hollywood, 5007 W. Lovers Lane
Drake’s is an Old Hollywood steakhouse with 28-day dry-aged porterhouses and A5 wagyu sold by the ounce. A full dinner there adds up fast. The bar runs happy hour Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m.
Drake’s doesn’t post its happy hour menu online, so ask the bartender what’s on special that day. Either way, this is the place to try the World’s Coldest, the house frozen vodka martini, in a room that feels like a movie set.
Ocean Prime, 2101 Cedar Springs Road
Ocean Prime in Rosewood Court is a seafood and steak house, and dinner there runs high. The lounge offers happy hour on weekdays from 4 to 6 p.m., with half-off appetizers and sushi plus specially priced cocktails, beer and wine. The better secret is Monday, when the lounge keeps happy hour prices going from 4 p.m. until close. Few happy hours in Uptown last that long.
Half off is the deal, so start with the sushi and treat the appetizer list like dinner. Seats in the lounge go fast on Mondays.
One last tip that works at all six: arrive in the first 15 minutes. These bars fill quickly, and happy hour ends right on time.
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