York Street

York Street: The whole place is pretty tiny...I think we counted twelve tables. It looks unassuming from the outside, and that is a trend that carries over to the inside as well.

The hostess was very friendly. We were immediately seated. We were served a plate of warm almonds and a plate of olives. We were also served a shot of Riesling to compliment the flavors of the almonds and olives. A warm towelette was brought before we started eating...the presentation was very nice all the way through supper.

We started with the lentil soup. It was delicious. Served in a white crockery dish, complete with lid, the soup was too hot to eat right away, but worth the wait. I know the menu changes based on what ingredients are available - a fact that is noted on the York Street Webpage. However, if you get a chance to try this soup, I would take it!!

For main course options we chose the Escolar, a butterfish. It was a little too fishy for my taste buds, but it was prepared to perfection.
We also tried the Buffalo New York, a buffalo steak prepared New York Strip style. It is a leaner cut of meat, our waiter pointed out, and really - I could not tell a huge difference, aside from a slightly gamy tinge. I would order it again.

What really made the steak stand out, however, was the accompanying side dish of scalloped potatoes. The menu noted that the potatoes were aided by something known as celeriac. I have not heard of it before, but it is something I will be checking into in the future - simply delicious - and it enhanced the taste of the potatoes ten fold!

We ordered a side of hummus and were a little disappointed in this dish. It was served with goat cheese (please see the goat cheese disclaimer), something that wasn't mentioned in the menu. It was also a little thicker in texture than I prefer.

(Side Dish: try Sevan G&G Cafe's hummus! Amazing!!)

We ended with the banana-bread bread pudding. I guess I am old-school in that I like my bread pudding to have texture. This bread pudding was slippery - like flan. The glaze on top also had an element that seemed bitter and didn't compliment the other flavors present.

Simply stated:
It was good food prepared in a wholesome way.
The setting is intimate
Much has been said about Sharon Hage, and I think she lived up to the hype.
I've been here once and I can't imagine needing to return, but I'd still give it 4 out of 5 stars!

Two Words on Goat Cheese, if you please

Emphatic NO.

Neither of the Garrett Girls like goat cheese.
I would even venture so far as to say that goat cheese can outright RUIN things. Once surface area has been breached, it taints surrounding food bits.

Personally, I like bleu cheese and feta and other kinds of stout cheeses.
I don't think that my sister does, however.

Also - I know that goat and sheep cheese is supposed to taste differently. I think they are both yucky.

So - if a dish is prepped in any way with the g.c....we usually decline that element with an, "I'm allergic".
If it sneaks past us, the dish is pretty much ruined.

Just a note.

Neighborhood Services

So last night we dined at Neighborhood Services.
On other occasions we had driven by the establishment only to see the line out the door/around the building...no thank you.

We prepared!! Since it was MLK Day and we were both off work, we headed over around 5:30. Well, at 5:3o the restaurant isn't open yet. We spent our time at the bar purchasing $8 bevs. Now...normally I might complain about $8 on a drink...but this was a well spent $8. It did the trick.

When we were seated at 6, we had perused the menu enough to know exactly what to eat!
If you would like to peruse the menu for yourself, please click here! One of the bartenders told us that N.B. chose the bird that is the icon for the restaurant from an old skateboard sticker he used to own. Cool .We can get on board with that!!

What we ordered:
To drink - The Bees Knees and a Beauty School Dropout.
To eat - we began with the flatbread - Smoked/ Roasted/ Aged/ Toasted
Delicious!! The ham was just crispy enough to almost be bacon and overall, this was delicious!

We went on from there to the Chilled Crabmeat on Avocado Chop: red onion/ mizuna/ citrus & mustard vin.
Thoughts on this: granted it IS a crab salad, this salad was too crabby and not enough of everything else to balance things out.

Next we sampled the three jack and mac gratin.
Two thumbs up on this gooey, tasty treat. Very good staple item to have on the menu! Just a little bit spicy, and just a whole lot of delicious!

We finished up with the housemade Ding-Dong.
We weren't disappointed.

Overall, the experience was decent.
But the wait is crazy long. After we were seated, we learned that the wait was already up to 1 1/2 hrs. That is just too long. Granted, the place is still new to Dallas and that might wear off...on the whole, it wouldn't be worth it to wait that long!

Your thoughts?