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Friday, April 29, 2011

Meddlesome Moth

This past weekend I went to Meddlesome Moth for a friend's birthday dinner. I had never been there before and it was not what I had expected at all. First of all, I had the perception that it was more of a bar/restaurant than a restaurant with a bar. It was also wayyy bigger than I thought. The place looked pretty cool! I'm glad I had decided to put on a dress instead of wearing shorts. haha.

Meddlesome Moth

1621 Oak Lawn Avenue
Dallas, TX 75207
(214) 628-7900
http://www.mothinthe.net/
Price: $$

We had a really large group of 22. It took a while before enough people showed up for us to be seated. Then it took forever for us to get the food because the waiters were waiting for everyone to show up. Little did we know...a few people didn't show up until over an hour later... OMG. Seriously?? :( Sooo hungry!!

We started off with drink orders. They had a wide variety of beers and you can order beer flights to taste various ones. Several people ordered the beer flights. My sister's bf got the Flights of the Moth: Texas Edition $13? I really liked the presentation.

So with a party that big, they had required us to pick 4-5 of their shared plates to share among the group. Basically they would bring out a couple of each of those selections across the table. Finally after over an hour the food starts coming out!!

The pre-set selections were:

Tofu Tataki (soy caramel, nori, and seven spice) $8~ This was really good but definitely not enough. The tofu had great texture and the spices on top were wonderful. The onions on the side were definitely more than just a garnish. Together the flavors really worked. We were all starving though...we were really worried that there wasn't going to be enough food!

Five Spice Pork Belly (pickled carrot and blackstrap glace) $9.50~ This was one of the dishes I was really excited to try...until they brought it out. It's NOT pork belly. It's more like pulled pork or something...on top of a mini pancake of some sort. The pancake wasn't strong enough to handle the pork and its juices. The flavor was ok, not spectacular. And the portion was so tiny. Meh...

During this time we decided to order some additional dishes since there didn't seem to be enough food. I'll mention those later in the post..

Next came the Risotto (fresh peas, asparagus, and preserved lemon) $10~ Originally when my friend made the orders, the online menu showed Butternut Squash Risotto which sounded so much better. But they had just changed to their Spring menu, so this is what we got. It looked pretty good, clean, fresh...but still the portion was pretty small. The rice turned out to be quite undercooked and it was very bland. Tasted like watered down veggies with hard rice. :( Booo...

So far it's not going that great..until this came out! Shrimp & Grits (with jalapeno gravy) $16~ OMG this was by far my favorite dish of the night. The shrimp was plump and cooked perfectly. The grits were fantastic especially with that gravy. YUM!!! Only thing is it's a little small for the price in my opinion. I would order this just for myself if I go back in the future. It's definitely not big enough to share! haha.

The last of the pre-set orders was the "Bangers and Mash" (Buffalo sausage over whipped parsnips $12.50~ This was also wonderful. I guess they were good about ending on a good note! The sausages were super flavorful but I actually thought the parsnips and the sauce were the stars! The whipped parsnips were so creamy and smooth. Paired with the sauce, which had some onions, beans, and chorizo...it was awesome!

We ordered the following in addition to share:

Prince Edward Island Mussels - Diablo (dried basil and oregano with red chile) $12~ I was very surprised with the portion of this dish. It was actually quite large! Perfect for sharing. I'm not a big mussel fan but this was delicious. The mussels were cooked well and the best thing was the broth. Just dipping the bread in the broth was delicious! We even asked for more bread so the broth didn't go to waste. haha.

Beef Bone Marrow (salsa verde with crispy capers) $9~ I wanted to order this from looking at the menu online. I've never been a fan of marrow...but usually that's eating in a Chinese dingin setting. I know my dad loves it! haha. But I thought it was interesting that they had it on their menu and I really wanted to see how they prepared it. As far as portions go...it was tiny. Basically only 1 piece of bone (because it was cut in half). Not really worth it. The presentation was cool though. There wasn't much marrow inside the bones... It had a consistency like fat, that was kind of a turn off. First I tried it on its own...it was like eating fat. Ew. But then I spread it on the bread and it was much much better. The flavors were good but I wasn't a fan of the texture overall. But at least I can say I got to try it...

There were some hits and misses, but overall I think the hits were fantastic so I'm more willing to look past the bad dishes. I'm willing to go back and try some other stuff in the future. The service overall was fine, but I kinda felt like our waiters had an attitude about them. Not in a good way. They didn't obviously give us any attitude, but just from the way they spoke to us and served the meal, it didn't give me warm, fuzzy feelings...

I think I will go back at some point, I'm not really in a hurry though.

Quality of Food:

Service:

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